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Adobe Creative Suite CS4 Master Collection

Create visually rich, engaging content for virtually any media - print, web, interactive, video, audio, and mobile - using the tightly integrated tools and services in Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 Master Collection software.


Express yourself richly in virtually any medium
Express yourself freely and stay in the creative flow, no matter what the medium for your design, thanks to numerous new features and improvements in Creative Suite 4 Master Collection.

Simplify workflows for greater efficiency
Design across media more efficiently and effectively using simpler ways to complete common tasks and innovative new approaches to moving from one medium to another.

Exchange information, ideas, and feedback more easily
Work with new and enhanced creative professional services that enable you to collaborate online with colleagues and clients, find answers to technical questions, create and share color harmonies, and more.

What's Inside The Master Collection CS4:
InDesign CS4
Photoshop CS4 Extended
Illustrator CS4
Acrobat 9 Pro
Flash CS4 Professional
Dreamweaver CS4
Fireworks CS4
Contribute CS4
After Effects CS4
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
Soundbooth CS4
Adobe OnLocation CS4
Encore CS4
Adobe Bridge CS4
Adobe Device Central CS4
Dynamic Link
Version Cue CS4

System requirements: (Windows)
2GHz or faster processor for DV; 3.4GHz for HDV; dual 2.8GHz for HD*
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP and Windows Vista?)
2GB of RAM (more RAM recommended when running multiple components)
24.3GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices)
1,280x900 display with OpenGL 2.0-compatible graphics card
Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0
Dedicated 7200 RPM hard drive for DV and HDV editing; striped disk array storage (RAID 0) for HD; SCSI disk subsystem preferred
For SD/HD workflows, an Adobe-certified card for capture and export to tape
OHCI-compatible IEEE 1394 port for DV and HDV capture, export to tape, and transmit to DV device
DVD-ROM drive (DVD+-R burner required for DVD creation)
Blu-ray burner required for Blu-ray disc creation
Microsoft Windows Driver Model- or ASIO-compatible sound card
QuickTime 7.4.5 software required for QuickTime and multimedia features
Broadband Internet connection required for online services?

Adobe.CS4.Master.Collection-Retail


It's been several months since the CS4 Master Collection became available, and the focus of this follow-up review is to highlight the new features that have remained on my radar since first installing the programs. While every Adobe release features a slew of new features, I usually find that only some of those features remain completely indispensable as the novelty wears off.
 
Photoshop
 Perhaps the biggest CS4 news from a technology standpoint was Adobe's introduction of a 64-bit (Windows only) version of Photoshop. When this news was first announced, I was very excited, since my new system runs on Vista x64 (see my 8 cores on a budget feature). And yes, there is a performance difference, especially at very high resolutions. But there are several inherent problems in the way that Photoshop CS4 64-bit was implemented, and for me, those problems effectively cancel out any benefit that the 64-bit application currently provides.
 
For starters, both versions of Photoshop are installed on a 64-bit Windows system by default. So twice the amount of disk space is being devoted to Photoshop in order to use the 64-bit version. And while it's possible to install only the 64-bit version, doing so would not exactly be wise for most users. One major limitation is the lack of support for 32-bit plug-ins within 64-bit Photoshop. This means that any plug-ins that work on 32-bit Photoshop CS4 (and therefore previous versions of Photoshop) do not work within the 64-bit version. 64-bit users will therefore have to wait for plug-in developers to completely re-engineer their code before those plug-ins will work. One day, that may happen, but at the moment it seems that the Windows-based 64-bit user base is so small that most plug-in developers are not rushing to redevelop their software. While I write this article, there is a small handful of 64-bit Photoshop plug-ins available, but there seems to be a genuine lack of interest on the part of many developers to hop on that bandwagon. It probably isn't economically feasible. For me, this poses a significant dilemma. I've always found that third party plug-ins, more than most of Adobe's native filters, tend to be RAM/CPU hungry beasts, especially when operating at higher resolutions. 64-bit versions would allow those operations to be performed at much higher resolutions without running out of accessible memory. But since those are not yet available, Photoshop CS4 64-bit seems like more of a proof of concept than a full replacement for 32-bit Photoshop.
 
Beyond the lack of third-party support, Photoshop CS4 64-bit has some native annoyances that also make me reluctant to ever run the executable. The application lives in a different "Program Files" folder than the rest of the Adobe CS4 applications, and inexplicably fails to share the same preferences and presets as the 32-bit version of Photoshop. Workspaces, brushes, actions, preferences, and other user interface options are stored in a completely separate compartment, and so the two applications have to be managed separately. This becomes especially annoying with CS4's strange handling of fonts under Windows Vista x64. For some extremely weird reason, CS4 applications running on a 64-bit operating system are incapable of loading Type 1 fonts installed in Windows. TrueType and OpenType fonts have no issues at all, but the Adobe Type 1 format is ignored altogether. How strange is it that an Adobe application cannot play nice with an Adobe file format? There is, however, a workaround: Type 1 fonts need to be installed to the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts" folder to be read by CS4 applications. And fortunately, through experimentation, I found that shortcuts work just as well, so the original font files can be kept where they are. This hurdle completely nullifies the functionality of a font management tool like Extensis Suitcase when it involves Type 1 fonts. And, to make matters worse, the 64-bit version of Photoshop does not use the same Common Files directory, and Type 1 fonts need to be installed in yet another location to be recognized in 64-bit mode. For some, all of this might not get in the way, but for me, all of these difficulties end up adding back the time I'd save with Photoshop 64-bit's enhanced processing performance.
 
On the plus side, however, Photoshop CS4's use of OpenGL hardware acceleration helps significantly with application performance. Without hardware acceleration, previous versions of Photoshop would often choke up during the simplest of operations, such as while scrolling around a zoomed-in, high resolution file. This is because Photoshop had to use RAM and swap file space to store the parts of the image that were in view, and each time the view was altered, RAM and hard disk use would spike, reducing performance. Now that the GPU is involved, Photoshop can offload the display burden to the video card, saving the RAM and swap space for more intensive operations. It's also clear that Photoshop CS4's hardware acceleration makes use of low-resolution proxies when performing pans and zooms, helping the application to feel responsive even as it catches up to the user's input in the background. While the blurry, low-resolution proxy is sometimes noticeable, it's certainly preferable to a locked up screen or what have you.
 
Another gigantic leap forward is Photoshop CS4's treatment of Adjustment Layers. Compared to earlier Photoshop versions, CS4's Adjustment Layers feel far more refined, residing in their own Adjustments palette. Instead of editing Adjustment Layers' settings with separate pop-up dialog boxes, each Adjustment Layer is edited through the same Adjustments palette. This keeps the workflow faster and simpler. Similarly, Layer masks have been given a new non-destructive dimension of editability which supersede the need to create backup channels before performing operations like blurring/feathering on a layer mask. The original layer mask's integrity is maintained as long as the operations are performed through the sliders on the Masks palette.
 
Smart Objects have also been a useful way to circumvent the need for backup layers, especially when experimenting with filters or when downsampling. But until CS4, Smart Objects' layer masks could not be linked to the Smart Object's