Technology buyers' guide: software

Using the same tools as the professionals

The following software applications and packages are used on our campus. (The platform we use it on is indicated by [M] = Macintosh, [W] = Windows, [M/W] = both, * = also available for the other platform but not used on campus)

• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium [M/W], which provides several important applications for all majors, including:
  • Acrobat Pro 8 (electronic document sharing and presentation delivery)
  • Illustrator CS3 (vector graphics)
  • InDesign CS3 (page layout, design, and presentation)
  • Photoshop CS3 Extended (image editing)
  • Dreamweaver CS3 (web page design)
  • Fireworks CS3 (web graphics)
  • Flash CS3 Professional (interactive design
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium [W], provides video production applications, including:
  • After Effects CS3 Professional (motion and visual effects)
  • Premiere Pro CS3 (video editing)
  • Soundbooth CS3 [W] (sound editing)
  • Encore CS3 [W] (DVD production)
  • Photoshop CS3 Extended [W] (image editing)
  • Flash CS3 Professional (interactive design)
• Alias-Wavefront Maya 2008 Unlimited [W/*] (3d modeling, animation, and rendering)
• Ashlar-Vellum Graphite v8 [W/*] (computer aided drafting)
• Apple Final Cut Studio 2, [M] which includes
  • DVD Studio Pro (DVD authoring)
  • Final Cut Pro (video editing)
  • Motion (motion graphics design)
  • Soundtrack Pro (audio editing and sound design)
• Apple Shake 4.1 [M] (visual effects and compositing)
• AutoCAD LT 2008 [W] (2d drafting)
• Auto-des-sys Form-Z RadioZity [M/W] (3d modeling and rendering)
• Microsoft Office 2004 [M] or Office XP [W] including
  • Word (word processing)
  • Excel (spreadsheet)
  • PowerPoint (presentation)
• Corel Painter X [M/*] (digital painting and illustration)
• Roxio Toast Titanium [M] or Easy CD Creator [W] (CD-DVD Authoring)
• SolidWorks [W] (3d modeling)
• ToonBoom Harmony [W] (2d animation)

The college licenses software to support activities in all academic divisions and maintain cross-platform support wherever possible.

Upgrades to newer versions are scheduled after Summer Semester each year; upgrades that are released during the year are evaluated for installation the following summer. Instructors decide what new versions will be installed for Fall Semester each year.

Fonts

Classroom fonts include those provided with the operating systems (Mac OS X 10.5 and Windows XP Professional), those included in the Adobe Creative Suite package, and the Adobe Type Classics for Learning collection.