Cs4 productivity design_professionals

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The Adobe Creative Suite 4 Benchmark Project

Real-World Productivity for Design Professionals

Key Productivity Data and Benchmark Analysis

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Table of Contents
Introduction t InDesign CS4: Live Preflight ........................................................ 3
This document presents key findings How much time could you save if technical mistakes revealed themselves as
of a benchmarking project designed they occur, not when it’s time to go to press? We found out for you...
to assess the impact of the Adobe t InDesign CS4: Smart Guides ....................................................... 4
Creative Suite 4 on the productivity of How InDesign CS4, Illustrator CS4 and Fireworks CS4 let you work faster when
creative professionals. positioning objects in a design.
Benchmarks were designed to
t Photoshop CS4: The Adjustments Panel ...................................... 5
measure how specific functions speed
up everyday tasks. For details on Photoshop CS4 helps you make non-destructive adjustments faster.
the methodology used to conduct t Illustrator CS4: Multiple Artboards .............................................. 6
these benchmarks, see “About the
Benchmarks” at the end of this report. The latest release of Illustrator allows you to keep different designs for the
same projects within a single Illustrator document.
This report focuses specifically on
features and functionality geared t Illustrator CS4: The New Gradient Tool ........................................ 7
towards the professional designer. Illustrator CS4 makes managing gradients much more efficient.
Design and development of web and
interactive content, digital imaging, t Flash CS4 Professional: Simple Animation Creation ..................... 8
and video production are covered in Flash CS4 introduces a new intuitive and efficient way for creating
separate reports. animations.
t Fireworks CS4: CSS Creation for Designers ................................. 9
Fireworks CS4 brings CSS export to the design community.
t Overall, Adobe Creative Suite 4 t Adobe Creative Suite 4 User Interface: Tabbed Windows ............ 10
Adobe Creative Suite 4 sports a new user interface with tabbed document
can save a designer hours of windows that clearly increases productivity.
t Creative Potential: Interactive Content with InDesign CS4 ......... 11
work every month, quickly Find out how InDesign CS4 can help you get interactive.

paying for the upgrade through t The Bigger Picture .................................................................... 12
How Creative Suite 4 helps you save time and money.
increased productivity. t About the Benchmarks ............................................................. 13
Find out more about the methodology and the techniques used to provide a
reliable assessment of productivity gains.

Previous Home Next t 2


How Live Preflight Helps You Keep Your Deadlines

What is it all about? t Software:
InDesign CS4
Preflighting of documents, to
eliminate potential production-level t Live Preflight is an
problems in design workflows (such essential extension of
as missing fonts, or insufficient image the existing preflight The feature: Live
resolution), has been part of the functionality. It lets you Preflight can track
InDesign feature set for years. But define preflight profiles a great variety of
there were always two bottlenecks: that can track a vast potential problems: the
fixing problems once they had been array of potential profile being created
problems, and that go here tracks the use of
spotted, and the fact that preflighting
significantly beyond fonts that could create
usually occurs at the end of document problems at output,
preparation, and thus at a time the features of previous
such as OpenType fonts
when every second is precious. Live releases, yet remains containg TrueType
Preflight solves both problems. easily usable. outlines, or Multiple
Master fonts.
How do I use it?
InDesign CS4: Live Preﬂight vs. Conventional Error Handling
Live Preflight is activated by default, Time in seconds. Shorter is better.

using a standard profile, and assists 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

you in fixing problems by providing a CS4
summary of the issue and a suggested 21.65
CS3 or older
fix directly in the Preflight panel. 4-page document
with 1 error
Images with an error can be accessed 43.54
directly from within the Preflight
How it affects
panel. productivity: Locating
and fixing document
Live Preflight saves time by allowing
52.46
t errors with Live 10-page document
Preflight was twice with 5 errors

you to spot and fix problems as fast in our tests
as compared to the
103.31

as they occur. preflight functionality
in previous releases.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Bottom Line: Live Preflight can save you over an hour per month.
(Based on 3 repetitions of benchmarked operations per day. Click here to find out more.)



