Customer Reviews

Adobe Creative Suites Premium 1.1 [Old Version]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Everything is in here. All of the design apps are on two installer CDs. Any designer -- whether web or print -- has at least a few of the applications in this suite. You only need to decide if the price is right, and if your current upgrades would make the purchase worthwhile.

Buying this suite is the equivalent of a corporate employee owning Microsoft Office. Adobe's name now equals design software. Knowing Adobe's product line is simply required knowledge. Print houses will accept and produce your files without problems, and multiplatform file transfer can be completed with minimum processing time.

For me, I was using a dated version of Illustrator, PageMaker 6.5, Photoshop Elements. The additional programs and new versions of what I had made the purchase a no-brainer. I also primarily use Dreamweaver, but learning GoLive will help me as I meet with clients. Outside of InDesign and GoLive, every application here is the industry standard, and those two programs are strongly coming into their own.

To explain the virtues of each individual application is not necessary. You know the benefits of Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, and GoLive. InDesign might be new to some of the veterans, but it is beyond a replacement for the inferior PageMaker, and is a force of its own.

With the quality increase of InDesign, designers are now able to choose something besides Quark for their page layout application. Including InDesign here made the purchase for me easy. I have no reason now to piecemeal together my software base.

Each application has all of the features that they have when independently purchased.

I fully recommend "Adobe Creative Suites Premium." Designers need these apps, and so your decision is only about price and value.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Adobe has taken a dual bold (and brilliant) step: they've bundled all their key applications into a single suite (very appropriately baptized the Creative Suite -CS) and they've opened up a very straightforward upgrade path that leverages on their established Photoshop user base: essentially, you can upgrade for a very affordable price to the entire suite, if you have ANY full version of Adobe (no matter how old!)

As for improvements, the best component to be included in this suite is called Version Cue, and is nothing short of a a basic version of an asset management/check-in/check-out component which allows multiple users of the same assets to not step on each other's toes by blocking write access to an asset currently being used by another user. Something that's been around for ages in the software arena, but to which the design world is becoming used to lately.

In terms of specific apps, Photoshop CS (forget the numbers from this point on, think "CS") comes back with an improved File Browser, with very nice features such as the ability for users to add keywords to the files, PhotoMerge (which will allow you to seamlessly put together two or more pictures that were shot "side by side" as in a landscape picture of a city, for instance), and a number of great features that will make the application friendlier to photographers. Among the photographers' goodies comes embedded support for the Camera Raw file format (previously only available through a paid plug-in) and MatchColor to allow you to apply the color of one image to another. Those that scan multiple prints at once are up for a great surprise: the Cop and Straighten feature which does just that... as unbelievable as it sounds, it crops all the scanned pictures and rotate them so as to make them perfectly straight, eliminating the guesswork and the rework from this tedious process.

Illustrator CS for the most part underwent an important "behind the scenes" overhaul, making it a faster app than before. But also, there's a new and highly appreciated 3D Effects feature that borrowed its strengths from Adobe Dimension, allowing you (among other things) to extrude and bevel an object to project otherwise flat or one-dimensional objects in 3 dimensions: Illustrators will just LOVE this!

InDesign CS is perhaps the application that benefited most from the upgrade, bringing a load of useful and highly expected features. I'd like to stress ONE feature, though, that blew me away... two words: NESTED STYLES. If you have suffered through the painful process of laying out a document where more than two styles are required in a particular content block, you will shed tears of joy when you see this at work! You are bound to also find very handy the enhanced table features such as automated running headers and footers for tables that run across multiple linked text frames. Printers (people in the printing industry) are also going to be happy (or so Adobe wants) with the features that have been included in InDesign CS for them.

As for GoLive CS, I've not been much of a user of this application, I admit, so I won't comment on it as much, but what I've read about it is that the upgrade for it was mostly focused on enhancing the interface.

Finally, bundled with the Creative Suite comes the previously released Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional. This product deserves a lengthy and detailed review, one which I will write for it shortly.

All in all, I am VERY happy with the new Creative Suite and I highly encourage anyone in the design industry to take the plunge into it. It will be very much worth your time and it will pay off for itself in no time with the increased productivity!

Before purchasing this package, I read several of the reviews and was scared silly by the warnings. Fortunately, I didn't have any problems loading it and haven't experienced problems using any of the programs. I should add that I am on a Windows XP platform.

The Creative Suite has incorporated several changes in all of the programs, but they remain familiar enough to get through them if you've used the previous versions. The video tour is great even if all of the possibilities seem overwhelming at first. Photoshop is still the industry standard for image manipulation and the new version has some goodies that makes it indispensable. Coupled with new features for Illustrator and InDesign, the Creative Suite package is a great tool for those of us who work as graphic designers or photographers.

Finally, InDesign is very easy to use and offers more features than Quark. Although I love Quark, I wonder if this will be its doom? I hope not, but change is inevitable.

