If I had to sum up Adobe Creative Suite 3 in a single word, that word would be integration. (Note that Version Cue won't be included with the Production Premium suite.) And Adobe Device Central CS3 is a nifty program that allows you to take mobile content created in the Creative Suite and preview it surrounded by a "skin" interface drawn from a large databank of mobile devices, complete with working, clickable "buttons." While my experience with Version Cue admittedly doesn't run very deep, there are some nice features for making the process simpler and easier for workgroups to use. Bridge's new Inspector panel taps into Version Cue CS3, Adobe's solution for workgroups that need to collaborate on the same projects and track different versions of files. Two other Creative Suite components bear mentioning. I particularly love the "flat view" that shows the contents of nested folders along with the contents of the main folder, and the ability to assign a playback frame rate to stacked images in the browser, letting you preview animations that are rendered as image sequences. There are also some helpful preset viewing modes, stacking features to group similar files together, slide shows, and a loupe tool reminiscent of Apple Aperture's. This version of Bridge has seen many welcome improvements, starting with the dark, nondistracting interface. Bridge is the glue that holds a Creative Suite together it's a file browser–type "media manager" for organizing, browsing, and finding the media you need to use in your Suite work. I've held off talking about the new Adobe Bridge CS3 until this summary of the Creative Suites, even though Bridge is included when you buy any of the eight applications we've reviewed. (Hey, I said relatively simple.)īut wait-there's more. Each suite has two upgrade prices: one if you already own a previous version of Creative Suite or Macromedia Studio, and one if you already own a previous version of just one application in the suite you're upgrading to. Given the complexity of six different Creative Suite editions, Adobe has kept the concept of upgrading relatively simple. At the very least, Adobe should give a serious break on Lightroom's price to Creative Suite 3 owners. The new Photoshop Lightroom is the obvious candidate for inclusion (it even has a CS3 "chemical element"–style icon), and I think a Photographer's Collection suite consisting of Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom, priced around $799, would be a good idea. I find it interesting that none of the Creative Suites offer a robust way to organize the digital photo collection that will probably play a large part in whatever graphical work you do. But if you're not upgrading, it's hard to justify spending $1,000 on Web Standard when for $600 more you could get Web Premium, which also contains Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, and Acrobat-over $2,000 worth of additional software. It may have been designed for die-hard Macromedia users who want only upgrades to their favorite Web apps and don't want to mess with the Adobe stuff. This is one of the reasons I have a few reservations about recommending Web Standard. The only exception is the Web Standard edition, which is reduced to 78 percent. Prices are slashed to 40 or 50 percent of the cost of buying each suite component individually. One thing's for sure: The Creative Suites offer an incredible bargain. The Master Collection will be available with the release of the Production Premium suite. The final edition of the Creative Suite is the Master Collection, containing "all of the above" for those with print, Web, and video needs. Also note that the Premiere beta is available for Macintosh as well, and that the After Effects beta requires a licensed serial number for version 7. Note that the two linchpins of the Production Premium suite, After Effects CS3 Professional and Premiere Pro CS3, are currently available on the Adobe site as public betas. Expected for release later this year is the Production Premium suite, tailored for video work. If you want to design for both online and hard copy, the Design Premium is the choice for you. If you're interested in print, there's the Design Standard suite. If you're interested in the Web, there are the Web Standard and the more deluxe Web Premium suites.
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