How Smart Guides Make You More Productive with InDesign CS4

InDesign CS4
Smart Guides provide on-the-fly also available in
positioning hints while you create or Illustrator CS4
modify objects on a page. Fireworks CS4
As an example, when positioning t Smart Guides do not
a frame, InDesign CS4 shows you require any learning:
when it is placed at the same distance they work as soon as
from two elements close by (see the option is turned on
illustration). in the View menu
Smart Guides indicate a variety of
objects attributes and object relations: t While the individual
alignment with the border of a second productivity gains of The feature: Smart
object, regular spacing, angle of Smart Guides may Guides take a lot of
rotation, alignment with the center of seem minimal (who fiddling out of day-
cares about a few to-day design work.
another object—you get the idea.
seconds, right?) their
InDesign CS4: Use of Smart Guides for Object Positioning
How do I use it? pervasiveness can Time in seconds. Shorter is better.

create considerable 0 5 10 15 20 25
All you need to do to use Smart productivity gains over
Guides is to ensure the option is
CS4
time. Simple alignment
5.80

selected in the View menu. Once you of two objects
10.17
CS3 or older

have started using them, you quickly
wonder how you managed to live
10.60
without them. Create object and align
with two objects
How it affects 22.11
productivity:
t Smart Guides do not require any Smart Guides
(benchmarked here Center object
5.67

learning: they assist the user in an with InDesign CS4)
cut the time necessary
between two others
9.96

unobtrusive yet efficient way. to precisely position
objects by almost 50%.
0 5 10 15 20 25

Bottom Line: In one month, InDesign’s Smart Guides can save you over two hours.



How the Adjustments Panel Can Speed Up Non-destructive Image Correction

Photoshop CS4
The Adjustments Panel was
introduced in Photoshop CS4 to t The Adjustments
streamline the process of making Panel speeds up
non-destructive changes to images. non-destructive
Previously, in order to make such image modifications
changes, it was necessary to create an considerably by
adjustment layer, choose the kind of eliminating several The feature: The
adjustment (Levels, Contrast, etc), time-consuming steps. Adjustments Panel offers
fast access to frequently
and then adjust desired settings. With t Cumulative productivity used image modification
The Adjustments Panel, all you need gains linked to the options by placing
to do is to select the option and choose Adjustments Panel are them in a panel and
the setting in one convenient panel. significant, especially if automating the creation
you spend a lot of time of an adjustment layer
How do I use it? and layer mask.
tweaking images to
In fact, you don’t need to do anything: look just right.
Photoshop CS4: Adjustments Panel vs. Create Adjustment Layer
Photoshop CS4 automatically creates Time in seconds. Shorter is better.

a new adjustment layer as soon as you 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

select an option. The program also 4.89
CS4

automatically creates a layer mask and Simple adjustment
CS3 or older

presents presets for each adjustment 12.84

option within the panel, saving many
round-trips to the menu-bar. How it affects Three adjustments
16.88

productivity: With
The Adjustments Panel eliminates
35.50

t the Adjustments
Panel, applying
several unnecessary steps in the changes to an image in
Photoshop CS4 takes
Adjustment Panel
workﬂow
44.06

64.32

non-destructive image modification less than half the time
required in previous 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

workflow. Photoshop releases.

Bottom Line: Using the Adjustments Panel can save you over an hour each week.



Keeping Related Illustrator Work Together with Multiple Artboards

Illustrator CS4
Multiple artboards transform
Illustrator from a single-page t Multiple artboards have
application to one that can handle an immediate impact
up to 100 pages of varying sizes in on productivity, as soon
a single file. This is very useful for as a project comprises
managing projects that are composed several individual
of a variety of related design pieces. pieces that share
settings and design The feature: Multiple
How do I use it? elements. artboards are essentially
pages of varying
The number of artboards can be set t Particularly when sizes and proportions
at the creation of a new Illustrator experimenting with displayed next to each
document. Additional artboards can design variations, other on the Illustrator
be created with the artboard tool in being able to see their paste-board and stored
impact on a whole in the same file.
the tool palette, and existing artboards
can be modified and moved around range of design objects
Illustrator CS4: Multiple Artboards
freely to adapt to the needs of a saves a lot of time. Time in seconds. Shorter is better.

project. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Change font 24.46 CS4
in 3 different
documents/artboards 71.83 CS3 or older

Make 3 different 57.02
changes in 3 different
documents/artboards 117.07
How it affects
productivity: Being 19.87
Export 3 page
able to change common
Multiple artboards make managing
project to PDF 45.60
t parameters such as fonts
or color without having
design projects with multiple
20.44
Export 8 page
to switch between project to PDF 74.38
different documents has

deliverables significantly easier. an immediate impact
on productivity.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Bottom Line: Multiple artboards can save you over 3 hours per month.



