Today, Adobe staged a slick, on-line video presentation of its Creative Suite 5, which includes the computer programs Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Premiere, After Effects, and Flash.

Shipping by mid May, the new versions of the programs will used by creative design professionals working across print, video, and the Web. Packages of the new software will cost between US$1,299 and US$2,599, with upgrade and volume licensing pricing available.

Among the highlights of CS5 are the move to full 64-bit programming for Apple computers with Intel chips, and the automating of a number of tasks that used to be tedious, manual chores.

The most stunning example is the new Content-Aware Fill feature in Photoshop CS5. This tool simplifies one of the most difficult tasks in photo manipulation, that of object removal.

In the example shown here, the original beach image includes a wrecked rowboat. In the past, to remove that object from the photo would have required painstaking effort. Hours of it.

With Content-Aware Fill, however, users need simply to select the object to be removed, and click a button. Photoshop does the rest, by identifying what needs to be removed, and then determining what appears in the remaining space.

The same technique can be used to make images bigger. In the beach scene, Content-Aware Fill was used to make the photograph taller and wider with no sign of alteration.

A similar tool in After Effects simplifies the lives of video and special effects designers. Roto Brush automates the arduous rotoscoping process that is used to digitally remove objects from video.

New on-line services are being delivered by Adobe in its CS Live offering, and include CS Review, which provides the ability to review and comment on works in progress, and the BrowserLab, which allows users to preview HTML pages in a variety of browser and computer configurations and compare configurations side-to-side and even one on top of another using “onionskin view”.

CS Live will be available free for a time, after which Adobe will be charging for the services, although pricing was not announced.

A more significant strategic shift with Creative Suite 5, though, is the move to make the tools platform agnostic. The idea is to emphasize creation over computer system or code.

Device Central means that creators can more easily export their work optimized for the wide array of mobile devices that exist, and Flash Catalyst enables designers to create Flash content without having to do any coding.

Because Apple does not support Flash on the iPhone and iPad, Adobe’s new Flash Professional includes a feature that will convert Flash files into versions which can be deployed on those devices.

Apple, though, is trying to prevent just such a workaround. The new terms of service being proposed for the new iPhone 4.0 operating system requires that applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPad be created using the programming code native to the devices.

Apple says the move is being made to ensure quality control over the software that gets created for its platforms.

Tech journalists and designers quoted by Adobe keep calling CS5 a “game changer”. The automated features in Photoshop and After Effects will certainly change the lives of photographers and VFX wizards.

Whether CS5 will similarly enhance the lives of developers wanting to turn their Flash creations into files usable by Apple’s iPhone and iPad remains to be seen.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight