Not worth upgrading to CS4?

[Yr Blues]

Doesn't look like much has changed to merit the price-tag. :confused:

[SwiftLives]

Doesn't look like much has changed to merit the price-tag. :confused:

There are some spiffy features, but nothing I can't really live without.

This is the first Adobe product upgrade that I've really felt was worth skipping...or at the very least, prolonging.

[Techguy172]

I guess only if you used a lot of Fireworks, so basically web, and Print were the main upgrades. Video hasn't changed to much.

[LeviG]

for me personally the 64bit support is nice (I use windows alot due to cad software) and as such its nice to be able to have a native app in vista x64.

Probably see a small speed increase in some areas too but I'm not sure its something I need and as such probably wouldn't rush out and buy it right now either.

[SwiftLives]

Eh - print doesn't have too much going for it. InDesign has live preflighting, which is nice, but nothing I can't live without. You can also export to Flash from InDesign...which I find curious since InDesign is a print app.

Illustrator has multiple pasteboards...sort of. It's apparently kind of convoluted how to go about accessing the pasteboards.

Photoshop has the content-aware scaling which I have to admit looks incredible. But that feature just doesn't justify the price for me.

From what I can tell, it's a very lukewarm upgrade.

And the app icons still suck.

[jerryrock]

Photoshop CS4 has native 16bit print output on OSX.

[Yr Blues]

Eh - print doesn't have too much going for it. InDesign has live preflighting, which is nice, but nothing I can't live without. You can also export to Flash from InDesign...which I find curious since InDesign is a print app.

Preflight could catch some goof-ups, but that's all. Smart-guides in InDesign. Yippee!

Illustrator has multiple pasteboards...sort of. It's apparently kind of convoluted how to go about accessing the pasteboards.

Freehand had multiple sizes like 10 years ago. Jeez! Innovation?

Photoshop has the content-aware scaling which I have to admit looks incredible. But that feature just doesn't justify the price for me.

Extremely useful for lame-commercial ad-building.

And the app icons still suck.

I saw that!

I was looking for more 3D solutions in Illustrator. Like real 3D vectors instead of extrusions.

[joepunk]

Adobe added support for the multi-touch trackpad.

[bertpalmer]

Seems more like workflow updates so that things are better organised and simpler rather than features that didn't exist before, or things you couldn't do before.

[thedarkhorse]

also don't forget opengl support.
By using video cards' power, panning and zooming are finally smooth and not jerky/jumpy. The image is rendered smoothly at odd percentages too.
Also, click to drag curves looks slick, I can see that being useful.
Non destructive adjustments panel is nice too, but I'm not sure if I'd use it more than adjustments layers.

[Southernboy]

I'll be giving it a miss. I went from CS1 to CS3, and am quite content with it. The new features are interesting but hardly essential considering the price tag.

[a456]

I expect I'll wait until at least CS5 to upgrade (currently on CS3), but you never know.

Adobe is putting quite a bit of time into its DRM for its Digital Editions (.EPUB) and PDFs at the moment and all the form stuff in Acrobat 9. What do people think about this? Will buying and borrowing eBooks using Digital Editions take off in the same way as iTunes?

[Fogtripper]

Question for me is whether or not it is worth upgrading from CS2. I did not see anything compelling about CS3 (I am primarily InDesign/Photoshop/Dreamweaver) but CS2 seems (Dreamweaver especially) long in the tooth and unstable.

[SwiftLives]

Question for me is whether or not it is worth upgrading from CS2. I did not see anything compelling about CS3 (I am primarily InDesign/Photoshop/Dreamweaver) but CS2 seems (Dreamweaver especially) long in the tooth and unstable.

I'm pretty sure that CS3 is much more cooperative on Intel processors than CS2.

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Eh - print doesn't have too much going for it. InDesign has live preflighting, which is nice, but nothing I can't live without. You can also export to Flash from InDesign...which I find curious since InDesign is a print app.

Seems to me that they are moving InDesign away from being print-only and more toward being a layout program to suit many needs. Being able to build interactive PDFs with Flash embedded sounds like a fantastic upgrade for ID.

Might this be the first step towards getting rid of Dreamweaver? Wouldn't you love to be able to design web pages in InDesign instead? I know I would.

[7on]

Seems to me that they are moving InDesign away from being print-only and more toward being a layout program to suit many needs. Being able to build interactive PDFs with Flash embedded sounds like a fantastic upgrade for ID.

Might this be the first step towards getting rid of Dreamweaver? Wouldn't you love to be able to design web pages in InDesign instead? I know I would.

I would upgrade in a heartbeat.

