The Tribune

Ever wondered what Adobe programs do? Adobe creates a lot of programs that most people are familiar with, such as Flash, Photoshop and Adobe Reader, but those are not the only ones it develops. In the past, a fairly large investment was needed to buy this program suite. However, in recent years, Adobe has lumped all its products together into its Creative Cloud platform with subscription plans. Here is a quick rundown of each of Adobe’s software programs:

Adobe InDesign

InDesign is responsible for page layouts, and produces and previews documents for magazines - both in print and online across mobile and desktop platforms. InDesign is made for publishing. Ideally, projects rendered are newspapers, posters and other marketing material. If you need to create a layout for something with a lot of text and graphics, InDesign is just about the best software for it.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a software application for creating drawings.

Adobe Bridge

Bridge handles asset management or organises photos and designs. It also comes with the standalone version of Photoshop. Bridge is also used for batch file utility functions, such as renaming files or editing. It is not necessarily a program used for creating or making visual edits to actual content, but you can think of it as a handy assistant for all other Adobe software.

Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver is a good tool for building websites, but you need to know how to use it effectively. That means having a good understanding of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It can also be used to upload them to a Web server. It is not a framework but an application.

Adobe Fireworks

Firework is a fascinating creature. Formerly known as Macromedia Fireworks, the program is a bitmap and vector graphics editor that is typically used to create interactive graphics and website prototypes, as well as interfaces for apps and games.

Adobe Prelude

Adobe Prelude is an organiser and management program that can store various kinds of videos in different file formats, and convert the videos in a default file format that can be used by any video editor and designer.

Adobe After Effects

After Effects has been the leading program in the video compositing industry since the 1990s. It is used for adding visual effects to videos or animations of both text and complex characters. After Affects also allows you to add lightning strikes, glowing eyes and lightsabres to videos as well.

Adobe Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro is used to edit and cut video tracks, export in a desired format and add them to a timeline to create a movie. Titles can be added and colour corrections can be applied.

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is the go-to image editing and manipulation software used by almost everyone in the industry. Photoshop excels in working with raster (bitmap) graphics, and is capable of producing highly detailed compositions. Recent versions have brought in functionality for working with 3D designs, though the program still primarily obtains the most respect for its photo manipulation and post-production ability.

Adobe Flash

You know those funny animations and web games played on Facebook and other sites? Many of them were designed using Flash. Flash can be used to create a cartoon, comic, an interactive interface or even a game.

Adobe Audition

Audition is the sound room. Useful for editing audio, it can be used to edit and mix sounds or fine-tune and re-master soundtracks. Historically, it was often used by radio stations for cutting and adding sound effects.

Adobe SpeedGrade

SpeedGrade is for colour grading images. At first glance this does not sound like much. But correctly applied colour can add depth, emotion and character to a picture and videos.

Adobe Encore

Encore is a DVD and Blu-ray disc authoring package. It can create DVD menus that can be edited in Photoshop using layers.

Adobe Flash Builder

Formerly known as Adobe Flex Builder, Flash Builder is an integrated tool designed to speed up app development. Flash Builder offers an intuitive framework for the entire development process The software includes a separate code editor to quickly preview the final product during the development process.

Adobe Acrobat X Pro

Acrobat X is used for creating robust PDF files. It lets you set backgrounds, foregrounds and isolate or resize individual pages. It allows you to add video, audio and interactivity to PDF documents.

Adobe Media Encoder

Media Encoder saves media for almost any screen or device. Media can simultaneously be saved in multiple outputs for optimal playback on a variety of resolutions and devices.

Generally, Adobe Creative Cloud is a set of applications and services from Adobe Systems that gives subscribers access to a collection of software used for graphic design, video editing web development and photography, along with a set of mobile applications and also some optional cloud services. This software is downloaded from the Internet, installed directly on a local computer and used as long as the subscription remains valid. Enjoy life and stay on top of your game!

NB: Columnist welcomes feedback at deedee21bastian@gmail.com

ABOUT COLUMNIST: Deidre M. Bastian is a professionally-trained graphic designer/marketing co-ordinator and certified life coach with qualifications of M.Sc., B.Sc., A.Sc, She has trained at institutions such as: Miami Lakes Technical Centre, Success Training College, College of The Bahamas, Nova Southeastern University, Learning Tree International, Langevine International and Synergy Bahamas.