Upgrading To Cs2 Question

saurora

I have Creative Suites CS which I purchased at a great discount years ago through NAPP. I am looking to upgrade soon. So far, I have only used Photoshop and have never used the other softwares in the package. The current upgrade for Creative Suites is $499. A stand-alone full version of Photoshop CS2 is $585, with current upgrades (not sure about future) running at $149. Since I don't use the other products in the package, I am thinking it might be smarter to buy a new full version of CS2 at $585 and not have such costly upgrade prices in the future. My question is, is there anything in the other packages that you use that I might be missing out on because I really haven't explored it? Does this idea make sense to you? I am quoting prices from Amazon.com if you know of a better (legal) place to purchase I would be interested in hearing from you.

David_S85

I would suggest waiting a shot while for CS3 unless you have an immediate need for CS2.

The final PS CS3 should be available in about 4-5 months, if not sooner. If you can hold out that long, it would cover you for the next few years. Right now the beta of PS CS3 is downloadable with your Adobe user info. (assuming you are registered).

If you shoot RAW: While CS2 has Camera Raw covering the latest cameras, there are many other products that will create a 16-bit TIFF to copy/import into PS CS. (Notably, whatever came with your camera)

Unfortunately since you have the CS suite, you can only upgrade the entire suite as a whole purchase, and not the PS componant alone, but you probably already know that.

Another option, if available, is to purchase CS2 for educational or non-profit if you qualify. That's how I recently obtained the CS2 Premium suite myself.

The full suite is nice, but a couple apps stumble over themselves. GoLive and Macromedia 8 seem redundant (web creating apps).

Every app natively will make PDF's, so the addition of Acrobat 8 Professional might be over-the-top for most.

Illustrator is fun if you have an artist side. Illustrator's Live Sketch is a hoot to play with! InDesign is the very best if you want total document control. Once you get used to InDesign, you'll never ever want to use anything as mundane as Word or Publisher again. If all you do is flyers and such, then InDesign could be overkill. I am finding more and more to like about Bridge every day.

Unknown right now is how the CS3 suite will be packaged. Known: Macromedia 9 will be replacing Macromedia 7/8 and GoLive. The suite will have updates of PS, Illustrator and InDesign.

BTW, if you might be in the market for a drawing tablet, there's usually PS CS2 price incentive with the package (one way to legitimately purchase CS2 for a decent price).

saurora

Hi David...thanks for the lengthy response. Yes, I am aware I can only upgrade to full Creative Suite (whose dumb idea is that!) as I have checked into that. Right now I am shooting in RAW and using RawShooters. It's my understanding that Bridge is included with the stand-alone version of CS2 so I wouldn't need the full Suite for that. I'm wondering what the prices for CS3 will be. The upgrades right now are more than I paid for the full stand-alone! I guess I should just cool my heels, save more money, and await the new release and hope prices don't continue to rise too much. ....Right!!!!