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Following Apple's announcement of the switch to Intel chips, we all wondered if Adobe would simply patch existing versions of core applications such as Photoshop and InDesign, or whether it would wait and roll Intel-compatibility into the next big update cycle. The company quickly made it clear that it would plump for the latter course, and, frankly, that's fair enough; even though it has meant early Intel adopters have been stuck running Creative Suite applications for a year or more, reworking such huge and complex programs to run on a completely different chip architecture isn't something that can be undertaken lightly.

However, we've been playing with betas for months, watching the applications mature and evolve, become more stable and find their feet, and now that Adobe has given us permission to tell you all about CS3, we've put the very latest betas through a rigourous testing procedure to find out if the two-year delay has been worth it.

This release isn't just about new features and Universal Binaries, however: the Macromedia acquisition means Creative Suite 3 has jettisoned GoLive but picks up Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Many will mourn FreeHand's predictable snub, and a few will pine for GoLive - although the latter is likely to see at least one more independent release - but most of us should welcome with open arms the newcomers, particularly Dreamweaver and Flash.

Adobe doesn't expect the suites to ship until later in the spring, mind you, so you'll have a short wait before you can put the new features to work in your own

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projects. We're looking mostly at the print and web suites, as details of the video-focused production suite are yet to be announced.

There's just one more point we need to make before we can begin properly, and it's about the identity for the new suite. Application icons are solid squares of colour with two-letter codes - something like elements in the periodic table - standing in for the application name. So we get Ps on a blue square for Photoshop, Fl on red for Flash, Ai on orange for Illustrator and so on. After some use it does become simple to find the relevant application in the Dock, but we confess that the visual styling leaves us cold. Hard-edged, flat colour splash screens do nothing to dispell the faint whiff of corporate productivity applications.

We're not that shallow, however; as you'll discover through the links below, we've delved deep under CS3's skin to deliver the definitive verdict on this essential suite of applications.

• Photoshop CS 3: New tools and features + Smart Filters for non-destructive editing + 3D object and movie import in Extended edition
  
• Illustrator CS 3: Improved ease of use + Intuitive Eraser tool + Great colour control
  
• InDesign CS 3: Richer array of styles and effects + Easier to place multiple items + Finally addresses some niggles that have existed since version one
  
• Flash CS 3: Improved integration with Photoshop and Illustrator + Better illustration tools + Device Central and powerful Flash Lite 2 for mobile developers
  
• Dreamweaver & Fireworks CS 3: Ajax tools + Excellent code commenting + Intelligent scaling + Benefits from being in the Photoshop stable
  
• Device Central: A great way to check mobile devices' capabilities and test content + Lots to tinker with