Adobe's Creative Suite 3 (Universal) Revealed--New Photoshop CS3 Extended with 3D, Motion and Image Analyses

[3/27] [updated]Adobe's Creative Suite 3 (Universal) Revealed--New Photoshop CS3 Extended with 3D, Motion and Image Analyses

Adobe revealed the content and pricing of its new Creative Suite 3 (CS3) today and will put on a special event to roll it out later today. The event will be webcast live from New York City today at 12:30 pm PT (3:30 pm ET). One of the best things about CS3 for Mac users is that the applications included are now either Universal Applications or Intel-based only, running natively on Intel-based Macs as well as most on PowerPC-based Macs.

Adobe's CS3 is really a complex of a number of applications packaged in a number of bundles and editions that represent a huge discount as a bundle over buying the individual applications separately. There are three main bundles--Design, Web and Production. Each is targeted at a separate class of creative professionals. The Design and Web bundles come in Standard and Premium Editions. Then, there is the Master Edition that includes the entire set of applications for a total of 6 different editions of CS3. The different editions range in price from $999 ($399 upgrade) for the Web Standard Edition to $2499 for the Master Collection Edition.

Here is how the applications are bundled by edition and their pricing (full/standard upgrade):

Design Standard ($1199/399)

• InDesign CS3 ($699/199)
• Photoshop CS3 ($649/199)
• Illustrator CS3 ($599/199)
• Acrobat 8 Professional ($449/159)
• Plus: Bridge, Acrobat Connect, Device Central, Stock Photos, Version Cue

Design Premium ($1799/$599)

• All of Design Standard
• Photoshop CS3 Extended in lieu of Photoshop CS3 ($999/349)
• Flash CS3 Professional ($699/199)
• Dreamweaver CS3 ($399/199)

Web Standard ($999/$399)

• Dreamweaver CS3 ($399/199)
• Flash CS3 Professional ($699/199)
• Fireworks CS3 ($299/149)
• Contribute CS3 ($149/79)
• Plus: Bridge, Acrobat Connect, Device Central, Stock Photos, Version Cue

Web Premium ($1599/$499)

• All of Web Standard
• Photoshop CS3 Extended ($999/349)
• Illustrator CS3 ($599/199)
• Acrobat 8 Professional ($449/159)

Production Premium ($1699/$799)

• After Effects CS3 Professional ($999/299)
• Premiere Pro CS3 ($799/299)
• Photoshop CS3 Extended ($999/349)
• Flash CS3 Professional ($699/199)
• Illustrator CS3 ($599/199)
• Soundbooth CS3 ($199/new app.)
• Encore CS3 (included with Premiere Pro)
• Plus: Bridge, Acrobat Connect, Device Central, Stock Photos, Dynamic Link

Master Collection ($2499/$1399)

• Every application (includes Photoshop CS3 Extended)

The details on what application(s) one needs in order to qualify for standard upgrade pricing is available from this Adobe Web page. There are also somewhat higher upgrade pricing options depending on what products one owns.

The major features of CS3, aside from its different bundling of applications, is the new Photoshop CS3 Extended application that incorporates new capabilities for handling 3D, motion and comprehensive image analyses; the improved integration of Adobe's applications, especially Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks from the Macromedia acquisition; the Production Premium Edition that includes Mac versions of almost all applications (OnLocation requires Windows using Apple's Boot Camp or a virtualization application like Parallels Desktop for Mac and Ultra is Windows only) as well as the all-new Soundbooth application; and Adobe Device Central CS3 for mobile devices.

What about Adobe GoLive?

Dreamweaver, acquired in the Macromedia purchase, has replaced GoLive as Adobe's principal Web development application in its Creative Suite. So the one major flaw that we see in Adobe's upgrade policy is that one can not get upgrade pricing for Dreamweaver CS3 from owning any version of GoLive nor any of the previous Adobe Creative Suite versions. It appears that one might get a working Dreamweaver CS3 as part of a CS1 or CS2 suite upgrade to CS3 but it is not yet clear that the license will allow a full installation of Dreamweaver CS3. People ran into this problem when they upgraded CS2 to CS2.3--the included Dreamweaver 8 license in CS2.3 was only an upgrade license so one needed a full Dreamweaver 7 license in addition to the CS2 license. [Update 4/3/07: Adobe's has assured us that this will not happen with a CS3 upgrade to CS2.]

We have used GoLive and its predecessor CyberStudio, another Adobe acquisition, to produce MacsOnly! for many years since converting from manual html coding. Adobe has announced publicly (and reconfirmed to a reporter personally) that GoLive will be developed as a separate application. However, we expect this will be dependent upon futures sales of GoLive being sufficient for Adobe to do so. Since GoLive is not yet a Universal Application and Adobe is clearly pushing Dreamweaver, we fear that GoLive's days are really numbered.

Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended

Photoshop CS3, a Universal Application, has been out as a public beta since December 15, 2006. We tested its speed on our Intel-based MacBook Pro C2D versus Photoshop CS2 (v9.0.2) and found that the CS3 beta is 40 percent faster on average in running a suite of filters and 50-70 percent faster in launching. Clearly, one of the best features in CS3 is that it runs natively on Intel-based Macs.

Adobe touts a variety of other new features in Photoshop CS3 that include:

• Streamlined interface
• Next generation Camera Raw support
• Faster Adobe Bridge with Stacks, Filters and Loupe tool
• Zoomify export
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom integration
• Improved, intuitive printing
• Non-destructive smart filters
• Vanishing point with adjustable angle perspective planes
• Black and white conversions
• Improved curves
• Adjustable cloning and healing with preview overlay
• Enhanced merge to 32-bit HDR
• Quick Selection tool
• Refine edge
• Automatic layer alignment and blending
• Photomerge with advanced alignment and blending

Obviously, Adobe's signature digital image application has received a lot of attention since the CS2 version.

In the briefing for journalists by Adobe's Senior Product Manager John Nack, we were impressed with all of these new features but the last two are truly amazing. If one takes several photos of the same scene, one can import them as layers and have them automatically aligned. Then, one can select to retain only the common elements among the layers and "poof", people walking by or cars driving by or birds flying over, etc. are eliminated instantly for a clear scene--very simple. In the latter feature, one can take photos taken at various times of parts of a given scene, merge them as one scene and adjust the color, etc. to have one perfect image--again automatically, virtually instantly and non-destructively to the original photos.

Photoshop CS3 Extended has all of the features of Photoshop CS3 but adds these new features:

• 3D visualization and texture editing
• Movie paint
• Motion graphics and video layers
• Vanishing point with 3D support
• Measurements and data
• Ruler and count tools
• DICOM support
• Image stack processing

Photoshop CS3 Extended is not intended to be a replacement for CAD or other 3D-intensive applications but to extend Photoshop's superior 2D capabilities into 3D without having to resort to using another application. People working with images in advertising, architecture, medicine and science will get some terrific tools in Photoshop CS3 Extended. In the briefing for journalists, the new tools looked terrific for placing labels or skins on 3D objects for advertising images, counting cells on a microscope slide and measuring the areas of features in a CAT scan section of a human head.

The Macromedia Apps--Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks

The applications that Adobe got with their acquisition of Macromedia are superb Web design tools. They now integrate well with Adobe's other products within the Design and Web suite editions and have a common CS3 interface.

They also have new features, including:

Dreamweaver CS3

• Spry framework for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, widgets and effects
• Advanced Photoshop CS3, Fireworks CS3, Device Central and Bridge CS3 integration
• Browser compatibility check
• Adobe CSS Advisor
• CSS layouts
• Manage CSS

Flash CS3 Professional

• Native Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3 support
• Integration with Device central and Bridge CS3
• Instant Animation conversion to ActionScript 3.0
• New drawing tools
• Advanced QuickTime export
• More sophisticated video encoding
• New time-saving programming tools

Fireworks CS3

• Essential integration with Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3 and Bridge CS3
• New hierarchical organization structure
• Layers shared across multiple pages
• Flex code for RIAs
• Photoshop blending modes

Production Premium Edition

The Production Premium Edition combines applications for video, audio and design. Most have Mac versions and most of those are Universal Applications, running on Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs. The exceptions are OnLocation and Ultra, which run only on Windows, and Premier Pro, Soundbooth and Encore, which only run on Intel-based Macs. The totally new application is Soundbooth that delivers tools for everyday audio editing and cleanup, sound design and music creation. The applications are also integrated with Photoshop CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Device Central and Bridge CS3.

Device Central CS3

Adobe Device Central CS3 is designed to improve the efficiency and productivity of those "...who develop dynamic and engaging interfaces, mobile assets, applications and video content for mobile phones and hand-held consumer electronic devices." according to Adobe. It is integrated in Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design, Web and Production Premium editions, as well as individual products, including Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, Adobe Photoshop CS3, and Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 software. For the first time, creative professionals are able to preview their work and test mobile content instantly within familiar authoring environments through a periodically updated library of detailed phone and device profiles. Adobe Device Central CS3 dramatically simplifies the mobile authoring process.

The Design and Web Editions are scheduled to ship next month (April). The Production Premium and Master Collection Editions are scheduled to ship in the summer quarter. For more details, see this Adobe Web page. [Bill Fox]