Here at Vivoo Digital we have recently upgraded to Adobe CS5, in our package it included Flash CS5, Dreamweaver CS5, Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5 and some other bits and bobs but we generally use what I’ve mentioned on a day too day basis… All I can say is… astonishing.

For those who are unsure of what the above software is, it’s basically our hammer and nail, here is a look at our top 5 new features for each bit of software we use….

Five top features in: Photoshop CS5

1. Content-Aware Fill: When you cut objects out, Photoshop can automatically fill resulting space with surrounding scenery or patterns.

2. Puppet Warp: It may sound flippant, but enhanced puppet features enable subtle repositioning of photographed elements, particularly model poses.

3. Advance Digital Image Handling: Camera Raw 6 minimises noise in high ISO images, while automatic lens correction quickly puts right lens aberration wrongs.

4. Selections: Photoshop’s object selection tools are faster and more refined than before; extract the model and her billowing hair without pulling out your own.

5. Workflow enhancements: Mini Bridge has been previously discussed, but other features like new Web Gallery options and configurable workspaces promise serious productivity boosts.

Five top features in: Flash Professional CS5

1. Enhanced ActionScript Editor: Adobe has added a number of enhancements including custom class code hinting and completion, with efficiency enhancements for accessing code libraries.

2. Spring For Bones: Animation is sophisticated stuff, so this Inverse Kinematics system is a quick way to make objects look realistically flexible.

3. Text Engine: Traditionally, Flash is to typography what kryptonite is to Superman. Now it can create print-grade lettering including kerning, ligatures and leading.

4. Save XFL files: This new file format is designed with collaborative teams in mind. Multiple team members can work on graphics without needing to uncompress and recompress binary .fla files.

5. Code snippets: Code snippets are blocks of ActionScript you can incorporate into your designs to speed up development, simplifying specification of standard behaviours.

Five top features in: Illustrator CS5

1. Variable-width strokes: Illustrator strokes needn’t have uniform width thanks to this new feature. Vary stroke thickness with strategically placed width points.

2. Arrowheads and dashes: This new functionality promises to simplify the often-fidgety task of aligning arrowheads and dashes, especially at corners.

3. Drawing in perspective: A new tool enables illustration along 1-, 2- or 3-point perspective, for elaborate street scenes, visualisations and so on.

4. Enhanced artboards: Adobe has button-enabled Illustrator’s Multiple Artboards function, fine-tuning this workflow enhancement.

5. Anti-aliasing control for smaller screens: Adobe has added tools to regulate aliased text – for screen-based technologies – as well as an Align to Pixel Grid for sharper on-screen object display.

Five top features in: Dreamweaver CS5

1. Simplified Site Set-up: There’s no longer a need to set up your test servers and the like before you even start a project. Start work right away and add servers as and when.

2. PHP code hinting: Adobe has buffed up Dreamweaver’s PHP handling with easy-to-follow code hinting and will even flag up errors loud and clear.

3. Support for PHP-based content management systems: You can tweak and test live sites based on WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! or other PHP-based deployments from within Dreamweaver.

4. Better CSS support: There are more CSS templates available, and better CSS visualisation tools, which include clear visualisation of features like padding, border and margin.

5. Enhanced Subversion support: Previously severely limited, Dreamweaver now has enhanced support for this leading open-source collaborative version-control tool, including local and remote version syncing.

Five top features in: InDesign CS5

1. Track changes: Here’s something for the subs. See whether designers or writers have made mysterious changes to your perfectly corrected text.

2. Background PDF export: PDFing needn’t sound like a swear word. Multithreading on 64-bit systems enables work to continue while outputting your print-ready files.

3. Layers panels: This enables you to set sublevels to objects in your layers. Lock, reorder or hide text frames, images or shapes on your pages.

4. Multiple page sizes: Add gatefolds, inserts or similar to a document without the need for crafty workarounds. Now the feature is built-in.

5. Flexible text: New Split Columns and Span Columns attributes enable quick ad hoc text tweaks that would otherwise take ages to get right.

A lot of people say is it worth upgrading from CS4, CS3 or even CS2… well at Vivoo Digital we allways want to keep on top of the times and too do that we feel we require the best of the best to produce the best of the best and tomorrows technology today to give you the opportunity to be one step ahead, but this is our aspect to how we work, how we want to work and how we always will work…. ahead of the game.