Adobe Acrobat X is the biggest rewrite of the interface ever. Any time there is a new release of software, typically the primary focus that beckons new or return buyers are new and/or better features. There are, of course, new and/or better features in Acrobat X, but the biggest change from previous versions of this release is the interface. In many cases, having the various tools and processes located in this new interface makes the features easier to find and use. Laying all the tools right out in front of you in the tabbed interface makes discovery easier. However, finding what you want can be much more of a challenge. Additionally, some of those changes were done halfway, were poorly thought out, and, in some cases, are just plain nonsensical. Please understand that there is much to like with AX, but getting to what you like will take some work on your part.

Bokeh 2 provides a significant upgrade to an already good product. I was very impressed with the first release of Bokeh, and Alien Skin Software has made tremendous improvements on what they started out with. It was a surprise seeing many of my suggestions and wishes I gave in my review of the first release implemented in this new release. What made it even better was that their solutions were much better than what I had wished for. First and foremost is the new ability to combine multiple masks for fine-tuning the bokeh effect and more controls on that effect, all providing a significantly better result for the photographer.

InDesign (ID) is an application used to create books, magazines, newspapers, journals, posters, flyers, whatever. If you want to print it, ID is a great place to make it. For the most part, content created with ID was intended for print or PDF. But Adobe has created a whole new infrastructure within ID so that not only can one create standard documents for standard print jobs, but now one can easily create electronic documents meant for anything from ebooks to complex electronic publications with fully integrated Flash elements. Simply, what before would have required a seasoned Flash designer to create can now be created by you with no Flash coding. In addition to these new features, there are a host of other updates to the ID design dynamics that further enhance and improve the layout designs.

This new update for Lightroom 3 is rather unique in a very good way. Rather than building on its predecessors with a plethora of new features, this release has a plethora of significantly updated features. In fact, the only thing that's really new is a tethering feature, and a variation on new is the ability to upload to social media and image sites. This major "improvement" focus as opposed to major "new" focus is something I wish more applications would do; vastly improving already existing features to the point where they are as good as new features. In effect, this LR update is sort of like PS-CS5's JDI (Just Do It) plan, but on steroids.

Once you start "shooting raw," you'll never go back. And once you start working with ACR 6.1, you won't want to go back to earlier versions. Yes, it's that good. From Lens Profile Corrections to the new Noise elimination tools, to the enhanced Post Crop Vignetting and new Grain feature, this is a powerful update. ACR and Photoshop provide an image-working duo that creates a wealth of photo-manipulation, enhancement, and control. Even if you are using ACR on JPEG images, you will find increased functionality at the initial stages of image correction/enhancement that will carry through to the end of the process.

If you've used Photoshop for years, get ready for some changes as to how you do things. With this new release, there are small traps hidden within a common interface. While none of these traps are bad, in fact most are great, they still might trip you up. But by no means should you let them get in your way to one of the best updates to Photoshop in years. This stellar release has many new ground-breaking features as well as many JDI updates we've been asking for for years. For some, the JDI (Just Do It) enhancements might be enough by themselves to make you want to update.

Illustrator CS5 has some of the most amazing new features ever presented in an Illustrator release, but still has the same amazing limitations it's had for years. I suppose we users are used to the limitations, but at least we can enjoy the Beautiful Strokes, Bristle Brushes, Perspective Grids, Pixel Perfect drawings, and the impressive Shape Builder to name a few features that will keep us working better, faster, and more intelligently than before. In other words, CS5 is a worthy upgrade.

Bridge CS5 continues its development with improved speed, more output options, better customization in creating web galleries and PDF exports, better batch renaming, and the introduction of Mini Bridge, to name just a few of the new features in CS5. Despite all that, Bridge took baby steps compared to all of the other CS5 applications. Thus, while some of the changes are welcomed and desired, they are also limited and not fully fleshed out.

The task is truly daunting: the release of eighteen major applications along with a wide peripheral collection of many supporting applications, web-based applications, Flash-based applications, and associated shared resource applications. To release any one of these is a big task, to release them all, on the same day is, well, either risky or reckless. To be successful at it is amazing. To do it 5 times in a row, is battling luck. But if Pixar can be successful time after time, why not Adobe? And they have. The range of product improvements in Creative Suite 5 goes from subtle and cool to drop-down amazing.

For many years, Alien Skin's Eye Candy has been one of the most used plugins for creating eye-catching effects for image design enhancement. This current version continues to build on previous versions to provide even more effects and greater variety to make your designs "work." The catch is that working with Eye Candy is at its best if you have Photoshop CS4. If you have Photoshop CS3, it's good. If you have Fireworks CS4 or Photoshop Elements, it's okay. This is partly due to the fact that the amount of features has fully passed the inharent user-interface design limitations.

After a nine year absence and a promise that a Mac OS X version would be out "soon," Strider Software has finally released TypeStyler for Mac OS X. This vector program that can stylize text like Photoshop—but with significantly more potential for customization—is once again back on my computer. The new TypeStyler has significantly more features, but it also has a curious amount of limitations and/or gaps; features are either missing or only partially there. Trust me, though; despite the holes here and there, this is an application I've truly missed.

The art of the blur. That's what we are talking about here: blurring images. We see this blurring all the time in movies when the camera shifts its focus from one protagonist to another so that person A is in focus at one point and person B is in focus at another. The quality of that "out-of-focus" is Bokeh, and if you didn't properly get that blur in your camera, the Photoshop plug-in, Bokeh, will do a great job of giving you a second chance for great bokeh in your computer.