Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 5  (4/2010)

    by Douglas Dixon

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

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

Adobe Creative Suite 5 was announced in April 2010 for Windows and Macintosh. This is another major update to the Adobe collection of publication, Web, and production tools, spanning the creative workflow across print, web, video, interactive and mobile (www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite). 

This release is another impressive piece of software engineering and project management by Adobe -- CS5 includes upgrades to some 14 core applications plus additional components, following a year and a half after the release of CS4. It's available bundled in 5 suites (similar to CS4), including the full Master Collection with all the applications.

CS5 is scheduled to ship within 30 days.

PR - 10/08 - Adobe Unveils Creative Suite 5 Product Family

See previous article - Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 4

Adobe CS5 - 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 core tools are the same as CS4, with additional Flash tools:

• Web Standard suite dropped from CS5
• Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4 added to CS5
• CS LIve online service added to CS5
• Acrobat 9 Pro same version as CS4
• Soundbooth dropped from Web Premium
• Version Cue dropped from CS5

The pricing of the individual tools is unchanged from CS4, while the suites have been adjusted slightly:

• Design Standard lowered -$100
• Master Collection, Design and Web Premium increased +$100

System Requirements

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

• Macintosh: Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support (Mac)
• Windows: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Phenom II recommended);
• Mac OS X v10.5.7 or v10.6.3;
• Microsoft Windows XP with SP 3; Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with SP 1 (SP 2 recommended); or Windows 7
• 2GB of RAM (4GB or more recommended)
• 1024x768 display (1280x800 recommended) with qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card, 16-bit color, and 256 MB of VRAM
• Some GPU-accelerated features in Photoshop require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0
• See www.adobe.com/go/mastercollection_systemreqs for system requirements and hardware compatibility

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:

• 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
• Mac OS X v10.6.3 required for GPU-accelerated performance in Premiere Pro
• 64-bit edition of Windows Vista or Windows 7 required for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects
• Adobe-certified GPU card for GPU-accelerated performance in Premiere Pro; visit
• 7200 RPM hard drive for editing compressed video formats; RAID 0 for uncompressed
• Core Audio-compatible sound card for production tools
• See www.adobe.com/go/premiere_systemreqs for supported hardware

[ Top ]

Adobe Creative Suite 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, and 4 additional components. It also is available bundled in five suites.

The additional components are: Bridge, Device Central, Dynamic Link, and CS LIve.
Find Adobe CS5 Master Collection on Amazon.com

Design Suites: Adobe CS5 Design Premium, Design Standard

       

Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator
    plus Acrobat 9 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 Design Premium and Adobe CS5 Design Standard on Amazon.com

Web Suite - Adobe CS5 Web Premium

           

Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder 4 Standard,
    Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Contribute
    plus Acrobat 9 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 Web Premium on Amazon.com

Production Suite - Adobe CS5 Production Premium

               

After Effects, Premiere Pro, Soundbooth
    plus Encore and OnLocation (bundled with Premiere)
    plus Dynamic Link
    plus Design tools - Photoshop Extended and Illustrator
    plus Web tools - Flash Professional, Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder 4 Standard

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 Production Premium on Amazon.com

[ Top ]

Adobe Creative Suite 5 - Individual Applications / What's New

• Find Adobe CS5 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 - Illustration - Create and edit vector graphics
  • Dynamically create and edit strokes with variable widths
  • Bristle Brush - set bristle characteristics, life-like blending
  • Perspective drawing, perspective grids; Organize multiple artboards
  • Automatic masking and layer control for drawing behind and inside objects
• Adobe InDesign CS5 - Page layout - Design page layouts for print and web
  • On-object controls, enhanced EPUB electronic reader device support
• Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro - PDF - Organize, manage, and combine content with PDF
• Find Adobe CS5 Design Premium and Adobe CS5 Design Standard on Amazon.com

Web tools

• Adobe Flash Professional CS5 - Web interactive authoring - Create immersive experiences with video
  • Free-form design, using timelines and frames
    
• Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 - Web interactive design - Create interfaces, apps, prototypes, widgets
  • Structured design, using pages and states
• Adobe Flash Builder 4 - Web code development environment
  • Integrated development environment (IDE) for Flex, Actionscript, MXML

• Flash Professional
  • Text Layout Framework prof-level typography, multilingual
  • Pre-built Code Snippets Panel, timeline navigation, actions, animation, audio, video
  • Create, test and deliver Web content across a wide range of mobile platforms and devices
    • Packager for iPhone tool (subject to Apple requirements and approval)
    • Future device support planned for Android, BlackBerry and Palm webOS
  • Deploy in browser with Flash Player 10.1, standalone application with AIR 2 (upcoming)
  • Optimized performance on mobile screens, leverage native device capabilities
• Flash Professional and Dreamweaver measurement and optimization
  • Omniture SiteCatalyst and Test&Target

• Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 - Website design - Create websites and applications
  • Support PHP-based content management systems, Drupal, Joomla!,WordPress
    • view dynamic Web content within the product
  • Dynamic Related Files, access to all page’s related files
  • Expanded Live View feature for code checks and CMS design
  • Extension for Adobe Business Catalyst service for online businesses
• 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 Web Premium on Amazon.com

Production tools

• Adobe After Effects CS5 - Effects - Create motion graphics and visual effects for video
  • Premiere Pro and After Effects - native 64-bit on both Mac and Windows
  • Roto Brush - isolate moving foreground elements like the Photoshop Quick Select
• Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 - Video editing - Capture and edit digital video editing
  • NVIDIA GPU-accelerated Adobe Mercury Playback Engine
    • real-time HD editing, playback without rendering
  • Expanded native support for tapeless media, DSLR cameras
  • New support for XDCAM HD 50, AVCCAM, DPX, AVC-Intra, enhanced RED support
• 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
  • New logging options for tapeless cameras
• Adobe Soundbooth CS5 - Audio editing - Create, edit, and enhance digital audio
• Find Adobe CS5 Production Premium on Amazon.com

Additional components

• Adobe Bridge CS5 - Visually organize and browse creative assets
• Adobe Device Central CS5 - Preview and test mobile device content
• Adobe Dynamic Link - Eliminate intermediate rendering of video assets

Adobe CS Live online services

• Adobe Story - Collaborative scriptwriting, Script-to-screen workflow
• CS Review - Online design reviews directly from CS5 applications
• Adobe BrowserLab - Test Web site content across different browsers and operating systems
• Acrobat.com - Services including dobe ConnectNow Web conferencing
• Omniture SiteCatalyst NetAverages - Web usage data, designing for Web and mobile
  • Capture, store and analyze information generated by Web sites and other sources

[ Top ]