NAB: Adobe Begins Shipping Creative Suite 3
Adobe today began shipping its all-new Creative Suite 3. Most of new versions of the individual apps are shipping now. Preview versions of Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Adobe After Effects CS3
Professional and Adobe Soundbooth CS3 are available for download now. (Full versions are expected to ship next quarter.) Out at the NAB convention in Las Vegas, Adobe is also demonstrating new versions of its video and motion graphics tools.
The new suite and editionsIn the new Creative Suite 3, almost every Adobe application receives significant changes, including the applications Adobe acquired through the Macromedia buyout. The only exceptions to this are Acrobat Professional, which remains at version 8 but is included in some of the editions of the suite; GoLive, whose future Adobe is not commenting on; and Director, whose future Adobe also is not commenting on, except to say that many of Director's features have been adopted by Flash and that, no, Dave, you shouldn't conclude that Adobe is going to drop your favorite former Macromedia application. We'll see about that.
In the meantime, all the other applications have been revised, updated, Universal Binarified, and otherwise updated for Intel-based Mac consumption (Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher, including 10.5) and compatibility with Windows Vista.
Of course, this will help ease the transition to Intel-based Macs for those of you who administer Macs in your districts or schools, as Adobe's slow transition to Intel-native support draws to a conclusion.
The editions consist of the following:
- Design Premium: InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, and Acrobat 8 Professional. It will be available in April for $1,799 for a single license.
- Design Standard: InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3, and Acrobat 8 Professional. It will sell for $1,199.
- Web Premium: Dreamweaver CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Fireworks CS3, Contribute CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, and Acrobat 8 Professional. It will be available in April for $1,599.
- Web Standard: Dreamweaver CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Fireworks CS3, and Contribute CS3. It will sell for $999.
- Production Premium: After Effects CS3 Professional, Premiere Pro CS3, Encore CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Soundbooth CS3, OnLocation CS3 (Windows-only), and Ultra CS3. It will be available in the third quarter for $1,699.
- The Master Collection: This includes all of the applications included in all of the premium suites (InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, Contribute CS3, Fireworks CS3, After Effects CS3 Professional, Premiere Pro CS3, Soundbooth CS3, Encore CS3, Acrobat 8 Professional, OnLocation CS3 (Windows only) and Ultra CS3). It will be available n the third quarter for $2,499.
CertificationsIn addition to launching the new products and suite editions, Adobe is also revamping its certification programs for professional users, including faculty and other educators.
There will be two levels of certification in Adobe's new programs. These include:
- Associate-level certification, which Adobe says is designed to assess "essential entry-level skills that are needed to plan, design, build, and maintain effective communications using different forms of digital media."
- Professional-level certification, which is the higher-level certification designed for creative professionals.
Certiport will develop and launch the new certification programs, which are expected to roll out in final form by July of this year.
We will provide you with additional information on the certifications as it becomes available.
New versions of the applicationsOn the user level, the new applications in Creative Suite 3 mark major changes in the creative workflow and the feature sets available for creative production. The changes in all of the applications are too numerous to name here. We will provide reviews of the final shipping versions of the applications when they become available. Preview versions of Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional and Adobe Soundbooth CS3 are available for download now.
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