Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 5.5  (5/2011)

    by Douglas Dixon

CS5.5 Summary Chart / Tools, suites, pricing, Requirements
Suites and Applications / Components
Individual Applications / What's New

       
            Adobe CS5.5 Suites  - Web - Design Standard / Premium - Production - Master Collection

Adobe released Creative Suite 5.5 in May 2011, a year after the release of the previous CS 5. This is a new direction for Adobe, which typically releases major new versions of its CS line every couple of years, followed by interim updates to the individual tools (www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite). 

With CS 5.5, Adobe is releasing a point upgrade of its CS Design, Web, and Production suites (or the full Master Collection with all the applications), with significant updates to some -- but not all -- of the key applications:

• Design - InDesign
• Web - Flash Pro, Flash Catalyst, Dreamweaver
• Production - After Effects, Premiere Pro, Device Central, Media Encoder

The other big change is the replacement of Soundbooth with the full Adobe Audition application for audio recording, editing, multitrack mixing, mastering, and sweetening with noise reduction and effects.

The Design and Web updates to CS 5.5 feature support for developing mobile and tablet applications that run on iPhone, iPad, Android devices and the BlackBerry Playbook, as well as new HTML5 support.

And while Photoshop was not updated to 5.5, the new Photoshop scripting engine and Software Development Kit (SDK) support building tablet applications that interact with Photoshop from Android, BlackBerry and iOS devices. Adobe has released demonstration iPad applications, including Adobe Color Lava, Adobe Eazel, and Adobe Nav for Photoshop.

For the Production suite, CS5 featured performance improvements from 64-bit support in Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and After Effects, plus the Mercury Playback Engine in Premiere Pro for GPU-accelerated real-time editing and playback.

Besides the addition of Audition, CS 5.5 extends this GPU acceleration in Premiere Pro, and enhances file-based workflow for RED and other tapeless cameras and project exchange support for Final Cut Pro and Avid Pro Tools. After Effects also adds powerful effects with Warp Stabilizer for shaky handheld footage, Camera Lens Blur for realistic depth of field mimicking physical lenses, and Light Falloff simulating natural illumination falloff in 3D scenes. Media Encoder also steps up to 64-bit, with background rendering and watch folders.

The price for the suites and individual applications remains the same as CS 5, with upgrade pricing for previous versions of the suites or applications. But with CS 5.5, Adobe also is introducing subscription access to the CS suites and individual applications. This should be particularly useful for a short-term project, or a peak in staffing, or to try out to the latest version of the software. You can install the applications and use them month to month, paying for the specific software that you need, when you need them.

A subscription for the entire Master Collection for $195 a month (or $129 with a one-year commitment), the Design or Web or Production suites for around $135 ($90) a month, or individual tools including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash Pro, Dreamweaver, After Effects, and Premiere Pro for around $35 - $50 ($50 - $75).

PR - 5/11 - Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Now Available

See Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium Advanced Editing Software Overview  (Videomaker Magazine, Sept. 2011)

See summaries of previous editions -

• Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 5
• Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 4
• Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 3

Adobe CS5.5 - Summary Chart

Adobe offers the CS5 applications as individual tools, or bundled in several suites. It also offers upgrade pricing to move up from older versions of the suites or from individual tools.

   
            Adobe CS5 Suites  - Design Standard / Premium - Web - Production - Master Collection

The pricing of the suites and the individual tools is unchanged from CS5, but CS5.5 adds the option of a monthly subscription plan. You can install the full software and stop and start using it as needed. This can be helpful for on-demand needs or additional staffing, and also provides access to the latest versions of the software.

See www.adobe.com/go/cssubscription

Subscriptions can be purchased month-to-month, or with a one-year commitment for a lower monthly fee. Subscription access is availalbe for the main individual tools, or for the entire suites:

The contents of the suite are the same as CS5, with only a few changes:

• Soundbooth replaced by Audition for deeper audio editing
• InCopy CS5.5 is available separately for $249 (professional writing and editing with InDesign)
• Flash Builder updated to 4.5 Premium

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System Requirements

Adobe CS5.5 is available for both Windows and Macintosh. General system requirements for the entire suite include:

Windows

• Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor (Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 or or AMD Phenom II recommended);
• Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 3; Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 2; or Windows 7
• 2GB of RAM (4GB or more recommended)
• 24.3GB of available hard-disk space for installation
• 1280x900 display (1280x1024 recommended) with qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card, 16-bit color, and 256MB of VRAM
• Some GPU-accelerated features in Adobe Photoshop require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0
• Some features in Adobe Bridge rely on a DirectX 9–capable graphics card with at least 64MB of VRAM

Mac OS

• Multicore Intel® processor with 64-bit support

• Mac OS X v10.5.8 or v10.6; Mac OS X v10.6 required for Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 Premium Edition and Flash Builder integration with Flash Catalyst and Flash Professional
• 2GB of RAM (4GB or more recommended)
• 26.3GB of available hard-disk space for installation
• 1280x900 display (1280x1024 recommended) with qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card, 16-bit color, and 256MB of VRAM
• Some GPU-accelerated features in Adobe Photoshop require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0

