With the introduction today of its creative suite 5.5 design and development tools, Adobe Systems is underscoring support for mobile devices and HTML5. The tools are slated to ship by May 11. Adobe did not say what it would charge existing users to upgrade to the new version. The company also will offer the tools via a subscription option. The major Creative Suite tools -- Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash Pro, Dreamweaver, Premiere, Acrobat Pro, and InDesign -- are available singly, as well as in various suites.
As part of version 5.5, Adobe's Dreamweaver Web design tool features jQuery JavaScript library support for authoring of HTML5 and JavaScript widgets for various devices. "Dreamweaver's where all the HTML5 advancement is," said David Burkett, Adobe vice president for the Creative Suite design and Web segment. Dreamweaver CS 5.5 provides a visual interface to HTML5 capabilities.
The new Adobe's Photoshop Touch Software Development Kit enables developers to build tablet applications so that Google Android, RIM PlayBook, and Apple iOS devices can interact with Photoshop. Using this SDK, three new iPad applications are being launched to bolster Photoshop workflows: Adobe Color Lava for Photoshop, Adobe Eazel for Photoshop, and Adobe Nav for Workshop. These applications let users create custom color swatches or small samples, as well paint and drive popular Photoshop tools from tablets.
InDesign CS 5.5 also enhances some of the e-book capabilities found in the previous version, such as allowing more control over CSS export and image resolution.
Adobe noted that applications can be delivered on Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Apple iOS, and other platforms via the HTML capabilities of Dreamweaver, Flash, and InDesign. Flash and InDesign can also export Flash-based video content and rich Internet applications; a separate tool converts such Flash applications to run on iOS. All these capabiltiies existed in the previous version of Creative Suite, 5.0.
The company's Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium Suite, for audio and video professionals, offers workflow improvements and new audio editing. The Adobe Mercury Playback Engine, which had been introduced as part of Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.0, now features broadened GPU support to include laptops and more cards.