Milestone Adobe CS6 release delivers major innovations for design, Web, video pros

Dax Data, Adobe's leading distributor for southern Africa, has announced the release of the ultimate toolkit for design, Web and video professionals, with the unveiling of the Adobe Creative Suite 6 product line, powerful new releases of 14 CS6 applications and four Creative Suites - Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium, Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard, Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium, and Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection - drive home Adobe's continued innovation across creative markets. A brand new application, Adobe Muse -- a radical new tool that enables designers to create and publish HTML5 Web sites without writing code -- was also announced today.

“With the new range of CS6 products, designers get improved innovation, new mobile workflows and advanced publishing capabilities, Web and video pros have everything they need for the delivery of high-impact content and apps”, said Jeremy Matthews, MD of Dax Data.

Grant O' Connor, Regional Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa & Israel at Adobe Systems, said Adobe's promise was to change the world through digital experiences. “The release of Adobe Creative Suite 6 (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.

“We must also say thank you to our channel and partners for working with us to bring CS6 to market. 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,” he said.

The performance and workflow enhancements in Adobe Photoshop CS6, InDesign CS6 and Illustrator CS6 will result in significant time savings for print, Web and mobile projects.

* In Photoshop CS6, designers will experience incredible performance, powered by the Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine, enabling near instant results from essential editing tools, including Liquify, Puppet Warp, Transform and Lighting Effects.

* Adobe has built on Photoshop's breakthrough Content-Aware capabilities with advanced new Content-Aware Patch and Content-Aware Move features.

* Illustrator CS6 debuts a revamped modern interface and features include a new Image Tracing Engine, Pattern Creation and Gradient Strokes. The Mercury performance system delivers speed and stability, including 64-bit support for Mac OS and Windows.

* InDesign CS6 continues to blaze a trail in publishing, streamlining the creation of multiple layouts from a single set of content with new Adaptive Design Tools - Alternate Layout, Liquid Layout, Content Collector Tools and Linked Content.

* A brand new application, Adobe Muse, a radical new tool that enables designers to create and publish HTML5 Web sites without writing code, was also announced today.

Innovative new workflows and capabilities across Adobe tools simplify the creative process for today's Web designers, developers and interactive professionals.

* Web pros can conveniently integrate HTML5 animations, created with Adobe Edge Preview, into their Dreamweaver projects, driving home Adobe's leadership in tooling for the HTML5 Web standard.

* Dreamweaver CS6 addresses the challenge of responsive web designs with the ability to build fluid grid layouts replacing the tedious manual process of creating and configuring separate CSS-based interfaces for phone, tablet and desktop.

* Through direct integration with Adobe's recently announced PhoneGap Build service, Dreamweaver CS6 helps round out a Web professional's skill-set and enables them to produce native mobile applications for multiple platforms.

* Flash Professional CS6 users can easily translate and transition their skills to HTML5 using the Flash Professional Toolkit for CreateJS. Flash Professional CS6 also helps designers to create exciting and impactful gaming experiences and advancements include the ability to generate sprite sheets that improve workflows and performance.

* Pre-built native extensions and new packaging options, leveraging the latest Adobe Flash Player and AIR runtimes, help expand and ease app delivery to Android and iOS devices.

Redesigned by and for video editors, with major performance enhancements, the tools included in Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium set a new standard in professional video.

* With dozens of new features Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 is the hub of any professional video workflow, featuring a sleek new editing environment. The powerful Adobe Mercury Playback Engine now supports OpenCL on MacBook Pros.

* The most significant After Effects release in a decade, After Effects CS6 is faster and more responsive than ever. With Global Performance Cache, previews are saved and ready to go - cutting the time spent bouncing between projects.

* New to Production Premium are Adobe Prelude CS6, which streamlines logging and ingest workflows in post-production, and Adobe SpeedGrade, which contains powerful finishing tools for film finishing and colour grading.

* Adobe Audition CS6 accelerates audio post-production: real-time clip stretching makes it simple to stretch clips to fit an edit; and Automatic Speech Alignment introduces a powerful new engine for automated dialogue analysis.

* A new third party API for hardware integration - Adobe Mercury Transmit - allows broadcast video monitoring to connect directly into the Mercury Playback Engine via third-party cards from AJA, Blackmagic Design, and Matrox.

Adobe also launched Adobe Creative Cloud in selected countries, a radical new way of providing tools and services that will change the game for creatives worldwide by providing a hub for making, sharing, and delivering creative work.

Dax Data will be selling the Creative Cloud Team Ready Offering through Adobe's Transactional Licensing Program (TLP) based on a one-year term agreement. For more information, visit: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/faq.html.

Pricing and availability:

Adobe Creative Suite 6 products are scheduled to be available within 30 days and can be pre-ordered now. They will be available through Adobe authorised resellers and online stores. Contact Dax Data at sales@daxdata.co.za for more information. Recommended retail pricing are as follows: Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium (R19 114), Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard (R13 078), Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium (R19 114) and Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection (R26 157) and Creative Cloud Team Ready (R9 515/year).

Education pricing for students, faculty and staff in higher education is available from Adobe authorised education resellers. For more information regarding education volume licensing for higher education institutions, please contact Dax Data at sales@daxdata.co.za.