The Production Suite, in particular, is heavily optimized for 64-bit processing and GPU accelleration. And Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects are 64-bit only applications (and will not run on 32-bit systems). Additional system requirements for these applications include:

Windows

• Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Phenom II required for Adobe Premiere Pro; processor with 64-bit support required for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects
• 64-bit edition of Windows Vista or Windows 7 required for Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and the Subscription Edition of Master Collection
• Adobe-certified GPU card for GPU-accelerated performance in Adobe Premiere Pro
• 7200 RPM hard drive for editing compressed video formats; RAID 0 for uncompressed
• Adobe-certified card for capture and export to tape for SD/HD workflows
• OHCI-compatible IEEE 1394 port for DV and HDV capture, export to tape, and transmit to DV device
• Sound card compatible with ASIO protocol or Microsoft Windows Driver Model

Mac OS

• Mac OS X v10.6.3 required for GPU-accelerated performance in Adobe Premiere Pro
• Adobe-certified GPU card for GPU-accelerated performance in Adobe Premiere Pro
• 7200 RPM hard drive for editing compressed video formats; RAID 0 for uncompressed
• Core Audio–compatible sound card

See www.adobe.com/go/premiere_systemreqs for the latest list of supported cards

See www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/mastercollection/tech-specs.html for full system requirements

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Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 - Suites and Applications

CS5 includes full version upgrades of some 14 stand-alone applications that are available individually, 2 more applications bundled with Premiere Pro, 3 additional components (Bridge, Device Central, Media Encoder), and associated CS Live online services. It also is available bundled in five suites.

• Find Adobe CS5.5 Master Collection on Amazon.com

Design Suites: Adobe CS5.5 Design Premium, Design Standard

       

Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator
    plus Acrobat Pro
    (Premium adds Photoshop Extended, 
     plus Web tools - Flash Pro, Flash Catalyst, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks)

Toolkit for designers who need to express their wildest ideas with precision; work fluidly across media; and produce exceptional results in print, web, interactive, and mobile design. Craft eye-catching images and graphics, lay out stunning pages, build standards-based websites, create interactive content without writing code, and extend page layouts for viewing with eBook reading devices. 
www.adobe.com/go/creativesuitedesign

• Find Adobe CS5.5 Design Premium and Adobe CS5.5 Design Standard on Amazon.com

Web Suite - Adobe CS5.5 Web Premium

           

Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder,
    Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Contribute
    plus Acrobat Pro
    plus Design tools - Photoshop Extended and Illustrator

Comprehensive solution for producing standards-based websites and immersive digital experiences. Design and develop web content for delivery virtually anywhere with integrated Adobe Flash Platform tools.
www.adobe.com/go/creativesuiteweb

• Find Adobe CS5.5 Web Premium on Amazon.com

Production Suite - Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium

               

After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition
    plus Encore and OnLocation (bundled with Premiere)
    plus Design tools - Photoshop Extended and Illustrator
    plus Web tools - Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst

Craft video productions, motion graphics, visual effects, and interactive experiences with high-performance, industry-leading creative tools. Boost your productivity with tightly integrated components that deliver breakthrough performance and smooth production workflows, giving you the power to produce engaging media for virtually any screen..
www.adobe.com/go/creativesuiteproduction

• Find Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium on Amazon.com
  
• Find Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 on Amazon.com
• Find Adobe After Effects CS5.5 on Amazon.com
• Find Adobe Audition CS5.5 on Amazon.com

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Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 - Individual Applications / What's New

• Find Adobe CS5.5 Master Collection on Amazon.com

Design tools

• Adobe Photoshop CS5 - Image editing - digital imaging
  • Native 64-bit application on both Mac and Windows
  • Refine Edge - precise edge detection and masking
  • Content-Aware Fill - remove image element and replace missing pixels
  • Bristle Tips lifelike brush strokes
  • Puppet Warp precisely reposition or warp image elements
    • Straighten bent arm, manipulate landscape perspective
• Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended - Edit, manipulate, analyze images, including 3D
  • Repoussé - create 3D artwork from text layers; shape or mask; twist, rotate, extrude
  • New materials library including chrome, glass and cork
  • Shadow catcher for 3D appearance
  • Paint directly over motion content
• Adobe Illustrator CS5.5 - Illustration - Create and edit vector graphics - UPDATED
• Adobe InDesign CS5.5 - Page layout - Design page layouts for print and web - UPDATED
  • Folio Producer tools, work in conjunction with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
  • Design interactive, rich media publications and advertising for reading on tablet devices
    • Apple iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook, Android
  • Video, audio, panoramic views, 360-degree rotation, image pan and zoom, HTML5 content integration
  • Improve reading on e-book devices, including Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader and Apple iPad
    • Refined typography, images resize automatically to fit screen, video and audio with HTML5 video and audio tags
• Adobe Acrobat X Pro - PDF - Organize, manage, and combine content with PDF
• Find Adobe CS5.5 Design Premium and Adobe CS5.5 Design Standard on Amazon.com

