In releasing the latest incarnation of its flagship graphics software, Adobe Creative Suite, has redefined its approach not just once, but twice.

Previously Adobe marketed different bundles aimed a specific creative segments -- a bundle for publishing, for instance, and another for the Internet. Now, there is just one suite -- reflecting the fact that those segments increasingly have merged, and the designers who were creating a brochure are likely to be doing a web site as well.

Secondly, Adobe has taken its first tentative steps towards turning its products into an integrated suite. Creative Suite now is much like Microsoft Office -- you install it as one package and there are common components that link the elements together.

The $930 Adobe Creative Suite Standard Edition includes Photoshop CS (graphics editing), ImageReady CS (a Photoshop component primarily for web graphics), Illustrator CS (graphics design), and InDesign CS (publishing).

Creative Suite Premium, priced at $1150, contains all of the above plus GoLive CS (web site design) and Acrobat 6.0 Professional. Personally, this version makes more sense to me as Acrobat alone would be worth the added price.

Both suites incorporate the new Version Cue project management software, essentially a database to let workgroups manage the flow of their files. In networked offices, it tracks the files over the network. Version Cue deals with the long-standing problem in collaborative creative projects of, for example, Mr. Web Designer not being sure which of Ms. Logo Designer's Illustrator files is the one to use on the pages.

Adobe maintains a generally uniform interface across its applications, along with equivalent design principles -- the effect of which is that as you learn to use one component your learning curve for the others will be less steep. For example, key tools and functions are clustered in floating toolbars that Adobe calls "palettes." The menu structure is similar across the suite.

Equally important, all the applications maintain the concept of "layers" -- your graphics can be built in pieces that can be arranged and rearranged to suit your needs. You do not have to use one method to assemble something in Photoshop, for example, and another for InDesign.

Taking the same tack that it did with Acrobat 6, Adobe has made improved user friendliness a key aspect of the Creative Suite. A shortcut "Welcome" screen -- similar to those on its consumer oriented Photoshop Elements and Album software -- now comes up when you launch the programs. Photoshop, in fact, borrows from the consumer products by making a File Browser one of its new tools -- although unlike the consumer versions, this one has professional tagging and metadata (encoded content information) capabilities. (If you have been a Photoshop Elements user, in fact, the step up to Photoshop CS is much less difficult than it used to be.)

Illustrator is an application that usually befuddles me. Alas, because this latest version is more accessible than ever before, I can't blame my creative problems on the software any more and I am forced to admit that the actual problem is my lack of artistic talent. Illustrator gives creative pros the tools they need to execute their conceptions electronically.

A sidelight of Creative Suite is that Adobe finally has retired its old publishing workhorse, PageMaker. InDesign, long Adobe's more sophisticated publishing design product is now its only one. It's emphasis is on being able to blend text with complex graphics to form stylish pages.

GoLive takes the same approach for web pages. As with InDesign, GoLive operates on the principle that text-based designs can be readily handled by less complicated programs -- test editors, even. But when you roll out sophisticated graphics, your web site editor needs to have more substantial capabilities.

Or put a different way, if you can produce a graphic in Illustrator or Photoshop, InDesign and GoLive can turn them into finished pages.

(c) 2004 Al Gordon.

In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a principal in the Boston-area strategic consulting firm, Mary Fifield Associates, www.maryfifieldassociates.com

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You can reach Al Gordon at:

al@tnpcnewsletter.com

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