ImageReady no more...What do I do?!!
Ok, so I was all set to buy the Design Bundle of CS3 being that I do a lot of Print and Web design. I thought that I could have Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Photoshop, and ImageReady. I was just on the Adobe forums and found out from a Admin that ImageReady is no longer in development. The animation part has been integrated into Photoshop, and Fireworks will replace the rest of what ImageReady did. Now I have a huge problem being that I used ImageReady for all my web needs almost every day, and InDesign every day at work. So now I don't know what to do, do I go for the Design Bundle or the Web Bundle, and how are the different workflows going to effect me?...Damn Adobe making things complicated last second...
Comments
Ok, so I was all set to buy the Design Bundle of CS3 being that I do a lot of Print and Web design. I thought that I could have Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Photoshop, and ImageReady. I was just on the Adobe forums and found out from a Admin that ImageReady is no longer in development. The animation part has been integrated into Photoshop, and Fireworks will replace the rest of what ImageReady did. Now I have a huge problem being that I used ImageReady for all my web needs almost every day, and InDesign every day at work. So now I don't know what to do, do I go for the Design Bundle or the Web Bundle, and how are the different workflows going to effect me?...Damn Adobe making things complicated last second...
Stick with your current software.
Before, when Dreamweaver and GoLive were competing, Dreamweaver was used far more then GoLive because many more Web Designers preferred it. Now Dreamweaver is replacing GoLive and GoLive 9 (note, not CS3, but 9) will "come out sometime later this year."
So you get the idea, Adobe is just making the most of their investment. Anyways, from what I saw at the Apple Store demo, you're going to LOVE the new Photoshop. I just wish he had time to demo Fireworks as well...
About your Print AND Web troubles. Maybe you can just get the Web Premium Bundle, and then upgrade InDesign seperately. It's either that or shelling out for Master Collection which I don't think is even out yet.
Sebastian
I've never used it before, now I have to learn an other application to get my web work done.
Maybe it depends on what you prefer but I always like a workflow that adapts to software improvements as they arrive. It would seem that some parts of Imageready were put in Photoshop CS3 and the rest put into Fireworks:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforu...&enterthread=y
It probably makes it easier for folks who used to use Photoshop, Imageready and Fireworks because now they only need to concentrate on two programs.
If I'm being honest, I actually wished that Adobe had even fewer packages. I was hoping that Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Illustrator and possibly even Indesign would have been merged in some order - maybe into two packages, one for web and one for document layout. Then Photoshop and After Effects merged. When I use Shake, I see a fair amount of common features with Photoshop and I just see Photoshop as a limited subset of a video compositing package.
When you consider how many lines of code are in each package, there has to be a hell of a lot of redundancy in there. The stage the packages are at now though, it might be too much of a task to find it and remove it.
I can stand the whole Rosetta thing. I mean, yeah it works, but that the same time it's slow. Illustrator doesn't really work right, Bridge runs like sh!t, and everything is so damn laggy. Being that CS3 is UB, it will run sooooo much better...I loved the Bridge button between Photoshop and ImageReady too, why they stopped it is mind blowing, and the fact they are forcing Fireworks on you! I've never used it before, now I have to learn an other application to get my web work done. If it still was Photoshop/ImageReady, I would be able to buy the Design Bundle and get my print, AND my web work done. Now I need to buy one package and buy an additional application it looks like. I'm now trying to figure out the differences in the workflows between Design and Web, maybe when I find some of this out I'll be able to make a disision. Any thoughts...?
Why not ask Adobe directly? I have always gotten prompt answers to my questions when I have emailed Adobe. If you want to ask a PM directly, almost all of them have blogs now. John Nack is very approachable and has a pretty cool blog here.
I have asked him several questions in the past and he has always replied. Not that I always got the answer I wanted.
I would ask if ImageReady, or a Fireworks lite version, was included in PhotoShop CS3.
Given that PhotoShop CS 3 Extended is in the Design Premium package (the one I will be getting) along with Dreamweaver CS 3, and there is no Fireworks in that package, I can't imagine that there is no remedy.
