Adobe Leopard Compatibility

For those of you chomping at the bit to go out and upgrade your Macintosh to Leopard OSX, there are a few things to keep in mind before you do so.

Adobe CS3 is NOT completely compatible with Leopard, despite what your friends and coworkers may tell you. It took a while for them to admit it, but Adobe has finally leaked some incompatibility issues with CS3 and Leopard (see below). These issues should be addressed in the upcoming updates due out in January (hold your breath I dare you!).

The next big blow is that Adobe is no longer supporting CS2 software. It is a "forced upgrade" mentality when it comes to Leopard. If you currently run CS2, there are several critical bugs that will not have forthcoming patches or updates to help.

Apple and Adobe agree that when installing it is best to do an Erase and Install, not an upgrade or archive and install. Be aware that this does wipe your hard drive clean, so be sure to backup all important files and settings. After the install, re-install CS3 and many of these bugs are fixed.

Here are some of the known issues with CS3:

Adobe Photoshop CS3
Numerical fields for many tools refuses text input.



When you enter values in numerical fields to set sizes for the brush, crop, marquee, lasso, type, and other Photoshop CS3 tools, those values revert to previously entered values when you try to apply them. Here are the solutions offered by Adobe:

Workaround for tools with sliders: Instead of typing in a number, use the sliders to change the value.

Workaround for tools with pop-up menus: Enter a value for the size but don’t press Return/Enter to apply the value. Instead, choose it from the top of the Size pop-up menu to commit it.

Workaround for tools which do not have sliders or pop-up menus: For certain tools, such as the Line tool, you may want to set up presets that you can load to set common sizes. Alternatively, you can restart Photoshop CS3 to clear the problem. You will then be able to enter values again. However, the issue typically re-surfaces quickly.

Workaround for type/font input is to use the Character/Paragraph Palettes.

For a full list of bugs, click here.

Adobe InDesign CS3
This is actually a funny bug, InDesign will not hide. Also, if you import .eps files with a jpg compression, the clipping path will disappear and export or print with the full background in view.

The workaround for that is an easy one, convert your file to a .psd file and use the clipping path option in InDesign.

PDF Printer
The Adobe PDF printer(s) do not work in Leopard at this time, it processes into infinity and never creates the pdf. Try exporting in InDesign or worst case scenario, print and use the "save as pdf" feature in the print dialog box. Yikes!

Epson Printers

Users are reporting problems with specific Epson printers, not all. The Print module may not load. Epson has released a timeline for updates to some of their printers. Unfortunately, some older models are being left behind. Here is the link: Epson Macintosh Leopard Support