With the release of Creative Suite 3 on Tuesday, Adobe has completed the largest software release in the company’s history. This release also sees the integration of the Adobe and Macromedia brands and products into a tightly integrated suite.
“Over the past 25 years our technology has redefined industries,” Caleb Belohlavek, Adobe’s Director of Creative Solutions, told Macworld. “Our mission has been to revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information. Our goal is to continue to be on the cutting edge of innovation and drive more powerful solutions to our customers.”
Creative Suite 3 comes in six configurations, covering the spectrum of creative professionals. The configurations are Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium and Design Standard editions; Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium and Web Standard editions; and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium. Rounding out the product line is Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection which combines 12 of Adobe’s new design and development applications in a single box.
Standalone application upgrades are also available if you choose to upgrade the applications individually. Upgraded applications in the suite include Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional and Dreamweaver CS3.
While the individual applications have a host of new features, Adobe said they actually spent a lot of time simplifying the applications and how they work together.
“We see the creative pros as communicators,” said Belohlavek. “The more effincency they achieve, the more they can invest to differentiate themselves.”
In addition to giving artists more time to focus on their art, simplifying the applications has also allowed traditional Web designers to move more to print or visa versa. This is a trend Adobe said they are seeing more and more.
“A lot of boundaries they [creative pros] used to be faced with are being challenged,” said Belohlavek. “They are not just working on the Web or in print anymore — their work needs to be deployed anywhere to anybody.”
Adobe also kept its new users in mind when developing the Creative Suite 3 applications. With Flash behind two of the most popular sites on the Internet — YouTube and MySpace — Adobe recognizes that new users are not the same as the traditional designers they have been catering to for the last number of years.
With the Creative Suite applications being delivered as Universal Binaries that run natively on Intel Macs, Belohlavek said users will see substantial speed increases across the applications.
Users will also see updates to Creative Suite 3 shortly after Apple release its new operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
“We are working very closely with Apple as they develop 10.5,” said Belohlavek. “We will have updates available specifically for Leopard as soon as possible after its release. We are testing Leopard and it’s very important to us to deliver the updates quickly.”
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium and Standard and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium and Standard will begin shipping in April 2007. Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection will begin shipping worldwide in the third quarter of 2007.
Creative Suite 3 Design Premium will cost $1799, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium will be $1599, Creative Suite 3 Production Premium is $1699 and the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection will cost $2499. There are also numerous upgrade paths available for Adobe customers.