Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign update

Adobe today announced major updates to its entire line of applications, including Photoshop CS for image editing, Illustrator CS illustration/design, InDesign CS for desktop publishing, GoLive CS for web authoring, and ImageReady CS for web graphics as well as a new standalone version of InCopy CS for collaborative text editing within InDesign. The products are due as standalone versions or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite, a new integrated suite bundling the application as well as Acrobat. The updated applications are expected to be available from Adobe later this year, and are available for pre-order now.

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Photoshop CS enhances Camera Raw, improves ImageReady CS




Adobe Photoshop CS updates the industry-standard desktop digital imaging application. It increases user control with a redesigned File Browser enhancing search, sorting and sharing capabilities and a new Histogram Palette with realtime monitoring of image changes in the image. Other features include Match Color, which reads color statistics to quickly achieve a consistent look across a series of photographs; Shadow/Highlight which radically improves the contrast of over- or underexposed digital images; and enhanced ImageReady CS integration. The update also integrates second generation Camera Raw functionality, enabling direct manipulation of raw data in an expanded set of professional-grade digital cameras.



The update also offers Layer Comps to quickly capture design variations within a single file, fully editable text on any path or inside any closed path, and comprehensive editing support for 16-bit color images. ImageReady CS offers an enhanced user interface with multiple object selection, manipulation and grouping, Smart Guides to facilitate object alignment, and Macromedia Flash SWF export, as well as the ability to "create leaner, more easily edited HTML, with new controls for nested tables, XHTML and more."




Photoshop CS for Mac OSX 10.2.4 is $650, while registered users of any previous version can upgrade for $170.




InDesign CS offers new creative tools



Adobe today updated its layout and design program, InDesign CS. It offers increased productivity, usability and overall faster performance. Its Story Editor provides integrated word-processing functionality, a new Separations Preview and Flattener Preview palettes, support for nested styles, built-in DTD support for XML validation, and performance improvements to zooming, navigating, importing Photoshop files, and outputting print and PDF files. It also offers improved workspace management through named workspaces and the new context-sensitive Control Palette; collapsible palettes; a new Stroke Style Editor to design custom lines; and running headers and footers within tables.




InDesign also offers tighter integration with other Adobe applications, including better import/export of PDF files, the ability to place and print Photoshop files containing duotones or spot colors, and a new Package for GoLive command helps efficiently repurpose InDesign print assets for use on Web sites. InDesign also offers the ability to open QuarkXPress 3.3-4.1 documents and PageMaker files. Upgrades are $170, while full versions are $700. It runs on Mac OS X 10.2.




Illustrator CS features 3D Effects, refined typography



Illustrator CS is a major upgrade to Adobe's vector graphics softwre for print, the Web, and other media. It includes new design tools, enhanced PDF support, new print capabilities and other performance improvements. The new version introduces innovative features, including support for 3D Effects and the new Scribble Effect; new unicode-based Type technology; a new OpenType palette; paragraph and character styles; automatic ligatures and smart quotes; and Adobe Every-line Composer, a unique composition technology shared with Adobe Photoshop CS which allows text to be edited across applications.



Adobe Illustrator CS provides a new printing interface, enhanced Acrobat 6.0 support, and an innovative Save for Microsoft Office feature, which allows users to quickly export professional graphics into Microsoft-authored documents. Illustrator CS delivers wholesale performance improvements, including G5-optimizations. Registered users can upgrade for $170, while the full version is $500. Competitive upgrades from CorelDraw or Macromedia FreeHand are $350.




InCopy CS streamlines, enhances editorial workflows



Adobe's InCopy CS is a new and improved version of the professional writing and editing program that integrates tightly with Adobe InDesign CS, offering new editorial workflow technology that allows writers, editors and designers to work simultaneously on the same InDesign CS document. Previously only available through systems integrators and third-party developers servicing large publishing enterprises, Adobe InCopy CS will now also be sold directly from the Adobe. Integration between InDesign and InCopy provides 100 percent accurate line-break information, while alternative document views -- galley view, story view, layout view -- allow editors to see how the copy and page layout interact. It also features text macros, keyboard shortcuts, dynamic spell checking, a Thesaurus Palette, and robust find/change options. It is $250.




GoLive CS speeds design with new authoring tools




Adobe has updated its integrated Web publishing tool, GoLive CS, with innovative functions such as Package for GoLive from InDesign, and GoLive Co-Author as well as advanced Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) visual authoring and extensive support for PDF. It features a completely redesigned CSS editor, code-completion with tags directly from a pop-up list, and 360Code, which provides a complete set of roundtripping tools to ensure proper code integrity and allow for fast code clean-up. GoLive CS also features QuickTime authoring enhancements.



GoLive CS takes advantage of Adobe PDF for common tasks, including late stage bookmark and link edits, previewing pages, and exporting page designs directly to PDF. The Package for GoLive feature in Adobe InDesign CS allows designers to quickly export the textual and image assets of sophisticated pre-press layouts into Adobe GoLive CS, and Smart Objects allow users to work with native Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS, and Acrobat files directly inside of GoLive CS, while the Adobe Color Engine (ACE) enhances and streamline color workflows. It is $400 with upgrades starting at $170. One seat of Adobe GoLive Co-Author is included with each version and additional copies are $90.

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