Adobe CS4 rocks!

I recently installed the latest Design Premium of Creative Suite 4 from Adobe, courtesy of our good office, Orange & Bronze Software Labs. I admit that I had not maximized the full power of CS3 and I had used it only for basic layouts and very simple effects but this CS4 has blown me away.

I have just been using this (Photoshop and Illustrator) for less than a week so I might not share a whole bunch of new features but these points are worthy of attention:

1. Tabbed artworks.

This feature means so much especially when there's more than one opened artwork and you need to juggle between each of them at the same time. Same thing with what browsers did, this minimizes noise and clutter, allowing designers to easily navigate through the illustrations.

2. Multiple Artboards

Multiple artboards scattered everywhere is a thing of the past. In CS4, you can have multiple artworks within 1 file. You can have up to 100 artboards of varying sizes, you can save, export or print artboards independently or together. So cool!

3. Easily select overlapping elements:

One of my nightmares in CS3 is to select an element through overlapping elements. It is likely that you select the topmost element and it has to be locked to get to the next element, or disable the "preview mode" to get to your desired element more precisely. In CS4, I appreciate that its effortless to select an element in preview mode even if its few levels under. The element is highlighted when hovered, making it easier to select.

4. Streamlined Tools Panels

This makes it look more uncluttered even if most tools are visible. They removed the soft corners, I also love the way borders are minimized.

Yet another reason to be productive. Thanks O&B for the CS4! :-)