Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) Only a Minor Update?

I certainly hope it'll be like Snow Leopard is to Leopard. Make it faster and stop bloating it.

What?!! The E-Mail they sent me would suggest otherwise...

I sure hope its not! Give me features! Features! Features!

AHHHHHH!!!!

Hogwash. I've been using Fireworks CS4 (beta) for several months now and it's a *huge* improvement over the CS3 version.

The beta and more info about the CS4 version is here:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/fireworkscs4/

I knew it was bad when Adobe bought Macromedia. There's not much innovation left. Adobe is coasting just like Microsoft. I don't even have much hope for CS5 much less CS4. We need a real competitor.

I hope the new interface in PS is good enough for an update...
I'm anxious to see flash CS4

Mykbibby said:

I sure hope its not! Give me features! Features! Features!

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Hehe, I envy you then. You manage to use all of the features in CS3 and still want more? That's a power user right there!

heh, now i won't feel bad for not upgrading.

I have to disagree.

From what I've seen, this update going to be huge......particularly After Effects and Flash.

And hopefully they've converted Dreamweaver's awful Macromedia interface to Adobe's.

The lack of 64-bit support on the Mac platform has me worried, since Photoshop was always the product to have for Mac OS.

Looks like Mac OS is starting to come second to windows now in the Adobe world.

MadGoat said:

The lack of 64-bit support on the Mac platform has me worried, since Photoshop was always the product to have for Mac OS.

Looks like Mac OS is starting to come second to windows now in the Adobe world.

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Not necessarily.

Apple is making Adobe rewrite Photoshop's code in Cocoa, and rightly so.

I'm bummed it won't be 64 bit, too, but I'd rather wait for them to get it right.

Looks like some of the new CS4 products are popping up at resellers:

ProVantage
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4-4 Macintosh DVD

Premiere Pro CS4-4 Macintosh Upgrade DVD

Amazon
Adobe InDesign CS4 Upsell from Pagemaker [Mac]

Adobe Photoshop 11 CS4 Extended Upsell From Photoshop Elements - Macintosh

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Standard Upsell (From Studio) - Macintosh

Adobe Photoshop 11 CS4 Extended Upgrade (From Photoshop CS1-3) - Macintosh

I hope upgrade cost isn't as much as normal if this is only a minor release. If so I will definitely be skipping this version.

Minor versus Major debate. We'll just have to wait until it's released.

Why doesn't Apple just buy Adobe and integrate the Apps into Mac OS X?

Cut the bloat

dllavaneras said:

I certainly hope it'll be like Snow Leopard is to Leopard. Make it faster and stop bloating it.

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I agree. Considering some of the discussions at DearAdobe.com and John Nack's blog, there are some people who want some of the fat cut off to make the Adobe products slimmer and quicker.

It seemed to take forever for CS3 to come out, but now with the announcement for CS4 just around the corner, it barely seems any time has passed since CS3 was released last year. It just seems far too soon, and I'm not overly optimistic that they have really added much value to all of the products. I imagine they have spent the past 18 months cleaning things up and putting out what they wish CS3 could have been (but no one would have wanted to wait another 18 months for Intel-native Adobe products). However, with their decision to bundle so many applications, this is forcing them to "update" each of their applications, even if the update really isn't that significant, sort of how Apple keeps updating their iLife products with minor improvements.

Any news on After Effects? That's the only one I really really care about. I really wish they'd make things in it a little easier (free transforms, aspect preserving scaling like in photoshop) etc. I personally think its probably the most powerful tool in the whole set when it comes to content creation. (well obviously comparing apples and oranges but still,) its a great tool.

edenwaith said:

It seemed to take forever for CS3 to come out, but now with the announcement for CS4 just around the corner, it barely seems any time has passed since CS3 was released last year. It just seems far too soon...

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The sooner the better. Bring on 64-bit CS5!

It already is feature filled... Just making the interface better and more reliability is more than enough for me!

Scott Kelby N CS4

I'm wondering since CS4 is just for windozzzze users first, what is scott kelby going to use? A Macbook running windozzzze or a PC with vista 64 bit?

Having worked with Flash CS4 I have to say that the updates coming down are nothing short of UI mind blowing. First they totally revamped their time line control as mentioned, the fact that all objects move on a visible bezier path, similar to AE and the whole bone parenting system that they have implemented is nothing short of ground breaking for animation. I also used it on a MAC so the windows only CS4 is total BS.

Flash CS4 MANY updates

Ok, being an actual Flash CS4 BETA tester, I can rule out all this bull about a "minor" update. Flash CS4's motion editor is a great tool but it's NOT the only update and isn't what I would consider the best upgrade although its great. There are great motion path features similar to AE where you can see the line of motion as well as dragging and dropping into other motions, preset animation features, 3D transform, IK, a kick ass new text editor with a ton of features, new types of tweens, overall new UI which feels great! Drawing in the program has additionally been improved and moving objects around the screen feels much smoother and natural.

So...there are a few MINOR updates for you MacRumors.

orbital said:

Having worked with Flash CS4 I have to say that the updates coming down are nothing short of UI mind blowing. First they totally revamped their time line control as mentioned, the fact that all objects move on a visible bezier path, similar to AE and the whole bone parenting system that they have implemented is nothing short of ground breaking for animation. I also used it on a MAC so the windows only CS4 is total BS.

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Yeah, that's what I thought when I spotted this headline... the Flash demo I saw was certainly no "minor update", I mean they've changed the way the timeline works and everything... no more keyframes etc.

Of course, if you're only interested in Photoshop and Illustrator, I can see how those may not be all that mindblowing, those apps are up to version numbers XX.X...

Having used a wide variety of Adobe products for many years now, I've never found it necessary to purchase every new upgrade once I've signed on to one of their product lines.

Unless it's something truly new or major I usually skip every other upgrade. (There have been a few rare times when I've even skipped 2 successive upgrades). I've never had any problems with that strategy and it's saved me and my clients a little $.

For Mac and PC

Mac 13 said:

I'm wondering since CS4 is just for windozzzze users, what is scott kelby going to use? A Macbook running windozzzze or a PC with vista 64 bit?

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Photoshop CS4 is going to be on Mac OS and Windows. Most current Mac CS3 users will have some adjusting to do with the new interface. For instance the change in the Keyboard shortcuts especially in the channels threw me for about a week. and if you are a used to having multiple images in multiple windows it will definitely take some getting used to having to "float all windows" But the biggest the boost in speed will far out weigh the learning curve. It will be well worth the cost to upgrade too.