How Expensive is CS4?!

thomashodgson

Senior Member
Or should it be €$4!? Bloody hell, it is expensive!

Anyone know what the eligibility is for the student edition? Does it have to be a full time course or what?
 
its crazy innit.

I really don't know how anyone is suppose to break into the industry when the basic tools cost so much.

Imagine hammers cost the equivalent. We'd certainly be short of joiners.
 
The thing is the Adobe suite is by no means a simple tool, there are cheaper/open source alternatives, and to break into the industry I think the most important thing people look for are ideas, creativity, and the all important buzzword talent. Employers can always teach you how to use the industry standard tools, or send you on courses if needs be, that's the way I've always seen it myself!

But yes, Adobe is expensive as software goes!
 
Greg said:
to break into the industry I think the most important thing people look for are ideas, creativity, and the all important buzzword talent

I'll play devil's advocate here, but I think that is a bit idealistic. Admittedly my expeience of industry is somewhat limited but I don't think there would be many employers that would touch a designer without a working knowledge of Ps/Ai/Dw etc.
 
am man, as previously mentioned, they are nothing more than a bunch of robbing bas*****s
 
Greg said:
The thing is the Adobe suite is by no means a simple tool, there are cheaper/open source alternatives, and to break into the industry I think the most important thing people look for are ideas, creativity, and the all important buzzword talent.

Yer I'm not sure I agree with that. I've always thought that its just as much about the technical knowledge as it is about the idea generation.

If I was hiring I don't want to have to spend time training people how to use the industry standard products before I can get them into making me money.

Can you imagine the look on a potential employers face when you tell him you don't know how to use Illustrator but your a dab hand with InkScape?
 
mrleesimpson said:
Yer I'm not sure I agree with that. I've always thought that its just as much about the technical knowledge as it is about the idea generation.

I guess it depends at which point you're looking to enter, as my interview experience has only really been for low level designer jobs, junior positions, the focus has certainly been more on the ideas and creativity. I know that at higher levels that technical knowledge will be almost taken as a given, and be a very much expected part of the CV.
 
Greg said:
I guess it depends at which point you're looking to enter, as my interview experience has only really been for low level designer jobs, junior positions, the focus has certainly been more on the ideas and creativity. I know that at higher levels that technical knowledge will be almost taken as a given, and be a very much expected part of the CV.

I've had the same experience. At every entry level interview I've been to, the employer was more interested in my ideas and the ability to sell them to a potential client. And also my ability to work within a team, passion, a willingness to grow and learn etc.. But I'm sure that at higher levels the employers will expect a certain amount of technical knowledge.
 
According to the Adobe UK store, here's the prices including VAT;

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection

Upgrade from £934.12
Full from £2313.58
Master Collection combines Adobe InDesign® CS4, Photoshop® CS4 Extended, Illustrator® CS4, Acrobat® 9 Pro, Flash® CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS4, Fireworks® CS4, Contribute® CS4, After Effects® CS4, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4, Soundbooth® CS4, Adobe OnLocation™ CS4, and Encore® CS4 with additional tools and services.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium

Upgrade from £605.12
Full from £1467.58
Design Premium combines Adobe InDesign® CS4, Photoshop® CS4 Extended, Illustrator® CS4, Flash® CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS4, Fireworks® CS4, and Acrobat® 9 Pro with additional tools and services.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium
Upgrade from £534.62
Full from £1404.12
Web Premium combines Adobe Dreamweaver® CS4, Flash® CS4 Professional, Photoshop® CS4 Extended, Illustrator® CS4, Fireworks® CS4, Acrobat® 9 Pro, Soundbooth® CS4, and Contribute® CS4 with additional tools and services.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Standard
Upgrade from £417.12
Full from £1051.62
Design Standard combines Adobe InDesign® CS4, Photoshop® CS4, Illustrator® CS4, and Acrobat® 9 Pro with additional tools and services.
 
As well I bet its not free from bugs or problems.

I remember reading that some people couldn't even get CS3 to install and had to have Adobe re-issue disk after disk.
 
I'm happy with CS2 for the time being!
A few of the new features in Photoshop CS4 look cool, but not cool enough to warrant the extra spend!

I've not heard of any problems with CS4, but that said I don't know of many people who have got it yet?
Greg
 
I think Adobe should do more to offer the software at a lower cost, or at least think about a better way of discounting to students and smaller businesses etc.

Saying that maybe there is a market for a really awesome Illustrator and Photoshop clone doesn't even have to be open source. Something around the £200-£300 mark, that has the same base features and interfaces as Adobe products so that the transition from working with one to working with the other is small.
 
mrleesimpson said:
I think Adobe should do more to offer the software at a lower cost, or at least think about a better way of discounting to students and smaller businesses etc.

Saying that maybe there is a market for a really awesome Illustrator and Photoshop clone doesn't even have to be open source. Something around the £200-£300 mark, that has the same base features and interfaces as Adobe products so that the transition from working with one to working with the other is small.

Hey Lee,

They do have discounts for students and faculty, although not sure what % that is to be honest? and they also have multiple license purchasing discounts for larger companies with a requirement for many licenses.

I agree there is a big gap between the open source alternatives and the top of the range Adobe suite, I'm guessing that must be down to the huge budgets needed to develop such a product from scratch?! :confused:
 
I agree Lee, I think if someone was savvy enough to develop it and heavily market it to freelance designers and the like I reckon they could clean up.
 
alynthomashodgson said:
I agree Lee, I think if someone was savvy enough to develop it and heavily market it to freelance designers and the like I reckon they could clean up.

I would guess the other major factor with any new software in this market is that it would need to be highly compatible with the leading software, Adobe, as it has become the industry standard, so anything new will need to work well with their file formats. Perhaps the licensing costs of having compatible file types with Adobe puts other software companies off the challenge? Or other companies just don't think it's possible to compete with them?
 
Greg said:
I would guess the other major factor with any new software in this market is that it would need to be highly compatible with the leading software, Adobe, as it has become the industry standard, so anything new will need to work well with their file formats. Perhaps the licensing costs of having compatible file types with Adobe puts other software companies off the challenge? Or other companies just don't think it's possible to compete with them?

I suppose that is the issue isn't it, playing by the big boys rules so to speak. You'd think so company would be at least willing to give it a go though?! I suppose there will be plenty of people who will simply get a dodgy copy off BitTorrent rather than pay for software regardless of the manufacturer or cost. Bit of a catch-22 really.
 
Theres actually very little difference between CS3 and CS4 (from what i can gather) so personally i'd go and buy CS3 as the features are more than suitable and you'll be paying a fraction of the price!
 
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