Adobe launches Creative Suite 5.5

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.5 Design Premium, the industry standard software that lets designers produce high-impact materials faster and deliver immersive, visually rich experiences to screens of all shapes and sizes. Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium comprises powerful new versions of Adobe InDesign®, Adobe Dreamweaver®, Adobe Flash® Professional and Adobe Flash® Catalyst™, as well as Adobe Acrobat® X Pro, Adobe Illustrator® CS5, Adobe Photoshop® CS5 Extended and Adobe Fireworks® CS5. A new version of Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Design Standard will also be available.

Today also sees Adobe debut an affordable and flexible subscription-based pricing plan, attractive to customers that want to get current and stay current on Creative Suite products, have project-based needs, or try the software for the first time. New Subscription Editions ensure customers with active subscriptions are always working with the most up-to-date versions of the software, without the upfront cost of full pricing. Now customers can use Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium for as little as US$95 per month, or Creative Suite 5.5 Design Standard for as little as US$65 per month.

"Our design suites have helped publishers set the standard for what readers and advertisers should expect from publications, in print and now, in interactive form on tablet devices," said David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager, Creative and Interactive Solutions, Adobe. “Our content authoring tools have been embraced by industry leaders like Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and National Geographic, who are relying on Adobe software to reinvent iconic titles for the digital age."

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium and Standard are scheduled to ship within 30 days with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in North America and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street prices for Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium and Creative Suite 5.5 Design Standard editions are expected to be US$1899 and US$1299 respectively. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available.

By subscribing to Creative Suite, customers can choose a one-year subscription plan for lower payments or a month-to-month subscription for greater flexibility. For more information about Subscription Editions, visit: www.adobe.com/go/cssubscription.

Education pricing for students, faculty and staff in K-12 and higher education is available from Adobe Authorized Education Resellers and the Adobe Education Store at www.adobe.com/education/purchasing/education_pricing.html. More information regarding education volume licensing for higher education and K-12 institutions can be viewed at www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/volumelicensing/education.

For more detailed information about features, OS support, upgrade policies, pricing and international versions please visit: www.adobe.com/go/creativesuitedesign.

Adobe releases Lightroom 2.4 & Camera Raw 5.4

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4. The final version of the ACR update, that was originally posted as a release candidate on the Adobe Labs site, is now available for immediate download along with the Lightroom update. Both provide additional Raw support for Canon EOS 500D, Nikon D5000 and 18 Hasselblad models.

Click HERE to download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v2.4 (Windows)

Click HERE to download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v2.4 (Mac)

Click HERE to download Adobe Camera Raw v5.4 (Windows)

Click HERE to download Adobe Camera Raw v5.4 (Mac)

Adobe releases Lightroom 2.3 & Camera Raw 5.3

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3. These are final versions of updates which were originally posted as release candidates on the Adobe Labs site, and are now available for immediate download. Both provide additional Raw support for Nikon D3X and Olympus E-30 DSLR’s. Lightroom is also now available in 8 new languages.

Click here to download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v2.3 (Windows)

Click here to download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v2.3 (Mac)

Click here to download Adobe Camera Raw v5.3 (Windows)

Click here to download Adobe Camera Raw v5.3 (Mac)

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Adobe releases Photoshop Lightroom 2.2

Adobe has updated Photoshop Lightroom to Version 2.2. The latest version extends RAW support to the cameras included in the recent Camera RAW 5.2 release. The latest update also builds-in the camera profiles, previously available from Adobe Labs, that attempt to mimic the camera manufacturers' intended output.

The Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2.2 update includes these enhancements:

• Additional camera support for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon PowerShot G10, Panasonic DMC-LX3 and more**

• Includes several corrections for issues introduced by the Lightroom 2.0 release

Click here to download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.2 (Mac)

Click here to download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.2 (Windows)

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Now Shipping

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of the Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 product family, the highly-anticipated release of industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Delivering radical breakthroughs in workflow efficiency – and packed with hundreds of innovative, time saving features – the new Creative Suite 4 product line advances the creative process across print, Web, interactive, film, video and mobile.

Customers can choose from six new versions: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium and Master Collection. The combination of Creative Suite and the new capabilities of Adobe Flash® Player 10, also available today (see separate press release) deliver new levels of creativity and expressiveness across media channels. Designers using the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family will gain unprecedented creative control using the new expressive features and visual performance improvements in Adobe Flash Player 10 to deliver breakthrough Web experiences across multiple browsers and operating systems.

