EXCLUSIVES

Adobe Creative Suite Premium
Words by Ric Getter
April 2004

Years ago, Apple Computer joined with IBM and Lotus to develop a totally new approach to working with documents on a computer: OpenDoc. The basic idea was that the document would stay on your screen and you'd bring in whatever software you needed to work on it.

For a number of reasons (not the least of which was the absence of a representative from Redmond on the list of supporters), it was an interesting idea that never made it out of the concept stage. With Creative Suite, Adobe is putting its huge publishing power behind a move in a similar direction--a project-based realm where each program's full power can be brought to bear on achieving the task it does the best. Far more than just a package deal with a price break, Creative Suite represents a real advance in integration on both the application and workflow levels.

The Cue is the Glue

One of the most powerful and dramatically new elements of Creative Suite works quietly behind the scenes. It has the remarkable ability to satisfy a group's complex workflow and version management needs while remaining unobtrusive. As publication management people and web producers all know, getting a group of highly creative artists and designers to religiously follow document control and process management rules can be about as easy as herding cats. Adobe's Version Cue actually makes life simpler for them by streamlining the open/save and import/export processes.

Version Cue is essentially a local server that can run on either a dedicated or a user's system. It's initially configured through the System Preferences. The first time you activate the advanced features of Version Cue, you're given the option to establish an administrator's account. Like the high-priced content management systems, Version Cue can then be administered with a straightforward browser-based interface that allows for both local and remote access.

Version Cue's features are built into all the programs in the CS suite. When the service is activated as a program preference, it adds a Version Cue button to your Open and Save dialog boxes that acts as the portal to the program's features.

The interface is incredibly intuitive and surprisingly powerful. It's very easy to add a new or existing document to the managed project files. Once a file is part of your project, you have the option to "Save a Version" when the file is changed or updated. This involves a simple prompt for any comment you might add, and Version Cue then takes care of the rest. Older versions of files are preserved and are easily accessible.

Whether you are an individual working with a number of files that are part of different projects or are managing a workgroup, you could easily justify the cost of a Creative Suite upgrade as well as its top billing in this review.

Lots of Muscle, No Bloat

Photoshop CS sports enough new and enhanced features to make it a must-have update for its broad spectrum of print, web and video users. As has become the norm for Adobe, the interface has evolved in a way that avoids the feeling of "feature bloat" that often plagues the appearance and performance of new versions of mature applications.

Of all the enhancements, the most pleasing is the expansion of the File Browser. This feature, which actually made its first appearance in Elements, now opens to a full-page view. As before, the right portion of the screen displays the thumbnail collection (which is now drawn with surprising speed). The left pane contains your folder list for navigation, preview window and an updated metadata window for the selected thumbnail. The latter includes all the latest categories of Camera Raw data point, right down to GPS positioning information. The panes are resizeable, allowing you to dedicate more or less room to thumbnails for previews. A small menu bar offers access to file, data and batch automation features.

Even if you don't intend to make use of Version Cue, two of Photoshop's other new features will help track changes and versions of a file. The History can now be saved and recalled as an external file. You don't loose it when you close the document. Like the other residents of the Creative Suite, Photoshop can exploit Acrobat 6's multi-layer capability.

This means that once you combine layers in a layer comp (basically a designated set of layers), you can send out an approval copy of your artwork with the different elements viewable separately. If you're the kind of designer who has to think big (we're talking point-of-sales displays, busses, streetcars, etc.), you should be delighted to know that Photoshop CS handles images up to 300,000 by 300,000. Video people will appreciate that the program can now create and display documents with non-square pixels.

Your Type of Program

Even though it remains one of the industry's most powerful drawing programs, Illustrator CS (version 11 if you're keeping count) sees its most impressive growth in the area of typography.

This is due in part to Adobe's adoption of the OpenType format, a significant extension of TrueType. In addition, an impressive array of styling and formatting features round out the typography enhancements. OpenType, used throughout the Creative Suite, is a truly portable type format with font files that can be used by both Macs and PCs. This eliminates one major file sharing and prepress headache. OpenType Pro formats have a plethora of optional glyphs and ligatures, offering an amazing variety of options for how a letter group can be displayed. Illustrator CS makes these glyphs available and easy to manipulate via a new palette.

You can also use these OpenType features with Illustrator's new paragraph and character style features. This long-awaited addition simplifies text-intensive projects and facilitates group-wide sharing of shop-wide standards. The program also includes multiple column text, custom tab leaders and text along a path. Because Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign now share the same sophisticated type-rendering engine, editing type and layout features is possible no matter which program you use to open the file. Those of us who like to use Illustrator to create artwork for our MS Office programs will appreciate the new Export to Microsoft Office option. This is extremely helpful for all those projects where what you intended to show often gets lost in the translation. Illustrator can now save files as templates, and the CD already includes over 200 to get you started.

Going Public

Creative Suite Premium has the tools to get your work out to the masses by print, web or PDF. InDesign, GoLive and Acrobat received varying levels of enhancement with this update, but all have been upgraded to take advantage of Version Cue and Acrobat 6's new capabilities.

Most of the improvements went into InDesign, particularly in the area of prepress and preflight. The Flattener and Separation Previews save time with those preflight exams. The new Story Editor permits advanced text editing and formatting changes without a return trip to your word processor. It also lets you view the text in its own window without the distraction of other page elements.

The biggest change with GoLive is the ability to share page elements with InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. You can bring in elements as virtual links, where updates to the original are updated immediately in the local site files. Unfortunately, GoLive still offers no support for dynamic data and is still not as friendly as its competitor for web designers who like to hand-tweak HTML.

Improvements to Acrobat are mostly in the new capabilities built into the version 6 standard. These are reflected in the new export options in the Suite's other programs. It does, however, sport a clever direct-to-email tool that neatly packages up your files and sends out a boilerplate message with instructions to the recipient on how to add comments.

As soon as you pick up the box, you'll discover that Creative Suite contains only a printed overview in the form of a 92-page Design Guide. The rest of the included documentation is in electronic form. The full printed documentation set is available from Adobe's online store for $59 plus shipping. Adobe's browser-based help system remains fast and efficient.

The $1,299 price of Creative Suite Premium is reasonable considering the quantity of high-end products it includes. Licensed users of Photoshop or any previous Adobe Collection (Web, Design or Video) can purchase the suite for $749.

Adobe's Creative Suite represents a new milestone in integration for designers. The improvements in each individual program along with OpenType and Acrobat 6 output should make it worth considering the update. But the simplicity and elegance of the workflow and version control solutions provided by Version Cue should be motivation enough for many users.

Minimum System Requirements: OS X v.10.2.4, 192 MB RAM, 1.775 GB hard disk space, 1020x486 monitor. www.adobe.com