What are you trying to say here? That these relics/artifiacts of the 90s should be bought? Or preserved? Or that they're going to remain valuable? This stuff may be the de facto standard now or maybe it was a few years ago...but are you saying they'll remain standard for a long time?
Times are changing fast. I don't think these assets will be worth much in the near future.
Which of these "relics" that is less relevant than Flash or Photoshop...
What is going to replace Postscript? Don't say PDF because it is not a printer language but a document description language. There are alternatives, especially in the lower end market, but none of them is a real threat to Postscript in the professional market. As long as there is a printing industry Postscript will be relevant, and there will be a need for printing long after books move entirely to an electronic format and I would wager that this will not happen in our lifetime.
PDF is the de-facto king of portable documents. Nothing comes close to it in it's capabilities or acceptance. Sure there are new standards coming along for e-books, but they are just in their infancy. PDF could easily be adapted to an e-book type device and take the lead, there isn't that large a market for it yet. PDF will continue to be relevant for at least the next decade.
Adobe's font collection has been updated to Open Type and will remain relevant and valuable for years to come, and will remain so as it is updated to whatever standard, if any, that replaces Open Type. This will remain a valuable asset as long as Adobe has the copyrights to the font collection, which if Disney gets their way with copyright law (as the usually do) then it will maintain it's value into the next century.
InDesign is going to continue to be updated to include new technologies for content delivery, and will most likely be the king in publishing for at least the next decade and beyond as it evolves to work with e-publishing standards that come out in the future.
Illustrator is just as relevant as Photoshop in design, illustration, and printing. It fills a different need and may not be in as much demand in a consumer version, but that is why you do not see an Illustrator Elements.
AfterEffects seems to have good following in the industry, and a slightly different niche than other video editing software. I'm not sure if it will continue to be so a decade from now, but it could be a value added product to a company that was looking at Adobe's full portfolio of products and technology.
Dreamweaver is not perfect, but just about every job posted for web design calls for experience with it. There are other web development platforms that are available but none does quite what it does or as well as it does it.
In short all of these listed have value as long as their development is maintained to incorporate new technologies in the future. Right now a lot of them are the standards in the industries that use them. This may change, as we have seen with Quark Xpress, but they have a good chance of being just as relevant decades from now as they are today and all add value to any company that would be looking to buy out Adobe.
That being said, my point was that Adobe's place in the technology industry and their product portfolio makes them a valuable asset that any company would find expensive to purchase. The prospect would be further complicated for Apple or Microsoft due to potential anti-trust concerns that such a take over would raise.
Adobe has a lot of assets that are valuable besides Flash and PhotoShop:
Postscript. Still the heavyweight in the printing industry and high end printers, and Adobe gets a licensing fee from every printer sold with Postscript installed.
PDF. Next to Word it is the closest thing to a standard in electronic documents at every level of computing. It has also become the standard document format for delivering printer ready files for prepress. To get the most out of it and take advantage of the features you need Acrobat Pro so this is also a revenue generator. Don't forget that Apple's Quartz is based at least in part on PDF.
Fonts. Adobe has a very large font library of some of the most common fonts used today. I would imagine that every commercial printer has thier full library as well as most design studio's. There is also probably a large percentage of regular computer usere who have some of them that they have either bought or they recieved with a software install( ie licensed by the softwre developer from Adobe which again creates revenue for Adobe).
Dreamweaver. Like it or not it is one of the most used web development platforms.
InDesign. Quickly becoming the defacto king of DTP, and with the addtion of interactive features for PDF creation will continue to be relavent as we move more to electronic document delivery.
Illustrator. Still a heavyweight in vector artwork creation for the publishing industry.
After Effects. Still a solid condender in professional video production.
There are probable a lot of other technologies which could be attractive as well either for the product or the technologies behind them. For this reason I would be surprised if Apple could even buy Adobe, especially with the Anti-trust scrutiny that would come with it and the fight Microsoft would be sure to lead against such a merger.
Postscript and PDF are ISO standards. Implementation details are unnecessary with Apple as they have fully compatible versions that they restrict while partnes with Adobe.
Illustrator? How is that a big asset?
After Effects? Final Cut Pro and Apple's suite were their answer.
Fonts? Are you serious?
Buying Autodesk and dealing with the entire CAD/CAM industry is a smart buy, for a fraction of the price of Adobe.
Postscript and PDF are ISO standards. Implementation details are unnecessary with Apple as they have fully compatible versions that they restrict while partnes with Adobe.
