9.3

Adobe CS6 Master Collection

About our reviewer: Josh Wright is a professional writer, illustrator and graphic designer

Adobe’s new Master Collection Creative Suite 6 has arrived. And as much as you creative types are looking forward to the new toys Adobe has to offer, the hefty price-tag which always comes with it, I’m sure fills you with dread. Thus we must all face the inevitable – with great power comes great financial responsibility. As it’s always been with CS suites, you’re ultimately going to be paying for stuff you don’t need and never use to get at the stuff you can’t live without... but then again this is CS6 we're talking about! Indeed CS6 is a whale of package, and makes MS Office look like Flipper in comparison.

The primary question when it comes to reviewing CS6 is where to start. The package is so huge and varied it’s sure to overwhelm all but the most seasoned professionals. Speaking as someone who’s been employing Adobe for over a decade, there are still applications in it I’ve never used. That’s why I’ll give it to you straight off the top: – should you lay down the thousand or so bucks to get your hands on CS6 Master Suite?

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If you’re running CS4 or less, then probably yes. If you’re running CS5, then probably no. If you’ve never used Adobe before? Then get yourself to a class first. CS is professional suite - it ain’t for amateurs - unless you’re a kid, that is. I don’t know what it is, but kids just seem to have a knack for learning without the manual. I’m sure if I was still 12 I’d have mastered Flash within a week. But I digress.

Firstly Adobe’s flagship app, Photoshop. Has much changed since CS5? The interface has been tweaked, it looks a little darker and slicker. There are new painting presets to give a more natural look to artwork. Enhanced 3D animation — including cameras, lights, materials, and meshes for those who love that stuff, new render modes for shadows, viewing 3D artwork from multiple angles while editing.

And now you can ‘accurately merge multiple 3D objects in a single scene so they can interact with the same lighting and cameras,’ or so says the literature - personally l just like to draw horseys. In fact there’s heaps of new 3D import/exports sound and Flash options, so if you’re into all that, then start saving up, because CS6 is for you.

Type also has been improved; you can save time and ensure a consistent look with type styles, which let you apply formatting to selected characters, lines, or paragraphs of text with a single click.

There’s vector improvements, using vector layers to apply strokes and even add gradients to vector objects, and sharper vector rendering. A new lighting Effects Gallery makes it easier to visualize  lighting enhancements. You can give your work the look of a fine painting with the Oil Painting filter powered by the Mercury Graphics Engine.

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Control the style of your brush as well as the direction and shine of your lighting for a superior look. Improved airbrushing, brush enhancements, 10-bit deep color support, an improved Properties panel, a better Adobe Bridge, more TIFF support, automatic re-sampling - phew! I could go on and on. Put simply, Photoshop is as impressive as ever, and really, if you’re using anything else, then too bad for you. There’s only one person to respect more than a master of such a package, and that’s someone who actually works with a pencil and paper.

I’ve never had sex wearing a wetsuit, but I have created art on Illustrator, so I think I know what it would feel like. Using Adobe, the pleasures of old-school medium and surface are replaced by mathematical precision and an eternally fiddly interface. This hasn’t really changed since the original CS. Fortunately we’ve all slowly gotten used to it, and Adobe has tried (a bit) to make the grind of plot-points and Bezier curves a bit more intuitive.

Illustrator CS6 has been rebuilt from the inside out to be faster and more intuitive, with more stability when working on complex files. One thing I’ve always wanted to see improvement on is the LiveTrace, and now finally, Adobe has stepped up. You can now confidently convert raster images to editable vectors with a new, powerful tracing engine in Illustrator. You get clean lines, accurate fitting, and reliable results.

Also you can now create and edit patterns up to 75% faster, and automatically collect all your files for production in a few clicks. In fact, the best way to get Illustrator CS6 is with Adobe’s new ‘Creative Cloud’ membership. With Creative Cloud, you won’t have to wait for future releases — you get new features the moment they're available.

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So what is Creative Cloud? It’s a membership that gives you the entire collection of CS6 tools. Love print? Interested in websites and iPad apps? Ready to edit video? Then sign up for Creative Cloud. Creative Cloud members automatically get access to new products and exclusive updates as soon as they’re released. And with cloud storage and the ability to sync to any device, your files are always right where you need them. Don’t forget though, you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription for it. Sheesh!

