Chicago Graphic Design Blog: Adobe updates Creative Suite...again.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Adobe updates Creative Suite...again.

Chicago Graphic Design Company

Chicago Graphic Design Company

Just when we get the hang of a product, does its creator decide to upgrade it. Apple does it. Microsoft does it. Now Adobe is jumping on the bandwagon of updating their products 6 months after initial releases. Adobe announced yesterday that is is releasing version 5.5 of the Adobe Creative Suite of design products that includes Photoshop, InDesign and Dreamweaver. The emphasis was on adding tools that aid designers in creating mobile content for tablets such as the iPad. This announcement is also coming RIGHT on the heels of Quark's announcement that they've updated to version 9.0 (who uses Quark anymore?) to support iPad and ePUB formats for the likes of Kindle and NOOK.

What does it include?: Version 5.5 of the Web Premium Suite includes new HTML5 and Flash tools that let designers create multimedia projects for Android, Blackberry and Apple products. It also includes ways to embed video, audio, 360 Degree rotation, slideshows and more to InDesign layouts and the ability to export them for tablet viewing.

With this release, Adobe is announcing a new timeline for product development: They're now going to be rolling out major software upgrades every 2 years with updates coming at about the year mark and announced a new subscription plan that lets users pay monthly for the programs they use. Don't need Dreamweaver? Pay monthly for Photoshop ONLY. Great deal yes? I think so. Graphic Design Students everywhere are saying thank you. Users will also have access to all the latest versions of software and can purchase or short-term 'lease' software for temporary employees, freelancing graphic designers or interns.