So I was excited to read this article about Adobe’s new Creative Suite 3 (CS3), due to come out within the next few months. This is the first release since Adobe bought Macromedia, and I have been interested to see how Adobe would incorporate Dreamweaver, Flash, etc. into its suites.

Adobe will be releasing three different suites, tailored to serve three different types of clientèle: print/publication design, web design, and video design/editing. I am very happy to see that the print design suite also comes with Dreamweaver and Flash.

Design Premium includes new versions of: InDesign, Photoshop Ext, Illustrator, Acrobat 8 Pro, Flash Pro and Dreamweaver.

Web Premium includes Flash Professional, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Contribute, Photoshop Ext, and Acrobat Pro.

Production Premium includes After Effects Pro, Premiere Pro, Photoshop Ext, Flash Pro, Illustrator, Soundbooth, Encore, OnLocation (Windows only), and Ultra.

Of course, there will also be a Master Collection that will include all the products. (There are also standard versions of the design & web suites, with a smaller number of programs.)

I am excited about the new suites coming out, but balking a little at the $1800 price tag of the suite I want! It sounds like they’ve done a great job with reorganizing the palettes in Photoshop, which excites me because I always get frustrated by how quickly my workspace can become cluttered and messy! It also seems that they’ve integrated Photoshop and Dreamweaver, making it even easier to work with images on the web. I have a really old version of Dreamweaver at home, which I use all the time (much to the dismay of my TextPad-using purist husband). I would love to upgrade, especially after seeing how well the Dreamweaver I have at work handles CSS scripting. WYSIWYG editors make me happy. :-)

I guess I should start putting some money aside! Hopefully I can get CS3 before CS4 comes out. ;-)

If you’re still reading this, I will assume that you are a designer or interesting in these sorts of things, and I direct your attention to an Easter Egg hunt. Have fun searching for the hidden treasures in your design software. :-)