Learn Fireworks anyways because if you want CS3 you don't have a choice. Adobe is replacing ImageReady with FIreworks probably because they think it's better. They do want to get the most out of their Macromedia aquisition after all.
Yeah I can see that I guess. I have never opened Fireworks, so it's prob gonna take me a while to figure it, but I'm sure it will be better in the long run. I just wanted to avoid learning new programs, it only slows you down at first, especially if you used to one program and you can't use it anymore.
Why not ask Adobe directly? I have always gotten prompt answers to my questions when I have emailed Adobe. If you want to ask a PM directly, almost all of them have blogs now. John Nack is very approachable and has a pretty cool blog here.
I have asked him several questions in the past and he has always replied. Not that I always got the answer I wanted.
I would ask if ImageReady, or a Fireworks lite version, was included in PhotoShop CS3.
Given that PhotoShop CS 3 Extended is in the Design Premium package (the one I will be getting) along with Dreamweaver CS 3, and there is no Fireworks in that package, I can't imagine that there is no remedy.
That's not a bad idea, I'll message him and see what he says. I know ImageReady isn't included because they completely stopped development on it, but I will ask if it does come with a fireworks lite or something...Hopefully it does. It's either that or I need to buy one package and buy an upgrade for Indesign, or buy Fireworks...I'll see what he says about it.
Maybe it depends on what you prefer but I always like a workflow that adapts to software improvements as they arrive. It would seem that some parts of Imageready were put in Photoshop CS3 and the rest put into Fireworks:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforu...&enterthread=y
It probably makes it easier for folks who used to use Photoshop, Imageready and Fireworks because now they only need to concentrate on two programs.
If I'm being honest, I actually wished that Adobe had even fewer packages. I was hoping that Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Illustrator and possibly even Indesign would have been merged in some order - maybe into two packages, one for web and one for document layout. Then Photoshop and After Effects merged. When I use Shake, I see a fair amount of common features with Photoshop and I just see Photoshop as a limited subset of a video compositing package.
When you consider how many lines of code are in each package, there has to be a hell of a lot of redundancy in there. The stage the packages are at now though, it might be too much of a task to find it and remove it.
I wasn't even thinking that they would get rid of ImageReady, it never crossed my mind. That's why I was set on the Design Bundle, because I thought it was Photoshop Extended w/ ImageReady, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, and Dreamweaver. So it wasn't even a question, but I find out it's not like that at all haha. So I gotta figure something out.
Also, by the looks of it, Fireworks (and Dreamweaver) did not get the same interface update as did the other CS3 apps? Which brings me to another thing I like of ImageReady, it looks like the other Adobe apps, while Fireworks, even now that it is an Adobe app, does not.
Evo
aside from the animation aspect of fireworks, you shouldn't have a problem making the transition. everything else is very similar since they do many of the same things. as far as it's worth, you will better off with fireworks since it's a superior app in my opinion.
Yeah, I notice that Fireworks is a much more mature and complete program. It is fairly easy to use too, since it is quite similar to Flash in some respects.
Evo
I have a similar dilemma. I HATE HATE HATE Illustrator, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE FreeHand. What can I do? I really think I'm going to cry the next time I'm forced to use Illustrator. It's SO hard as a FreeHand user (since 3.1) to adapt to the way Illustrator works, with having to click twice in different areas for most actions you could do with a single click in FreeHand. It's like switching from Mac to Windows. So Aggravating!!!!!!
Yeah but with all the features that Illustrator has and is getting, it's a much better choice. I HATED Illustrator when I first started using it as well, I really got the hang of it though. I would definitely give it another shot.
I'm interested in finding out what your frustrations are and how I can help. I'm developing new tutorials and CD's and want to help those who lost Image Ready. I also have a lot of free tutorials available. You can post here or feel free to contact me via email: [email protected]
I would love to help answer any questions but not interested in a spitting match between IR and FW :-) I would like to help with specific issues that can be dealt with using Fireworks.
Joyce J. Evans Erb
http://www.JoyceJEvans.com
http://www.IdeaDesignWebsites.com
http://www.Tutorials2Go.com