I'm actually thinking of ditching the Adobe workflow at home. Still only have CS1 (CS3 at work, but they paid for it :D) Maybe investing in Pixelmator and Rapidweaver. My home requirements aren't crazy demanding - but I need to get into freelance sometime soon. Maybe while I'm off work this next week because of LASIK :D

[SwiftLives]

Holy Frak, Ignatius. Hadn't thought of that before. That would be amazing.

There's still a long way to go. Print designers still have much more control over the display of their content than web designers – two fundamentally different media. But being able to layout a webpage in ID would be incredible.

Interactive PDFs haven't quite hit the mainstream. I'm betting that they will very soon. Definitely within 2 years. CS5 will be out by then.

And maybe it will have better icons :p

[stainlessliquid]

I think the improved usability and performance features makes it worth it. But I bet older computers are going to have a hard time with it, more powerful computers that meet the requirements should perform a lot better.

Wouldn't you love to be able to design web pages in InDesign instead?
I can hear the web developers/designers outside your door, I think theyre carrying pitchforks and torches.

[7on]

I can hear the web developers/designers outside your door, I think theyre carrying pitchforks and torches.

Maybe just the developers...

[IgnatiusTheKing]

I think the improved usability and performance features makes it worth it. But I bet older computers are going to have a hard time with it, more powerful computers that meet the requirements should perform a lot better.


I can hear the web developers/designers outside your door, I think theyre carrying pitchforks and torches.

Maybe just the developers...

Haha I hear that, but as someone who does extensive print work and quite a bit of web design, as well, I would give my left arm to be able to do it all in ID.

[stainlessliquid]

Maybe just the developers...

Well most of the web designers I know HATE wysiwyg stuff and are pretty anal about code. Not the point of developers where the whole website should be designed with minimal graphics and maximum code that works on a 1992 computer, but still anal enough to have streamlined code high on their list. InDesign would maim the code pretty badly since it would need to add spacing containers all over the place, it would drive most web designers who have to make large sites insane.

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Well most of the web designers I know HATE wysiwyg stuff and are pretty anal about code. Not the point of developers where the whole website should be designed with minimal graphics and maximum code that works on a 1992 computer, but still anal enough to have streamlined code high on their list. InDesign would maim the code pretty badly since it would need to add spacing containers all over the place, it would drive most web designers who have to make large sites insane.

I like clean code as much as the next guy, but think how much easier it would be to set up CSS using an interface like InDesign.

I think one of the reasons why people dislike WYSIWYG is because of how the programs work. A program like InDesign, if it was coded to work as well for web layout as it does for print layout, could completely change things.

[Techguy172]

Well most of the web designers I know HATE wysiwyg stuff and are pretty anal about code. Not the point of developers where the whole website should be designed with minimal graphics and maximum code that works on a 1992 computer, but still anal enough to have streamlined code high on their list. InDesign would maim the code pretty badly since it would need to add spacing containers all over the place, it would drive most web designers who have to make large sites insane.

Yes, and Dreamweaver makes quite a mess as it is!

[stainlessliquid]

A program like InDesign, if it was coded to work as well for web layout as it does for print layout, could completely change things.
Ya but thats a big if, and not really a possible one because of the way html is so limited. You can do whatever you want with print design, it will always print the way it looks on screen (not counting color issues), but not in web design because you have to follow rules. If you break the rules (which is easy in wysiwyg) and do weird things then the code gets bloated with tons of spacers and other weird crap so everything is aligned and layered right (which never looks right anyways). Next thing you know you have every line of text in its own div and 800 images sliced in 5px pieces.

[chaosbunny]

I don't know yet if I'll get CS4, it depends if it will run at least somewhat ok on my 1,67 ghz G4 PowerBook. I have no problem with CS3 on it, and for presenting something and working on the go maybe once a week it's certainly enough. I want to wait until there are quad core mbps next year to get a new lappi. And if I'd have to wait this long to get CS4 I might skip it entirely.

System requirements say G5 or intel (except for Illustrator) but as far as I know there is not too much of a difference between a 1,6 ghz G4 and a 1,6/1,8 ghz single G5... I'll try it with the demo and see...

[covisio]

I'm probably not going to bother until I change my Macs. Currently running a Dual 2.3Ghz G5 PowerMac and a 1Ghz G4 PowerBook and I think they will start to struggle (PowerBook struggling now especially with Illustrator CS3).

[doug in albq]

I like clean code as much as the next guy, but think how much easier it would be to set up CSS using an interface like InDesign.

I think one of the reasons why people dislike WYSIWYG is because of how the programs work. A program like InDesign, if it was coded to work as well for web layout as it does for print layout, could completely change things.


