Some of our visitors to PhotoshopNews may already be aware that Bruce Fraser, noted author, lecturer and “color geek”, was diagnosed several months ago with terminal lung cancer.

PixelGenius, the makers of PhotoKit, PhotoKit Sharpener and PhotoKit Color 2.0 has announced plans to offer beta updates of their plug-ins to run natively on the MacIntel version of Adobe Photoshop CS3.

With the release of the Adobe Photoshop CS3 public beta, users who already have a Photoshop CS2 serial number will be able to download and install the brand new version of Photoshop-at least in its current beta form.

One of the things users will notice is a new application icon which heralds the beginning of the new Creative Suite 3 icon art.

Be aware also that it will take some time to get it downloaded-the Mac version is 684MB (including Bridge and Camera Raw 4) and the Windows version is 355MB. The larger Mac file size is due largely because it’s a Universal Binary that includes both the PPC as well as MacIntel optimized code.

John Nack, senior product manager for Adobe Photoshop, photo by George Jardine.

To coincide with the announcement and availability of Photoshop CS3 as a public beta, Martin Evening has released a sample chapter from his forthcoming book: Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers, published by Focal Press.

The new edition of this best selling book should be hitting the streets in Spring of 2007, shortly after the official release of Photoshop CS3.

As a special perk for PhotoshopNews readers, Martin has made his Chapter 1: What’s New in Photoshop CS3 available for free download.

The 21 page PDF, outlines all the new features of Photoshop CS3 and Bridge 2, written from a user’s perspective. It offers an honest appraisal of what will be on offer in this new version of the program, if you really want to know what’s NEW!

Got questions about the Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta release?
These are the official answers from Adobe…

CS3 Learning Center Offers Tutorials, New Feature Overviews, Exclusive Interviews and More for the Newly-Released Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) CS3 Public Beta Preview

The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) is excited to announce the launch of their most comprehensive online learning center ever in conjunction with the release of the Adobe® Photoshop® Creative Suite 3 public beta preview. The CS3 Learning Center is now live and available at www.photoshopuser.com/cs3.

Company Also Previews Adobe Bridge and All-New Adobe Device Central

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Dec. 14, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) will introduce a beta version of Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 software, the next release of the world standard in digital imaging, on Friday, December 15th. Adobe is delivering a widely available Photoshop CS3 beta to enable customers to more easily transition to the latest hardware platforms, particularly Apple’s new Intel-based systems. The beta is available as a Universal Binary for the Macintosh platform, as well as for Microsoft® Windows® XP and Windows Vista computers. The final shipping release of Adobe Photoshop CS3 is planned for Spring 2007. The software can be downloaded at: http://labs.adobe.com, in the early hours Pacific Standard Time on December 15.