“Creative Suite 4 and Flash Player 10 introduce vital time-saving features, new levels of integration and the jaw-dropping innovations our design and developer customers expect from us,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president, Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. “CS4 continues to fulfill our promise to customers to break down more barriers in cross-media workflows, while also providing new services and collaboration tools that help them manage complex client demands.”

As part of the CS4 product launch, the largest in Adobe’s history, also available today are brand new versions of Photoshop® CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, InDesign® CS4, Illustrator® CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS4, Fireworks® CS4, Contribute® CS4, After Effects® CS4, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4, Encore® CS4, Soundbooth® CS4 and Adobe OnLocation™ CS4.

Intuitive Workflows Improve Creative Efficiency

A simplified workflow in Adobe Creative Suite 4 enables users to design across media more efficiently by making it easier to complete common tasks and move content seamlessly among applications. InDesign CS4 includes a new Live Preflight tool that allows designers to catch production errors and a newly customizable Links panel to manage placed files more efficiently. The revolutionary new Content-Aware Scaling tool in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended automatically recomposes an image as it is resized, preserving vital areas as it adapts to new dimensions. An expanded version of Dynamic Link in CS4 Production Premium enables users to move and update content between After Effects CS4, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Soundbooth CS4, and Encore CS4 without rendering, saving countless hours in production. With deep XMP metadata support, the production workflow is simplified, resulting in online content that gives viewers new ways to interact with and search for video, while giving content owners new opportunities to track and monetize content.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 brings 3D center-stage providing the ability to paint, composite, and animate 3D models using familiar tools in Photoshop CS4 Extended. Flash CS4 Professional now offers the ability to apply tweens to objects instead of keyframes, providing greater control over animation attributes. Also in Flash CS4 Professional, the new Bones tool helps create more realistic animations between linked objects. With a searchable library of more than 450 dynamically updated device profiles from leading manufacturers, Adobe Device Central CS4 enables users to easily test mobile content designed using many of the Creative Suite 4 products.

New and Expanded Services Extend Capabilities for Online Collaboration

Adobe Creative Suite 4 now also offers a host of services* for online collaboration. Adobe ConnectNow, a service of Acrobat.com, allows real-time collaboration with two colleagues or clients. Designers can also share color harmonies with Adobe Kuler™. Other online resources include: Adobe Community Help for technical questions; Resource Central for accessing video and audio product-related news and tutorials, as well as Soundbooth scores and sound effects; and Adobe Bridge Home, a customizable resource for tips, tutorials, news and inspirational content.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Creative Suite 4 and its associated point products are immediately available through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store. Estimated street price for the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium is US$1799, US$1699 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium, US$1699 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, and US$2499 for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection. To reward customers for staying current, Adobe is offering Creative Suite 3 customers moving to Creative Suite 4 a lower upgrade price than it offers to those moving from older, qualifying versions. For a limited time, a special introductory offer enables customers with older qualifying products to enjoy the same lower price with savings of up to US$200 off their actual upgrade price. For more detailed information please visit www.adobe.com/creativesuite.

Adobe Flash Player 10 is available immediately as a free download for Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms (including new support for Ubuntu 7 and 8) from www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer.

Adobe releases Camera RAW 4.6 beta

The Camera Raw 4.6 and DNG Converter Release Candidates (RC) are now available on Adobe Labs. The ‘release candidate’ label indicates that the plug-in is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers. The Camera Raw team would like the community to help verify the quality of the plug-in through normal usage as this will ensure that the plug-in is tested on a diversity of hardware and software configurations not available internally at Adobe.

This release includes official camera support for the following cameras:

• Fuji Finepix IS Pro
• Nikon D700
• Nikon D90
• Nikon Coolpix P6000

Please provide feedback on your experience with the Camera Raw 4.6 plug-in and the DNG Converter on the Camera Raw User to User forum.

Camera Raw provided 'unofficial' support for the Nikon D700 raw format in Camera Raw 4.5.(And Lightroom 2.0) That support has been certified without requiring any changes to the previous implementation. Camera Raw is often able to provide unofficial or preliminary support for new camera raw formats. While this support is not fully tested and certified by our Quality Engineering team it does allow photographers who have acquired more recent camera models to open and work with their raw files. In Camera Raw 4.6, photographers with the following cameras will be able to utilize this preliminary support: Canon Rebel XS, Canon 50D, Olympus SP-565 UZ, Sony A900 and Sigma DP1. (Sigma DP1 support is not finalized due to an unresolved white balance bug that will require additional testing)

You can download Camera RAW 4.6 here.

[via Adobe]