Photoshop coming as Universal Binary next year

A version of Adobe Systems Inc.’s flagship Photoshop software that will run on Mac computers based on either the legacy PowerPC or new Intel platform will be available in the first half of next year, the company’s CEO said Friday.

A version of Adobe Systems’ flagship Photoshop software that will run on Macintosh computers based on the legacy PowerPC or new Intel platform will be available in the first half of next year, the company’s CEO said Friday.

The software is one of the highest-profile titles that has not yet been released in the Universal Binary format that Apple is encouraging software makers to use. The format allows programs to run on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh computers. The latest version of Photoshop Elements, Version 4.0, came out in February and wasn’t in Universal Binary because of time constraints, Adobe said at the time.

“We are working very hard on making our products Mactel [Mac Intel] compliant,” Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen said at a Tokyo news conference. “When we ship the new product Acrobat 8 this fall it will be Mactel compliant. When we ship Photoshop and the Creative Suite products next spring they will also be Mactel compliant.”

Adobe has recently released several new products in Universal Binary form, and Chizen appeared on stage with Steve Jobs during Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference to back Apple’s switch to the Intel platform.

“Many of our customers use Macintoshes and we believe that Mactel will provide for a greater performance and better experience and that will be good for Adobe’s customers, which means it’s good for Adobe,” Chizen said in Tokyo.

He also said the recently announced Boot Camp software, which allows Intel-based Macintosh computers to run the Windows operating system, won’t have a big impact on Adobe’s Macintosh software lineup.

“For the majority of our products, writing directly to the Macintosh operating system is an advantage to the customers, and you will see us continue to do so and not work through Boot Camp or the Windows emulator because we think that will not be good for the majority of our customers,” he said.

“However there are some products that we have today that we have not been able to afford to continue to develop to make available on the Mac, a great example being FrameMaker,” he said. “The majority of FrameMaker users use Windows as an OS but there is a small percentage that want to use FrameMaker on the Mac so they can use Boot Camp.”