Aperture 3.0 came out a few months ago, so you're probably wondering why this review is so late. I had hoped to do a simultaneous review of Lightroom 3 and Aperture 3, but I was thinking that Lightroom 3 would come out at the same time as the CS5 applications, which came out just recently. It now looks like Lightroom 3 is not due out until June or July, judging from the winds (that's hippy talk for "when the beta program expires"). Anyway, it's better that we waited, since Photoshop CS5 includes Adobe Camera RAW 6 and the noise reduction improvements that are going to be included in Lightroom 3. It also gave Apple a bit of time to clear up some bugs with the release, so we're reviewing version 3.0.3 here.

Test Hardware

Mac Pro dual quad-core Nehalem Xeon 2.66 GHz 24GB RAM 120GB OCZ Vertex Turbo SSD system drive with separate HD RAID library disk Geforce GTX 285/Radeon 4870 test scenarios Dual NEC WUXi 2490 Spectraview monitors OS X 10.6.3



MacBook Pro Core2 Duo 2.4GHz 15" Santa Rosa 4GB RAM 120GB OCZ Vertex SSD NVIDIA Geforce 8600M 256MB OS X 10.6.3 running 32-bit kernel



Interface and Workflow Improvements

Aperture 3 includes a ton of workflow tweaks and improvements—so many that covering every little one would be excessive. Sure, the new feature page has some padding like "Space Bar Playback"—that's a bit of a stretch as a feature. But there are lots of touches that make version 3 a more comfortable, well-rounded workspace for importing, sorting, tagging, developing, and exporting images. Even the icons are nicer:

Aperture 2.

Aperture 3.

It's almost weird how bad the version 2 icons look now, like Aperture 2 was using NeXT icons where 3 uses OS X ones. While I can understand why you'd want more toned-down icons in an image editor, they didn't fill the space very well. Of course, if you find them too loud, you can command-click the oblong widget at the top right to pick a more compact mode, like text-only display.

Fullscreen Projects View and Full-Screen Browser

Fullscreen mode got a big upgrade in Aperture 3. I like to work with the least clutter possible, and the changes in the latest Aperture make working in a minimal, fullscreen workspace a lot easier. There is no longer a need to go back and forth between modes to navigate thanks to the browser bar at the top of fullscreen mode:

You can browse projects in fullscreen mode and dig around without reaching for the project tree panel.

Vanishing HUD

Another enhancement that will help you see more work while working is the Vanishing HUD. If you hold shift while tweaking a slider in the Adjustment HUD, the palette disappears and shows just the image and the slider, letting you concentrate on the image:

It's a nice touch but I just prefer to use the new docked Adjustments HUD while in full-screen mode:

The Adjustments HUD at the left is butted against the edge and can be set to the right as well.

Both of these interface tweaks help Aperture 3 feel less constricted and cluttered overall.

Aperture Trash

Aperture 3 now has a trash bin, so you don't have to commit to nuking files outright. Command-delete files or projects and clear the trash when it's safe to later:

This helps projects stay organized, since sometimes you want to be able to go back to some options later, but you're 95% committed to your picks and just want to deal with those after trashing the others. On empty, you're given an option to remove the master files from the disk, or just clear them from the library (the default).

Adjustment Presets and Live Previews

One of the sleeker changes to the interface is the addition of a live preview for adjustment presets. You click on the preset menu and drag through the options to watch a good-sized preview of the image pop up with the settings:

These are user-customizable, and you can add your own presets and categories.

Zoom navigator.

If you're working on a zoomed part of an image, a little zoom navigator pops up at the right side of the interface:

Once you mouse over the navigator, it expands to show the image contents, and you can grab and slide the zoom value for interactive zooming:

As you can see from the pixellated screenshot above, it zooms the low-res cache image until you let go of the mouse button. This keeps the zoom response good on all hardware.

The zoom navigator and live previews, combined with the myriad other small tweaks, make working in Aperture 3 less restrictive, and they add to the feeling of having of a fully personalized workspace.