These may be standards but their development is controlled by Adobe. The last time I looked into it Adobe receives a licensing fee for every printer sold with a postcript interpreter installed. The pricing model was based on the cost of the printer, but had a minimum price which kept it from being attractive to the low end printer market. Still most high end printers today have a postscript interpreter which is most likely bringing in revenue to Adobe, If it were free then we would probably be used in lower end printers as well.
As for PDF if you are going to be using for something more than reading a pre-made PDF and want to take advantage of all it's features then you really need Acrobat Pro. This is especially true if you want to make interactive PDF's. If you are in the printing industry then you have to have it to make the best quality PDF's to send to the printer. Preview has gotten better and more capable, but it is not as powerful and up to date as Acrobat, and the free reader is for reading and not much more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer
Illustrator? How is that a big asset?
Illustrator is used by a lot of people in the design industry. It is installed and used on a regular basis on probably 90% of the graphic designers computers in the world. It is also used heavily in cartography and packaging. There are illustration styles that are based on Illustrator's drawing techniques. It is a much more capable vector art tool than Flash and Photoshop, and for that reason I often create elements in Illustrator and import them into Flash or Photoshop (and even InDesign) for use. It is also used in some barcode workflow's. It may not get as much press as Photoshop but it is till a VERY relevant program today and will continue to be so for some time to come.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer
After Effects? Final Cut Pro and Apple's suite were their answer.
I can't say much here other than After Effects is still a viable product.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer
Fonts? Are you serious?
Yes, I am serious. Adobe's full font library sells for US $2,599.00 with upgrades from US $1,599.00. Individual fonts sell for $29+, and that is a font not the font family which can be as many as 65 fonts of different weights and styles. You may be able to bootleg them over the internet, but to comply with copyright law every printer, publisher, and designer that uses one of these in a product has to have a license.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer
Buying Autodesk and dealing with the entire CAD/CAM industry is a smart buy, for a fraction of the price of Adobe.
I would agree with you here.
I was pointing out that Adobe has valuable assets other than Photoshop and Flash. And some of these are more important to Adobe than Flash is. I don't think Apple should buy Adobe though, it would cost a lot and be a major distraction. It would also add a lot of software products to their portfolio whose continued development is important to entire industries and I'm not sure Apple (or any company) could effectively manage their current hardware and software lines as well as Adobe's entire portfolio. In fact I'm not sure that Adobe is effectively managing their entire software portfolio as it is.
Comments
What are you trying to say here? That these relics/artifiacts of the 90s should be bought? Or preserved? Or that they're going to remain valuable? This stuff may be the de facto standard now or maybe it was a few years ago...but are you saying they'll remain standard for a long time?
Times are changing fast. I don't think these assets will be worth much in the near future.
Which of these "relics" that is less relevant than Flash or Photoshop...
What is going to replace Postscript? Don't say PDF because it is not a printer language but a document description language. There are alternatives, especially in the lower end market, but none of them is a real threat to Postscript in the professional market. As long as there is a printing industry Postscript will be relevant, and there will be a need for printing long after books move entirely to an electronic format and I would wager that this will not happen in our lifetime.
PDF is the de-facto king of portable documents. Nothing comes close to it in it's capabilities or acceptance. Sure there are new standards coming along for e-books, but they are just in their infancy. PDF could easily be adapted to an e-book type device and take the lead, there isn't that large a market for it yet. PDF will continue to be relevant for at least the next decade.
Adobe's font collection has been updated to Open Type and will remain relevant and valuable for years to come, and will remain so as it is updated to whatever standard, if any, that replaces Open Type. This will remain a valuable asset as long as Adobe has the copyrights to the font collection, which if Disney gets their way with copyright law (as the usually do) then it will maintain it's value into the next century.
InDesign is going to continue to be updated to include new technologies for content delivery, and will most likely be the king in publishing for at least the next decade and beyond as it evolves to work with e-publishing standards that come out in the future.
Illustrator is just as relevant as Photoshop in design, illustration, and printing. It fills a different need and may not be in as much demand in a consumer version, but that is why you do not see an Illustrator Elements.
AfterEffects seems to have good following in the industry, and a slightly different niche than other video editing software. I'm not sure if it will continue to be so a decade from now, but it could be a value added product to a company that was looking at Adobe's full portfolio of products and technology.
Dreamweaver is not perfect, but just about every job posted for web design calls for experience with it. There are other web development platforms that are available but none does quite what it does or as well as it does it.
In short all of these listed have value as long as their development is maintained to incorporate new technologies in the future. Right now a lot of them are the standards in the industries that use them. This may change, as we have seen with Quark Xpress, but they have a good chance of being just as relevant decades from now as they are today and all add value to any company that would be looking to buy out Adobe.