I have used Photoshop for years, but this suite version is buggy. Adobe's own user forums show hundreds of users unable to install the product (at least in Windows). The solutions offered are difficult and time-consuming. Because of the expense, many people will be very disappointed--you can but a computer for this price.

Windows XP users beware! You'll need lots of bug killer with this supposed "upgrade" - especially the GoLive module.

Speaking as a long time user of Adobe software (Photoshop since version 3.0) this is the most bloated and unstable iteration ever. The added goodies in Photoshop CS would be great, if my (quite adequate) Dell Workstation didn't freeze up every other minute.

Most annoying of all is a screen redraw problem most visible in GoLive CS; a problem that makes GoLive essentially unusable. If you plan to use GoLive - most especially if you have an NVidia graphics card - visit Adobe.com and look through the GoLive User Forum BEFORE you buy the CS version. LOTS of good reading there.

Adobe has (reluctantly) admitted the screen redraw problem to be a "bug" that they are "working" on... but jeez! Wouldn't that bug have been far better stomped on BEFORE Adobe CS was released onto loyal, trusting Adobe users??

To sum it up - BUYER BEWARE! Check out the Adobe Forums before you shell out your hard earned for Adobe CS, because that's where you'll get the real truth about real-world use. Download the trial version of CS if you can - maybe it will run for you... but if not, no money lost.

For now, I'm thinking it's back to my previous versions so I can at least get some work done. In fact, it's so bad - I'm beginning to consider getting a MAC! Aaaargh!!!!

Maybe I’m just lucky, but I haven’t had any problems with this new design collection from Adobe, which represents good value and tight integration for the packages, with a heavy emphasis on the use of .pdf for reliable output compatibility for printing and viewing.

Performance issues may arise for those using computers at the budget end of the spectrum from the likes of Dell, etc. Not because they are poor machines, but because this very featured collection requires reasonably serious hardware to work smoothly in spite of its comparatively modest cost.

My experience suggests that a P4 in excess of 2.4 GHz, loaded with a Gig of good quality RAM, running Windows XP Pro SP2 with NTFS partitions, is likely to prove satisfactory.

Some commentators have considered changing to an Apple computer, but this possibility is unnecessary if a well specified PC is used in the first place.

Adobe has done a fantastic job with this upgrade. Programs are quick and responsive. They've thrown in a lot of extras. Compared to the price of Photoshop, the difinitive graphics program, Adobe throws in a lot of extras for not much more money.

This version of GoLive is great. Its CSS support beats the pants of Dreamweaver. The SmartObjects are great too. The new stuff in Photoshop is great, it seems far more mature a product than the last revision. And ImageReady has tons of much-needed updates. Like smart guides.

Adobe did a great job with this version.

I have had the new Adobe Suite for a few weeks now and I am lovin it. I have been onboard since version 4.0 and I must say that the CS upgrade of Photoshop is the most signifigant ever. I use the RAW plug in with my digital Photos now, more then anything else. RAW and 16 bit editing have changed my workflow forever. The LEns Blur filter, the Photo filters, and the awesome filter gallery are extremly useful too. I do not use Illustrator much, I think that I will use it even less now that Photoshop can type on a path, but I did play with the new 3D tool, it is pretty cool and I can't wait to implement it into my designs. I have no opinion of InDesign, I haven't had the need to use it yet. What I have read about it is that the CS version is the final nail in the coffin for Quark. Go Live is great, I appreciate the Smart Objects, and Adobe has finally cleaned up the code that Go Live writes. At first Iwas peeved that they took out Dynamic editing, but I am okay with it now. I use it side by side with my old copy of Dreamweaver so I can get the best of both worlds. Go Live is more designer friendly.
Version Cue is another can't live without addition. All of the sudden, I am organized. Well I could go on forever about why I love the new suite, Adobe did a great job with this one. If you are a designer or student buy this suite, chances are you are already planning too.

I purchased CS2 several days ago and still have been unable to install it. My hardware (RAM, harddisk space, CPU speed, operating system) all exceed specifications and yet, CS2 won't install past the initial stages. I followed Adobe's troubleshooting guides, including installation from the desktop and Windows Simplified Mode, but absolutely no success. It's unclear where the fault lies (is it Microsoft Windows XP or Adobe CS2?), but I've never had installation problems with software before and it's hard to believe it would occur with such an expensive package from such a major company. Do check the Forums and reviews prior to purchasing this particular package to ensure you're comfortable with the risk. I hope I can get my money back.

The Adobe Creative Suite brings many tried, tested and true programs to a new level of functionality and integration. The popular programs, Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, Acrobat and InDesign have been redesigned to make users more efficient and streamline the work. The latest addition to the Adobe family, Version Cue, also makes an appearance. Version Cue is a great server program that allows multiple users to edit and update files simultaneously. (full review @ bytesector.com)