Adobe released details Monday about Creative Suite 4, its first update to more than a dozen design and editing tools since Adobe CS3 some 17 months ago.
The costs of the applications, set to reach consumers in October, haven't changed since CS3, but remain hefty. Should longtime users upgrade?
Click on this image for more details about the Adobe CS4 suites.
(Credit: Adobe)Of course that depends on the specific tools you need. However, we suspect that only the most well-heeled will jump at the chance, as CS4 shares the majority of tools with its predecessor. Perhaps more dramatic, life-changing alterations will come with the next Creative Suite. That said, time-saving tweaks to Illustrator and Flash in particular could lure professionals immersed in them to upgrade.
With CS4, Adobe aimed to unify the interfaces of more than a dozen applications, including Flash and other former properties of Macromedia. You'll see similar pull down menus for toggling among workspaces that you can customize, as well as Flash-based panels that nicely snap open and shut. Corporate design departments will find plenty of enhancements for their teams to share work more quickly.
Adobe continues to improve integration among the applications. After Effects, as only one example, can import Photoshop 3D layers and export content directly into Flash.
Options for working with high-definition video and mobile content expand too, with support for the latest formats as well as for making Adobe AIR applications. Among other highlights:
Photoshop CS4 will use your computer's graphics chip for the first time, while offering support for 64-bit Windows.
At long last, you can handle more than one project at a time in Illustrator, thanks to the new multiple Artboards feature.
Flash CS4 has a rebuilt animation model, so you can make objects move on the stage in two quick steps. And Flash introduces a new, XML-based file format.
Dreamweaver provides plenty of shortcuts to CSS coding, including within the Properties panel.
We've been toying with the beta code of CS4 for several weeks. Check out our first take reviews and videos of the six suites and their individual applications for more details. We'll report back with rated reviews after working with the final code.
Adobe.com's online CS3 tutorials have received 5 million plays over the first year.
(Credit: Adobe Systems, Inc.)So you got yourself some Adobe CS3 products, but you're still trying to get your workspace organized or iron out your cross-product workflow or how to use the Puppet tool in After Effects? Apparently lots of other people are in the same position according to a case study from EffectiveUI, developers of Adobe's online Video Workshop application built using Adobe Flex. The tutorials have seen more than 5 million plays over its first year.
The video tutorials cover 22 of Adobe's products including all the CS3 components and span 47 topics. The information comes from product experts across the Adobe community and the videos are produced by Lynda.com. And aside from viewing them online, a number of the tutorials can be downloaded for viewing offline.
Oh and in related news, You Suck at Photoshop is back on, fresh from a Webby win.
Adobe Creative Suite users will soon have to turn to other Web-based or local stock photography services to get their stock photo fix.
Adobe on Monday quietly announced the end of its stock photography service. The Stock Photos service has been a part of the popular Creative Suite since the introduction of Adobe Bridge in version 2. The cutoff date is March 31st, giving users a little less than two more months to use the service to acquire legal shots to use in design work.
According to Adobe's FAQ on the matter, the company is getting out of the stock photography business to "concentrate its efforts in other areas." The service acted as a go-between to other stock photography services without a markup. It's easily comparable to iTunes for stock photography, as it offered users a one-stop shop with live previews that could easily be put into Adobe's various design applications right after purchase.
Since the front end for the photo service is part of the Creative Suite software, Adobe's created a special uninstaller that gets rid of it in Bridge. Current users of Bridge are greeted to the below message, telling them how many days are left before the service cutoff, along with links to Adobe's customer service center.
To curb any latecomers, Adobe is also cutting off the search function of the stock photo tab on March 4, which will keep new users from even being able to get to the photos that are for sale.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
In the past several years, the rise of Web services that offer stock photography has been speedy. With Bridge, it appeared that Adobe was taking notice and making it easier to parse through them.
However, between this and Adobe's foray into publishing to other stock services, killing off the intermediary (Stock Photos on Bridge) to save some hours to work on future products makes good business sense.
Now's the time for early adopters who can afford Adobe Creative Suite 3 to break out their credit cards. The professional interactive design software is officially for sale online. If you can't plunk down upwards of $1,000 for a suite (more in Europe--or buy a plane ticket from there to the States if you want to spend less), then check out some freebie Web-based and downloadable alternatives.
Flash and other CS3 apps sport new interfaces.
(Credit: Elsa Wenzel/CNET)Thanks to Adobe's work to incorporate its staple software with its Macromedia acquisitions from 2005, integration throughout the applications is the biggest news to report with this upgrade. There aren't as many showy new features, such as there were with the introduction of green screen video editing with Flash 8. However, the capability to drag and drop images, with layers and color settings intact, from Photoshop and Illustrator into the various Web, interactive, and print design tools is a big, time-saving deal. As far as highly specialized software goes, there isn't much competition for Adobe's comprehensive lineup--although Microsoft is gunning for its Expression suite to make a big splash this spring.
We've been playing with the buggy beta editions of the CS3 Web and Design packages for a few weeks. Now that the gold code is in our hands, we'll keep updating our CS3 coverage with rated reviews and screenshots. More news will come as the Production Premium and Master Collection suites come this summer.
Since Adobe bought Macromedia nearly two years ago, rumors have flown about what mutant offspring might emerge from this marriage of software makers.
Although a leak on a blog revealed bits of this closely guarded secret about a day early, Adobe has officially taken the wraps off the pricing and packaging of its Creative Suite 3--most of which will work on Intel-based or PowerPC Macs, as well as with Windows Vista and XP. (See our coverage of the CS3 Master Collection to start.).
(Credit:
Adobe)
The six flavors of CS3 are built for different types of digital designers. So far, we've checked out beta editions of the CS3 Web and Design packages, which offer a blend of tools, including the new Photoshop (read Lori Grunin's first take), Illustrator, Flash, and Dreamweaver. Web and Design will each be available in Standard and Premium editions. The rumor mill pegs April 20 as their final release, although Adobe hasn't confirmed that with us.
As for the CS3 summer releases (on July 1?), there's not much else on the market that will rival the scope of capabilities offered by Creative Suite 3 Production Premium, which handles videographers' needs, from shooting on-site all the way through postproduction. Cross-platform support might even turn the heads of some FinalCut Pro fans. Starving artists may salivate at the Adobe CS3 Master Collection, a comprehensive toolkit that well-equipped corporate design departments will likely snap up for creating Web, mobile, interactive, video, and print content.
There's integration galore throughout the applications, such as native support for Photoshop and Illustrator files in Flash and Fireworks. As anticipated, Macromedia GoLive seems to be dying quietly, while other former Macromedia apps, such as Flash, are adopting the look and feel of their Adobe step-parent. There's no sign yet of a Web-based Photoshop.
That's just a taste of the ballyhooed new features within Adobe Creative Suite 3. Unfortunately, Adobe's big packages come with big price tags. We'll cover any quirks we encounter as we continue to test the betas and then get our hands on final editions of the many applications.
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