Adobe Systems has released the latest iteration of the Adobe Creative Suite, as well as its first cloud offering, Adobe Creative Cloud.
Adobe Creative Suite 6 includes new releases of 14 CS6 applications and four Creative Suites (Design and Web Premium, Design Standard, Production Premium and the Master Collection). Included in the CS6 suite is also the new application Adobe Muse for HTML5 Web site creation, without the need for coding. Two new post-production apps are also included, namely Prelude and Speed Grade.
The latest suite emphasises the need to design creative content for multiple platforms. Grant O' Connor, regional manager at Adobe Systems for Sub-Saharan Africa and Israel, says: “The release of Adobe CS6 builds on our reputation as a software innovator by empowering creatives with the unprecedented ability to bring their vision to life, and manage how and where it is delivered to the end audience - whether on smartphones, tablets, the desktop or through traditional media.”
According to Adobe, CS6 is the culmination of the company's aggressive acquisition drive and over 10 million engineering hours. O' Connor says: “It is an exciting suite of products that will vastly improve workflow with tools architected from the ground up for speed and performance, ultimately helping our customers in their creative processes.”
Photoshop CS6 features built-in video editing functionality, as well as an auto-save function, which runs in the background. Photoshop CS6 is powered by the new Mercury Graphics Engine, which allows for 64-bit graphics and improved speed.
Adobe says the addition of video editing to Photoshop is not to replace Adobe Premiere, but rather aimed at those people who are used to Photoshop and only need to do basic video editing. The beta preview of Photoshop CS6 was made available for download at the end of March, and has already been downloaded over a million times.
Illustrator CS6 has a revamped user interface, new image tracing, pattern creation and the Mercury performance system. InDesign CS6 also allows for publishing of multiple layouts from a single set of content.
To the cloud
In addition to CS6, Adobe has also announced its first all-you-can-eat subscription service, Adobe Creative Cloud. The cloud offering provides full access to a hosted version of the Master Suite, for $49.99 per month. According to Adobe, however, the Creative Cloud will only be available for an annual, rather than monthly subscription in SA at launch. As such, it will require a payment of $840 upfront for 12 months access.
While SA was initially included in the countries for this week's launch of Creative Cloud, the local release has been pushed out to the third or fourth quarter, due to the country's bandwidth limitations.
The products within the cloud offering are standard desktop applications, which are available to subscribers for download at any time. While the apps aren't browser-based, the subscription does include 20GB online storage, cross-device syncing and publishing services as well as a platform for sharing work with an online community of creatives.
Local pricing for CS6 is in line with US pricing, and the Master collection will retail for $2 599, the Design Standard is available for $1 299, Production Premium for $1 899, and the Design and Web Premium will retail for $1 899. Tiered pricing is available for upgrades from previous versions. Pricing details are available here.
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