by Curt Stone

Created on: October 19, 2007

In two words: More Productivity.

In a few more: CS3 has a plethora of new useful tools, working methods and positive changes to the user interface. I was smitten by 'Live Trace' (a way to pen round an imported scan in seconds). 'Live Color' seduced me too; you can grab a whole swathe of design elements and harmoniously recolor them in one hit. Throughout the package small bells and whistles have been neatly appended to the pre-existing features. So no steep learning curve when you chance across them - CS1 and 2 users will feel like they're evolving with the software and very able to drive it from the very beginning. New users will hit the jackpot with this solid product having not endured the pains of its birth in the form if its previous incarnations. Oh, you get real estate too with this.. screen real estate, no more shuffling palettes around to find your artwork below - they just intelligently get out of your way.
Caveats; well it's a thoroughbred so its costly and its optimized to run on an intel mac and therefore runs pretty slowly (especially booting) on the 'long in the tooth' powermacs.

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