San Jose (CA) – Adobe today announced Lightroom 2.0, Adobe’s first native 64-bit application using OS X Cocoa APIs. The new version of the workflow and photo management software, is first out of the gate in this discipline, ahead of Aperture, Apple's own photography post-production application that remains at 32-bit for now.

Lightroom 2.0 delivers the widely expected 64-bit support for those who run the 64-bit version of Windows Vista or OS X Leopard (64-bit out-of-the box). This means that the application can address more than 4 GB of RAM to enable more image data to reside in the memory, which should result in a noticeable performance gains as less swapping from and to the slower hard drive is required.

Besides the arrival of 64-bit, other new features include support for multiple monitors and configurable image workflow and workspace across them, a new plug-in architecture that extends out-of-the box functionality with specialized third-party plug-ins, more precise brush placement during photo enhancement and a Library feature to organize large images across multiple removable media with an ability to work with the high-resolution previews even when the original master file is offline.

Printing is also enhanced with new algorithms that optimize images for screen display or print, resulting in crisper images and optimized ink usage. Adobe said that it is now possible to automatically arrange several images of multiple sizes on one or more pages. New support for the RAW format, currently in beta, allows photographers to create their own, highly customized camera profiles. Adobe claims that the default camera profiles that come with Lightroom "closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favorite camera.

Lightroom 2.0 is priced at $299 for the full version and at $99 for the upgrade

Cocoa and Apple

Jul 30, 2008 06:19     

Apple better hope the transition to Cocoa/64-bit goes VERY smoothly for Adobe, or it has a potential to really hurt them. (Apple) Some professional users of Adobe products very much need 64-bit and additional memory support, and this could be a thorn in the side of Apple as designers are some of the few professionals left that actually use Macs. Does anyone know if 64-bit is still not coming to CS4 for the Mac? Last I heard that was the case... Could cause some designers to get dragged to the PC, kicking and screaming all the way. Designers LOVE their Macs even though the programs they use are the same between the two platforms now most are convinced Macs are the only way they cand do their jobs. If Apple sees there suppose erode away in this area it could prove to be rather detrimental to their desktop PC market...

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Reality sets in when reality competes against marketing

Sep 26, 2008 17:51     

CS4 for photoshop will undoutedly have people trying ( reluctantly) Vist 64 and then probably sticking with it once they realize all the negative hype was just that, marketing! Apple's decision is going to hurt their once sacred cash cow where they cornered the market. Now designers will realize they can do more in Vista 64, it runs smooth, they have more apps to chose from. They can run 3d apps with graphic cards in SLI and Crossover mode without needing to spend heaps of money to get the same performance. So this jolt of reality just might be what designers are looking for.

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