Adobe Creative Suite CS2 is amazing!
I got my copy of Adobe CS2 today, and quite frankly, I’m floored.
I tend to focus on Photoshop first, with InDesign a close second.
First impressions of new Photoshop:
The UI is noticeably slower than CS in some minor ways, but I’m not sure if that’s because it’s doing more, or this is just the first time through (some things have gotten faster as I’ve used them). That’s my only criticism so far.
Some things, like raw processing and image browsing, are just a lot faster. Many of the image processing functions are impressively faster.
While the increased feature set on the website sounds minimal, they have really tweaked out everything. I’ve only just begun to explore.
Adobe Camera Raw 3.0 is fantastic and far more flexible than the previous version. You can now do cropping and straightening (with a very intuitive tool) in the raw filter, and can set droppers, adjust constrast curves, do camera color correction with saved profiles (I think this was in 2.5, but not the default one shipped with CS), and apply raw conversion changes without fully opening the image. This last is very useful for doing fast batch raw processing, which Adobe Bridge (the replacement for the crappy browser in the last version) now also supports. They were thinking.
The new Smart Sharpen filter is mind blowing. It is MILES ahead of unsharp mask.
