I am very new to all design applications but I am looking to buy the Design or Web Premium package and I am just wondering if there will be any sort of releases in the near future that I should wait for or if it's safe to buy now. Are these apps 32- or 64-bit and, if 32-bit, will they be 64-bit in the near future? Thanks.
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Is now a good time to buy Adobe applications?
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I read an article on CNet not too long ago that described 64-bit versions for Windows being released in the near future, but that it'd be awhile yet before the Mac platform sees them.
If you're new to design, don't worry about 64-bit programs - you'll only need that if you're rendering some serious graphics in Illustrator.
Right now I'm running CS3 Design Premium, and it's fantastic. It's still quite new, so I can't see there being an upgrade for some time.
Overall, yes, it's a good time.
Right now I'm running CS3 Design Premium, and it's fantastic. It's still quite new, so I can't see there being an upgrade for some time.
Overall, yes, it's a good time.
right now i have the whole creative sweet 3 from Adobe.
its a hell of a package, just released this time last year with soooo many new features. but if you're doing design work then Photoshop, Illustrator are the only two programs you need for print applications. There's so much to those two programs they'll keep you busy for months learning them. They can handle anything you want to do.
its a hell of a package, just released this time last year with soooo many new features. but if you're doing design work then Photoshop, Illustrator are the only two programs you need for print applications. There's so much to those two programs they'll keep you busy for months learning them. They can handle anything you want to do.
CS3 is still so new that CS4 isn't really on the horizon, and even if it was, CS4 will not be 64-bit for Mac, anyway.
When the release of CS4 becomes imminent, Adobe will start offering free upgrades to those who buy CS3 in the last 3 months or so before the release (at least that's what they did this time around).
CS3 Design Premium is a fantastic set of applications and are well worth the price, if you can afford it.
Not so fast. InDesign is pretty much a must-have for anyone doing print work, and Acrobat does wonderful things, as well. Besides, the price for buying just Photoshop and Illustrator nearly exceeds that of buying the whole Suite.
When the release of CS4 becomes imminent, Adobe will start offering free upgrades to those who buy CS3 in the last 3 months or so before the release (at least that's what they did this time around).
CS3 Design Premium is a fantastic set of applications and are well worth the price, if you can afford it.
Not so fast. InDesign is pretty much a must-have for anyone doing print work, and Acrobat does wonderful things, as well. Besides, the price for buying just Photoshop and Illustrator nearly exceeds that of buying the whole Suite.
You might want to wait. Adobe CS4 for Mac should be out [with]in 18 months. It will blow the socks off of CS3. 
[Edit: Now it looks like October 2007]
[Edit: Now it looks like October 2007]
You got me there.I was leaning towards the graphic creation end of it... but yes you still need the layout that InDesign does.
Honestly I would never send a job to a printer using Illustrator unless you enjoy being woke up in the middle of the night being beaten by a sock full of pennies.
ID!
Buy now. It is always good to get software that has bedded in when you are doing design work. Far fewer problems that way. I use CS3 with OS X Tiger and couldn't be happier. I'm fairly new to InDesign and Illustrator but learning them is fairly intuitive (with help from the supplied videos and help menus) and the more you use them the better they get.
Honestly I would never send a job to a printer using Illustrator unless you enjoy being woke up in the middle of the night being beaten by a sock full of pennies.
ID!
Why would you say that. I'm a graphic art teacher at a high school and I also do all the in house printing for my entire district. I lay everything out on Illustrator. Passes, programs, documents, letterheads..... its simple and makes my life easy. It an easy program to teach and the kids love using it to design logo's and stickers. Not feeling the sock full of pennies
I don't get it either. I love Illustrator and my print shop has never had a problem with Illustrator files I've sent them.
The print shop here asks that we run stuff through Adobe Distiller before sending them the file(s). I had a postcard that I designed for work using Illustrator, and in the end it was like 27MB. Even if I saved it as a .pdf it was huge. They said to save the post script file and run that through Distiller, and when I did that the .pdf was only like 1.7MB in the end. Other than that, every other place I have taken files they've had no problem printing them.
18 months is an insanely long time to wait to buy a design suite. What reason do you have to believe CS4 will be any better anyway? CS3 has had its share of bugs just getting into Leopard. Besides, with Adobe already stating that the Mac version will NOT be 64-bit, seems kind of a waste to consider buying it, unless you happen to be working in Windows (which WILL get 64-bit versions of CS4).You might want to wait. Adobe CS4 for Mac should be out in about 18 months. It will blow the socks off of CS3.
If you're in control of proofing and printing in your district, then it doesn't matter whether you use InDesign or Microsoft freaking Word for output, since all the work's on you anyway. In the printing industry, if you send an .ai file out, you will be flayed alive. So much depends on specifications when working with printers, and InDesign handles this magnificently with its preflight and file packaging abilities. Making sure you document is using only CMYK process colors or certain Pantone spot colors is just one example of the kind of specificity needed when going to the printer. Illustrator is great for creating graphics, but InDesign is absolutely necessary for output in the industry.
I'm pretty sure that was sarcasm.
I don't know about you, but I'm not sending a print shop my ID file if I can help it. Most printers worth their salt can take a high res PDF and do a great job with it. How you get to that PDF (ID, AI, etc.) matters little. I usually use ID for my final output, but the times I have used AI for whatever reason, I've never had a problem.
And if the size of my final PDF is too large, I run it though Acrobat optimization. Never had a problem with that, either.