Adobe's CS3 to capture cross-media market

Adobe has thrown its hat into the cross-media publishing ring, with the official launch of its long-awaited design and page layout package Creative Suite 3 (CS3).

The software firm, which is locked in a battle for pre-media supremacy with rival Quark, has stepped up the integration of functions for producing content for the web and mobile design, as well as print output.

The Premium version of CS3, which was launched on Tuesday (27 March), includes new versions of interactive design tools Flash Professional and Dreamweaver, alongside upgraded versions of Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.

Acrobat 8, which was launched last year, is also included in the package, which promises faster and easier workflows, as well as higher integration across all media formats.

The launch comes four months after Quark released its product to capture the cross-media production market, Interactive Designer, and both firms’ launches come as direct mail houses and others in the print industry step up their efforts to communicate through both print-based and electronic media.

Adobe senior vice pre­sident of creative solutions John Loiacono said: “By bringing Flash and Dream­weaver into the mix, we’re ensuring that interactive design is now at the centre of today’s creative workflows.”

Adobe has also promised that InDesign CS3 will export pages to print with added ease, in part due to a new feature that will allow multiple files to be imported simultaneously.

Users can export layouts in XHTML or XML formats to begin web pages in Dreamweaver, or for other publishing applications. The newest integrated component, Device Central CS3, allows content sent to mobiles to be authorised more simply.


ADOBE CS3 DESIGN PREMIUM
Components InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Acrobat 8 Professional, llustrator CS3, Dreamweaver CS3, Flash CS3 Professional
Price Around £1,400; an edition with standard Photoshop CS3 costs £895
Ships April

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