Hey, we think alike! I am an old fart from the print graphic design era (in my 4th decade of life), but I also dabble in web-design. This is what I said on my latest blog post at my website on 8.25.08:

"I expect Microsoft's Expression will catch up to Adobe in market share quickly. What will Adobe's response be? Will they lower the price of their Creative Suite or will they invent a new set of features that makes their suite irresistible. I hope for the latter. Expression is touting itself as the creative/design package for web developers. Well, Adobe how about a true web development app. for designers? Adobe, you should make Dreamweaver the total web design/development application it was ment to be! Web browser standards are actually becoming a reality, and with this should come a true, tight WYSIWYG web design/development app. I do not see any real reason why an application like Dreamweaver cannot fully expand itself into the program it could be. Dreamweaver should be as user friendly for a graphic/visual designer as using Adobe's print-based layout program, InDesign. Yes, that is what I said. Dreamweaver should be as user friendly for a graphic/visual designer as using InDesign. That is not a statement coming from ignorance, like many coders might tend to think, that should be a new mission-statement for Adobe."

http://www.dougitdesign.com/blog.html

[pointycollars]

Adobe added support for the multi-touch trackpad.

Yes, but what professional graphic designer is actually going to be using the trackpad to do work? It's a useless feature.

[Voidness]

I don't see any new groundbreaking features in the CS4 previews that would make me upgrade to it from CS3. Sure, there are some neat new things in Photoshop, Flash is a good upgrade, but nothing that would justify the $599 upgrade price.

I can hear the web developers/designers outside your door, I think theyre carrying pitchforks and torches.
Indeed they are :D



But seriously, I moved away from Dreamweaver, and now I hand code my website projects from top to bottom (Everything from HTML and CSS to PHP or any server technology). I felt that Dreamweaver just wasn't giving me enough control and precision. However, I don't believe this should be the way web designers have to work. Designing a website is a visual process, just like designing a magazine. I shouldn't have to give attention to the underlying markup code. Should InDesign users make their .indd files in a text editor?

We should make technology adapt to us, not the other way around.

[doug in albq]

I felt that Dreamweaver just wasn't giving me enough control and precision. However, I don't believe this should be the way web designers have to work. Designing a website is a visual process, just like designing a magazine. I shouldn't have to give attention to the underlying markup code. Should InDesign users make their .indd files in a text editor?

We should make technology adapt to us, not the other way around.

[/rant]

exactly, my friend. that is what I said just above. Dreamweaver better change big-time by CS5 or Microsoft's Expression Web will be eating Adobe for lunch.

[synth3tik]

Adobe added support for the multi-touch trackpad.

This was the only thing that really made me take notice, but I am not about to pay for just that. Like many things though I suppose CS4 gives some people what they really wanted and maybe CS5 will have the features I fell are worth the upgrade price.

[chaosbunny]

The one thing that really makes me curious is that due to use of the gpu images are no longer displayed a little "weird" at 66,67% scaling or similar "odd" scales in Photoshop, if I read that correctly.

[Kwill]

The one thing that really makes me curious...

You hit the nail on the head. CS4 has some features to make people curious rather than, depending upon current user version, compelled to pay for an upgrade.

Adobe may be on a 12- to 18-month upgrade cycle but it appears users can only handle their parceled features every 36 months (CS -> CS3-> CS5 or CS2 -> CS4 -> CS6).

[adamzx3]

Does anyone know if Indesign will get GPU support ? it seems only logical to do so when scrolling down a complex book.

[Techguy172]

Does anyone know if Indesign will get GPU support ? it seems only logical to do so when scrolling down a complex book.

I'd imagine this will happen in CS5 when it is hopefully ported over to Cocoa.
Once it is ported over we should see a lot more features that use the graphics chip.

[Toronto Mike]

How is the performcance of CS4 on a G5 running Tiger?

I have a dual 2.0 G5, 6GB of Ram, and the XT800 256mg video card. Would I be taking a big performance hit over the CS2 that I am currently running?

Mike

[csista]

To me it was very worth it, because I wanted to switch packages. I originally bought Web Premium CS3 because it was the cheapest available.

This time, it's $599 for any premium package upgrade. So I have three equally priced choices:

Stick with Web Premium, upgrade everything I have, and gain Soundbooth

Move to the design package, gain Indesign, but lose an upgrade for Contribute, which I don't use anyway.

Or the choice I went with. Upgrade to Production, gain After Effects, Premiere, Encore, and Soundbooth. Upgrade Photoshop, Flash, and Illustrator. I don't get upgrades to Contribute and Fireworks, two programs I never use. And I don't get an upgrade to Dreamweaver, which admittedly sucks and will probably cost me $199 down the road, but for After Efects alone I don't mind, as I do filmmaking also. I bought the 3.3 upgrade, so I have Acrobat Pro 9, and get an additional $160 of the CS4 Upgrade price.

The Production Premium upgrade is significant enough that Adobe is raising it to $799 in February, so this is a limited time thing, along with upgrading CS1 or CS2 to CS4 for the same price.