That being said, my point was that Adobe's place in the technology industry and their product portfolio makes them a valuable asset that any company would find expensive to purchase. The prospect would be further complicated for Apple or Microsoft due to potential anti-trust concerns that such a take over would raise.
Adobe has a lot of assets that are valuable besides Flash and PhotoShop:
- Postscript. Still the heavyweight in the printing industry and high end printers, and Adobe gets a licensing fee from every printer sold with Postscript installed.
- PDF. Next to Word it is the closest thing to a standard in electronic documents at every level of computing. It has also become the standard document format for delivering printer ready files for prepress. To get the most out of it and take advantage of the features you need Acrobat Pro so this is also a revenue generator. Don't forget that Apple's Quartz is based at least in part on PDF.
- Fonts. Adobe has a very large font library of some of the most common fonts used today. I would imagine that every commercial printer has thier full library as well as most design studio's. There is also probably a large percentage of regular computer usere who have some of them that they have either bought or they recieved with a software install( ie licensed by the softwre developer from Adobe which again creates revenue for Adobe).
- Dreamweaver. Like it or not it is one of the most used web development platforms.
- InDesign. Quickly becoming the defacto king of DTP, and with the addtion of interactive features for PDF creation will continue to be relavent as we move more to electronic document delivery.
- Illustrator. Still a heavyweight in vector artwork creation for the publishing industry.
- After Effects. Still a solid condender in professional video production.
There are probable a lot of other technologies which could be attractive as well either for the product or the technologies behind them. For this reason I would be surprised if Apple could even buy Adobe, especially with the Anti-trust scrutiny that would come with it and the fight Microsoft would be sure to lead against such a merger.Postscript and PDF are ISO standards. Implementation details are unnecessary with Apple as they have fully compatible versions that they restrict while partnes with Adobe.
Illustrator? How is that a big asset?
After Effects? Final Cut Pro and Apple's suite were their answer.
Fonts? Are you serious?
Buying Autodesk and dealing with the entire CAD/CAM industry is a smart buy, for a fraction of the price of Adobe.
Postscript and PDF are ISO standards. Implementation details are unnecessary with Apple as they have fully compatible versions that they restrict while partnes with Adobe.
These may be standards but their development is controlled by Adobe. The last time I looked into it Adobe receives a licensing fee for every printer sold with a postcript interpreter installed. The pricing model was based on the cost of the printer, but had a minimum price which kept it from being attractive to the low end printer market. Still most high end printers today have a postscript interpreter which is most likely bringing in revenue to Adobe, If it were free then we would probably be used in lower end printers as well.
As for PDF if you are going to be using for something more than reading a pre-made PDF and want to take advantage of all it's features then you really need Acrobat Pro. This is especially true if you want to make interactive PDF's. If you are in the printing industry then you have to have it to make the best quality PDF's to send to the printer. Preview has gotten better and more capable, but it is not as powerful and up to date as Acrobat, and the free reader is for reading and not much more.
Illustrator? How is that a big asset?
Illustrator is used by a lot of people in the design industry. It is installed and used on a regular basis on probably 90% of the graphic designers computers in the world. It is also used heavily in cartography and packaging. There are illustration styles that are based on Illustrator's drawing techniques. It is a much more capable vector art tool than Flash and Photoshop, and for that reason I often create elements in Illustrator and import them into Flash or Photoshop (and even InDesign) for use. It is also used in some barcode workflow's. It may not get as much press as Photoshop but it is till a VERY relevant program today and will continue to be so for some time to come.
After Effects? Final Cut Pro and Apple's suite were their answer.
I can't say much here other than After Effects is still a viable product.
Fonts? Are you serious?
Yes, I am serious. Adobe's full font library sells for US $2,599.00 with upgrades from US $1,599.00. Individual fonts sell for $29+, and that is a font not the font family which can be as many as 65 fonts of different weights and styles. You may be able to bootleg them over the internet, but to comply with copyright law every printer, publisher, and designer that uses one of these in a product has to have a license.
Buying Autodesk and dealing with the entire CAD/CAM industry is a smart buy, for a fraction of the price of Adobe.
I would agree with you here.
I was pointing out that Adobe has valuable assets other than Photoshop and Flash. And some of these are more important to Adobe than Flash is. I don't think Apple should buy Adobe though, it would cost a lot and be a major distraction. It would also add a lot of software products to their portfolio whose continued development is important to entire industries and I'm not sure Apple (or any company) could effectively manage their current hardware and software lines as well as Adobe's entire portfolio. In fact I'm not sure that Adobe is effectively managing their entire software portfolio as it is.