Which would you purchase?

Hey all...I have a question regarding photoshop. I have been gearing towards

buying CS2 for awhile. There is a great discount at my husband's college with

his student discount which includes:

 

Adobe Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2, GoLive CS2, Acrobat 8.0

Professional, Dreamweaver 8

 

for $200

 

or...

 

Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, InDesign CS3, Acrobat 8.0 Professional

 

for $400 next month?

 

Some of the programs with the CS2 will be discontinued. I am looking for good

programs to aid in photo editing with weddings and portraits. Recently I

purchased Lightroom for workflow. What would you buy and why? What do you

currently use?

 

Thanks for input!

If all you're interested in doing is working on photos it is obvious that the package is overkill. But either offer is a great price. Do you need anything besides Lightroom? If not hold off until you do.

The CS3 choice. What a deal !!!

 

I also have Lightroom, but the depth and power of PhotoShop is unlimited and I would

NEVER be without it. Retouching. New abilities in CS3. High def. Merging. Being able to

layer corrections on more important images and reverse them later is invaluable once you

learn to work that way.

 

The other "Suite" programs may or may not add value ... it depends on whether you get

into serious album design and value added graphic services.

 

Have you inquired whether you can just get PhotoShop CS3 as a stand alone?

You can't use software with an educational license for anything but education. This especially includes using in a for profit business. Colleges are giving special licenses because the software is used for classes only, that's why it's so cheap.

I agree with Ryan on this one. Education software is for ANYONE who's NOT MAKING MONEY with the product. If photography is just a hobby and you'll never make any cash with the software, by all means, enjoy the education discount.

 

If you ARE making money (or even thinking about it in the future), I'd buy a full license as the fine's (used to be at least) $2000 for each piece of software (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, etc.) that you're using.

 

On a side note: If you do buy the CS2 suite right now you'll get a free upgrade to CS3 when it comes out.

Jenny,

 

Something else to consider is to wait for CS3 to mature a little. Even six months might help as tons of people start to find flaws and bugs. It usually isn't a good idea to jump on new software as soon as it comes out.

Wow! I'm really glad I asked that question! I had no idea the restrictions on the education programs...thanks so much. I want to work with full integrity in my business. Thanks for that note, Ryan.

Take a closer look at this deal. The price is too low for a typical educational copy of Photoshop alone (normally about $300), let alone an entire suite. This is probably a group license through the school. While the initial cost is low, you have no right to update your copy in the future. Pay the money for your own copy of the program you want (probably Photoshop), and retain the right to future upgrades (gaining full rights in the process).

 

There is no significant risk in getting the CS3 version. Being a "suspenders and belt" type of person, I have always retained the previous version when upgrading Photoshop*. However, I have never actually needed to use the previous version because of some hidden bug in the new version, nor for any other reason. If you had purchased a full, retail version of Photoshop (or any Adobe product) within a month or two of a new release, you would get the new release free of charge. Adobe is not so generous with educational discounts.

 

* I have not been so fortunate with InDesign versions, for two reasons. First, there have been significant changes with each InDesign versions which are not backward compatible, including some annoying glitches. Secondly, I must collaborate more with others using InDesign, including service bureaus. If they are not up to date (not uncommon), they can't read my InDesign CS2 documents. With Photoshop, compatibility back to version 3 is optional on saving the file (and is recommended unless you need smaller files).

 

As a photographer, Photoshop is the most important acquisition, and you can probably do without the others for now. If you need intricate layouts or graphic design, get Illustrator. InDesign is nearly as powerful as Illustrator for layout and design, with text and multi-page publication capability. InDesign is available for both PC and MAC, and is as common as Quark these days (perhaps surpassing Quark).

 

Acrobat is a quintessential business tool! If you communicate with customers or service bureaus, Acrobat documents constitute the common language. A customer will see the Acrobat document exactly as you intend it - graphics, images, fonts and text, including color management. You can go directly to press from a version 7 or 8 PDF document, and anyone can download a reader to view it.

You can use a personal copy of an Adobe product purchased with an educational discount for any purpose. Volume licenses (as you seem to be describing) are more restricted.

One quick thing to consider, make sure your computer is big and fast enough to handle

these programs. They are pretty big and there's nothing more annoying then a slow

computer when you're editing.

Can you really upgrade for free to CS3 when it comes out if you have CS2? I have been waiting to upgrade to CS3 instead of purchasing a CS2 right not knowing I could upgrade for free.

 

I am also a homeschool mom/teacher and was given a educational discount for from Adobe even though it is obvious my only student is 7 years old so I would also say there is room in what the educational discount/photoshop can be used for. This was given directly to me though and not through a college to me.

just fyi, I think that you are breaking the law if you as a nonstudent buy something at a student rate...something you might not want to advertise online...