Worth the upgrade fee? (Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard for Mac)

Member Name: macmonkey13

Product:	Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard for Mac
Date:	15/09/08 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: New tolls, excellent new layout

Disadvantages: Quite expensive

Anyone who has read my Computer Arts magazine review may remember that I am a graphic designer. As a graphic designer, I use this package every single day to create artwork and designs for clients. To me, Adobe Creative Suite 3 is like a hammer for a carpenter - it's a must have tool.

Adobe seem to upgrade their main packages almost religiously every year - 18 months, so it seems little point forking out the best part of £500+ to simply add a couple of extra brushes or tools for each package. I believe they are already working on their fourth incarnation as we speak.

However, CS3 adds more than just a couple of new elements. Adobe has taken the opportunity this time around to offer the user a brand new interface with more customizable options which may or may not suit all. I however think it's one of the best updates they have released since they introduced Layers in Photoshop way back in an earlier version.

One of the best updated features has to be Photomerge, which is nestled away in Photoshop CS3 under the File > Automate option. Photomerge gives you an option to merge two images together which are similar to give a panoramic shot in one image. For example, if you were to take a shot of a shop front which is quite wide and then a similar shot of areas you didn't get in the original shot, you can take them into Photoshop and Photomerge them together to create one full shot. It will even remove people automatically for you!

I know I may not have described this tool in a very easy way to understand but if you are interested, you may still be able to download the free 30 day trial to see what I'm on about. If you have an original version of Photoshop or any of the other Creative Suite programmes, then the trial is a good way to test whether it's worth spending to upgrade.

I could not be without Creative Suite 3.

Summary: Adobe's update to every designer's favourite software package.

Variety of features:
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