Adobe Creative Suite CS3

galahad · 23rd April 2008, 08:28 AM

Anyone have any opinions on whether or not Adobe Creative Suite CS3 is worth getting?

I've seen the price of it and even the cheapest variant is laughably expensive- how do they expect anyone but companies with plenty of money to throw about to actually afford this? I was wondering if it was worth getting though, if some sort of finance could be arranged.

That said, no doubt in a year or so they'll bring out CS4 and it'll be redundant anyway.

Terra · 23rd April 2008, 08:40 AM

Well - I love it, but then again I bagged a free upgrade from CS2 to CS3 thanks to Vger (there was a small loophole period when you bought CS2 you got CS3 for free).

But realistically it depends on what work you do - if you're designer, then yes, get it. If you need to work with files from other designers, again, yes it's worth it.

I'm using PhotoShop, Illustrator, Flash and PDF all the time, so it's been a great help. Especially Illustrator was a good investment - working with Vector files means I can make use of the stock vectors on iStockphoto.

Edith

Paul_F · 23rd April 2008, 09:19 AM

I'm with Terra on that one, I think it is worth the investment. To save money you could look for CS2 on ebay (careful though, make sure it really is genuine, and has a licence key, and check the licence can be transferred).

Depending on what kind of work you do it will pay for itself after a couple of designs, or contracts or whatever. And it is a valid business expense so you can set it against your profits at the end of the year.

Vger · 23rd April 2008, 02:02 PM

Quote:

To save money you could look for CS2 on ebay

That won't get you a free upgrade to CS3 now.

The free upgrade only existed for that period when Adobe had announced the impending release of CS3 but hadn't actually released it yet. During that period they still wanted people to buy their product so provided a free upgrade from 2.3 to 3 when it was released.

Vger

Paul_F · 23rd April 2008, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vger

That won't get you a free upgrade to CS3 now.

Yes, I understand it won't get a free upgrade, my point is that you will have most of the Adobe Creative Suite functionality but would save some cash.

MrBen · 23rd April 2008, 03:50 PM

I was looking at buying Fireworks as I can cope with that and it suits my needs. I have a copy of Fireworks MX but it seems to struggle with some PSDs from Photoshop CS3 so I've been using the 30 day trials of Fireworks CS3.

Does anyone think there is going to be a replacement for CS3 anytime soon? It's just over a year since the CS3 product wave was released. I don't know how often Adobe refresh their products...

Ben

galahad · 24th April 2008, 11:05 AM

Seems that the general consensus is that it's worth it- just need to organise a way of finding the money for it!

As Mr Ben said, I wonder when CS4 will be released...

Our tools that we use the most day to day are Dreamweaver and Photoshop, although we use a lot of the other bits in the package from time to time. Presumably as and when the next version comes out, we would qualify for some sort of "upgrade" and therefore pay less for it?

Terra · 24th April 2008, 12:00 PM

not sure about CS4 but the Adobe policy normally is that if you bought a version AFTER the next version was officially announced but not yet released for sale, then you get a free upgrade. It's a very tight loophole of a few days though, so careful planning is needed. Best to subscribe to the Adobe newsletter to stay informed. Saved us hundreds of pounds, so worth exploiting if you can!

I think because of this policy, Adobe is unlikely to announce new versions too early on ... would impact their sales of CS3.

canuckster · 24th April 2008, 06:19 PM

I was just at the FlashInTheCan conference here in Toronto, and there was lots of talk about CS4. No timeline, of course, but if I had to bet I'd say Septemberish.

Regarding Fireworks, I want to point out that if you have any reasonable expectation of needing to handle bitmapped images as part of how you make a living, you will eventually bite the bullet and Photoshop — so if you can squeeze it into your budget now instead of buying Fireworks now and Photoshop later (after which you'll likely never use Fireworks again), then it will cost you less in the long run (not just in cash; you won't have to learn the ins and outs of two programs). Despite having used Fireworks for two years, I believe Photoshop wins every contest hands down.

Regarding upgrades, after the initial plunge you can then follow the upgrade path for subsequent releases -- and often wait two releases and still get the discount (ie CS2 users should qualify for the same discount on CS4 as CS3 users) -- at least that's the way it always was with Macromedia, and that was true when Adobe's CS3 came out.

MrBen · 24th April 2008, 11:15 PM

I've been using the 30 day trial of Photoshop CS3 and hate it so I've just been using it to open PSDs that Fireworks can't handle. To be honest I've hated all versions of Photoshop that I've used. I always end up going back to my trusty version of Fireworks MX (or the 30 day trial of Fw CS3!).

For me handling graphics is just something I have to do as part of the job. I don't enjoy it and have no interest in learning anymore about it than I need to

September would be good. I'm aiming for a new laptop around then so will be moving to an all Vista environment and I don't believe Fw MX will install on Vista. We'll just have to see what happens...

Ben

canuckster · 25th April 2008, 01:56 PM

Fair enough. BTW for batch resizing/recompressing/watermarking -- not to mention simple viewing -- FastStone viewer is a great freeware program that might fill in one of Fireworks' holes (batch work) that you probably could use. And while on the subject, PhotoMesa is an outstanding (free) light-table method of viewing ALL your pics at once (well, sort of ... watch the demo at photomesa.com).

Note that both programs are Windows-only, I believe.

galahad · 30th April 2008, 12:07 PM

I'm surprised if FW MX won't work on Vista (I've not tried it but I have a Vista laptop running DW MX).

I used to hate Photoshop but over the years I've come to appreciate the array of things you can do with it, and even the unique methods and "finding your way around". Once you get used to it, there's no going back- certainly not to Paintshop Pro (shudder).

Terra · 30th April 2008, 01:49 PM

I share shudder - had to work with old files today on my old PC in Paintshop Pro ... argh!

canuckster · 30th April 2008, 02:42 PM

BTW I know there are a bazillion (or is it kajillion?) Photoshop books around, but I wanted to mention the one I have found consistently head and shoulders above everything else. Photoshop Artistry by Barry Haynes and Wendy Crumpler — the latest version is "Photoshop Artistry: For Photographers Using Photoshop CS2 and Beyond".

This is a very detailed and intensive (but not impenetrable) course in just about everything you would want to do from a photographic standpoint. (If you're looking for "1001 fun things to do with Photoshop", then this book isn't for you.) I started with the version-4 book about 9 years ago and even that out-of-date book still explains the basics of retouching more lucidly than most books today. The authors even have you do things the 'wrong' way sometimes, then make you go back and do it again a different way, the better to help you learn the whys of what you're doing.

Anyway, if you're serious about Photoshop, I honestly think there's no better book available.

Markup · 2nd May 2008, 09:49 PM

In my own opinion, and talking from painfully expensive experience, it is not worth the expenditure, especially in light of the - just learned here - imminent advent of cs4??

I hung up my machines 18 Mths ago never to return to online work. But, as needs must, I did return and upon doing so decided to equip myself with the cs3 master suite.

Thank god I kept hold of the macromedia MX suite, I mean what's the difference for 9 out of 10 people - apart from a name change. In fact, using Dreamweaver as much as I do, I find the MX version much more user friendly than the fickly adobe one, and using fireworks is (to me) identical in both.

Silly me to want to keep ahead trend wise. So again, not worth the expense