InDesign has always been a versatile desktop publishing application giving you control over design and typography. New features include a new Adaptive Design Tools to repurpose layouts to look great on a variety of pages sizes, orientations, or devices; improved productivity with time-savers such as the split window, Content Collector tools, grayscale preview, easy access to recently used fonts, and once again, the chance to access Creative Cloud.

Not much has changed in regards to Acrobat, except once again the opportunity to pay for Creative Cloud. Flash however grows from strength to strength with each new inception. Adobe Flash Professional CS6 is now a very powerful authoring environment for creating animation and multimedia content across desktops and multiple devices, including tablets, smartphones, and televisions.

Upgrading to CS6 and you will be able to combine multiple symbols and animation sequences into a single optimized sprite sheet for better workflow, build more engaging content using native extensions to access device-specific capabilities, and create assets and animations for use in HTML5. You can leverage a new extension (available separately) to create interactive HTML5 content by building on core animation and drawing capabilities in Flash Professional. There’s animation sheet generation for exporting symbols and animation sequences to quickly produce sprite sheets to help improve the gaming experience, workflow, and performance.

Platform and device support is getting wider too; CS6 allows you to reach Android and iOS devices by targeting the latest Adobe Flash Player and AIR runtimes. I’d be lying if I said I was a Flash-master, but it for those who are, CS6 is a must-have.

Dreamweaver has always been an issue with this reviewer. At the risk of opening myself to ridicule, as I youngster I much preferred MS FrontPage; it’s interface was more obvious and intuitive. However like most I forced myself to get used to Macromedia’s Dreamweaver, and it seems as each new version comes out, it’s new owners Adobe are slowly repairing their old, mean-spirited GUI. Dreamweaver CS6 allows creating cross-platform and cross-browser-compatible web designs using the CSS3-based Fluid Grid Layout system.

You now have the ability to visually construct complex web designs and page layouts without getting buried in code. There’s easily addition of audio and video to your HTML5-based websites and applications. A new reorganized Insert panel to more intuitively add HTML5 tags and elements. Transferring large projects is also now faster and more reliable using a robust, multi-threaded FTP engine. You’ll be uploading site files faster and more efficiently. Previewing and testing pages is now easier too using updated Live View functionality. Live View uses the latest version of the WebKit rendering engine to provide excellent HTML5 support.

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Phew! So much Adobe! See what I mean about this being as giant package? We’ve just scraped the surface of half a dozen monster applications and we’re still barely halfway there. For the video workers out there Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects remain the industry standard. Premiere Pro CS6 software combines an incredible performance with a sleek, revamped interface and a host of fantastic new creative features, including Warp Stabilizer for stabilizing footage, dynamic timeline trimming, expanded multicam editing, adjustment layers, and more. You can work natively and in real time with the latest mobile, DSLR, HD, and RAW formats with newly enhanced stability and performance, plus all-new creative tools simplify the editing workflow to help you meet your production deadlines.

Meanwhile After Effects CS6 software lets you deliver cinematic visual effects and motion graphics faster than years gone by with a new Global Performance Cache. There’s built-in text and shape extrusion, new mask feathering options, a fast, easy-to-use 3D Camera Tracker. There’s now room for more experimentation without re-rendering, powerful new 3D capabilities, and over 90 new and updated built-in effects.

Adobe Audition has replaced SoundBooth for CS6, and while I’m sure for those in the know it’s a meaty package, for me it felt just as unfriendly as the old. If someone can tell me how to paste multiple mp3s together quickly and easily, I’m all ears, because this program still won’t explain itself.

Final Thoughts?

So let’s sum this up: Adobe CS remains the ultimate design package for tackling any creative digital challenge that comes your way. The CS6 toolset allows you to explore new ways to design amazing print, web, and video experiences, but it’s not for the feint-hearted. If you’ve got a lazy thousand bucks here’s what’s inside:

Photoshop CS6 Extended

Illustrator CS6

InDesign CS6

Acrobat X Pro

Flash Professional CS6

Flash Builder 4.6 Premium Edition

Dreamweaver CS6

Fireworks CS6

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

After Effects CS6

Adobe Audition CS6

SpeedGrade CS6

Prelude CS6

Encore CS6

Bridge CS6

Story CS6

Media Encoder CS6

Mastering them all will take years, but fear not, creative-types – it could be worse. One day you might actually have to learn to draw. Shudder!