| Graphic designers and professionals are visual people. We lay out our pages by selecting tools and dragging objects or moving pixels around the document, and we can immediately see the results of our actions. If we're working with images, we make adjustments to tone or color, or apply a filter, and we get immediate visual feedback about the changes we make. Adobe Creative Suite 2 introduces an new application Adobe Bridge for visually managing the different file types we'll work on within the CS2 applications InDesign layouts, Illustrator documents, Adobe PDF files, every kind of image file, even dynamic media files like QuickTime movies. Just as the Bridge on the starship Enterprise was the main hub for all the ship's departments, the Adobe Bridge helps you work better with all the CS2 applications. In this chapter we'll introduce you to Adobe Bridge and cover its major features. (We'll point you to other chapters for some of its more specialized features.) Here are some of the things you can do using the Bridge: Browse: You can browse your files and folders in a variety of different ways: as thumbnails, in a filmstrip format, showing detailed file information, even in a slide show. Manage files and folders: You can manage your files and folders the same way as you do in your operating system adding, moving, copying, reorganizing, and deleting them but doing it in a more comfortable visual manner. Drag graphics into other applications: You can even drag graphics directly from Bridge into your InDesign or Illustrator layout to place them or into your GoLive Site window for inclusion in your web projects. This can save you time when working in a graphics-rich project. Search: You can view and search for information about files, called metadata. Some metadata is created automatically by CS2 applications. For example, InDesign CS2 can now save font and swatch information with its files. You can add other metadata so you can use it later in your production process. Compare file versions: If you're using the Version Cue CS2 file-management utility, you can now visually manage your files, including versions and alternate file variations. (We discuss working with Version Cue projects in Chapter 13, "Integrating Version Cue into Your Workflow.") Locate royalty-free images: Within Adobe Bridge, you can search for, download, and try out royalty-free stock photos from the new Adobe Stock Photo service. If you choose to purchase them, you can do so through the Bridge, and then quickly relink your layout to the high-resolution images. Process Camera Raw images: If you're a photographer, Adobe Bridge is your access point to the Camera Raw plug-in for processing Camera Raw images from your digital camera. (To work with the Camera Raw plug-in with images from a digital camera, see the "Camera Raw and CS2" sidebar in Chapter 4, "Pixels and Raster Formats.") Access Help files: If you own the Suite (as opposed to individual CS2 applications), you can use Adobe Bridge to get quick access to application Help files and tips and tricks, and you can run automation scripts. (See "Using Bridge Center as a Portal to your CS2 Workflow" below for more information. For information on workflow automation scripts, see Chapter 15, "Automating Your Work.") Synchronize color settings: Adobe Bridge gives the ability to synchronize color settings across Suite applications. (See Chapter 10, "Color and Color Management.")
The Two Bridges There are actually two Adobe Bridge applications: One version is the Adobe Bridge that is installed by Adobe Creative Suite 2either the Premium or Standard Edition. The other version is the Adobe Bridge that is installed when you buy an individual productInDesign CS2, Illustrator CS2, Photoshop CS2 or GoLive CS2. Each of these products installs Adobe Bridge and Adobe Stock Photos. Three features are found only in the Creative Suite version of Bridge: The Bridge Center, suite-wide Color Settings synchronization, and workflow automation scripts. In addition, if you don't have Adobe Creative Suite, you can only gain access to the full Version Cue feature set by participating in a shared project; that is, if another user on your network installs Adobe Creative Suite and gives you access to a Version Cue project in a Version Cue Workspace. For more information, see Chapter 13, "Integrating Version Cue into Your Workflow." |
A note for those of you who work with images a lot: It is important to realize that Adobe Bridge is not an asset manager or cataloging software. While it can give you access to all of the kinds of files you work with, whether they are on your hard drive, removable media or a network volume, it doesn't catalog information about files that are archived on media like CDs or DVDs that are not currently mounted. Behind the Scenes: A Visual Way of Working with Files In times past, in order to select and manipulate our graphic files, we had to go to the operating system and choose files by their cryptic filenames. We would open many files, hoping to find the ones we needed for a project. We would find a logo.eps file, only to realize when we opened it that it was for a different client, or was the wrong version. This began to change with the introduction of the File Browser in Adobe Photoshop 7. It allowed you to visually work with image files and store information about the files called metadata. The File Browser was enhanced in Photoshop CS to be a "super-palette" which even had its own menus. In Adobe Creative Suite 2, the File Browser has been pulled out of Photoshop and made into an entirely new and separate application called the Adobe Bridge. It now works not only with image files, but also with all the kinds of files that you use in Adobe Creative Suite. |
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