Mobile Devices

• Works with new tablet applications for Photoshop (available separately)
• New scripting engine in Adobe Photoshop and an enhanced Photoshop Software Development Kit (SDK)
• Build tablet applications that interact with Photoshop from Android, BlackBerry and iOS devices
• Adobe iPad applications: Adobe Color Lava, Adobe Eazel, and Adobe Nav for Photoshop

Web tools

• Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5 - Web interactive authoring - Create immersive experiences with video - UPDATED
  • Build mobile applications that run on iPhone, iPad, Android devices and BlackBerry Playbook
    • See www.adobe.com/flashplatform/supported_devices/smartphones.html
  • Flex 4.5 open source framework for mobile devices
    • Reuse most code across Web, desktop, Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS, iOS
  • Content scaling on stage to adapt to different screen sizes
  • Shared assets feature for more streamlined publishing
  • More than 20 new code snippets for creating mobile and Adobe AIR applications
    • for accelerometer, multitouch gestures, save/load data
      
• Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5.5 - Web interactive design - Create interfaces, apps, prototypes, widgets - UPDATED
• Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 - Web code development environment
  • Develop Flex and ActionScript projects, round-trip workflows with Flash Catalyst CS5.5
• Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5 - Website design - Create websites and applications - UPDATED
  • Optimize websites for viewing on multiple devices, preview desktop, tablet and smartphone browsers side-by-side
  • New HTML5 support - jQuery mobile framework integration for browser-based content
  • PhoneGap integration for native and mobile application design and development
  • Updated Live View mode, CSS panel, Multiscreen Preview panel
  • Enhanced multiscreen preview panel, support latest media queries, WebKit engine updates, CSS3 attributes
• Adobe Fireworks CS5 - Create and optimize web graphics; prototype websites and applications
• Adobe Contribute CS5 - Web publishing - Edit and update site content for nonprogrammers
• Find Adobe CS5.5 Web Premium on Amazon.com

Production tools

• Adobe After Effects CS5.5 - Effects - Create motion graphics and visual effects for video - UPDATED
  • Warp Stabilizer steadies shaky footage, including handheld
  • Camera Lens Blur effect mimics properties of physical lenses for realistic depth of field blurs
  • Light Falloff effect simulates natural illumination falloff to mimic how light behaves in 3D scene
• Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 - Video editing - Capture and edit digital video editing - UPDATED
  • New trimming and editing tools for more precision and control
  • Merge Clips command for dual-system sound support
    • Sync video with high-quality audio recorded on separate devices, for DSLR or RED workflows
  • Audition integration - Send individual clips or sequences, including reference videos, for audio editing and restoration
  • File-based workflows enhanced for RED and other tapeless cameras
    • Improved RED Source Settings dialog in Premiere Pro and After Effects
    • Native support for up to 5k media from RED Epic cameras
  • Enhanced project exchange support for Final Cut Pro and OMF to Avid Pro Tools
  • Import Adobe Story script data for XML-based metadata
• Adobe Encore CS5 - DVD authoring - Produce video for DVD, Blu-ray, and web
• Adobe OnLocation CS5 - Shoot video with direct-to-disc recording and monitoring
• Adobe Audition CS5.5 - Audio editing - Create, edit, and enhance digital audio - NEW
  • For both Mac and Windows
  • Record, edit, mix, master, and sweeten audio, Multitrack mixing, noise-reduction and effects
• Find Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium on Amazon.com
• Find Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 on Amazon.com
• Find Adobe After Effects CS5.5 on Amazon.com
• Find Adobe Audition CS5.5 on Amazon.com

Additional components

• Adobe Bridge CS5 - Visually organize and browse creative assets
• Adobe Device Central CS5.5 - Preview and test mobile device content - UPDATED
  • HTML5 emulation and support for the latest mobile devices
• Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 - Eliminate intermediate rendering of video assets - UPDATED
  • 64-bit, background encoding to multiple screen formats
  • For Premiere Pro video sequences, After Effects compositions, Encore projects
  • New format support for AVC-Intra and DPX
  • Watch folders to encode clips to multiple destinations with drag and drop

Adobe CS Live online services

• Adobe BrowserLab - Test Web site content across different browsers and operating systems
• Adobe CS Review - Online design reviews directly from CS applications
• Acrobat.com - Services including Adobe ConnectNow Web conferencing
• Adobe Story - Collaborative scriptwriting, Script-to-screen workflow
• Omniture SiteCatalyst NetAverages - Web usage data, designing for Web and mobile
  • Capture, store and analyze information generated by Web sites and other sources

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