Creating and Modifying Gradients in a More Efficient Way

Illustrator CS4
Gradients are one of the most
fundamental features Illustrator t The new Gradient tool
provides. The new gradient tool is particularly efficient
provides one of the most ground- when you work on a
breaking improvements of this larger screen, where
functionality since the introduction of mouse movements
the program over two decades ago. to the various panels
take more time than on
How do I use it? smaller displays. The feature: The new
gradient tool displays
The gradient tool is essentially the t The new gradient a color-bar with color
same tool you have always used, tool offers innovative swatches that can
just better. Gradients can now be options such as the be modified directly,
directly modified with the gradient possibility of skewing without going back to
tool, including complex, multi-color circular gradients the Swatches panel.
gradients. Saving a modified gradient interactively.
Illustrator CS4: Gradient Tool
has been significantly streamlined. Time in seconds. Shorter is better.

0 5 10 15 20

5.55 CS4
CS4
Modify
simple gradient 8.17 CS3 or older
CS3 or older

4.61
Change angle
of linear gradient 11.21

9.82

The new gradient tool makes
Modify simple gradient

t How it affects
and change angle 15.12

creating and modifying gradients
productivity: 10.42
Modify complex gradient
Modifying a simple and save as preset 19.58
gradient is almost
significantly faster. twice as fast with the
new gradient tool.
0 5 10 15 20

Bottom Line: The new gradient tool can save you more than an hour per month.



How Flash CS4 Professional Speeds Up Creating Animations

Flash CS4 Professional
Flash Professional is a powerful
animation and motion design tool, t For designers who want
and each new release extends the to explore the Flash
possibilities for both designers and authoring environment
developers. Flash CS4 represents a but find it intimidating, The feature: When
major overhaul of the program and the new release is a you create a motion
introduces a completely new and more major improvement tween, Flash CS4
direct animation model (alongside the that incorporates many automates the tasks of
methods already in place). Adobe ease-of-use creating the necessary
conventions. keyframes. Even
How do I use it? more important, the
program automatically
Creating a simple motion tween creates a Bézier-curve
has been significantly streamlined motion path that can
in Flash CS4. All you need to do be easily modified.
is select an object, right-click, and
Flash CS4: Create Simple Animation
select Motion Tween from the pop-up Time in seconds. Shorter is better.

menu. The application automatically 0 10 20 30 40 50

inserts keyframes and a motion path CS4
that can be visually adjusted. 4.70
CS3 or older
Create simple
motion tween
13.26

t Flash CS4 Professional demonstrates
How it affects
significantly deeper integration
22.22
productivity: Creating Create four-step
a simple animation motion tween

with the Adobe Creative Suite in Flash CS4 takes
one third of the
40.92

environment. time required in
previous releases.
0 10 20 30 40 50

Bottom Line: New animation tools can save you 1 hour 30 minutes per month.



How Designers Can Create CSS — Without Even Knowing It

Fireworks CS4
Fireworks CS4 is the first release Dreamweaver CS4
of the application that allows you
to export formatting information t Whether you are
using cascading style sheets (CSS), a hard-core CSS
providing considerable productivity coder or new to
gains at the site creation stage. In web development,
addition, Dreamweaver CS4 adds the combination of
simplified tools for navigating and Fireworks CS4 and The feature: Text
modifying CSS-based sites. Dreamweaver CS4 formatting information
offers a spectacularly in a Fireworks CS4
How do I use it? simpler—and faster— document is exported as
way to build a modern a CSS style sheet that
Simple: Format your Fireworks CS4 is directly recognized
web page.
page and export it as CSS. Instead of and managed by
exporting the page as HTML tables t The productivity gains Dreamweaver CS4.
with rasterized text, Fireworks CS4 over previous releases
Fireworks CS4/Dreamweaver CS4: CSS Creation and Management
creates the necessary CSS style of the same programs Time in seconds. Shorter is better.

sheet that can then be fine-tuned in are spectacular. 0 50 100 150 200 250

Dreamweaver. CS4

CS3 or older

41.94

Fireworks CS4 could do for CSS
Create simple
t How it affects
CSS style sheet,
apply and modify
productivity: Even
what WYSIWYG HTML editors did for with an extremely 246.57

simple example, the
web design: Make it accessible for productivity gains
of creating CSS
designers without programming skills. in Fireworks CS4
are spectacular.
0 50 100 150 200 250

Bottom Line: Creating CSS with Fireworks CS4 can save you over 3 hours per week.
(Based on 3 repetitions of benchmarked operation per day. Click here to find out more.)



