While Adobe Acrobat Pro X and Flash Builder 4.6 remain unchanged from CS5.5, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Flash Professional have undergone a refreshing performance boost, thanks to software acceleration provided by the new Mercury Graphics Engine, which Adobe fine-tuned for 64-bit, multicore systems. New additions, other than the 64-bit Bridge CS6 and Illustrator CS6, include Adobe SpeedGrade CS6 for video color work and Adobe Prelude CS6 for post-production work. Adobe Contribute, Device Central, Flash Catalyst, OnLocation, and Pixel Bender Toolkit have been removed. Old favorites are back, including: Photoshop CS6 Extended, Illustrator CS6, InDesign CS6, Acrobat X Pro, Flash Professional CS6, Flash Builder 4.6 Premium Edition, Dreamweaver CS6, Fireworks CS6, Premiere Pro CS6, After Effects CS6, Adobe Audition CS6, Encore CS6, Bridge CS6, and Media Encoder CS6. Faster launch times for many of the applications and added support for 64-bit processors in Illustrator CS6 and Adobe Bridge CS6 are quite noticeable, as are new splash screens for all applications and a more streamlined charcoal-gray user interface in Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6, and Production Premium CS6.

Users already familiar with Adobe’s popular CS applications will find some welcome improvements in CS6 Master Collection.

Creative Cloud membership for students and teachers: $30/month with a one-year commitment. All Teacher and Student editions are identical to their commercial version counterparts. Volume licenses of all products are available.

Production Premium (combines Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, After Effects CS6, Photoshop CS6 Extended, Adobe Audition CS6, SpeedGrade CS6, Prelude CS6, Illustrator CS6 Encore CS6, Flash Professional CS6, Media Encoder CS6, and Bridge CS6), $449.

Design & Web Premium (combines Photoshop CS6 Extended, Illustrator CS6, InDesign CS6, Dreamweaver CS6, Flash Professional CS6, Fireworks CS6, Acrobat X Pro, Bridge CS6, and Media Encoder CS6), $449.

Adobe Design Standard (combines Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6, InDesign CS6, Acrobat X Pro), $349.

Student and teacher editions of CS6 bundles also available:

Adobe photoshop cs6 master collection