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When big companies debut with new or upgraded versions of their software, a lot of brouhaha follows. The heat of excitement and expectation yields a lot of opinion and quite a bit of guesswork, that, read dispassionately, can inform you a good deal of what you can expect from the new offering.
Adobe’s Creative Suite 5, or CS5 if you will, coming close on the heels of the release of Apple’s ipad, did generate genuine interest among would-be users. And perhaps they would not be disappointed (going by some initial reactions).
CS5 is launched globally on April 12, and eyes did pop up when people saw some welcome changes in the software they didn’t imagine possible. Take for example the following gushing comment by Josh Smith:
Possibly the most mind blowing feature I have seen in the new Adobe CS5 release is the ability to remove an object or a person from an image and automatically fill in the background behind them.
Indeed the video of the launch event shows as much, though Josh does caution that the above feature, called Content-Aware Fill, works well only on a simple background. For not-that-simple background, there are limitations.
Let us take a look at what Adobe says CS5 can do for video production. Watch the following video:
Do People Want CS5? A Survey
A partial list of different Adobe CS5 packages
Adobe’s CS4 has had a very strong following. Though there is considerable steepness in the learning curve and the price tag of each component, the fact remains that one could and can do amazing things with CS4.
In that case, that is if CS4 was okay, how dearly then people want CS5? I pick up some answers from the survey results available in this article. Here they are (the figures are tentative as I decipher them from the graphs shown in the article):
Q1: What version of Creative Suite do you currently use?
CS4 > 71%
CS3 > 22%
CS1 & CS2 > None
Combination of these > 7%Q2: What specific products do you use?
Photoshop >83%
Dreamweaver > 78%
Acrobat > 78%
Flash > 64%
Illustrator > 64%
Fireworks > 59%
InDesign > 41.5%
Other > 31.5%
My note: The 31.5% ‘Other’ is interesting. Is After Effects part of this, because remember AE is a part of CS5’s costlier packages (see the red circle in the image above).
To the question, ‘Are you planning to upgrade to CS5?‘, an overwhelming 60% of respondents wanted it ‘as soon as it becomes available’. This must have gladdened Adobe, but they do know that the proof of the pudding is ultimately in the eating.
That leaves us with the glamorous contention that is now raking the air – will HTML5 push Flash into oblivion? The answer may be in the offing sooner than you think.
Update (April 16, 2010)
For those who are hesitant about whether to upgrade to CS5, here is an informative article to consider:
Adobe Creative Suite 5: Should you upgrade?
As always, you’re most welcome to drop in your considered opinion about CS5. Do use the comments form below. Thank you.
This article of April 14th, 2010 is authored by Partha Bhattacharya, who runs this website. Partha also creates video-based e-learning course for clients, and when time permits, writes guest articles for selected sites.
