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MAX 2013 may be in full gear in Los Angeles, but users will have to wait until June to get their hands on the new Creative Cloud editions of Adobe’s products, which includes some exciting changes to the company’s web creation applications.
On Monday, Adobe unveiled its plans for the next generation of Creative Cloud at its annual MAX 2013 conference. If you’re a web designer, there’s plenty of great stuff on the way when Adobe begins shipping the latest CC versions worldwide on June 17.
Adobe Dreamweaver CC will benefit from a number of significant changes with the upcoming version, most notably with a streamlined user interface that eliminates a lot of the clutter accumulated from previous versions — which included gutting outdated features no longer used by most users.
In their place, Adobe has beefed up Dreamweaver CC’s CSS design features, existing support for HTML and Javascript and full visual support for JQuery user interface widgets. Dreamweaver also includes Adobe PhoneGap Build Support for packaging native iOS and Android apps.
Last but not least, Dreamweaver CC brings Adobe Typekit abilities thanks to the Adobe Edge Web Fonts Library, along with an updated Fluid Grid Layout interface (above), which aids designers in creating multiple screen sizes for different devices.
Adobe Flash Professional CC may not be at the core of the company’s web strategy for mobile, but the application is very much still at the center of desktop. To that end, Adobe has added 64-bit support, the same dark user interface introduced with Photoshop CS6 (shown above) and full, high-definition export of both video and audio, all in a much simpler user interface.
HTML publishing has also been improved with Flash Professional CC, with an update to Toolkit for CreateJS. Users can now see full previews of their fill and stroke colors in real time, with an unlimited pasteboard size, powerful code editor and the ability to test and debug Flash content on multiple iOS and Android devices at once via USB.
Adobe Edge Animate CC is also getting a refresh, adding motion paths (above), custom templates, swipe gesture support for mobile-centric projects and faster delivery to content delivery networks such as Adobe’s own powered by Akamai, which is included at no additional cost.
The new Creative Cloud will also include Adobe Edge Reflow CC Preview 3, an updated version that includes more efficient asset management consolidated into a dedicated Assets panel as well as Typekit integration for tapping into wider range of typographical choices.
The move to Creative Cloud does come with at least one casualty for longtime web developers: As noted by Adobe, Fireworks will not be updated as part of the CC package, although the existing CS6 version will indeed be included and will receive bug fixes and security updates as necessary.
Adobe will release the updated Creative Cloud worldwide on June 17, available as an annual membership for only $49.99 per month; existing owners of CS3 to CS5.5 are eligible for a discount on their first year for only $29.99 per month, and other upgrade options will also be available.
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