Adobe CS licenses

[Dr. McKay]

If you buy an Illustrator CS6 license, does that give you the right to use CS3 and CS4 legally as well ?
I'm assuming you'd get a download link from Adobe for 3 and 4.
Have to do work that will be delivered in CS3 and/or CS4 but you can only buy CS6 now...

 

[designs216]

No it does not and I don't think Adobe will even sell you 3 or 4. However Illustrator will allow you to save to back levels so you can pass your work to project collaborators that haven't upgraded.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Yeah, I have CS2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and older versions of Photoshop. Adobe is pretty good about backwards compatibility. Most of the stuff you'd probably use in Illustrator is in all versions anyway. I used to go back and forth with CS5 and CS3 all the time, and a lot of times I bring my stuff from CS6 to the iMac running CS2 in my living room.

But no, every version has a different serial.

 

[Dr. McKay]

However Illustrator will allow you to save to back levels so you can pass your work to project collaborators that haven't upgraded.

So basically, when I receive an Illustrator CS4 file to work with, and I save it as Illustrator CS4 from within CS6, there shouldn't be any problems ?

 

[aaron.lee2006]

It probably won't make a difference anyway between CS4 and CS6. Very specific tools perhaps.

 

[mkjj]

So basically, when I receive an Illustrator CS4 file to work with, and I save it as Illustrator CS4 from within CS6, there shouldn't be any problems ?

CS5 gives you an option to save back to Illly 3!!

 

[designs216]

So basically, when I receive an Illustrator CS4 file to work with, and I save it as Illustrator CS4 from within CS6, there shouldn't be any problems ?

When you first save the file in CS6, Illustrator will warn you that saving will upgrade the format to CS6. Saving backward, you'll be prompted that some functionality will be lost by saving into a legacy format but I've found that this doesn't affect the primary functions that most people use.

 

[Jim Campbell]

When you first save the file in CS6, Illustrator will warn you that saving will upgrade the format to CS6. Saving backward, you'll be prompted that some functionality will be lost by saving into a legacy format but I've found that this doesn't affect the primary functions that most people use.

Agreed. You may want to check transparency-based effects and soft drop shadows if you're saving back a LOT of versions, but I've never noticed a problem saving back from CS5.5 to CS3 or CS6 to CS5.

Side note: if you branch out into InDesign, backward compatibility is almost non-existent. 5.5 couldn't even save back to CS5.

Cheers

Jim

 

[PrePressAcrobat]

Agreed. You may want to check transparency-based effects and soft drop shadows if you're saving back a LOT of versions, but I've never noticed a problem saving back from CS5.5 to CS3 or CS6 to CS5.

Side note: if you branch out into InDesign, backward compatibility is almost non-existent. 5.5 couldn't even save back to CS5.

Illustrator made somewhat drastic changes to its type engine after Illy 10 (I believe) and another revision later. You will almost see type change when jumping versions - ie. Later versions can save a "copy" of the legacy type as curves "underneath" the new altered type when opening a file to give you a reference for rebuilding the type as before.
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InDesign can certainly create "backsave" files. I regularly create CS3 files from CS6 for clients.
(Maybe I save back to 5 then 3 - I forget - but it is easily done).
Look into "Export to .idml

MSD