Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta Released as Free Download

A free public beta of Photoshop CS6 has been released by Adobe. The beta features some pretty major changes to Photoshop, including a new graphics engine that dramatically speeds up performance of some tools and an all new darkened user interface.

In terms of features, Photoshop CS6 includes a new content-aware patch, blur gallery, type styles, custom strokes to shapes, layer searching, video editing tools, a new crop tool, auto-select interpolation, and improved camera RAW support.

Anyone is free to download and install Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta and no serial number is needed, although you will be required to enter an Adobe ID and activate online within seven days of first launching the application. From then on, the software is free to use until the final release of Photoshop CS6, which is due out sometime later this year.

If you’re at all interested in Photoshop or image editing, it’s worth a look. Free downloads are available for Mac OS X and Windows, with the Mac version requiring at least 2.5GB of available disk space to install.

• Download for Mac (direct link, 984MB)
• Download for Windows (direct link, 1.7GB)

Watch the video below for a demonstration, or check out Adobe Labs for more info.

Pricing hasn’t been announced, but typically Photoshop is the same price as a new iPad or more. For that reason, many alternatives like Pixelmator or even iPhoto can be good enough for many users photo editing needs.