How Adobe Creative Suite 4 Increases Efficiency in Managing Windows

InDesign CS4
Adobe Creative Suite 4 sports a new Illustrator CS4
user interface for managing windows Photoshop CS4
and panels, making working with Flash CS4 Professional
multiple documents much more Fireworks CS4
convenient. If you like the classic The feature: The
way of shuffling windows around to
t While the new available screen real-
Application Frame estate can be split
see what they contain, you can still
and Application among several open
do this, but the tabbed user interface
Bar in Adobe CS4 documents with a
common to the key applications
applications are single click. Switching
in Adobe CS4 is clearly more between different
a departure from
convenient: Open documents show up configurations is simple;
operating system
as tabs in the main application frame, the space necessary for
conventions, their
and splitting the screen to compare panels is automatically
impact on productivity
several windows is very easy. taken into account.
is obvious once you
How do I use it? start working with InDesign CS4/Illustrator CS4: User Interface Efﬁciency
them. Time in seconds. Shorter is better.

Adobe CS4 applications have a 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

new Application Bar that gives Move element between 4.19 CS4
two open documents
very fast access to different display
8.48
CS3 or older

configurations, which can be changed Combine elements from
three open documents
18.93
32.23
easily. Multiple documents appear as
Set up two windows 7.07
tabs; switching between documents is How it affects for work 18.56

as easy as clicking on the right tab. productivity: The time Set up three windows 7.48

spent shuffling windows for work 25.51

t Increasing the efficiency of working around accumulates
quickly; the new user
Change
2-window setup
3.30
10.61

with multiple documents is hugely interface can provide
very significant
Change
3-window setup
7.99
14.86

important in creative workflows. productivity gains
almost immediately.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Bottom Line: The tabbed user interface of Adobe Creative Suite 4 can save over 3 hours a month.


Creative Potential for Design Professionals

Integrate Interactivity Into Design Projects with InDesign CS4

InDesign CS4
What do you do if you have a layout Flash CS4 Professional
or publication that you want to make
available in print and also on the web? t Combined with the
Of course InDesign has been capable simplified animation
of exporting interactive documents tools Flash CS4 offers,
containing bookmarks, hyperlinks the InDesign export to
and video using the PDF format, but XFL and SWF formats
what about Flash? That is exactly what allows designers to InDesign CS4 provides
extend the reach of tools for introducing
SWF and XFL export introduced
their creativity and interactive controls such
with InDesign CS4 offer. as hyperlinks, buttons
add an interactive
and transition effects
How do I use it? component to print-
such as page turns that
centric projects. can be embedded into
Exporting InDesign CS4 documents
PDF and SWF files.
to the Flash authoring environment
works exactly like PDF export.
Designers can either export a self-
contained SWF file, or hand off
an editable XFL file that can then
be enriched using the wide array
of animation and motion tools in
Flash CS4.

t InDesign CS4 closes the gap XFL documents created
in InDesign CS4 can

between the design of highly be opened and edited in
Flash CS4. InDesign
text can remain
sophisticated print deliverables and editable, be transformed
into vector outlines,
the interactive authoring workflow. or be rasterized.

Bottom Line: Exporting InDesign documents to PDF, SWF or XFL formats offers
a simple way to integrate print and interactive design.



