Adobe Creative Suite 4 Solutions and Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Q Are Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 products and components compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)?
A. Yes. Working closely with Apple, Adobe has tested and determined that our Adobe Creative Suite 4 products and components are compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
Q. Is Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6) important to Adobe Creative Suite 4 customers?
A. Yes. Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6) —the latest version of Apple’s operating system—delivers a productive computing experience for creative professionals. Adobe and Apple have worked together closely to test that Adobe Creative Suite 4 products and components run reliably and efficiently on Intel‐based systems running Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6) with optimal performance and user experience. Please see below for known issues we have discovered in our testing. As with any new release of an operating system, there may be additional unexpected issues that arise that may not have been uncovered during our testing efforts.
Q. Will older versions of Adobe creative software—such as Adobe Creative Suite 3 or Macromedia® Studio 8 software—support Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)?
A. Older versions of Adobe creative software were not included in our testing efforts. While older Adobe and Macromedia applications may install and run on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6), they were designed, tested, and released to the public several years before this new operating system became available. You may therefore experience a variety of installation, stability, and reliability issues for which there is no resolution. Older versions of our creative software will not be updated to support Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6).
Q. Will Adobe continue to test its Adobe CS4 applications on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)?
A. Yes. Adobe sets high standards of quality, stability, and reliability for our professional products, and we worked closely with Apple to test that Creative Suite 4 products and components run on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6). Please see below for known issues we have discovered in our testing. As with any new release of an operating system, there may be additional unexpected issues that arise that may not have been uncovered during our testing efforts. If you encounter any issues, please report them by going to www.adobe.com/misc/bugreport.html and clicking “Report A Bug”. Please note that we do not respond to submissions, however we do review the information closely with the appropriate teams, and continue to test and monitor the user experience.
Q. Do any of the Adobe CS4 applications require updates to be compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)?
A. If you are running the latest updates for Creative Suite, Acrobat® software, and Adobe Reader® software, your software will operate on Snow Leopard (v10.6). However, please see below for known issues we have discovered in our testing. Please note that Acrobat users do need to have version 9.1 or later installed in order to produce Adobe PDF files on Snow Leopard (v10.6). Select the “PDF” button in the Print dialog and choose “Save as Adobe PDF” to access the new feature. You can visit www.adobe.com/support/downloads to monitor if and when any updates are posted, or search on the keyword “Snow Leopard” for more details.
Q. How do I install any required updates for Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6) compatibility?
A. For Acrobat, users will need to update to version 9.1 or later to operate on Snow Leopard (v10.6). Updates for Acrobat and other Creative Suite products and components are made available through the Adobe Updater, a utility that is installed with Adobe products or components to manage the download and installation of updates for you. As long as the automated notification feature in Adobe Updater is turned on, you will be alerted automatically when the updates are available. You can then follow the onscreen instructions to download and install the updates. Alternatively, you can open the Adobe CS4 product or component that requires an update, choose Help > Updates to open the Adobe Updater, check all of the updates you want, and click Download and Install Updates. Lastly, you can also visit www.adobe.com/support/downloads to monitor when updates are posted, then download and install the updates for each relevant Adobe CS4 product or component.
Q. I am a volume licensing customer. How do I get updates for my Adobe CS4 products or components?
A. Adobe recommends following your company’s internal guidelines to manage updates. You may want to contact the IT or technical person who manages your Adobe licenses for information about your corporate policies on updating software. For volume licensing customers, information is available for IT managers on how to silently push installations of Adobe CS4 updates at http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/491/cpsid_49171.html. For individual users, there is an Adobe Updater (choose Help > Updates) to download and install updates for Adobe CS4 products and components for individual system updates.
Q. Are the trial versions of Adobe CS4 products and components compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)?
A. Yes. If a full version of an Adobe Creative Suite 4 product is compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6), then the trial version of that product is compatible as well. The known issues described below also apply to the trial versions.
Q. Is Adobe aware of any major issues, bugs or odd user experiences when using Adobe CS4 products or components with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)?
A. Adobe Creative Suite 4 solutions are designed to perform to the high standards and level of performance, quality and user experience our customers expect. In our testing, we did discover a few functional areas that display unusual user experiences. One involves a unique configuration running Adobe Creative Suite Infrastructure (CSI) update v1.0.1 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6). Users may be unable to update their CSI Extensions via the Connections Panel. The cause is related to interaction between Creative Suite 4 products and Apple’s JavaTMRuntimeEnvironment(JRE)v.1.6. The update wil appear to be complete, but the user will again receive notification that the update is available at every update check interval. Users who have not installed the CSI update v1.0.1 will not be impacted, but they also will not receive notifications about available extension updates. Users who installed the CSI update v.1.0.1 and the corresponding extension updates prior to upgrading to Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6) will also not be impacted by the issue. Adobe Extensions affected include the Connections panel itself, the KulerTM extension, Search for Help, and Share My Screen. Adobe plans to have an additional update for the CSI and related files as soon as possible. Our testing has also uncovered another issue involving Adobe Drive used with Adobe Version Cue® CS4 Server. At this time, Adobe Drive does not run on Snow Leopard (v10.6). For customers that are dependent on Adobe Drive and Adobe Version Cue, we recommend that they do not upgrade to Snow Leopard at this time. Please visit www.adobe.com/support to check the Adobe knowledgebase for the latest information related to Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6).
Q. I use a number of plug‐ins with my current version of Creative Suite. Are these plug‐ins compatible with Creative Suite running Snow Leopard (v10.6)?
A. Adobe has conducted testing that has shown that some 3rd party plug‐ins are not compatible with Adobe After Effects® CS4 running on Snow Leopard (v10.6). Customers are encouraged to check plug‐in compatibility by contacting the plug‐in vendor before upgrading to Snow Leopard (v10.6). For third‐party products, contact the manufacturer for guidance on their support for Snow Leopard (v10.6).
Q: Is Adobe aware of any major issues, bugs or odd user experiences when using Acrobat or Adobe Reader with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)?
A. Adobe has tested installing and running Adobe Reader 9.1 on Snow Leopard and has found a few issues. Customers will receive an “Invalid System Check” message when downloading and installing Adobe Reader with Snow Leopard in 64‐bit mode. To install Adobe Reader on Snow Leopard, download and run the installer with the operating system running in 32‐bit mode. Adobe Reader will then run in either 32‐bit or 64‐bit mode. Please note that older versions of Adobe Reader are not supporting Snow Leopard. Also, Acrobat and Adobe Reader will not view PDF files within Safari when running Snow Leopard in the default 64‐bit mode, but PDF files can be opened outside of the browser. PDF files can be viewed in‐line when running Safari in 32‐bit mode. Please visit www.adobe.com/support to check the Adobe knowledgebase for the latest information related to Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6).
Q. Will Adobe offer technical support for its CS4 products and components running on Max OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6)? What about for older versions of Adobe’s Creative Suite software?
A. Adobe will support Creative Suite 4 software running with Snow Leopard according to its standard customer support policies. Older versions of Adobe Creative Suite software were not designed to run on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6), so you may experience issues installing and using the software for which there are no solutions. Please note that support for Creative Suite 3 applications is currently available through Adobe’s paid support program. Visit www.adobe.com/support to check the Adobe knowledgebase for the latest information related to Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6), and for detailed information about our complimentary and paid support programs.
