Design Premium
Design Standard
Web Premium
Web Standard
Production Premium
Master Collection

I know the best deal is getting the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection but I'm not ready to spend $2500 on software that gets updated so often. Plus it comes with a bunch of crap I'll never use. What I'm interested in is Adobe InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4 and Illustrator CS4. The Design Standard edition has those 3 plus Acrobat 9 Pro BUT Photoshop is not Extended.

**Questions:
**

1. What is the difference between Photoshop and Photoshop Extended? From what I see it has something to do with 3D.

2. Will I be able to upgrade whichever software in that edition individually or will I be forced to upgrade the Design Standard edition as a whole?

3. What kind of problems will I run into being on Vista?

4. What other questions have I forgotten to ask? LOL

Getting new graphics software should be exciting so why is my head throbbing?

BTW, currently I have the Adobe InDesign CS, Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS. I'm also upgrading CorelDraw Graphics Suite to X4 which is well under $500 for full the version. CorelDraw's maximum zoom is 405651% whch is amazing compared to Adobe Illustrator's 6400% although panning can be quite a chore. 

I prefer CorelDraw to Illustrator but buying Photoshop CS4 and InDesign CS4 individually would cost more than the Design Standard edition.  

I'll do my best to comment on these:

1. The main selling point of Extended is indeed its 3D capabilities, especially the ability to paint directly on 3D models. Frankly it's not a patch on Maxon's BodyPaint and if you really need to do that then a copy of BP is a better buy.

2. No, I don't think so. The impression I get from the Adobe site is that if you buy the collection you can't upgrade individual components of it. The Adobe store says 'Products within a Suite cannot be upgraded individually.'

3. I didn't have any issues running PS CS4 and Illustrator CS3 on Vista and they're fine on win7. One point to note (which I certainly didn't realise, though I should have done) is that if you're running Vista or win7 64 bit, both 32 and 64 bit versions of the software are provided, BUT most (read virtually all) of your plugins are still 32 bit only, so you may be restricted to the 32-bit version even on a 64 bit OS.

4. Well.. the main one is probably how many versions can I leave it before I upgrade again, the cost being what it is. I tend to skip alternate versions but even that's questionable, especially with Illustrator which doesn't change that much between versions.

Mine is 32-bit so I don't have to worry about the 64-bit compatibilty problems. Are you saying that each comes with both 32 and 64-bit installations or you have to be careful which bit you buy? Would I be able to upgrade my full versions of Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS and InDesign CS to CS4 instead of getting the full Suite? Now If I can do that the upgrades of each might be better be a better price. Looks like more research is needed with price comparisons. What a pain!

As I recall, PS CS4 came with both 32 bit and 64 bit versions in the same pack and I installed both (but hardly ever use the 64 bit because of the plugins issue). But it's easy to check that with Adobe, there's probably a FAQ.

You could certainly upgrade your individual licenses, which might or might not be cheaper (I think not, but it might not be by much).

Yes, Adobe's licensing/bundling is Byzantine and you really have to read their site and check and re-check before parting with cash, IMO.

Thanks! I won't be ordering anything till Tuesday so I'll be doing a lot of reading this weekend. Although Adobe site is good to get some answers it's good to hear from real people who have it and what problems they had. Adobe never admits to anything but perfect software LOL.

My only tip is probably go for a beverage or lunch while the install runs - they seem to last forever. :)

I installed Production Premium on a pretty beefy core 2 duo machine at work, and it was about a 4-5 hour process.

4-5 hours? WOW! I got my Corel DRAW Graphics Suite X4 today. Installed, registered and I even watched the 18 videos this evening. It was suppose to arrive on 14 January. Pleasant surprise since they were both ordered yesterday. My Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Standard is suppose to arrive on 11 January. So who knows when it will arrive. I'll have to take note on how long the install process will be. Maybe a hard drink will be in order for the Adobe install LOL.

The Adobe package came early too. I received today and it's all installed. Install process took 35 minutes including registration. The majority of the time was for Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro and the language packs for the InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop.