Introduction

This is the start of a short series of articles about the new Adobe CS3 software. In this installment, I will take a broad look at the new software, the packages, and the new features in a general sense. Following installments will cover specific packages. It made sense to do it this way, since otherwise this would turn into a very long entry, and I want to dedicate an entry to each major package that I am using, so I can talk about just that one package.

Choosing a Package

First off, Adobe recently instituted some silly new rule to the effect that you cannot upgrade software older than three generations. So if one wanted to upgrade to Photoshop CS3, one needed to already have Photoshop 7, CS, or CS2. So that left me out in the cold at first since the one I had was version 6! I would have had to either buy an intermediate upgrade which would then be upgraded to CS3, or buy the full version. The first option would have been an annoyance, but would also most likely have cost less. The full version of Photoshop CS3 is very pricey, so the second option was less attractive for that.

However, there was another alternative. Photoshop standalone was not the only package that interested me. Being primarily a web developer, the Web Premium set intrigued me. It’s quite a set: it contains Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Contribute, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Acrobat, and a number of supporting applications. And it turned out that Macromedia (back when it was still Macromedia) Studio 8 – which I did have – could be upgraded to Web Premium CS3. The price was very good; it was less than the full version of Photoshop, and would upgrade my Studio 8 (Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, and Contribute) and give me Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and more to boot! I was sold. Adobe got my money and a week later, I had my new Web Premium package in my hands.

Installation

I had read online accounts of numerous people having difficulties installing their CS3 software. A fair number seemed to be related to having had the Photoshop beta installed previously, which needed to be removed via a specific procedure. I didn’t have the beta, so no problem for me. But many others had errors during the install process. Information seemed to be pointing to a buggy installer.

Having read all that, I was just a little apprehensive going into the installation process. But I first removed the trial versions, which I had been evaluating, as well as Studio 8, Flash Player, and Acrobat Reader, just to be safe.

My installation was flawless. I put the first disc in, started the install process, chose installation settings, and went for dinner. I got back half an hour later, and the installation was finished. I was impressed at that speed – I had thought the process might take an hour, considering the amount of software being loaded. I opened each program, one by one, to make sure it worked. They were all fine. Wowzers.

Extras

Once I was sure the programs were working, I checked the contents of the other two discs (my Web Premium package had 3 DVDs). The second disc contains PDF versions of the product help pages, as well as numerous collections of fonts, clipart, plugins, textures, and stock photos. Lots of goodies to sift through. I copied them all to my desktop’s hard drive to have handy.

The third disc contains training videos, provided by the good folks at lynda.com, for all the suite products. Some are specific to a single or multiple products, while others are more general, and apply to the suite as a whole. I’ll have to start watching these. I copied these to my hard drive also, for convenience. This is fine for me as I have a large hard drive. The two “extras” discs total just over 3Gb, so if you have a reasonably current drive, this can be handy as you won’t need to insert one of the discs when you want to access their contents.

First Impressions

As with the trials, I was wowed by the appearance, performance, and features of the various applications in the suite. The programs open quickly, and I can do what I need to do quickly and easily. I recall reading that this upgrade is even better for Mac users in the sense that it is universal, so it will work on the older Macs and the newer Intel-based systems. This supposedly causes a good speed increase. Because I’m on Windows, this doesn’t really mean anything for me, but it’s great for the Apple fans. Even on Windows XP, the performance of the apps seems pretty good.

Back in the fall, there was a small uproar (maybe not so small) over the new icons planned for the CS3 applications. They look like something out of the periodic table. They’re small squares of a single color with two letters as an abbreviation of the application’s name. Not overly attractive, in my opinion. One of the first things I did after installation was replace the standard icons with some nicer ones. There are numerous alternate icon sets on the web; I’m using the set created by Adam Betts, which I think looks better. There are many other alternate icon sets out there; there is a list of some on Joshua Bryant’s website. On a related note, the splash screens for the apps are similar to the icons: they look like a bucket of paint was spilled on them!

Conclusion

That’s my broad look at the suite. I will be writing more posts in the near future on the following subjects, which I will examine in more depth. As I complete the entries, I will link them below.