Adobe Unveils Creative Suite 4 Apps

by Jeff Gamet , 7:50 AM EDT, September 23rd, 2008

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Adobe introduced its long list of Creative Suite 4 applications on Tuesday. The applications include familiar names like Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Acrobat, and will be available in various bundles geared towards specific design needs, just like earlier versions of the Creative Suite.

The new versions of the Creative Suite applications sport redesigned user interfaces that offer more consistency across programs, tighter integration between applications, and enhanced in-application support for Flash across the product lineup.

Applications

Photoshop CS4 Adobe Photoshop CS4 offers improved non-destructive editing, content-aware image scaling that scales parts of images without distorting or changing the size of people, improved Lightroom compatibility, smart guides, GPU (graphics processor unit) and OpenGL support for enhanced graphics rendering and improved performance, and more.

Photoshop CS4 Extended gained new 3D features including additional editing tools and support for more 3D formats.

Photoshop CS4 is priced at US$599, and Photoshop CS4 extended will cost $899.

InDesign CS4 Adobe InDesign CS4 improved support for long document creation and interactive PDF authoring, added the ability to create Flash content from InDesign documents, and included "conditional text" that lets a designer change content based on its intended use or target audience. It also gained live pre-flighting tools, smart guides, and more.

InDesign CS4 will be priced at $699.

Illustrator CS4 Adobe Illustrator CS4 finally gained support for multiple art boards. It also added support for transparency in gradients, a "blob brush" that automatically merges overlapping paths, the ability to edit objects from the Appearance panel, and more.

Illustrator CS4 will cost $599.

Dreamweaver CS4 Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Added the ability to edit a Web site layout while view the changes in real time, including changes to CSS, Flash and JavaScript without requiring users to keep their layout open in a Web browser. The new version also added a site code navigator, a CSS style sheet viewer, the ability to convert Photoshop files into Smart Objects, and more.

Dreamweaver CS4 will be priced at $399.

Flash CS4 Adobe Flash CS4 sports a redesigned interface that offers a new time line-style layout, supports inverse kinematics, includes a 3D transformation feature that lets users convert 2D objects into animated 3D objects, improved tweening in animations, the ability to import XFL-formated files from other Creative Suite applications, and more.

Flash CS4 will cost $699.

Premiere Pro CS4 Adobe Premier Pro CS4, the company's pro video editing application, gained the ability to batch export content for multiple target formats including QuickTime, H.264, MPEG-2, FLV, iPod-ready formats, along with several others. It can also convert the speech in a video file into searchable text, added support for several new digital video cameras, and supports direct-to-disk recording.

Premiere Pro CS4 will be priced at $799.

Soundbooth CS4 Adobe Soundbooth CS4 finally gained multi-track support -- a long time request from many users. The new version also added the ability to search speech, preview the sound quality in a target MP3 file before compressing, automatically match the volume on multiple tracks, improved integration with Premiere Pro, and more.

Soundbooth 4 will cost $199.

Suites

Design Premium The Design Premium CS4 suite will include Adobe InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, Illustrator CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver CS4, Acrobat 9 Pro, and Adobe Fireworks CS4.

Web Premium The Web Premium CS4 suite will include Adobe Fireworks CS4,Dreamweaver CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Photoshop CS4 Extended, Illustrator CS4, Contribute CS4, Device Central CS4, and Acrobat 9 Professional.

Production Premium The Production Premium CS4 suite will include Adobe After Effects CS4 Professional, Premiere Pro CS4, Encore CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, Illustrator CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Soundbooth CS4, and OnLocation CS4. OnLocation is now also available in a Mac OS X-compatible version.

The Creative Suite 4 applications and bundles will ship in October. The Design Premium bundle will cost $1,799, the Web Premium and Production Premium bundles will be priced at $1,699 each, and the Master Collection will cost $2,499. Upgrades will cost $599 for Design Premium or Web Premium, $499 for Design Standard, $399 for Web Standard, $599 for Production Premium, and $899 for the Master Collection.

[This article has been updated with additional in formation about the Creative Suite 4 applications.]