The Dream Team

Adobe Creative Suite 2 is made up of several components, each with its own set of tools that excel at specific tasks. To get a better understanding of what's included in Adobe Creative Suite 2, let's discuss each of the components and what its primary function is.

Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe ImageReady CS2

Photoshop is a pixel-based program (we'll talk more about this in Chapter 2) that excels at working with photographs and illustrations with painterly effects. Most noted for its capability to manipulate photos (see Figure 1.3), it is also used for designing web graphics. Although most people don't know it, Adobe ImageReady is a part of Photoshop that is geared specifically to web graphics. It's more of a production tool that lets you specify optimizations, rollovers, animations, and more. Competitors to Photoshop have come and gone, but Macromedia Fireworks is similar in many ways to ImageReady.

Figure 1.3. A photograph before and after it was edited in Photoshop.

Adobe Illustrator CS2

Illustrator is a vector-based program (more on this in Chapter 2) that excels at creating illustrations (see Figure 1.4), logos, maps, signs, and more. Illustrator can also serve as a single-page layout tool for creating ads and posters, and for designing web pages. Competing programs similar to Illustrator are Macromedia's FreeHand and Corel's CorelDRAW.

Figure 1.4. An illustration created with Illustrator.

Adobe InDesign CS2

InDesign is a page-layout program that enables you to composite or put together entire brochures or booklets (see Figure 1.5) and even author- interactive PDF files. Robust tools such as table editors and master pages enable designers to easily compose pages and designs. Competing programs similar to InDesign are QuarkXPress and Microsoft Publisher.

Figure 1.5. A typical page spread designed in InDesign.

Adobe GoLive CS2

GoLive is a web publishing program that allows you to publish and manage websites (see Figure 1.6). You can use the HTML editor to lay out individual pages of a site, as well as set up complex database-driven pages. Server- management tools and FTP functionality let you easily update and maintain your websites. Competing programs similar to GoLive are Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage.

Figure 1.6. A typical website designed in GoLive.

Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional

Acrobat is a tool used for working with PDF (Portable Document Format) files. You can mark up and review PDF files with useful annotation tools, making it easy to get feedback from clients or co-workers (see Figure 1.7). Acrobat can also be used for filling out forms, applying digital signatures, preflighting files for printing, and previewing color separations onscreen.

Figure 1.7. A marked-up PDF with comments in Acrobat.

The Acrobat family (as Adobe likes to call it) actually includes several programs, which is always a cause for confusion. Each product has different levels of functionality, but here are the three main versions you need to be aware of:

Adobe Reader (once called Acrobat Reader) is a free program and browser plug-in that allows anyone to view and print PDF documents. This is the version most people havewith more than 700 million downloads worldwide. In fact, whenever you hear people say, "Yeah, I have Adobe on my computer," they are most likely referring to the free Adobe Reader.

Adobe Acrobat Standard gives users the capability to mark up and review PDF files, as well as fill out forms, apply digital signatures, and perform some other basic functions. This version is useful for people who often work with PDF files but usually do the same kinds of simple tasks. Basically, it's a scaled-back version of Acrobat Professional.

Adobe Acrobat Professional is the version that ships in the Creative Suite and offers the most robust toolset of all the versions listed here, including everything mentioned previously, plus preflight tools, onscreen separations preview, editing tools, and more.

There aren't any programs that compete significantly or directly with Acrobat, although Microsoft Office offers some limited, similar functionality, such as the capability to add comments to documents. In Chapter 3, "The Game Plan: Developing a Workflow," we'll talk a lot more about PDF files and how they are used.

Adobe Version Cue CS2 and Bridge

Version Cue is an asset-management system that tracks files and versions of project files (see Figure 1.8). Intended for smaller workgroups (anywhere from 1 to 20 users), it allows users to easily find images or other assets used in a particular project. The database also stores multiple versions of files, meaning that you can easily keep track of what changes were made on a project and even go back to previous versions effortlessly. Version Cue is available only as part of Adobe Creative Suiteyou can't buy it separatelyand at the time of this writing, no products compete with it.

Figure 1.8. Viewing file metadata with Version Cue.

Adobe Bridge is an application that enables you to browse files visually (see Figure 1.9) and perform certain tasks that span several Creative Suite applications. From setting global color-management settings across all Suite applications at once to performing scripts and automated tasks to files, to purchasing and downloading stock photos, Bridge acts as a central access point to all of the applications in Adobe Creative Suite 2.