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The brand new—and long-awaited "universal"—versions of Adobe's industry cornerstone apps for Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs running Mac OS X version 10.4.8 or above and Windows machines running XP or Vista have been officially announced, and the day is finally here when we can all start figuring out which Adobe CS3 package we're going to pick up. However, more than at any other time in the past, Adobe has made our lives easier and more complicated at the same time. There are more options, more specific package configurations, but the more options there are the more head scratching goes on. Let's stop the scratching and break it down.

A Note On Upgrading

The rules for upgrading are: if you have a version of one of the standalone apps (e.g., Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) there will be upgrade pricing available to you only if the version you own is at most three versions back from current. An example would be: if you own Photoshop 7, CS or CS2 you will get an upgrade discount to either Photoshop CS3 standalone, or one of the CS3 suites that include Photoshop. Older than version 7, and you're at full pricing. Upgrade paths also include owning Dreamweaver or Flash when they were still Macromedia. A specific example might be: if you have Illustrator 10, you will get a discount when you buy say, the Web Standard Edition of CS3.

Additionally, there are deeper discounts if you own one of the previous Suites - Adobe Creative Suite 1 or CS2 for example, or either of the past MX, MX2004 or Studio 8 Macromedia offerings. You will have to do a little investigation to determine the exact discount you're eligible for, but best to figure out what applications you need, let that guide what CS3 Suite Edition you choose, and then gather up all your Adobe and Macromedia registered versions, and finally figure out how much you can save. As always, it's fairly expensive to get into new Adobe apps, so the upgrades are a savings, yes, but it's still going to run ya.

Something to Notice: Photoshop will come in both "Photoshop CS3" and "Photoshop CS3 Extended" versions. Extended adds deeper, more sophisticated - sometimes very industry specific - functionality. (They have a Photoshop Extended specifically for the medical and science industries, for example, as well as AEC [architecture, engineering and construction], film and video, and one for manufacturing.) I will look into some of the particulars of what features do indeed extend Photoshop in these contexts in a future post.

What comes in each of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Editions, and how much are they gonna run me?

If you're buying more than one application, or upgrading to more than one, it's most cost effective to look at one of the CS3 product suites. The editions are called Design Standard, Design Premium, Web Standard, Web Premium, Production Premium, and Master Collection. They each come with a certain set of apps - at a specific price point. Some editions have redundancies, so you will have to determine which applications you need most if you are not throwing down for the big box. Anyone who owns any version of Adobe Creative Suite plus Macromedia Studio, OR of Adobe Creative Suite plus Adobe Production Studio, OR of Macromedia Studio plus Adobe Production Studio, can land the entire collection of new CS3 applications for a cool $1399. The only product here that is a "version 1.0 spanking new release" is Adobe Soundbooth, a new tool for creating and editing high quality audio - everything else is a new version and is possibly eligible for some kind of upgrade pricing depending on what you have.

DESIGN STANDARD $1199
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard ships with all new full versions of:
Adobe InDesign CS3
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
Adobe Bridge CS3 which also offers direct access to Adobe Version Cue CS3, Adobe Stock Photos, Adobe Device Central CS3, and Adobe Acrobat Connect

DESIGN PREMIUM $1799
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium includes everything in Design Standard , but adds all new full versions of:
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3,
Flash CS3 Professional
Photoshop CS3 Extended.

WEB STANDARD $999
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard ships with all new full versions of:
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe Fireworks CS3
Adobe Contribute CS3
Adobe Device Central CS3, Adobe Bridge CS3, Adobe Stock Photos, and Adobe Version Cue CS3

WEB PREMIUM $1599
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium includes everything in Web Standard , but adds all new full versions of:
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional

PRODUCTION PREMIUM $1699
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium ships with all new full versions of:
Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3*
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe Soundbooth CS3*
Adobe Encore CS3*
Adobe OnLocation CS3 **
Adobe Ultra CS3**
Features available only in Production Premium:
Adobe Dynamic Link* and
Capture In After Effects*
Adobe Device Central CS3 and Adobe Bridge CS3

MASTER COLLECTION $2499
Adobe Creative Suite 3
Master Collection combines
full new versions of:
Adobe InDesign CS3
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Adobe Contribute CS3
Adobe Fireworks CS3
Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3**
Adobe Soundbooth CS3**
Adobe Encore CS3**
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
Adobe Bridge CS3, which also offers
direct access to Adobe Version Cue
CS3, Adobe Stock Photos, Adobe
Device Central CS3, and Adobe Acrobat
Connect
Adobe Dynamic Link**
Capture In After Effects**
Adobe OnLocation CS3*
Adobe Ultra CS3*

** Requires an Intel-based Mac
* Available only on Microsoft Windows or running on Windows under Boot Camp on an Intel-based Mac..