Adobe Wants More of Your Money
Like death and taxes, regular updates to Adobe's indispensible software are inevitable. Though I'm loath to drop $1200 US at their beck and call, I think this CS2 upgrade might be worth it.
To Each Task
A suite is only as good as its constituent applications. Here's my pick of each application's most enticing features:
Photoshop CS2:
- Multiple layer control, a la Illustrator
- Multi-image digital camera raw file processing, a mouthful? yes. A timesaver? Yes!
Illustrator CS2:
- Live Trace, I've wanted a return of Streamline-like capability for some time now
- Custom workspaces, duh. The oft-obstinate Illustrator team has finally brought this app into the 21st Century
InDesign CS2:
- Object styles, one-touch object styling like an extremely sophisticated version of Pages' style drawer
- Flexible XML support, database-driven magazines? Some smart editors better be right on this one
GoLive CS2:
- CSS Object Blocks, I've avoided WYSIWYG CSS apps for a while now (actually, I've just avoided WYSIWYG); if it's in the suite I may just give it a whirl
- OMA, W3C, and 3GPP standards, CSS, XHTML, SVG Tiny, SMIL, MPEG-4... good though? I wonder
- Automated favicon creation, this isn't a deal-clincher but I wouldn't mind. On the other hand you could make a PS/IR action
A Sweet Deal?
Two additional features, Version Cue 2 (file versioning and naming tool) and the new Adobe Bridge (a suite-wide evolution of Photoshop CS's File Browser) fill out the package, promising to make it a suite in more than name alone.
Another duh addition: Suite-wide colour setting synchronization (3rd item)! It's about time!
Apple-ified
What strikes me most about these file management features is the overt influence of Apple's iLife suite. Some of the functionality is so similar between Bridge and iPhoto you might call it a blatant ripoff, not that I'm complaining; anything that improves workflow in such a simple manner is welcome in my part of the hard drive.
Who knows though? We digital artists spend so much time cajoling and adjusting ourselves to the idiosyncrasies of applications, these workflow improvements might never get used.
To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade
Most upgrades in this venerable software lineup have either been incremental or superfluous. Rarely has an Adobe application changed so radically from iteration to iteration to warrant the term “revolutionary”. From what I've seen of this update at a surface glance, it leans more towards incremental.
Having just graduated from BCIT, we're in need of full versions of Photoshop and Illustrator at least. The standard CS2 Suite is the same price as those two apps combined so we'll likely take the plunge.
For your own usage, weigh your options before buying CS2. There aren't any drastic improvements to be had, just logical ones. Makes you wonder why they didn't roll out some of these features earlier. Oh, right. They need to sell upgrades.