Adobe Creative Suite (CS) 6 Release

Adobe Creative Suite (CS) 6 Release:
On Sunday May 6^th, Adobe released the much anticipated programs, Adobe CS6.  This package of software includes the most popular graphic design programs used in the industry including Photoshop (photos), Illustrator (graphic design), InDesign (books, brochures, and newsletters), Flash (animation), and Dreamweaver (web design).  While the original focus of the package was professional, these programs are now what is used in many schools and what students like to use to create top-notch projects. These are great programs for teens to learn if they are interested in photography, web design, graphic design, interior decoration, and other creative fields.

There is an educational version of the suite that is provided at a reduced price to make it more affordable for students.  However, even with the reduced price, the product is fairly expensive for the novice user.
Adobe has heard the complaints of the cost and has come up with a solution called “Subscriptions” that was released on May 11th.  This would allow users to pay a monthly subscription price ($29.99 for students) for the programs along with having cloud storage to save the large graphic files.  This can be a great advantage for teens wanting to learn the program over the summer or as part of a class without having the large upfront investment of having access to the program at home.

Updates to the Program 

One of the updates to the CS Suite is that they have updated the user interface of all of the programs.  They are trying to make the tools more integrated between the various programs. They also took feedback from current users to come up with over 65 new or modified tools to make using the program easier to increase productivity.  The program also loads much quicker and saves large files almost instantly.
InDesign has been updated to allow for the creation of publications that are friendly for tablet devices.  New features include the ability to zoom, add slide shows, audio, and video.  It has also been updated to allow for the creation of eBooks.
Flash now has been updated to be able to be used on the iOS devices through an additional add on feature in the program.
Muse is a new program that was added to the suite.  This program allows users to create HTML websites without having any knowledge of programming code.  It allows the novice design to create a professional looking website with minimal experience.  

How to Help Your Child Learn CS6

There are many ways that your child can learn and explore the use of the Adobe CS6.  Many individuals like to just play around with the tools and see what they can do.  Other children may be more interested in learning the program through the use of a hands-on textbook that they can use at their own pace.  A good book to learn Photoshop would be The Adobe Photoshop CS6 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby.  I really enjoy the Adobe books written by Scott Kelby because they are in full color, provide real life examples for how to use the programs, and have very detailed directions and explanations of how to use the program.
Another way they can learn the different tools of the program is to watch videos online.  There are many websites that show the functions and how to use them in everyday graphic design.
Once they learn the basics of the program you can also encourage your child by giving them creative ideas of design items they could create like create a logo for a brand of cereal that they made up, or create a movie poster.  You could also encourage them to edit family photos from an event or vacation, create the family reunion newsletter, develop flyers for the garage sale, or use the programs to develop some very fun projects of special interest
Article By Laura Ketcham-VanHellemont
Picture By SpecialKRB
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