CS2 to CS4... Should I do it??

Craig

Craig

Well-known member
I am just wondering if it's a good move or not. I am a small shop and I usually upgrade every other version to try to keep the expenses down. I see there are some issues with Acrobat 9, we get quite a few customer PDF's and I don't need the extra headaches right now.

What's your opinion, to CS4 or not to CS4, that is the question!
 
To CS2 or not to CS4?

To CS2 or not to CS4?

Craig, I wish I had a recommendation or thoughts on the matter; but I'm in the same boat as you! I am running CS2 and considering whether or not to upgrade to CS4. I am thinking of upgrading for several reasons. The first reason is that I bought CS2 when it came out and I made fun of everyone with CS. Then they came out with CS3 and everyone with CS upgraded and is now making fun of me. So, I think I should get CS4 and make fun of the CS3 people:D But no, seriously, I am thinking of making the switch because CS2 was not built to run on Intel Macs. I don't think PCs have that problem but when I bought my Mac 2.5 years ago with CS2, the guys at the Apple store told me I'll want to upgrade Adobe as soon as I can. It's not a big problem, Adobe just runs slower than it should given the memory in the computer.

Glad to know I'm not the only one with CS2,
Keith
 
Craig,
We always stay current on all of the programs that we support out of necessity. In my experience, CS4 is very good. We are a publication printer and we had nagging problems exporting PDFs from CS2, mostly related to nested PDFs containing transparency. CS3 fixed these problems and was pretty much trouble-free. I haven't noticed any huge improvements in CS4, but better yet- I haven't had any problems. One thing I will say, is that between OSX Leopard and CS4, all of our systems seem to run a tick or two slower.

Put it this way- you've got to upgrade sometime. The further behind you get, the harder it will be to catch up.
 
Hi Craig, I've been running CS4 for the last 2 months or so (have to stick to Acrobat Pro 8 for workflow compatibility though). Not a lot of new useful features for me but everything runs good. I open InDesign jobs created in CS3 without problem. Illustrator CS4 separation preview palette is a good addition, on the other hand multi-art (to not say multi-pages) Illustrator CS4 forces you to be a little more cautious about updating modified ai files. On-the-fly InDesign CS4 preflight tool is also neat. Adobe software release cycle was (probably still is) 18 months so be ready for CS5 in Spring of 2010.
 
Thanks for all the input, it looks like it's time to open the wallet again for CS4.

Somewhat unrelated, is it me or does it seem like new releases are getting closer together? I may be wrong but instead of a service pack to fix an issue, it just a new version. (not just Adobe, but everyone)
 
Well, since at least the CS1 version, Adobe's release cycle seems to have stuck to the 18 months rule. On the other hand, Agfa commited to release 1 major upgrade a year of their Apogee solution.
 
Craig said:
I see there are some issues with Acrobat 9
Click to expand...

What issues? I would be very curious to hear about any issue that is preventing folks from moving to Acrobat 9 - especially since Acrobat 9 offers such MAJOR ADVANCES over Acrobat 8 for the prepress/publishing marketplace.
 
leonardr said:
What issues? I would be very curious to hear about any issue that is preventing folks from moving to Acrobat 9 - especially since Acrobat 9 offers such MAJOR ADVANCES over Acrobat 8 for the prepress/publishing marketplace.
Click to expand...

The price in Europe ;)
 
it may be that it is not a problem. but the font issues in external pdf's placed in indesign do give some workflows an issue. I think the heidelberg prinect update next month may fix this for me, but it is still something for anyone to consider when upgrading to cs4. I know for a fact that one of my customers in europe sends me a quark pdf I place in indesign run a pdf proof that looks fine in acrobat 9 and then it wont desplay right in anything else that he has or I have. but it prints right on the copiers but not prinect. other that this our prepress gals love cs4. I even asked if they would like me to down grade and they said no for now.

by the way we relaid out the project in quark original files and output the pdfs and sent them to prinect just fine. just could not put a pdf in indesign and make it work. anything done completely in indesign works fine though
 
Last edited:
Adobe has said in the past they plan on releasing their products every 18 to 24 months. Looking at the previous releases of the Creative Suite, they have pretty much alternated between 18 and 24 months. So I predict the next release of the Suite to be around October 2010.
 
leonardr said:
And? There it nothing here that is a problem, as I've written on that thread multiple times...

Please be specific about a problem that you are personally experiencing that is impacting your workflow...
Click to expand...

Leonard, that thread has not been resolved. I've sent files in to Adobe to illustrate the things I've been seeing. I haven't received word on any conclusions.
 
I would strongly recomend getting on the Adobe Partner program, so that you can allways have the latest versions, along with online seminars and stuff. I find it helpfull, and well woth the investment.
If it is worth the upgrade depends on your work, I find there are major improvements on features that I use every day, I think CS4 is worth it, especially if you only had CS2 before. (Bridge, Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator all have usefull features added, it will take time to get used to differences and there is allways a little time needed to invest in learning new features so that you can make the most of them)
 
I like the new features in Photoshop cs4...the masks pallette in particular. But man oh man, why did they have to change the keyboard shortcuts for toggling through channels/curves, etc?
 
I also have been trying to see if the new CS4 is worth it in this down economy. So does it save time or do something spectacular that makes it worth the upgrade?
 
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