Adobe CS3 Release Party

Mar 30, 2007

by Ben Nadel

On Tuesday, March 27, 2007, I traveled down to Skylight in New York's SOHO district to attend Adobe's Creative Suite 3 (CS3) product release. Held at a swanky gallery space with music playing, choreographed light displays, projected graphics, flat screen TVs, and an abundance of computers all proudly displaying the Adobe logo, the CS3 release event proved that Adobe are as always masters of presentation. But, presentation alone will only get my attention; does Adobe's new Creative Suite have what it takes to get me, as a web developer, kneeling down and begging for more?

Before I answer that, let me just say, "Holy Freakin' Wow!" Adobe makes some stunning applications. For the last few decades, they have dominated the publishing world, and the reasons for that are fairly obvious to anyone who has used Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker, or any of the many Creative Suite products. CS3 has taken that solid foundation and raised it to the next level; their goal with this new suite is to revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information.

This goal has been accomplished.

All of the CS3 point products are integrated more seamlessly and more effectively then perhaps any software package in existence. Grouping all the individual applications together is a separate application known as The Bridge. This Bridge, which incidentally loads graphical previews faster than any piece of software I have seen, creates a launch pad and common environment for Creative Suite files across the board. From this Bridge, you can drag and drop seemingly any type of media into any suite product. Adobe has raised the bar in terms of inter-product compatibility. From what I could understand, each of the CS3 products could not only import and export file types of just about any other CS3 product, in some cases, external files could actually be edited during the import process. When one of the presenters imported a PSD file into Fireworks and all Photoshop layers were kept intact, I became giddy with excitement.

So, what does this mean to the average computer user? While each product does comes with its own learning curve, it seems CS3 will do for media development what Google did for internet searching and YouTube did for video sharing. It's going to make it accessible to everyone; imagination, not skill, will be the most limiting factor. Whether it's generating interactive Flash movies, DVDs, or even books, Creative Suite 3 is going to be the answer.

But, what does this mean to a professional web developer like myself? To be honest, I am not exactly sure yet. Adobe is offering three flavors of CS3, targeted to the Web, Design and Production communities, as well as a complete master package containing all the products. The Web and Design packages come in both a Standard and a Premium version, with additional or extended software in the premium package. For an idea of what comes in each package, see our grid below.

	Design Standard	Design Premium	Web Standard	Web Premium	Production Premium	Master Package
InDesign CS3	X	X				X
Photoshop CS3 Extended		X		X		X
Photoshop CS3	X				X
Illustrator CS3	X	X		X	X	X
Acrobat 8 Professional	X	X		X		X
Flash CS3 Professional		X	X	X	X	X
Dreamweaver CS3		X	X	X		X
Fireworks CS3			X	X		X
Contribute CS3			X	X		X
After Effects CS3 Professional					X	X
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3					X	X
Soundbooth CS3					X	X
Encore CS3					X	X
Adobe Bridge CS3	X	X	X	X	X	X
Version Cue CS3	X	X	X	X		X
Adobe Device Central CS3	X	X	X	X	X	X
Adobe Stock Photos	X	X	X	X		X
Acrobat Connect	X	X	X	X	X	X
Dynamic Link					X	X
Adobe OnLocation CS3					X	X
Ultra CS3					X	X

Note: Those who were concerned with the future of Fireworks as a product need be no longer. Fireworks is part of the Master Collection, as well as both the Web Standard and Web Premium packages. My one concern was that the presenter kept referring to Fireworks as a tool for "prototyping". As someone who does 100% of his graphics using Fireworks, I think this attitude reflects a lack of understanding of how powerful Fireworks can be. But, seeing as Adobe developed Photoshop and Illustrator, I think that their view of Fireworks has more to do with trying to find a place in the CS3 product line for very similar applications and does not actually reflect the product's functionality.

To be honest, I was not shocked at what the Web packages contain. Not so long ago, Adobe acquired Macromedia. Macromedia made the revolutionary products we use every day (ColdFusion, Fireworks, Flash, Homesite, Dreamweaver), so it does not surprise me that most of the products that are offered in the Web Developer CS3 packages are merely newer versions of what I already use.

That is not to say that I am not excited. While the web developer applications are not revolutionary in and of themselves, they still have the mind-blowing product compatibility that is universal to the entire CS3 product line. No longer will I have to worry about what my designers are using. If they send me Photoshop files, I can import them into Fireworks. If they send me Illustrator files, I can import them into Fireworks. It's this seamless integration of the CS3 products that resonates with me when it comes to revolutionizing how the world engages with ideas and information.

Web developer or not, by the end of the two hour presentation, I wanted to race out and master the entire CS3 product line. Seeing how easy it was to create media across all verticals and horizontals planted the seeds of inspiration. CS3 not only made me excited about expressing myself, it made me feel as though I finally had the tools. Adobe's Creative Suite 3 simply feels empowering.

Ben Nadel has worked with ColdFusion for eight years and is a super ColdFusion enthusiast. He blogs regularly about all aspects of web development on his personal site, http://www.bennadel.com, and does his best to give back to the ColdFusion community through online code demos and his "Ask Ben" blog posts. He is also a Certified Advanced ColdFusion MX7 developer and is one of the lead programmers at Nylon Technology.

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