Sources Fill in Adobe Road Map

Adobe Systems Inc. this year will extend the capabilities of three core software applications for creative professionals, sources said.

Major new versions of Adobes Photoshop image editor, Illustrator vector-based drawing program and InDesign page-layout application will pack innovative features and enhancements. All three are slated to ship by the fourth quarter, sources said.

Photoshop and ImageReady 8

Code-named Dark Matter and Taconite, respectively, the next installment of Adobes image-editing duo will reportedly feature non-destructive filtering that resembles the adjustment layers in Adobes After Effects video-effects package.

Photoshop 8 will also include Layer Palette presets that will let users maintain multiple palette sets that they can invoke via a menu. Photoshop 8 will also let users select multiple layers, then execute a single change to all of them simultaneously.

Other Photoshop improvements will include enhancements to the File Browser, improved keyboard customization and support for non-square pixels. The upgrade will also boast enhancements to the user interface, support for JPEG 2000 and a GUI-based Picture Package layout manager.

ImageReady, the Web-graphics package bundled with Photoshop, will also ship with its own slew of enhancements, including nested layer sets, greater integration with Photoshop and user-interface tweaks.

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Illustrator 11

Illustrator 11—code-named Pangaea—will feature significantly improved performance as well as new features for 3-D, type and printing.

Sources also told eWEEK that Illustrator 11 will draw on some of Acrobat 6s prowess with Adobes Portable Document Format to deliver a redone PDF export system and support for the PDF 1.5 standard.

InDesign 3

The third installment of InDesign will include interface tweaks and bug fixes along with a performance boost.

Code-named Dragontail, the new version will include a new PDF workflow derived from Acrobat 6, as well as new features for authoring eBooks. Sources said that the PDF improvements will usher in a variety of export options, including support for embedded video and audio files within a PDF. Intended for eBooks, this capability will give users the option of adding animation and audio to their eBooks in the form of a QuickTime movie or MP3 file.

InDesign 3 will also pack a Story Editor for editing text frames, JavaScript support and a “Package for Web” feature that will export InDesign items with an XML structure that can be reused for the Web.

Other features will reportedly include custom keyboard shortcuts, a Separations Preview palette, a control strip with contextual settings and variables, text wrap enhancements, and new color features.

A representative of San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Systems declined to comment on the companys product plans.