Adobe Master Collection

The ultimate package for creation, production and to put life in graphics.

Product summary of Adobe Master Collection

Digital media professionals and companies, and even techie guys and digital media freaks (who can afford the price) would find one of the most jam-packed digital solutions to their computer and digital file needs with another premium product from Adobe: the Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection.

Adobe CS5 Master Collection is one of Adobe’s most complete digital toolboxes for digital file management and creation needs. It is the best solution for professionals relying on various Adobe applications for creating and managing digital media files for websites, mobile sites, mobile phones, and other digital file carriers.

Master Collection: Product Features

Adobe Master Collection is one of the five professional software packages of Adobe’s Creative Suite 5. The most chock-full of the five Adobe Creative Suite 5 flavors, Adobe Master Collection comes heaving with digital file management solutions for people who are fond of creating, editing and managing digital media files, especially for use in mobile devices. This professional digital toolbox features programs for editing and creating print layouts, web pages, mobile sites, desktop applications, animation, videos, and vector graphics and digital pixel. Adobe CS5 Master Collection’s streamlined integration and interface is ideal for managing files to be repurposed to mobile devices. The software supports the latest digital file formats.

Working Through Master Collection: Setup, Interface, and Installation

Adobe CS5 Master Collection poses a typical heavy-duty software: it requires relatively longer installation period. With all the applications that it has to store into the computer system, it usually requires more installation time, prompting the user to close all active applications, especially browsers and Microsoft Office programs.

Installation of Adobe CS5 Master Collection takes about two hours on Windows XP and Windows Vista. That’s faster than Adobe CS3 by a few notches. Adobe Creative Suite 5 combines the interfaces of all applications featured in this product, thus allowing for easier navigation and use. Incorporating former products of Macromedia such as Flash, Adobe CS5 provides friendly interfaces for users. Adobe CS5’s panels are Flash-based, making them more “active,” user-friendly and easy to manage. Its pull down menus, panels and preset styles allow for easy navigation from one work space layout to another.

Use and installation of Adobe CS5 Master Collection requires heavy duty hardware. A processor of 2GHz or more is needed for users of Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2. If a user would have to deal with high definition videos, at least 3.4GHz processor is needed. Master Collection installation also requires OpenGL 2.0-compatible graphics card, 1,280 x 900-pixel display, and Shader Model 3.0 support.

Mac users would need an Intel multicore processor operating a Mac OS X 10.4.11 or a newer version. Hard disk must have at least 26.3 GB free space spec, and must have at least 2 GB of RAM to facilitate installation.

Software installation comes via DVD. Other Adobe CS5 Master Collection specs can be found at Adobe’s official web site.

What It’s Worth: Product Price and Costs of Upgrades

Adobe CS5 Master Collection’s monetary cost matches its heavy-duty features. Adobe CS5 Master Collection is priced specifically for professionals, providing a compilation of all of professional users’ needs into one complete package. It offers a bargain for professionals who would otherwise have to buy each application featured in the collection apiece.

The Price for Adobe CS5 Master Collection ranges from $1,699.89 to $2,699.99. On the other hand, purchasing the applications in Adobe CS5 Master Collection would cost up to $6,290, while upgrading from Adobe Creative Suite 3 versions could mean about $2,000 off your finances.

Since Adobe CS5 Master Collection is relatively costly, it could be too much for leisure users. Professionals and companies who are in need of all or most of the applications offered by Master Collection could benefit a lot, but those who do not need too many tools would do better with individual purchases. Those who regularly use and rely on at least three applications in included in the package would find it the best option. Otherwise, buying Adobe CS5 Master Collection in its current cost could turn out to be quite impractical.

Master Collection Full Package: Applications Included

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection contains the following applications:

- Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional (costs about $449 when bought separately, and about $159 when upgraded)
- After Effects CS5 Professional (costs about $999 when bought separately, and about $299 when upgraded)
- Bridge CS5
- Contribute CS5 (costs about $149 when bought separately)
- Dreamweaver CS5 (costs about $399 when bought separately, and about $199 when upgraded)
- Fireworks CS5 (costs about $299 when bought separately, and about $149 when upgraded)
- Flash CS5 Professional (costs about $699 when bought separately, and about $199 when upgraded)
- Illustrator CS5 (costs about $599 when bought separately, and about $199 when upgraded from CS, FreeHand 9+, or CorelDRAW)
- In Design CS5 (costs about $699 when bought separately, and about $199 when upgraded)
- Photoshop CS5 Extended (costs about $999 when bought separately, and about $349 when upgraded from CS3, or $899 from 5 or 6)
- Premiere Pro CS5 with Encore CS4 and OnLocation (costs about $799 when bought separately, and about $299 when upgraded, or $699 when upgraded from Premiere Elements)
- Soundbooth CS5 (costs about $199 when bought separately, and about $79 when upgraded)

From their predecessors, Adobe CS5 Master Collection applications each take notches in level ups. Adobe Flash makes animation-building easier and faster by omitting some steps in the construction. Adobe Photoshop levels up to work on 3D content. Illustrator finally allows for multi-page documents. Adobe Premiere gets to manage batch encoding, as well as handling footage taken by cameras not using tapes. Together with Soundbooth, Premiere also converts recorded speech from audio to text.

Overall, Adobe CS5 Master Collection levels up by improving application interface management and allowing for application integration. With an improved work flow system, files created in one application can be easily exported to another. Adobe CS5 Master Collection also supports the latest file formats for mobile phones and web sites, as well as desktop applications for Adobe AIR.