As a long-time Adobe devotee, I was excited to hear about what was in store for their latest versions of the acclaimed Creative Suite packages, but I had no idea that they would leave anyone who dared to think of themselves as "the competition" as just a memory. A distant, nearly forgotten (and now un-installed) memory. The Master Collection of the Adobe Creative Suite CS4 (US$2,499; upgrades from CS3: $899) is not just your Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign bundle, mind you. This collection has it all for the creative professional and for a huge variety of mediums and formats. With that said, the price is steep, but you won't look back if you are a serious professional working in print, video, online, digital photography or other media types.

What's in the box?

I'm so glad you asked. The simple answer is "everything." New and improved versions Adobe's mainstay applications and more. Adobe has updated the interfaces so that more features are within easier "reach," and you will not struggle to find much if you are used to the previous versions. The changes are intuitive and just make sense once you begin to actually use them. Since there is so much to cover, here are the applications and the focus here will be on their new features for CS4.
 
Photoshop CS4 Extended Edition
Flash CS4 Professional
InDesign CS4
Illustrator CS4
Dreamweaver CS4
Fireworks CS4
Contribute CS4
After Effects CS4
Adobe Premier Pro CS4
Soundbooth CS4
Adobe OnLocation CS4
Encore CS4
Acrobat 9 Professional
Adobe Bridge CS4
Adobe Device Central CS4
Version Cue CS4
Dynamic Link
 
Two significant improvements worth mentioning are the 3D tools and collaborative workflows now incorporated into CS4 across the board. There is so much more within your reach and each application features improved navigation from updates in the interface of each title. Things are where you would go for them first since Adobe has responded so well to their customer feedback based on previous versions and "wish lists." Performance has improved as well, but, given the very thirsty system requirements, you may want to be certain that your gear has beyond the minimum requirements in order to achieve the best results. This is nothing new for "power-users" of Adobe products and, as always, Photoshop continues to be a performance benchmark in computing. Again, let us focus on the new features that really elevate CS4 to new heights ... and dimensions.
 
First, Soundbooth. This is not just some lightweight sound editor tacked on, but a full-featured multitrack application. Adobe has added a new file format of .asnd for tighter non-destructive integration with its other applications. The new Speech Search function allows you to do just what it implies so that you can find the sections of dialog you are looking for within a file. With Adobe Dynamic Link incorporated into SoundBooth, there is no real rendering time for your soundtrack and changes are realized throughout the CS4 applications in real-time. The media encoder will export to all popular file types including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, .WMV, .FLV, and all of the tools are there to improve, enhance, and clean up your audio as well. The Radius engine (iZotope) did a surprisingly clean job of pitch and speed correction when I tested it with an old audiocassette that was tracked too slowly. The support for Core Audio and simple things like Volume Correction make this a powerful tool for everything from soundtracks to web-based video content.