Buying Software

Before you buy -- here is the latest information on new releases of Adobe software:

About the Creative Suite Premium

The premium version of CS4 includes Adobe Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat 9 Professional, Flash, Fireworks and Dreamweaver. There are some additional utility programs that ship with CS4: the Version Cue file manager, Device Central and the Adobe Bridge file browser. The Adobe CS4 Suite was released in October 2008. There are other bundles, such as the Web Premium, Production Premium and Master Collection. For more information, visit www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite.

The "street" retail price of CS4 Premium is currently $1799.

Buying the academic version of CS4 -- such a deal at $329!

Adobe has developed a strong support system for students and colleges. There is a standard academic version of CS4 that is widely advertised for around $500. Academic software is the "real" software program -- the only thing missing might be extra clipart, fonts, or documentation. Buying an $1800 bundle for $500 sounds awesome, but SRJC students can take advantage of an even better price. The SRJC Bookstore participates in a special student licensing program through the California Community College system and offers the Creative Suite 4 Premium bundle for $329.

What about academic upgrades and the new version?

Here is what I know to the best of my knowledge based on years of experience with the Creative Suites software.

• Educational software is not upgradable, which means that someday when a new version of the CS software is released, a student owning CS4 might not be able to purchase CS5 for an upgrade price.
• Lifetime students often buy a new version of the educational software.
• There have been offers from Adobe to migrate from the educational software to the "real deal" retail version in the past. For example, several of my students paid a special educational upgrade fee of around $400 when CS3 was announced, which upgraded them from CS2 to CS3 as a professional user.
• Keep in mind that the price of the educational package is often the exact same price of the upgrade.

You might consider downloading a 30-day trial of CS3 at the Adobe website or using CS4 in the Petaluma and Santa Rosa computer labs.