A series of documents tied to a recent Adobe client survey suggest the next generation of Creative Suite (Adobe CS6) could include 64-bit versions of Illustrator and Flash Professional, as well as new image enhancing additions to After Effects. [Update: the existence of this survey has now been corroborated several times over.]

The documents provided to AppleInsider this week accompanied an online survey conducted by Adobe this month, in which some features of the next-gen Creative Suite 6 were discussed.

Adobe's Creative Suite software is typically updated every 12 to 18 months. The previous release, Creative Suite 5, shipped last April with 64-bit support for Photoshop, Premiere Photo and After Effects.

Parts of the survey, shown below, included descriptions of Adobe's entire line of Creative Suite products, though much of the material provided is marketing speak identical to previous version of the software. However, certain specific items labeled as 'New Features' in CS6 were also a part of the material.

The portions of the survey that claim to offer a summary of new features in CS6 have been summarized and included below.

Illustrator CS6

The documentation claims that Illustrator CS6 will include 64-bit support for the software, though it does not indicate whether that support is for Windows machines only, or if it will be extended to the Mac.

The new Illustrator would also allegedly include various user interface enhancements, such as scrubby sliders, the ability to edit layer names directly in the panel, and a "dark" mode similar to After Effects.

Other features listed in the documentation include:
New Pattern Creation mode which simplifies pattern creation and editing.
The ability to apply gradients to strokes in 3 different ways.
A new vectorization tool that creates clean vector artwork from images
Automatic corner generation for pattern brushes.
Faster, more fluid workflows for web and interactive design.
Integration with Maestro and CS Review.

Flash Professional CS6

The documents claim that a new Flash Professional for CS6 will bring 64-bit support to the Mac, bringing the software up to speed with its Windows counterpart. Other features claimed in the documentation include:
Usability and performance enhancements on a wide range of platforms and devices
New properties to visually create complex, real-world timeline animations that are editable in Flash Professional.
Tooling improvements for optimizing content creation.

Photoshop CS6

"With new breakthrough capabilities in Adobe Photoshop CS6 software, you can push your photography in new directions, design across screens, and increase your productivity," the alleged survey reads. It lists features of Photoshop CS6 as;
Infuse your stories with motion using DSLR video together with Photoshop. Transform video and stills in ways that were impossible before.
Design across screens and get more accurate results than ever before with reinvented drawing and graphics tools.
Get your work done in record time thanks to major productivity boosters leading to fewer steps and more workflow efficiencies.

Premiere Pro CS6

The new version of Premiere Pro will allegedly include faster performance and stability with the enhanced Mercury Playback Engine. Adobe promises that the update will allow users to open projects faster, scrub through HD and higher-resolution more fluidly, and playback complex long-format and effects-heavy projects with more reliability.

Premiere Pro for CS6 also allegedly includes user interface enhancements designed to simplify everyday tasks, making it easier for users more familiar with Apple's Final Cut Pro, or Avid software, to make the switch.

Premiere Pro CS6 also reportedly includes native tapeless workflow, saving users from having to transcode or rewrap a file. It also adds closed captioning support, with easy-to-create captions and subtitles that meet Section 508 standards.

After Effects CS6

Features of Adobe After Effects CS6, according to the documentation, will include:

Warp Stabilizer - Transform shaky hand-held footage into shots that look like they were shot on a dolly or using a Steadicam.
Persistent Disk Caching - Minimize the need to re-render frames and see previews more quickly as you work by saving previews to disk on a per layer and per comp basis.
Enhanced Stereoscopic 3D workflows - more easily set up stereo camera rigs inside of After Effects and render from multiple cameras without duplicating the comp.
Source timecode support - More easily communicate frame-accurate information with others using the same project footage in other post-production tools.
Small changes that make a big difference to your daily workflow.
New support for importing and exporting tapeless formats.

Other details

While the survey suggests that some applications will be seeing 64-bit upgrades, there is no indication that its Web designing software Dreamweaver will be 64-bit in CS6. The new version promises to help users "stay on the cutting edge of best practices, web standards and related technologies - including HTML5 and CSS3."

Also described in the documentation is the ability of Device Central to allow viewing of mobile content in HTML in addition to Flash. Device Central CS6 also allows the use of features like geolocation, accelerometer and multi-touch.

