One of the most obvious changes in the new CS4 applications is the user interface, and this change will also be carried over into the next version of Adobe’s Photoshop. This decision is described in detail by Adobe’s John Nack.

Nack describes how Adobe has been trying to make the interfaces on their apps more consistent and shows off a screenshot of the new Mac Photoshop “application frame”. This application frame contains both user interface elements as well as documents themselves. Despite expressing his own initial resistance, Nack explains the advantages to the consolidated window:

- It facilitates N-up (2-up, 3-up, etc.) document layouts that adapt as you adjust the interface. Think “live window tiling”–great for comparing, compositing, etc.
- It makes it easier to move the entire application and its contents, including from one monitor to another.
- It prevents documents from getting obscured by panels (palettes).
- It blocks out the contents of the desktop, minimizing visual clutter.

Noise is a serious problem in digital imaging
In digital photography, the consumer- and prosumer-level cameras produce images with an easily noticeable noise component, which is especially strong in images taken at high ISO rates. Scanned photos contain a similar film grain component. The noise and grain reduce the visual quality of digital images and resulting printouts.

The solution to the noise problem: Neat Image
Neat Image is a digital filter specifically designed to reduce visible noise in digital photographic images produced by modern digital cameras, as well as film and flatbed scanners.

Three main reasons to choose Neat Image:

1. QUALITY OF NOISE REDUCTION
provided by Neat Image is higher than that of all other methods because:
Neat Image uses the most advanced noise reduction algorithms in the industry
Neat Image noise reduction algorithms are developed specifically for digital photography applications by a highly-qualified professional image processing research group. These algorithms surpass the quality of all classic noise reduction methods and even that of the wavelet-based methods. Although the wavelet-based methods were developed only 10-15 years ago and are still considered relatively modern, Neat Image uses an even newer and more efficient approach to noise reduction. This approach enables drawing a more clear distinction between noise and details in noisy images. This helps Neat Image reduce more noise and better preserve true image details in digital photos and scans.