With Web Standard/Premium, Design Premium AND Macromedia’s products now absorbed into CS3, choosing the right suite is EASY.

What makes PDF (Portable Document Format) unique is that it can provide an exact electronic replica of any document from any application on all major platforms, including all text, graphics and fonts. It’s an amazingly flexible format with a myriad of uses ranging from electronic manuals and e-books, through secure document exchange and archiving, to multimedia presentation and high-end commercial print.

The Quark-killer has finally landed. For the last year, the hype about Adobe's replacement for the worthy but old-fashioned PageMaker (reviewed issue 22, p108) has been building to fever pitch.

There was a time when semi-professional video editors and home-video enthusiasts had little choice but Adobe Premiere. Back then, video capture and output depended on proprietary hardware, which often only worked with its bundled software.

A new interface, drawing engine and programming language, but surprisingly little new power.

A new interface, smart albums, guided editing and photo merging keep Photoshop Elements ahead of the pack

Non-destructive image processing and creative filters feature in this comprehensive upgrade to the market leader.

Support for new file types and platforms plus improved 3D rendering, but director is yesterday’s tool – and it shows

Yet another leap forward for After Effects, which cements its status as the leading PC video compositing tool.

Powerful new versions of InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, and now Acrobat 8 Professional too.

A questionable interface redesign and greater-than-ever complexity lead to a half-baked feeling.

With Flash media handling and integration with Acrobat.com the Acrobat platform embraces the Internet – at last

Not only slightly cheaper than the last version, but now Encore CS3 and OnLocation CS3 are included too.

Media management gets a Macromedia-inspired makeover; with export preview facilities for mobile devices.

After the launch of the latest Acrobat a few months ago, everything went quiet on the Adobe front. It's now clear what the company was working on, with the simultaneous launch of each of its main creative design packages -- Photoshop/ImageReady, Illustrator, InDesign and GoLive. (Please see individual reviews of all of these packages on this month's cover CD.)

Adobe Photoshop is so dominant when it comes to print and Web-based bitmap-editing that, in many ways, it has come to define the whole field...

New image editing tools and a more powerful library mode makes Lightroom 2 compelling. It's also compatible with Vista 64-bit.

Fantastic looks and comprehensive features Lightroom is a winner for improving workflow efficiency.

For many years, After Effects (AE) was the only real choice for PC video compositing - everything else was in a different price/hardware league. But in the last couple of years, with the steady improvement of Pinnacle's Commotion and the huge price drop in Discreet's Combustion, AE isn't alone anymore.

The name LiveMotion comes from its ability to bring compositions to life as animations; these are then output as QuickTime movies..