The survey also makes mention of a new tool in CS6 dubbed Adobe Helium. It will reportedly allow interactive designers to "create animations, interactions, widgets and interactive content using HTML5, CSS3 and other evolving web standards."

Released last April, Creative Suite 5 updated the applications that allow creation of content for Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2. It also added integration with online content and digital marketing measurement and optimization capabilities for the first time. Creative Suite 5 shipped with 15 products including Photoshop, Flash Professional, After Effects, Acrobat 9 Pro, and Encore.

Months before the release of the software, in February 2009, AppleInsider offered an exclusive peek at Adobe Creative Suite 5 for Mac, including the news that Photoshop CS5 for Apple hardware would be a full-fledged 64-bit application.

CS5 is AWESOME on the Mac. I use CS4 at work and find everything feels faster and the tools are just all around nicer on my home iMac with CS5. The content aware fill is amazing and I find myself wishing I had to remove more things from pictures. Same goes for the content-aware scaling. I also got used to the way zooming works and 64 bit is obviously great. Adobe would have to pull some serious magic to make me think of upgrading just yet.

That said, there's always people complaining about being "forced" to upgrade. With the exception of Flash that changes pretty significantly with each release, the Creative Suite tools will continue to work as advertised forever. There's not much forcing going on here. Your copy of Photoshop CS2 will continue to work forever. If the newer features sound worth getting to you then get it. Simple. New customers are buying Creative Suite each year and I'm sure they're more than happy to get the "meh" new features included in the cost.

A couple things I'd like to see: I'd like for Illustrator to have the same drop-down list style as the Windows counterpart, where I can cycle through fonts by pressing up and down arrow keys. I often install a bunch of fonts that might work for something and would like to just cycle through my options instead of the current mac way of re-selecting the list with my mouse each time. Also, I'd love for either Illustrator to get more of InDesign's multi-page abilities (which is preferable) or InDesign to get all of Illustrator's symbol, brush, and type tools. Multiple art boards were a nice start. Oh... last thing: Illustrator needs folders in the layers palette.

I think what Adobe has done with the update cycle creates a situation where only the well financed pros upgrade every version and the smaller firms update every other version and private individuals upgrade only as needed for compatibility with new clients.

As far as backwards compatibility is concerned, they do a pretty good job with photoshop in that it at least lets you open the document even if some of the advanced features are not supported. InDesign is the worst for compatibility. It seems to break every time. Illustrator breaks as well but I discovered this trick years ago and it still works really real.

If you get a newer Illustrator file that you can't open, simply place it in an inDesign layout and export that page as a pdf. Then open the newly created pdf in Illustrator. 90% of the time you will be able to work with the file just fine. Only in rare instances will there be any non editable pieces.

+ How about a revised installation folder structure in line with Apple's guidelines? Or at least creating a working uninstaller for the mess you are creating (not the ones you usually do)?

+ How about making Dreamweaver as stable and responsive as the last Macromedia version from 2004 (it still runs faster and more stable under Rosetta than anything Adobe has released in ages)? OK, you screwed up the interface like there is no tomorrow, I expected that from a company that has not done a single platform compliant interface since PageMill. OK, you have charged more than $1k in update fees since you bought it from MM without adding a single useful new feature, but does it really need to crash every time it loses the connection to a FTP server? I like a good challenge like the next guy, but why exactly do menus randomly stop doing anything? Why do you overwrite files on the server, even after I have "cloaked" the file type and the directory a million times already? How many more times do I have to tell this program to not touch "dependent files"? Why does the code editor randomly hide the line numbering and why does the damn thing still insist on showing up in every single OS X "Space"... All these problems are there since 5 years, and all of them have been reported over and over again. And now you want to charge for the next bugfix release without any fixes?

+ Repeat almost the same rant for Fireworks, just with more foul language... boy, did they ruin that program.

+ Many thanks for InDesign CS4/CS5 (both initially as buggy as anything Corel has done)... our boss signed the purchase request for 20 copies of Quark Express and our staff is really happy.

There was a question asking if you would be willing to pay $100 per year to keep your suite up-to-date. I think that would rock. Otherwise you are paying almost $1000K for every 3 years or so assuming you skip an upgrade in between.

