CREATIVE SUITE VERSUS COMPONENT PROGRAMS

Purchasing the Adobe Creative Suite rather than the individual programs has a number of advantages. In addition to saving money, you work with a single serial number. In fact, the Adobe Creative Suite 2 is technically a single product. The most important differences between purchasing the Adobe Creative Suite 2 and the individual component programs are Version Cue and Adobe Bridge. These two applications can become the core of your file management routine.

Looking back over time, you see where Adobe has consistently added to its offerings. It has coincided with the needs of designers and improvements in digital technology and has often been the driving force of the industry (see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2. A timeline of Adobe software milestones from its humble beginnings to the release of CS2.