RECOMMENDED

VERDICT Adobe builds on its print strengths to take its rich design mission online.

It’s easy to forget these days, but Adobe began life developing software and fonts for imagesetting machines. Things have moved on considerably, but Adobe’s core focus and strength remains in publishing.
Key to this are the four flagship applications that together comprise the Design Standard suite: Photoshop for handling bitmaps; Illustrator for handling vectors; InDesign for handling multiple page publications; and Acrobat for handling PDFs. As the individual reviews show Adobe has not only added important new functionality in each case but, just as importantly, made it easier to tap each application’s existing power. At a price for all four applications not much greater than that for QuarkXPress 8, it’s little wonder that the Standard suite now dominates the world of design-for-print.
Paper-based publishing remains central to Adobe’s mission, but these days onscreen electronic publishing via the web comes a close second. In its Design Premium suite, Adobe has been able to take advantage of its takeover of Macromedia to drop its own second-rate web offerings and replace them with the web industry standards: Dreamweaver (see page ) for producing code-based web pages and Flash for producing rich internet content and applications ( ). In addition, for the first time, the bundle also now includes Fireworks for web-optimized bitmap and vector handling and site prototyping.
As the separate Web Suite, Dreamweaver and Flash reviews show, there were good reasons for Macromedia to throw its lot in with Adobe. However, while these issues are important for web specialists, they are less relevant to those designers mixing print and screen publishing. Here in its Design Premium suite Adobe offers the current industry leaders across the board and all working ever more tightly together – as demonstrated most clearly in the new XFL-based integration between InDesign CS4 and Flash CS4 Professional.
Despite the inflated UK prices (see UK pricing boxout), it’s difficult to argue with the integrated power and value of the two CS4 Design suites.
Tom Arah

SEE SEPARATE APPLICATION REVIEWS

EASE OF USE 5/6
FEATURES 6/6
VALUE FOR MONEY 5/6
OVERALL 5/6

Requirements: Windows XP (SP2), Vista