That said, there's always people complaining about being "forced" to upgrade. With the exception of Flash that changes pretty significantly with each release, the Creative Suite tools will continue to work as advertised forever. There's not much forcing going on here. Your copy of Photoshop CS2 will continue to work forever. If the newer features sound worth getting to you then get it. Simple. New customers are buying Creative Suite each year and I'm sure they're more than happy to get the "meh" new features included in the cost.

Well said, and I agree with the exception of Camera RAW support in Photoshop. I have Photoshop CS3 and it will not support the latest cameras. Even more frustrating is that viewing the RAW files in Adobe Bridge CS3 will show no thumbnails of the images (and of course not open them in Photoshop), yet it's able to see all of the metadata and rotation information just fine. Surely updating Photoshop and Bridge to be able to see RAW files from newer DSLRs is a simple update. Instead, I'm forced to buy a newer version of the Creative Suite if I want to tweak my RAW settings in Photoshop or Bridge.

mstone, Rosetta-enabled machines have nothing to do with the lack of Bug Squashing on Adobe's part.

I won't upgrade past CS4 until I have to, because I refuse to pay $1300 for the hope of bugs being taken care of. In AI CS4, there is a long list of bugs and inconsistencies that Adobe KNOWS about, but never releases an update for. They won't ever release an update...they want you to buy the next FULL update/version...at the premium price. It's absurd.

What's worse is that the development team knows about a lot of problems, they know what the solution is, but aren't allowed to do anything about it because the Marketing muckity-mucks won't let them. It's all about the next great feature (aka bloat). New stuff is cool and all, but geesh... I'm sick of having to collapse all the layers back up upon opening a file, because AI can't remember the open/closed state of layers/sublayers. Piss poor implementation on many levels.

I've heard that AI CS6 is supposed to fix a lot of bugs, but only time and some real with with a trial/beta will tell.

Ok If you still own a machine that has Rosetta on it, that explains all the rest of the problems you are experiencing.

Huh? What are you talking about?

I have a current 8-core Mac Pro running 10.6 and the previous model MacBook Pro 17" with 10.6, and they both have Rosetta installed, as we still have some apps which are not compiled for Intel CPUs... Guess what, even if you buy the newest Mac available, Rosetta is still an optional install on the installation disk. And I have absolutely no idea how that should "explain all the rest of the problems", as Rosetta does exactly nothing to Universal or Intel-only apps...

Once you explain that, then maybe you can also explain why Adobe's support confirms these issues as known, if only I have them (and about 20-30 other people I know)?

My big beef with Adobe is their extreme reluctance to add any features to their programs that may make them seem more Mac-like.

Control-Command-D bring up a pop-up window? No way!
Access to the iPhoto library? Not on your life! (I use InDesign a lot personal work, and I would love access to my iPhoto library, just as Apple provides in their programs.
Only last version did we get the ability to change the Adobe default of Command-H to hide the program instead of the selection. (I know, Adobe had Command-H first, but still!)

I realise this is a fruitless wish, Adobe having originally bought Macromedia to satisfy their twin goals of: (a) getting their grubby hands on Flash; and (b) shutting down Illustrator's main (only?) competitor...

It would be great if Apple were to spend a tiny chunk of their loose change on buying Freehand from Adobe. Then Apple could release a decent drawing/illustration app that would blow Illustrator away (and cost a 'one size fits all' $24)!

I have a current 8-core Mac Pro running 10.6 and the previous model MacBook Pro 17" with 10.6, and they both have Rosetta installed, as we still have some apps which are not compiled for Intel CPUs... Guess what, even if you buy the newest Mac available, Rosetta is still an optional install on the installation disk. And I have absolutely no idea how that should "explain all the rest of the problems", as Rosetta does exactly nothing to Universal or Intel-only apps...

Once you explain that, then maybe you can also explain why Adobe's support confirms these issues as known, if only I have them (and about 20-30 other people I know)?

Are you just talking, because you like to hear yourself?

Ok let me revise that. Sorry you have so many problems. You must be very unlucky or have done something to screw up your computer because I have the latest OS X updates and the CS updates and experience no issues, and no crashes. I do this professionally all day long and also have 8 core w 8 gigs. I use PS, AI, IN, DW, FL and usually have them running all at the same time along with half a dozen other apps like textmate, fetch, safari, grab, skype, itunes and acrobat. No problem whatsoever. I have been using all of those application since the 1.0 versions (yes including Illustrator 1.0a). Have not had a crash for years and I leave my machine on 24 hours a day and often log in with back to my mac remotely from home.

Ok let me revise that. Sorry you have so many problems. You must be very unlucky or have done something to screw up your computer because I have the latest OS X updates and the CS updates and experience no issues, and no crashes. I do this professionally all day long and also have 8 core w 8 gigs. I use PS, AI, IN, DW, FL and usually have them running all at the same time along with half a dozen other apps like textmate, fetch, safari, grab, skype, itunes and acrobat. No problem whatsoever. I have been using all of those application since the 1.0 versions (yes including Illustrator 1.0a). Have not had a crash for years and I leave my machine on 24 hours a day and often log in with back to my mac remotely from home.

Thanks for the clarification, but you may really be comparing different things:

- The absolutely only crash situation I mentioned in my rant was a crash that repeatedly happens when DW loses the connection to a FTP server during certain transactions (e.g. while refreshing the database cache on the test/preview server or while in "Live" view). This bug is there since 2005 and Adobe has confirmed it (more than 20 times to me alone). And: this bug was "added" by Adobe, as the last Macromedia version from 2004 does not have it. The fact that you are not seeing it, does not necessarily prove anything, as you may a) not work in remote locations where internet connections drop frequently (or work with a test server on the local network anyhow) and/or b) not work with live remote databases at all.
- Similarly, all the other issue mentioned by me have been reported over and over, and we have seen them on own machines, on client machines, we could even reproduce them right in an Apple store, on a store computer, in front of an Adobe employee (or contractor, I do not know for sure) who was giving a product demo (CS4 at that time) there... these issues do exist and they have nothing at all to do with our machines or our setup.

They are real bugs and Adobe is doing nothing to solve them. They frequently release paid updates, while the "old" version still has hundreds of known issues. If you have no problems, I am happy for you, but that does not mean that other people, who might use other functions or setups, do not have any. And Adobe's forums are full of them.

Couldn't agree more.
It takes for ever to start up on my Macs.
It is extremely over rated, very poor integration b/n the various components (lots of replication of work is needed). Very poor HELP, and just not a good UI.
You can tell it was written for the M$ PC crowd, they love it.
I refuse to use software from companies that don't respect the Apple users. Skype is a good example, stuck on a very old version while M$ worshippers have the latest.
Simple solution, I remove Skype. I use Facetime exclusively, blows it out of the water, still only Beta, can't wait for the Alpha.
I suggest people, do the same, vote with your fingers, walk away from these companies, they will soon realise their mistakes, and besides you may surprise yourselves that there are better products out there, and who respect Apple Users.

How about a revised installation folder structure in line with Apple's guidelines

Don't you know Adobe absolutely refuses to make their programs Mac-like? They insist that their programs are the same on the PC and Mac. I hate that!

Yeah, I did hear that. But I never heard a single valid argument, why this is a good thing. I do not know a single creative professional who uses the same CS program on two platforms.

Software should follow the rules (and conventions and look and feel... etc ad inf) of the Operating System. Everything else is counterproductive. I mean, heck, even MS "gets" it, and does not try to bring the Windows look and feel to Office for Mac (they do not quite succeed 100% in meeting OS X standards, but at least you can see they try, and I can count on e.g. keyboard shortcuts working as they should, Adobe can't even do that). After working a few hours in a great program (like Aperture or Final Cut Pro), having to work in an Adobe app is always a royal PITA.

But then, to be fair, the Windows versions of iTunes and Safari are not quite great examples for ported applications either

Well, true, but in the meantime I figured out, that this may well be on purpose:

- There are hordes of third party authors writing instruction books for Adobe software
- Their well-being depends on Adobe selling a lot and documenting it poorly
- It is rather easy money, as 90% and more of each next edition are just copy and paste (except for Flash there have not really been a lot of noteworthy updates in years, things like HDR or multi-page support in AI may cause 20-30 additional pages each max.)
- As these sycophants get early access to new features, they have lengthy and detailed "reviews" available as soon as a new suite hits the stores
- Computer magazines are in a rush to publish "reviews" and turn to these authors
- They can publish their self-serving drivel and get free advertising on top of it

A perfect "ecosystem". And, unfortunately, even normally respectable publications like Macworld do fall for it. Watch for it when CS6 arrives. In almost every single publication you will find "reviews" by people making a living by writing handbooks for Adobe software, and not by regular staff members.

