A `creative' tool for print and web
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The latest edition of Adobe's Creative Suite, released in India last week, is a Web-driven hot-house of graphic and imaging tools.
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FEW TOOLS straddle the entire spectrum of imaging applications, embracing the professional needs for both print-based and web-enabled production, such as Adobe's slate of products.
So, last year when they created a single suite incorporating their frontline products like Photoshop and Illustrator with a few new additions, it marked an important step forward in the software space for the digital manipulation of images.
The release last week, of the second edition — Adobe Creative Suite 2— is marked by even tighter integration of the core offerings, together with some new bells and whistle, which signal Adobe's intent of smoothly transitioning from the printed page to the web page, to the mobile screen in the document and graphics business.
The Hindu was enabled to evaluate the full-fledged `Premium' edition of the Creative Suite2, which includes the latest CS2 versions of Photoshop for image editing, Illustrator for graphics, InDesign for page layout and GoLive for Web development.
Canny integration
All four packages are also available separately, but Adobe has so cannily integrated them for smooth interoperability and created such price points, that most professionals will prefer to go for the full creative package, in much the same way that office suites have taken the place of stand-alone word processors, spread sheets or databases.
The Premium edition also includes the latest version (7.0) of Adobe Acrobat as well as a new Stock photo service and a new visual file browser called Adobe Bridge. The cheaper (standard) edition does not include Acrobat and GoLive.
Adobe first introduced Version Cue last year, a tool, which helps professionals manage multiple versions of the same document in such a way that any change made in one, is reflected in all editions at one go.
A try out of the new product shows that for users of the industry standard Photoshop, the most dramatic new improvement is a tool called Vanishing Point — a feature that makes perspective corrections when one image is fitted into another.
Hassle no more
Old time users of Photoshop will understand what a hassle it was when an additional feature like lettering was added to a drawing or photograph with depth. One had to use the `transform' tool and then twist, skew or sheer the lettering till it meshed with the basic layer.
With the new Vanishing Point tool, any additions to an existing drawing or photo can be placed with a couple of clicks and the visual perspective is adjusted accordingly. One of the useful tools that Adobe introduced last year in its `dummies' version Photoshop Elements — the ability to correct photo blemishes like `red eye' or `blurring' — has now been `promoted' and forms part of Photoshop CS2.
Illustrator, another veteran of Adobe's graphics stable, has been upgraded all-round; but for this reviewer, the new delight was a feature called `LiveTrace', which converts back-of-the-envelope doodles and sketches, into an editable illustration. This can be a great help when one has to convert a customer's vague instructions into a usable illustration. LiveTrace has completely blurred the hitherto sharp dividing line between pixels and vectors, between bitmap and line art.
InDesign, CS2's page layout software is as good as it goes and has expanded to include support for the XML format; but I think Adobe has made a tactical mistake by not supporting the file formats of QuarkXpress 5 and 6, the market leader in this niche. The principle, `if you can't fight `em, join `em' is very relevant in the file format business.
The AutoCad file format in 2-D drafting is now an industry standard and no competing product can hope to stay in business unless it caters for the import and export of AutoCad files. Adobe will realise this fact of life, sooner rather than later.
Focus on mobile platform
The GoLive Web development tool has been upgraded to create content for the increasingly ubiquitous mobile platform, but here again, the market leader is Macromedia's Dreamweaver.
Interestingly, Adobe is poised to take over Macromedia and one has to watch and see whether the company keeps GoLive and Dreamweaver alive in parallel streams or merges them into a single product. One new feature this time — Adobe Stock Photos — allows users to do keyword searches to find a quarter of a million images on the web.
However, in providing this service, Adobe is only throwing in commercial links to photos, which have to be bought online.
In the absence of a payment mechanism in rupees, this service is non-operable for Indian users. It may not be that big a deal in any case, because most of us do not like to pay for stock photos preferring to tap the fairly large base of free clipart.
`Gee whiz' aspect worn out
The ticking heart linking the various tools of CS2 is Bridge, a browser-like `clearing house' where interoperability between all applications can be brought into play.
It is also an application to locate images on your own hard drive, but the `gee whiz' aspect of this has worn out, after any number of free desktop search services have come, including the dedicated picture finder, Picasa.
In the smooth integration of its constituent parts, Adobe's CS2 has created a new and compelling product for the graphics and imaging professional.
And by throwing in the latest (7th) edition of Acrobat, creator of the industry-standard PDF format, it has made it very easy to move the output in preformatted files across the enterprise or indeed, across the Worldwide Web.
In doing all this, Adobe seems to have finally buried for good, its other acquisition in recent years, the trusted Pagemaker Desk Top Publishing tool.
Till last year, Adobe's launches usually included some comforting noises about serving Pagemaker's loyal users by including all of its functionality.
At last week's India launch of CS2 in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, hardly any one mentioned Pagemaker. But let us spare an `RIP' for this once great product from Aldus.
It also remains to be seen whether future issues of CS will see Adobe embracing the popular Flash format that it will soon own, as part of the Macromedia acquisition.
But even without this, the CS2 truly bridges the creative gap between the predominantly print-based imaging industry of today and the Web and mobile-enabled future that is already nudging into our picture frame. (Adobe CS2 Premium costs Rs 69,000 in India, while the standard version is priced Rs 51,800. The June edition of Chip magazine and the July edition of Digit magazine include trial versions on CD.)
Anand Parthasarathy
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