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Brien · Sep 23, 2008, 03:05 AM

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/

The embargo got lifted today. Flash CS4 looks amazing. It looks like Adobe has finally gotten off their butts and fixed the things they should have when they absorbed Macromedia's buggy apps (I'd rather have bloated than buggy). They've finally seemed to wrangle in the old interface and integrate the whole suite.

Some of the updates seem minor, overall it seems like what CS3 should have been. No 64-bit option on OSX sucks, but I won't dare use it in Vista.

Maflynn · Sep 23, 2008, 08:25 AM

Not that I'm surprised but wow, the upgrade pricing is high. I have CS3 web premium and it looks like it will cost me 600.00. I'll certainly wait till others start using it, and the reviews start trickling out to determine if CS4 is worth the 600 dollar upgrade - which I kind of doubt it.

I just paid over 500 for the upgrade to CS3 last year, I'm not that jazzed up about plunking any more money down unless there's some features that will blow me away.

64stang06 · Sep 23, 2008, 09:41 AM

So CS5 for 64bit support eh? Or just use BootCamp and get CS4 now? Either way, CS3 works fine for me for now.

p.a.h. · Oct 15, 2008, 06:01 PM

Does feel like the pieces never all come together (Cocoa vs. carbon, no 64-bit support in CS4, etc., etc.)

- - e r i k - - · Oct 15, 2008, 11:41 PM

Adobe claims it has shipped, anyone got their hands on it yet?

eggman · Oct 16, 2008, 01:37 AM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Adobe claims it has shipped, anyone got their hands on it yet?

I'm wondering the same thing. I'm upgrading from CS3.3 Web Premium, which gives me a $150 price advantage over the CS3 upgrade, but it means taking physical shipment - rather than download, which is typically the way I've gone. (It also meant ordering on the phone rather than online, which I thought was odd...)

Veltliner · Oct 16, 2008, 02:28 AM

In terms of Photoshop I'm not really sure I need it.

Looks more like a design revamp than anything really new.

eggman · Oct 16, 2008, 09:31 AM

Understandably: Photoshop is a very mature product at this point. It looks like there's a lot more for me to get excited about in Dreamweaver, for example... although it looks like there are some new integration niceties to benefit the suite as a whole.

Still, I expect that the fact Photoshop is actually taking advantage of the power of the GPU for the first time now will provide real workflow advantages by making a variety of operations happen in real-time.

Content-aware scaling will also save me a lot of masking and compositing time: I often have to design and build web banners that fit multiple orientations, like horizontal leaderboards and vertical skyscrapers. To be able to quickly stretch or squeeze photos to more appropriately fit into those spaces will be a win for me.

Veltliner · Oct 16, 2008, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by eggman

Still, I expect that the fact Photoshop is actually taking advantage of the power of the GPU for the first time now will provide real workflow advantages by making a variety of operations happen in real-time.

Content-aware scaling will also save me a lot of masking and compositing time: I often have to design and build web banners that fit multiple orientations, like horizontal leaderboards and vertical skyscrapers. To be able to quickly stretch or squeeze photos to more appropriately fit into those spaces will be a win for me.

Those definitely are interesting points, and I'm awaiting more detailed reviews of this upgrade before I decide.

shinji · Oct 22, 2008, 10:47 PM

macworld review http://www.macworld.com/article/1362...tml?lsrc=top_2

jretzner · Oct 24, 2008, 11:55 PM

Adobe claims it has shipped, anyone got their hands on it yet?

My Standard Creative Suite 4 arrived today and is installed. The first attempt didn't work. Adobe support told me to erase what had been installed, do a Safe Start, and then install. That worked flawlessly. The upgraded applications are impressive, but it's too early to offer details. I'll offer an opinion soon.

jretzner · 01:25 AM

The upgraded applications are impressive, but it's too early to offer details. I'll offer an opinion soon.

I used VueScan with a document. After clicking "Preview" and making cropping adjustments, I clicked "Scan." My scanner made no scanning sounds. The file appeared instantly in PhotoShop CS4 which was launched. That happened via my 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 4GB RAM. I'm comparing that with PhotoShop CS on my 17" G4 PowerBook which has 1GB on RAM. The latter took much longer both scanning, and appearing in PhotoShop. Both Macs are using OS 10.5.5.

shinji · Oct 26, 2008, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by jretzner

I used VueScan with a document. After clicking "Preview" and making cropping adjustments, I clicked "Scan." My scanner made no scanning sounds. The file appeared instantly in PhotoShop CS4 which was launched. That happened via my 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 4GB RAM. I'm comparing that with PhotoShop CS on my 17" G4 PowerBook which has 1GB on RAM. The latter took much longer both scanning, and appearing in PhotoShop. Both Macs are using OS 10.5.5.

Cool...any more feedback? Is it very stable, anything you particularly like/dislike?

- - e r i k - - · Oct 27, 2008, 01:58 AM

I'm off to install it now... let's see how I fare

- - e r i k - - · Oct 28, 2008, 10:15 PM

CS4 is so far the best upgrade to the suite in a very very long time for me.

All the little niggles with Illustrator has been fixed (transparent gradients, outline stroke, type on a path). Content Aware Scaling (which I had my doubts about) literally saved me hours and hours of Photoshop work just this morning!

The new interface is great! Looks and feels much better and more mac-like than CS3, something that I did not think possible looking at the Application Frame they wanted to bring in (was turned off by default for me and I haven't turned it on).

There are some strange niggles still:

The redesigned Save for Web and Devices dialog has this button layout:

[Save] [Cancel] [Done]

WTF? Save should ALWAYS be the bottom rightmost button. To make things worse, DONE is default and SteerMouse automatically snaps to it. Arrrrgh!

For some reason Illustrator documents with large embedded TIFFs take more than five minutes to save. The total filesize of the document is 30MB though and should be a trifle in this day and age.

Veltliner · Oct 28, 2008, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

The new interface is great! Looks and feels much better and more mac-like than CS3, something that I did not think possible looking at the Application Frame they wanted to bring in (was turned off by default for me and I haven't turned it on).

Some mac magazine claimed the new layout of Photoshop CS4 was more PC like, which wasn't great news to read.

So that didn't happen to Photoshop?

- - e r i k - - · Oct 29, 2008, 12:01 AM

The Application Frame is completely optional and was turned off by default in my installation. As I said I haven't turned it on and I'm not planning to.

It does however automatically group open images in tabs which you may or may not like. This can be turned off in preferences however.

Pretty much anything about the UI can be configured the way you like it.

64stang06 · Oct 29, 2008, 10:19 AM

I actually like the Application Frame being enabled. Add that on top of a tabbed window interface and Photoshop alone was worth the upgrade price.

Veltliner · Oct 29, 2008, 11:43 PM

Upgraded Bridge and better navigation in images will alone be worth upgrading.

I hate it when I move the image with the trackball, and it starts stuttering, and I have to wait until it comes to a rest.