There's been a wide range of reaction to Adobe's new CS3 icons. Admittedly, when I first saw the single Dreamweaver icon, I was taken aback -- "Is this thing finished?" But after seeing the whole suite, especially on the color wheel, I thought they were nicely done and easy to differentiate as I got a few in my dock. There were many who thought differently though. It was a love it or hate it kind of thing.

For those of you in the hate camp, there's an option. Adam Betts, a very talented designer, has created his own set of CS3 icons -- and released them, free, to the public. He based them on the box design and they look quite lovely. He's even made a new set of document icons if the plain ones don't quite do it for you.

What they'll look like at the smaller sizes, I can't say. There are no instructions included for where to install them, and at this point I haven't a clue. (Feel free to point me in the right direction if you know. :))

There are a few other sets I've run into if Adam's aren't your favorite. Mac Themes is similar to Adam's, Louie Mantia has a set that blend the old icons with the new box look, and if you like the new ones from Adobe but would rather have them a little sexier, koregraphik.com made a set with nicer gradients and rounded corners. Check them all out.

Happy iconing!

Representatives from Adobe announced today the launch of Adobe CS3. I know we've been hearing little bits about this for a while, but people, this is huge.

This live webcast gave the global audience an chance to see what Adobe has been working on for the past two years, "the largest software release in Adobe's history."

How large? 13 point products upgrades were announced today, including NEW products. A pretty ambitious effort indeed.

Adobe has created variety of collections geared to different types of users and price points:

• Design Suite Standard
• Design Suite Premium
• Web Suite Standard
• Web Suite Premium
• Production Premium
• Master Collection

The common theme throughout the CS3 suites is one of integration - better integration between Fireworks, Photoshop and Illustrator, better integration between Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Illustrator, between Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator and between Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator.

Lording over it all is Adobe Bridge, which is now connected to many of the major Adobe apps, including Fireworks, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. 

For more information on the new suites, keep checking back here at Community MX where we will be giving you sneak peeks into some of our favorite features over the coming days.

You can also - of course - visit Adobe's web site for more details on the new software, pricing and packages as well as tutorials.