Adobe Creative Suite 5, the twelfth major release in the best-selling series of image editing software, will air April 12, 2010.  It's expected to bring a number of advanced technologies, like three dimensional brushes and warping tools.  It also is expected to bring more aggressive use of the GPU, including improved utilization of the CUDA GPU computing technology found on NVIDIA graphics cards (CS4 was the first Adobe Creative Suite to utilize CUDA).

As if that wasn't enough to tempt users to update, the company has aired a video previewing a new feature which it calls "Content-Aware Fill".  The feature allows the user to fill in a selection based on the surrounding regions.

Graphically, the results are stunning.  In one demo Bryan O’Neil-Hughes, a product manager on the Photoshop team, used the tool to first remove lens flare, turn rough litter-strewn grass into a perfectly manicured lawn, and even remove trees seen in the distance.

In the next demo he removes a dusty road from a desert scene.  The tool automatically fills the replacement area with appropriate ground and shrub cover.  Finally, he takes another desert scene -- a cloud sky with bits on the top and bottom missing.  The tool replaces these bits seamlessly.

At first glance the results are hard to distinguish from an unaltered photo.  That's exciting news for professional designers.  Its also exciting news for amateur photoshoppers, who enjoy an occasional session of "put one person's head on another person's body."

The feature looks like it will reduce what might have once been hours or days of work down to a few seconds of wait time.