After purchasing Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Design three months ago, I liked the tools enough to want more: design, web and video. Then the CS3 Master Collection became available, with all the Toys (oops, I mean Tools) I wanted for a really “suite” deal. Master Collection lets you write the book, create the illustrations, publish the book to your website, animate a cartoon from the book complete with soundtrack and outtakes, sell the book’s rights to yourself, film a movie based on the book, review it in a PDF White Paper, and generate the talking heads to discuss it, all on your PC. Oh, yeah: and produce a video game based on the book. Adobe has tried to take disparate products (including Macromedia’s) and do at least some standardization of their interfaces so a person can learn most of the programs easily, while still retaining familiar shortcuts and menus. I was so surprised how quickly most of these programs run on my computer. Gone are the days when it took Photoshop five minutes to load – I can have 3 apps open at the same time without meltdown. I can create graphics in one application, and paste into another rather than importing. Included free in the box is a disk from Lynda online training, providing training material for the included programs. Even though just a taste, it gave me enough of an idea on how to use the unfamiliar programs. Then, as a benefit for registration was a free month of the Lynda website training. This is awesome, since learning curves on graphics programs are typically long. The videos really help make you productive right away. Adobe Acrobat 9 is especially eye-opening, because it redefines the concept of “document”, with sound and video (through Flash) now being integral parts of that document. I highly recommend this studio. Unlike many suites whose upgrades contain mostly features that the typical user will never get around to, the Adobe Master Collection CS3 is about breaking new barriers, and providing features we have always wished for. As in all products, there are plenty of omissions and glitches, but being given the power to do it all, or most of it, anyway, is still a thrill for us “mere mortals”.

The product is excellent. It gives all of the tools you require for any type of digital production work from flat files to video. It takes a lot of resources on the machine and requires the Intel G5 rather than the power mac for all of the products to run. I recieved the product quickly and it was in perfect order when I got it.