On Tuesday, Adobe announced the details of its long-awaited Creative Suite 3 product group. The launch, the largest in Adobe’s history, will ship six different configurations of the software:
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium (US$1,799)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard (US$1,100)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium (US$1,599)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard (US$999)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium (US$1,699)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection (a collection of all of Adobe’s applications as well as development tools). (US$2,499)
At its most basic, Adobe Creative Suite 3 offers the Photoshop CS3, InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional and Dreamweaver CS3. The applications will
be available as universal binaries and run at native speeds on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs, a first for Adobe. The programs are due to ship in April according to MacNN.
In addition to standard 2D design, Adobe has offered help in the 3D sphere with Photoshop CS3 Extended, which allows for work, texture editing and export support on 3D images and formats. Photoshop CS3 Extended also includes video format and layer support to allow users to edit video files on a frame by frame basis according to Macworld News. Edited video can then be exported into a variety of formats, including Flash, which can then be ported over to projects such as web sites and presentations.
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On Tuesday, Adobe announced the details of its long-awaited Creative Suite 3 product group. The launch, the largest in Adobe’s history, will ship six different configurations of the software:
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium (US$1,799)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard (US$1,100)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium (US$1,599)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard (US$999)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium (US$1,699)
-Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection (a collection of all of Adobe’s applications as well as development tools). (US$2,499)
At its most basic, Adobe Creative Suite 3 offers the Photoshop CS3, InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional and Dreamweaver CS3. The applications will
be available as universal binaries and run at native speeds on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs, a first for Adobe. The programs are due to ship in April according to MacNN.
In addition to standard 2D design, Adobe has offered help in the 3D sphere with Photoshop CS3 Extended, which allows for work, texture editing and export support on 3D images and formats. Photoshop CS3 Extended also includes video format and layer support to allow users to edit video files on a frame by frame basis according to Macworld News. Edited video can then be exported into a variety of formats, including Flash, which can then be ported over to projects such as web sites and presentations.
Photoshop CS3, the current version of Adobe’s flag ship application, brings a slew of new features to the table, among them an Auto-align Layers command that can shift layers to blend them together. The program now includes support for more than 150 RAW formats as well as JPEG, TIFF and other formats the program has historically supported. New tools include Fill Light and Dust Busting, bringing some of the elements of Adobe’s Elements program (their consumer-level image editing suite) to Photoshop CS3. Adobe Photoshop CS3 will retail for US$649 while Photoshop CS3 Extended will retail for US$999. Upgrade pricing will be available, although specifics have not been mentioned.
InDesign CS3, the current version of the InDesign layout program, will include new features such as Multi-file Place, fast frame fitting, an improved Quick Apply feature and Advanced Find/Change feature, Adobe citing that their goal was to help eliminate repetitive tasks. The company also mentioned that features such as as Table and cell styles would allow a user to quickly format an entire table or section of a page.
Among InDesign CS3’s larger changes, the program can see Photoshop CS3 as a core technology and use Photoshop’s visual effects such as beveling and embossing without leaving InDesign.
InDesign CS3 will be available as a US$699 standalone while InCopy, InDesign’s partner program, will be available for US$249.
Where Ilustrator CS3 is concerned, Adobe has now included a feature called Live Color, which allows users to locate new color combinations that can be saved and reused. Once a workable color scheme has been found, users can store these combinations in organized groups in a window called the Swatches panel. Users can then create color schemes based on color-harmony rules or develop their own rules. The program can also re-map new colors if it notices the user is trying to reduce the number of colors present in your work files.
Other major new features to be found in Illustrator is integration with Flash CS3 Professional and multithreaded processing advances, which help boost refresh rates and overall program responsiveness on machines with multiple processors or processor cores (Adobe representatives have cited a “250-300 percent” improvement when working with files).
Adobe Illustrator CS3 will retail as a standalone for US$599 with upgrade pricing available.
In this version of the Creative Suite, Flash CS3 Professional has been more tightly integrated with other programs, especially Photoshop and Illustrator as well as having gained extended options for advanced QuickTime exporting. For example, users can import a Photoshop file into Flash, then choose which layers to import as well as which layers to work with and export. The program sports a unified user interface with the other Adobe programs as well.
For veteran Flash users, Adobe has included ActionScript 3.0, a new version of its script programming application. Flash CS3 will retail for US$699 with upgrade pricing available.
Like Flash and the other programs in Creative Suite 3, Dreamweaver CS3 has also seen additional integration with its surrounding environment. Here, multiple layers can be pasted directly into a Dreamweaver page. Users can also double-click images in Dreamweaver to quickly edit them in Photoshop.
Another significant new feature in Dreamweaver CS3 is the incorporation of Adob’es Spry framework for Ajax. In short, users can use elements called Spry Widgets to develop interactive web applications. These Widgets include XML-driven lists, tables, accordions and form elements that have proven popular on modern web sites and can now be easily assembled with some practice.
For developers writing a site for multiple browsers, Dreamweaver CS3’s CSS Advisor checks code and offers tips as to what parts of the site to modify. Cascading style sheets for a larger site can also be controlled with Dreamweaver CS3’s Manage CSS feature, which allows users to move CSS rules from document to document. Dreamweaver CS3 will retail for US$399 with available upgrade pricing.
Completely new to the Adobe Creative Suite lineup, Device Central functions as a preview tool wherein users can see how their work will look on mobile devices such as cell phones and PDAs.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 will begin shipping in April.