Adobe Creative Suite

Adobe Creative Suite is a discontinued software suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications developed by Adobe Systems.
The last of the Creative Suite versions, Adobe Creative Suite 6, was launched at a release event on April 23, 2012, and released on May 7, 2012. CS6 was the last of the Adobe design tools to be physically shipped as boxed software as future releases and updates would be delivered via download only.
On May 6, 2013, Adobe announced that CS6 would be the last version of the Creative Suite, and that future versions of their creative software would only be available via their Adobe Creative Cloud subscription model. Adobe also announced that it would continue to support CS6 and would provide bug fixes and security updates through the next major upgrades of both Mac and Windows operating systems. The Creative Suite packages were pulled from Adobe's online store in 2013, but were still available on their website until January 2017.

Applications

The following table shows the different details of the core applications in the various Adobe Creative Suite editions. Each edition may come with all these apps included or only a subset.

Product name	CS version	Available in	Transitioned to Creative Cloud
Acrobat	since CS	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Master Collection	Yes
After Effects	since CS3	Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
Audition	since CS5.5	Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
Bridge	since CS2	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
Contribute	from CS3 until CS5.5	Design & Web Collection, Master Collection	No
Device Central	from CS3 until CS5.5	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	No
Dreamweaver	since CS3	Design & Web Collection, Master Collection	Yes
Dynamic Link	since CS	Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
Encore	since CS3	Production Premium, Master Collection	No
Fireworks	since CS3	Design & Web Collection, Master Collection	No
Flash Builder	since CS5	Design & Web Collection, Master Collection	Yes
Flash Catalyst	from CS5 until CS5.5	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	No
Flash Professional	since CS3	Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
GoLive	until CS2	Premium Edition	No
Illustrator	since CS	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
ImageReady	until CS2	Standard Edition, Premium Edition	No
InCopy	since CS	N/A	Yes
InDesign	since CS	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Master Collection	Yes
Lightroom	since CS2	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
Media Encoder	since CS5.5	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
OnLocation	from CS3 until CS5.5	Production Premium, Master Collection	Replaced by Prelude
Photoshop	since CS	Design Collection	Yes
Photoshop Extended	since CS3	Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	Replaced by Photoshop
Prelude	since CS6	Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
Premiere Pro	since CS3	Production Premium, Master Collection	Yes
Soundbooth	until CS5	Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	Replaced by Audition
SpeedGrade	from CS6 until CC 2017	Production Premium, Master Collection	Discontinued in 2017, Premiere Pro contained its functionality through the Lumetri Color panel since 2014
Stock Photos	until CS3	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Production Premium, Master Collection	Discontinued in 2008, Adobe Stock was launched in 2015
Story Plus	since CS5.5	N/A	CC version never released
Ultra	only on CS3	Production Premium, Master Collection	No
Version Cue	until CS4	Design Collection, Design & Web Collection, Master Collection	No

Editions

Adobe sold Creative Suite applications in several different combinations called "editions", these included:

Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 6 family of products intended for professional print, web, interactive and mobile designers.
Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 6 family of products intended for professional web designers and developers.
Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 6 family of products intended for professional rich media and video post-production experts who create projects for film, video, broadcast, web, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and mobile devices.
Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection contains applications from all of the above editions.

Adobe Flash Catalyst, Adobe Contribute, Adobe OnLocation, and Adobe Device Central, previously available in CS5.5, have been dropped from the CS6 line-up. Adobe Prelude and Adobe Encore are not released as standalone products. Adobe Encore is available as part of Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe InCopy, a word processing application that integrates with Adobe InDesign, is also part of the Creative Suite family, but is not included in any CS6 edition.
In March 2013, it was reported that Adobe would no longer sell boxed copies of the Creative Suite software, instead offering digital downloads and monthly subscriptions.

History

Creative Suite 1 and 2

The first version of Adobe Creative Suite was released in September 2003 and Creative Suite 2 in April 2005. The first two versions were available in two editions.
The Standard Edition included:

Adobe Bridge
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InCopy
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe ImageReady
Adobe Version Cue
Design guide and training resources
Adobe Stock Photos

The Premium Edition also included:

Creative Suite helped InDesign become the dominant publishing software, replacing QuarkXPress, because customers who purchased the suite for Photoshop and Illustrator received InDesign at no additional cost.
Adobe shut down the "activation" servers for CS2 in December 2012, making it impossible for licensed users to reinstall the software if needed. In response to complaints, Adobe then made available for download a version of CS2 that did not require online activation, and published a serial number to activate it offline. Because there was no mechanism to prevent people who had never purchased a CS2 license from downloading and activating it, it was widely thought that the aging software had become freeware, despite Adobe's later explanation that it was intended only for people who had "legitimately purchased CS2". The later shutdown of the CS3 and CS4 activation servers was handled differently, with registered users given the opportunity to get individual serial numbers for offline activation, rather than a published one.

Creative Suite Production Studio

Adobe Creative Suite Production Studio was a suite of programs for acquiring, editing, and distributing digital video and audio that was released during the same timeframe as Adobe Creative Suite 2. The suite was available in standard and premium editions.
The Adobe Production Studio Premium edition consisted of:

Adobe After Effects Professional
Adobe Audition
Adobe Bridge
Adobe Encore DVD
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Dynamic Link

The Standard edition consisted of:

Adobe After Effects Standard
Adobe Bridge
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Photoshop

Since CS3, Adobe Production Studio became part of the Creative Suite family. The equivalent version for Production Studio Premium is the Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium.

Macromedia Studio

Macromedia Studio was a suite of programs designed for web content creation designed and distributed by Macromedia. After Adobe's 2005 acquisition of Macromedia, Macromedia Studio 8 was replaced, modified, and integrated into two editions of the Adobe Creative Suite family of software from version 2.3 onwards. The closest relatives of Macromedia Studio 8 are now called Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium.
Core applications from Macromedia Studio have been merged with Adobe Creative Suite since CS3, including Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks. Some Macromedia applications were absorbed into existing Adobe products, e.g. FreeHand has been replaced with Adobe Illustrator. Director and ColdFusion are not part of Adobe Creative Suite and will only be available as standalone products. The final version of Macromedia Studio released include:

Macromedia Studio MX Released May 29, 2002, internally it was version 6 and the first incarnation of the studio to use the "MX" suffix, which for marketing purposes was a shorthand abbreviation that meant "Maximize". Studio MX included Dreamweaver, Flash, FreeHand, Fireworks and a developer edition of ColdFusion.
Macromedia Studio MX Plus Released February 10, 2003, sometimes referred to as MX 1.1. MX Plus was a special edition release of MX that included Freehand MX, Contribute and DevNet Resource Kit Special Edition in addition to the existing MX suite of products.
Macromedia Studio MX 2004 Released September 10, 2003, despite its name, it is internally version 7. Studio MX 2004 included FreeHand along with updated versions of Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks. An alternate version of Studio MX 2004 included Flash Professional and a new interface for Dreamweaver.
Macromedia Studio 8 Released September 13, 2005, Studio 8 was the last version of Macromedia Studio. It comprised Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, Flash 8 Video Converter, Fireworks 8, Contribute 3 and FlashPaper.