Adobe Announces New Versions Of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, & GoLive

by , 4:15 PM EDT, September 29th, 2003

Adobe has announced a slew of new products today, including new versions of Photoshop, GoLive, Illustrator, InDesign, InCopy, and a new creative suite with these products. The new products are getting a designation of CS, for Creative Suite, replacing the version numbers that have been the hallmark of Adobe products from its inception. The new versions offer a variety of new and enhanced features. Adobe is also emphasizing interoperability between its applications, including collaborative capabilities in GoLive CS. From Adobe's various press releases:

Photoshop CS
Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced Adobe Photoshop CS, a dramatic full-version upgrade to the professional standard in desktop digital imaging. Available as a key component of the Adobe Creative Suite or as a standalone software application, Photoshop CS is loaded with indispensable new features that help creative professionals craft the highest quality images more quickly and efficiently than ever.

Photoshop CS increases user control, with a redesigned File Browser enhancing search, sorting and sharing capabilities and a new Histogram Palette monitoring changes in the image as they are made. Additional advances 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. Photoshop CS also integrates second generation Camera Raw functionality, enabling direct manipulation of raw data in an expanded set of professional-grade digital cameras.

GoLive CS
Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced Adobe GoLive CS, a major release of the powerful, integrated Web publishing tool for creative professionals involved in Web design. Available as a key component of the Adobe Creative Suite or as a stand-alone software application, GoLive CS speeds web site design and production with innovative capabilities 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 Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

Illustrator CS
Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced Adobe Illustrator CS, a major upgrade to the industry standard for vector graphics for print, the Web, and other media. Available as a key component of the Adobe Creative Suite or as a stand-alone software application, Adobe Illustrator CS includes powerful new design tools, enhanced Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) support, new print capabilities and wholesale performance improvements that speed up everyday tasks and take advantage of advances in hardware and operating systems.

InDesign CS
Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced a landmark release of its award-winning layout and design program, Adobe InDesign CS. Available as a key component of the Adobe Creative Suite or as a stand-alone software application, InDesign CS delivers powerful production capabilities, creative freedom and cross-media support -- enabling customers to design, lay out and print pages, as well as export content to the Web, more rapidly and reliably. Distancing itself from the competition, InDesign CS takes layout and design to a new level for creative professionals with a wealth of innovative new features.

InCopy CS
Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced Adobe InCopy CS, a new and improved version of the professional writing and editing program that integrates tightly with Adobe InDesign CS and the all-new Adobe Creative Suite. InCopy CS puts copyfitting control back in the hands of editors. With a new editorial workflow technology that allows writers, editors and designers to work simultaneously on the same InDesign CS document, InCopy CS streamlines editorial revision and review cycles, reducing the amount of time it takes to get a publication to press.

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 store, bringing InCopy in reach of small editorial teams for the first time

Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today unveiled the Adobe Creative Suite, a new software product that combines new full-version upgrades of Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe InDesign CS, and Adobe GoLive CS, incorporates Acrobat 6.0 Professional, and introduces the innovative Version Cue file version manager. The all-new Adobe Creative Suite is a complete design environment that gives today's creative professionals everything they need to create and publish content to print and the Web faster, more easily, and more efficiently than ever.

You can find more information on all of these products at the following links:

• Photoshop CS - (US$649, Upgrade US$169)
• GoLive CS - (US$399, Upgrade US$169)
• Illustrator CS - (US$499, Upgrade US$169)
• InDesign CS - (US$699, Upgrade US$169)
• Adobe Creative Suite - (Premium Edition: US$1229, Standard Edition: US$999)

All of these products are expected to be available during the next quarter.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This seems like a very solid rounds of upgrades from Adobe, and we find it very interesting that the company is putting them all out at one time. It will be interesting to see if that helps spark a full round of upgrades for not only Adobe, but Apple, as well. Remember that there are many, many Mac professionals still using Classic Mac OS and older Macs. For the last two years, many of those professionals have been awaiting QuarkXpress for Mac OS X (which is here), but many are also using various older versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, and even GoLive (note that InDesign has been available for Mac OS X since version 1.0). We think this round of upgrades from Adobe could get some of those pros upgrading their Macs, too.

Adobe