Last year, once the dust had finally settled from Apple’s announcement that it would transition to Intel chips, the first question that most folks started asking was "When will we see a Universal Binary version of Adobe’s Creative Suite apps?" Adobe’s applications have to be among the most used by Mac-owning professionals and Creative Suite 3 is, without a doubt, the most heavily anticipated piece of software to make the leap to Universal Binary. That being said, we here at DailyTechRag had to get our hands on a copy, to see if the newest version is worth your (or more likely, your organization’s) hard-earned scratch.

Adobe CS3 Web Premium

For our purposes, we decided to test Adobe’s CS3 Web Premium package, an integrated design suite for the web that includes Photoshop CS3 Extended, Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, Illustrator CS3, Fireworks CS3, Acrobat 8 Professional and Contribute CS3. Seeing how CS3’s Universal Binary functionality is the most notable upgrade, we’ve opted to test the OS X version of the suite, though it is also available for Windows. If you’re hoping to run CS3 at home, here’s what you’ll need:

Macintosh

* PowerPC G4 or G5 or multicore Intel processor

* Mac OS X v.10.4.9

* 1GB of RAM for DV; 2GB of RAM for HDV and HD

* 24GB of available hard-disk space to install all core components (up to 1GB of additional free space may be required during installation)

* Dedicated 7,200 RPM hard drive for DV and HDV editing

* Core Audio compatible sound card

* 1,280×1,024 monitor resolution with 32-bit video card

* DVD-ROM drive

* Internet or phone connection required for product activation

Windows

* Intel Pentium 4, Intel Centrino, Intel Xeon or Intel Core Duo (or compatible) processor; SSE2-enabled processor required for AMD systems

* Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise (certified for 32-bit editions)

* 1GB of RAM for DV; 2GB of RAM for HDV and HD

* 20.5GB of available hard-disk space to install all core components (up to 1GB of additional free space may be required during installation)

* Dedicated 7,200 RPM hard drive for DV and HDV editing

* Microsoft DirectX or ASIO compatible sound card

* 1,280×1,024 monitor resolution with 32-bit video card

* DVD-ROM drive

* Internet or phone connection required for product activation

Photoshop CS3 Extended

Adobe CS3 Web Premium is a huge suite and it takes a lot of time to even scratch the surface of what these apps can do. For that reason, we’ve decided to begin our review of CS3 Web Premium with an in-depth look at Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, with the other CS3 apps to follow. For the latest release, Adobe has decided to split Photoshop into two products: Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended. While Photoshop CS3 contains all of the features found in Photoshop CS2, the Extended version adds a few additional features not found in the other release (more on those features later).

Better, Faster, Stronger

Open up Photoshop CS3 for the first time and this is what you’ll see. While the application looks similar to previous versions on the surface, a lot has changed under the hood. Most notable, of course, is the Universal Binary speed bump: In DailyTechRag‘s tests, Photoshop CS3 ran faster than previous versions on both Intel and Power PC-based Macs. Even on a G4 PPC system with only 640MB of RAM (that’s almost 400MB less than the minimum requirement, mind you), Photoshop ran faster than either CS1 or Photoshop 7.0 in our tests. For most creative professionals, that speed boost would be more than enough to warrant a purchase. However, Photoshop CS3 is more than just a speed demon: the latest version integrates a number of features found previously in Adobe ImageReady (which has now been phased out) and Adobe Lightroom (the company’s high-end management system for professional photogs), adds a host of new features for mobile device developers and brings to the table a number of brand new features that are designed to better integrate Photoshop with the other CS3 apps.