InDesign CS5 Sneak Preview (Yes, this is real!)
See this animation? I know what you’re thinking…Illustrator to Flash, right?
Think again.
What I can tell you now is that the animation above was created entirely in Adobe InDesign CS5. I can’t, however, say how I did it. InDesign CS5 is still under wraps until Adobe’s April 12, 2010 launch, so the lid remains nailed down tight on specifics. But I’ve been part of the beta testing program, and Adobe has allowed some pre-launch glimpses into what CS5 can do (just not how to do it…yet).
This was originally a print layout created in InDesign CS3. Without opening any other application, I was able to use InDesign CS5 to give this static print layout a new life on the web.
One file. One application. Two publishing destinations. Sweet!
I welcome everyone’s comments and reaction to the above animation, but if you have specific questions about it, be advised that I’ve said everything I can about it right here in this post.
Refresh the page to see the animation play from the start again, or you can view a larger version on YouTube.
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April 3rd, 2010 at 2:03 am
I’m hoping this isn’t the biggest or best new feature. I can stand it if it’s icing, like content-aware fill in PS, but I just can’t muster much excitement for this unless it lets us add real value to existing content with much less effort than rebuilding it in Flash.
Besides, this isn’t the best time to be promoting Flash output as a new feature. I really wish they had gotten CS5 out before the iPad launch, because everyone is going to bring that crap up every chance they get. “Look, now even InDesign users can alienate iPad users by outputting evil, despicable Flash instead of beautiful HTML5, which is the inevitable future of everything!”
April 3rd, 2010 at 1:44 pm
I can’t say where this falls in the overall feature scheme for InDesign CS5. This Flash/Adobe vs. HTML5/Apple argument is a bigger issue that’s gotten a lot of “ink” elsewhere. For now, as I see it, the reality is HTML5 isn’t all the way here and Flash is entrenched. But so was QuarkXPress in its day, so who knows?
The iPad is a game-changer in a lot of ways. It remains to be seen if it’ll change how publishers and advertisers produce their content. That’s what’s really going to make the pendulum swing one way or the other.
April 9th, 2010 at 7:43 am
Personally, I think Abobe gambled 18 months ago when starting CS5 – and made a wrong gamble. It reminds me of QXpress 5 that added HTML and later on a interface to make Flash. No-one, NO one uses Quark for this.
And now… we have a CS5 with Flash AND we have the new iPad (not forgetting the iPhone) that won’t support it. Worse: Apple today announced that ‘converted’ apps from CS5 (yes, CS5) won’t be allowed on the iPad/iPhone store.
So: gambled, lost.
What we DO need is an InDesign that is a platform for developing rich content e-books! Need to make electronic magazines for iPad etc – not Flash. Re-thinking design (people that can scroll pages up/down besides forward/backward for example, realize that our design can be portrait OR landscape as the reader turns its iPad and it still has to be nice to see and read etc.). Gives us the tools to do this – and bring it to HTML5 and export it to rich ePub.
CS6 will be here sooner then we may think!
April 9th, 2010 at 10:59 am
I don’t disagree, Frans. This increasingly-public battle hurts both customers and publishers, and casts both companies in a bad light.
I’m a long-time loyalist to both Apple and Adobe, and it’s painful to see this happening at such a critical time for the ever-changing media world. Having our tools and our platforms at odds with one another helps no one.
Your statement about what kind of InDesign we need is dead-on. We users have to contend with re-thinking how we design, deliver and present our content, and our software has to support our needs.
April 10th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Have you seen this:
http://www.woodwing.com/en/digital-magazine/ipad-tools
Nice, and useful. Should have been in CS5, wonder what CS6 will be like..