Adobe CS5 New Feature Round-Up

Tim attended the CS5 Launch yesterday in Chicago at Ascend Training and found the Adobe Story from script to metadata was a pretty cool feature. Industry-wise, Adobe’s purchase of Business Catalyst and Omniture could potentially give some CMS and Analytics tools a run for their money too.

Here’s a quick rundown on what’s new with Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 Master Collection: a comprehensive toolset for designing across media with Design, Web, and Production Premium packages.

Design highlights:

• Interactive design without writing code, using Adobe Flash® Catalyst™.
• New perspective tools in Illustrator for depth and distance and precision control. 
• Presentations complete with interactivity, motion, sound, and video in Adobe InDesign® CS5. Rich media in page layouts with new motion presets.
• InDesign support for FLV and MP3 audio files import to engage and excite your audiences.
• Mixer Brush and Bristle Tips for naturally textured painting.
• Dimension with 3D extrusions using Adobe Repoussé technology.
• Flash Catalyst CS5 to design interactive content without writing code, Adobe Flash Professional CS5 to create free-form, expressive content, and Adobe Flash Builder™ 4 to develop rich Internet applications.

>>Watch the Adobe TV CS5 for Design episode.

Tapeless workflows in video production. Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5 and Adobe After Effects® CS5 now have support for tapeless media formats and editing workflows. 

>>Watch the Adobe TV CS5 for Video production episode.

Workflow speed improvements:

• Native 64-bit support to allow large image work up to 10x faster in Adobe Photoshop® CS5 Extended.
• HD projects fluidity in Adobe After Effects® CS5 and Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5.
• Roto Brush in Adobe After Effects CS5 for isolating moving foreground elements faster and with automatic transparency.
• Better graphics for web, interactive, and mobile delivery. Artwork that aligns accurately and automatically on the pixel grid in Adobe Illustrator® CS5.
• Get better hair! Masking results for tough image elements with Truer Edge and Quick Selection tool in Photoshop CS5 Extended.
• Typography for web enhancements: bidirectional and vertical text, flowable text layouts, and support for more than 30 writing systems in Adobe Flash® Professional CS5.

Adobe Dreamweaver® CS5 offers full support for content management frameworks, including Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress.

>>Watch the Adobe TV CS5 for Web episode.

Adobe’s site offers more fine videos and design examples of how-to’s and what-will-it-do’s of CS5. Check them out.

Used it? Want it? What are you wanting to do with CS5 on a project?