Return On Investment (ROI) Projections

How does it all add up?
Reptitions of
Time saved Time saved
This document looks at some key Feature Benchmarked
per month per year
Operations/day
figures extracted from the extensive
productivity benchmarking project t InDesign CS4:
Pfeiffer Consulting has conducted on 3 1 h. 12 min. 13 h. 20 min.
Adobe Creative Suite 4 software. Live Preflight
While the complete benchmarking
t InDesign CS4:
project comprises over 120 individual 20 2 h. 14 min. 24 h. 40 min.
benchmarks, we have picked key Smart Guides
features of Adobe Creative
Suite 4 that are common in a t Photoshop CS4:
10 3 h. 43 min. 41 h. 00 min.
wide range of creative workflows, The Adjustments Panel
and are usually repeated over and over
again. t Illustrator CS4:
3 3 h. 07 min. 34 h. 17 min.
Even seemingly minimal Multiple Artboards
productivity gains—say, a few
seconds for a single operation—
t Illustrator CS4:
add up over time, when an 10 1 h. 18 min. 14 h. 28 min.
operation is frequently repeated. The New Gradient Tool
Every mouse click counts, and every
second adds up. This is particularly
t Flash CS4 Professional:
10 1 h. 30 min. 16 h. 39 min.
true for workflows executed under Simple Animation Creation
enormous deadline pressure.
Just the few features analyzed t Fireworks CS4:
3 3 h. 24 min. 37 h. 30 min.
here can save you many hours CSS Creation for Designers
over the course of a month—
precious time gained to be more t Adobe CS4 User Interface
creative, more time to explore visual 10 3 h. 24 min. 37 h. 27 min.
Efficiency in Managing Windows
ideas, to take your work to the next
level. And this is without taking into
account all the other productivity
This table only looks at a small selection of new features introduced by the Adobe Creative Suite
enhancements in the Adobe Creative 4. It is clear that even seemingly minimal productivity gains of frequently repeated operations can
Suite 4. save creative professionals hours or even days over the course of a year.
Figures calculated from the number of repetitions of benchmarked operations for each feature. See feature pages for detail.

Back Home Next t 12


About the Benchmarks: How We Measure Productivity

t This benchmark project About the Adobe CS4 Productivity Benchmarks and the average time is used as a result. The cumulative
was commissioned times for all segments that form a complete workflow
by Adobe and The productivity figures in this report are example are then used as benchmark results.
independently executed part of an extensive and ongoing productivity
by Pfeiffer Consulting. benchmarking project commissioned by Adobe, How we prepare hardware for testing
in order to independently assess the productivity
t All the productivity gains that the latest release of Adobe Creative We use factory-standard configuration hardware,
measures presented Suite can provide creative professionals. that has been completely re-initialized prior to
in this document are benchmarking. Only the system software and
Pfeiffer Consulting independently developed
based on real-world application software necessary for tests, as well as all
and executed the benchmarks presented here,
workflow examples required updates at the time of testing, are installed
by analyzing creative workflows in four different
designed and executed on the benchmark system. No peripherals other than
segments of activity: design, web and interactive,
by professionals. the ones required for the benchmarks are connected.
digital imaging, and video. The benchmarks were
t No scripting or Network access is only enabled when required by the
designed and executed by creative professionals.
programming of any benchmark protocol, or for software activation.
kind was used during How we design the benchmarks
Hardware
the execution of the
The basic approach is simple: in order to assess
benchmarks. Benchmarks for this document were conducted
productivity gains that a new release or a
t For an in-depth on a 2008 release 2.8GHz Mac Pro equipped
different product may (or may not) bring, we
description of with 4GB of RAM. Future benchmarks for
start by analyzing the minimum number of steps
the benchmark this ongoing project will also be executed on
necessary to achieve a given result in each of
methodology, complete a similarly configured Windows system.
the applications that have to be compared.
list of benchmarks Once this list of actions has been clearly established, About Pfeiffer Consulting
and detailed results, we start to execute the operation or workflow
please download in each program, with the help of seasoned Pfeiffer Consulting is an independent technology
the complete Adobe professionals who have long-standing experience in research institute and benchmarking operation
CS4 Productivity
the field and with the programs that are tested. focused on the needs of publishing, digital content
Benchmark Report at production, and new media professionals.
www.pfeifferreport.com In order to be certain that no lag or operator-induced
delays are included in the productivity measures, Download the full Adobe Creative Suite 4 Productivity
each benchmarked example is cut down into small Benchmark Report, as well as other benchmark reports
segments of three or four steps each. After an initial and research studies at www.pfeifferreport.com.
training phase, each segment is executed three times,


The Adobe Creative Suite 4 Benchmark Project

This report was created by Pfeiffer Consulting
(http://www.pfeifferconsulting.com).

All texts and illustrations © Pfeiffer Consulting 2009.
Reproduction prohibited without previous written approval.
For further information, please contact
research@pfeifferreport.com.
Adobe, Acrobat, Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, Photoshop, Flash
Professional, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Version
Cue are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe
Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
Mac and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., reg-
istered in the United States and other countries.
OpenType and Windows are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or
other countries.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

© Pfeiffer Consulting 2009

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