Couldn't agree more.
It takes for ever to start up on my Macs.
It is extremely over rated, very poor integration b/n the various components (lots of replication of work is needed). Very poor HELP, and just not a good UI.
You can tell it was written for the M$ PC crowd, they love it.
I refuse to use software from companies that don't respect the Apple users. Skype is a good example, stuck on a very old version while M$ worshippers have the latest.
Simple solution, I remove Skype. I use Facetime exclusively, blows it out of the water, still only Beta, can't wait for the Alpha.
I suggest people, do the same, vote with your fingers, walk away from these companies, they will soon realise their mistakes, and besides you may surprise yourselves that there are better products out there, and who respect Apple Users.

Crazy talk. And by the way in software and generally everything else, Alpha precedes Beta. So I recommend waiting for the next public release because the Alpha is not forthcoming.

I can only imagine what Adobe has in store for us in CS6. We upgraded from a stable CS4 environment to a very painful CS5 environment. To stabilize CS5 we upgraded machines and maxed out the RAM just to get working again. We're an agency with 74 people, spent thousands on upgrades to CS5 and what did we get? Nothing but pain until we spent even more money to run the software. Shame on Adobe. We're skeptical now of the next upgrade. I'm not so sure we can afford it. Enough with the bloatware already.

Don't you know Adobe absolutely refuses to make their programs Mac-like? They insist that their programs are the same on the PC and Mac. I hate that!

don't really care if the interface looks the same. it's a crap product if there are too many bugs. i wish adobe would focus on the tools in each respective program, perfect them, charge a minimum price for an upgrade (yeah folks, i believe we should actually pay for software. no one is forcing your arm to upgrade.), then focus on new features.

and, what's this crap about all these apps overlapping features even more. still don't know if it's a good or bad thing. guess i'll just have to stay tuned.

Unfortunately they probably won't bother digging up all the UI inconsistencies or making the Creative Suite work like a Mac app (I mean what is this folders with subfolders thing in my /Applications? Or those toolbars that almost look like native but don't work like ones).

I'm pretty sure all UI designers have changed ship because since I don't know, version 5, there have been very few well executed UI upgrades and tons of "oh let's just throw this feature somewhere - that special menu for creating 3D hats seems like a good idea".

What I'd like to see is Apple buying Pixelmator and allocating more manpower for that project so it can catch up with Photoshop's main features. Then make something similar for vector graphics.

Crazy talk. And by the way in software and generally everything else, Alpha precedes Beta. So I recommend waiting for the next public release because the Alpha is not forthcoming.

I used the term Alpha, as in alpha wolf (leader), yes I understand about releases, I am a computer programmer and work in IT after all lol !
I disagree that you disagree, CS is bloated and not fun to use, its okay, better than say Auto CAD, which is the most horrible application I have used, being better than the worse doesn't make it good eh ?

I have Illustrator CS5 open in front of me just to check. There aren't folders. There are layers (or it wouldn't be a layers palette at all). No folders.

Yeah adobe is dumb like that. They said that each layer is a folder of it's own because every little vector work would appear inside of it. But I would love to see folders too, like I'm Flash image library. But hey not if you pay $500 for upgrade!\

That would be a single most expensive move, but I don't think Apple sees profit in this area. They can't even keep up with their own pro apps. what would be nice to see apple create an alternative to Adobe. Yet again Adobe will sue anyone who even comes close to their code, user interface and file extensions.

Yeah adobe is dumb like that. They said that each layer is a folder of it's own because every little vector work would appear inside of it. But I would love to see folders too, like I'm Flash image library. But hey not if you pay $500 for upgrade!\

There are 'folders' if that's what you want to call them. Every time you Group objects the grouping forms a folder in the layer palette that you can flip open or closed like a Finder folder. You can drag elements (from within the palette, not from the artboard) from other layers/folders into or out of the group. I do this all the time. It is a great way to add or remove items from a clipping mask without all kinds of cutting and pasting.

I'm really pleased to hear that Adobe is finally getting around to properly upgrading Illustrator. When CS5 rumors where swirling a couple years ago it was all about Photoshop. I spend 80% of my day in Illustrator and I'm looking forward to a REAL upgrade!