Adobe says Creative Suite 4.0 shipping, Flash 10 available

Creative Suite 4 bundles and applications

"Creative Suite 4 and Flash Player 10 introduce vital time-saving features, new levels of integration and the jaw-dropping innovations our design and developer customers expect from us," said John Loiacono, senior vice president, Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. "CS4 continues to fulfill our promise to customers to break down more barriers in cross-media workflows, while also providing new services and collaboration tools that help them manage complex client demands."

Customers can choose from six new versions, which can be downloaded directly from Adobe's website. They include Adobe Creative Suite 4:

• Design Premium (Upgrade: $599, Full:$1799)
• Design Standard (Upgrade: $499, Full:$1399)
• Web Premium (Upgrade: $599, Full:$1699)
• Web Standard (Upgrade: $399, Full:$999)
• Production Premium (Upgrade: $599, Full:$1699)
• Master Collection (Upgrade: $899, Full:$2499)

A chart breaking down the the specific CS4 bundles by included application is available below.

Alternatively, customers can choose to purchase or upgrade individual components of Adobe's new Creative Suite bundles, including:

• Photoshop CS4 (Upgrade: $199, Full:$699)
• Photoshop CS4 Extended (Upgrade: $349, Full:$999)
• InDesign CS4 (Upgrade: $199, Full:$699)
• Illustrator CS4 (Upgrade: $199, Full:$599)
• Acrobat 9 Pro (Upgrade: $159, Full:$499)
• Flash CS4 Professional (Upgrade: $199, Full:$699)
• Dreamweaver CS4 (Upgrade: $199, Full:$399)
• Fireworks CS4 (Upgrade: $149, Full:$299)
• Contribute CS4 (Upgrade: $99, Full:$199)
• After Effects CS4 (Upgrade: $299, Full:$999)
• Premiere Pro CS4 (Upgrade: $299, Full:$799)
• Fireworks CS4 (Upgrade: $149, Full:$299)
• Soundbooth CS4 (Upgrade: $79, Full:$199)
• InCopy CS4 (Upgrade: $89, Full:$249)

In order to entice users to update to the new Creative Suite applications, Adobe said it's offering Creative Suite 3 customers moving to Creative Suite 4 a lower upgrade price than it offers to those moving from older, qualifying versions. For a limited time, a special introductory offer enables customers with older qualifying products to enjoy the same lower price with savings of up to US$200 off their actual upgrade price. Details of the offer posted on the company's website.

The Amazon alternative

Creative Suite users who prefer to use their Amazon accounts to order physical copies of the new bundles or applications can do so from this Amazon.com Creative Suite 4.0 Landing Page. The retailer offers slight discounts on all CS4 products.

Flash 10

Also available today as a free immediate download is Adobe Flash Player 10, which includes new support for custom filters and effects, native 3D transformation and animation, advanced audio processing, and GPU hardware acceleration.

The new version also extends the capabilities of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product line with new levels of Adobe Flash technology integration to streamline collaboration and enhance the design/develop workflow, Adobe said.

Interactive designers and developers can now create custom filters and effects with Adobe Pixel Bender, which is the same technology behind many filters and special effects in Adobe After Effects CS4 software. Developers targeting Adobe Flash Player 10 can use these filters, blend modes and fills to animate effects or change the effect on rich media content at runtime.

Flash Player 10 also enables new capabilities and performance improvements in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, including easy-to-use 3D effects that enable designers to design in 2D and easily transform and animate in 3D.