It was late September 2008 when Adobe launched new version of its popular Creative Suite series. CS4 is another step into creating an ideal set of applications for webmasters, designers and other specialists involved into creating web and media content.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium is generally targeted to specialists who create or edit any type of content for websites. It includes 11 applications that cover all possible needs. The main difference from Web Standard version is Photoshop CS4 Extended that provides better image support and gives you several new features.


Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium:

Adobe Photoshop® CS4 Extended
Adobe Dreamweaver® CS4
Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional
Adobe Illustrator® CS4
Adobe Fireworks® CS4
Adobe Fireworks® CS4
Adobe Adobe Device® Central CS4
Adobe Adobe Bridge® CS4
Adobe Version Cue® CS4
Adobe Soundbooth® CS4
Adobe Contribute® CS4
Adobe Media Player

As you can see, the difference between designers oriented packages (ex. Designer Premium) is not serious, but this version contains some useful tools that will simplify webmaster’s life.

The first change you will see concerns interface look. Whole suit’s design has been upgraded and now it looks more user-friendly and you don’t need to switch between those multiple windows anymore as CS4 has tab-based design. In general, interface looks much better now and it’s easier to navigate and apply certain effects.

Do not for get to look at other applications apart from mentioned ones that are present in this suite. For example, Kuler color can be launched from Illustrator, Photoshop and Fireworks. It’s a web application, so you need Internet access to use it, but it’s really worth it as you get color data from Kuler community and this makes it easier to find best color schemes.

Webmaster’s tool Dreamweaver CS4 has major updates concerning workflow. Sophisticated linking and related files are no longer a problem in this version of Dreamweaver. This is really long-awaited update especially for web coders doing PHP programming with multiple include files. Another butch of updates concerns Ajax and javascript coding.

Small and handy tool Code Navigator works similar to Firebug plug-in in Firefox. With its help you can access CSS tags and edit them “on the fly”. You can change all settings, see the result immediately, but you actually don’t have to save the file.

Another nice thing to mention is Smart Objects. This option works similar to InDesign. It can be used in a number of ways, for example, when you have an image of different sizes throughout your website (like logo), you can update assets of this image and get all proportions kept in order. These are not revolutionary updates, but they are really timesaving.

Mac users will also like specially developed Web Kit for Safari that allows seeing your page in pseudo browser, so you can locally see your web pages and website interface.

Adobe Fireworks CS4 doesn’t show any serious updates and looks less modernized than other programs in the suite. Overall design has been renewed and now it looks much simpler. You also get an access to Kuler color community. Finally, the results of your work can be exported to PDF. Adobe finally tries to change Fireworks from image tool to prototyping tool and that is a good idea as we already have Photoshop.

The next application will be, definitely, loved by podcasters. Podcasts don’t seem to lose their popularity and Soundbooth CS4 is a simple way to create them. This application provides multi track support, helps to reduce noise, pops or cracking that are common for recordings and even add some effects.

The next program is a real breath of fresh air for all designers and coders working with mobile device content. You can test your work with Adobe Device Central and see it as if it was uploaded to mobile phone, smartphone or any other gadget. Currently Device Central supports emulation of all most popular portable devices. Tight integration with Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks helps to test your data using Device Central from those programs.

Photoshop Extended is one of the most successful programs in Creative Suit 4. Now it’s even easier to operate and do the same tasks for less time. Photoshop has never been a fast application and applying some effects required rather long waiting. CS4 version works much faster as it uses not only your processor and RAM, but memory of your video card and Software memory as well. As a result working with huge images and moving objects are done a lot faster. Other updates are not so impressive and concern such details as brush previewing, better mid-tones and shadows palette and more convenient level adjustment.

Another application that should be mentioned is Adobe Illustrator CS4. This version will be liked by those Mac users, who use drawing. Usually it’s a mess, but Illustrator CS4 makes it a little bit easier. Besides this you will find here an improved gradient tool and better layers management.

Adobe Creative Suit 4 Web Premium is a comprehensive package that will satisfy all specialists working in the sphere of web coding and design. The forth version doesn’t have multiple critical updates comparing to CS3, but it works smoother and faster. The main objective of this version was to improve workflow and make it simpler and more user-friendly and this goal has been definitely reached.