Upgrade season has begun for Adobe, who is taking the wraps off their latest & greatest, Creative Suite 5 (CS5).

Announced by Adobe Systems, Inc. on Monday, Creative Suite 5 is the latest generation of their design and development software bundles which includes such legends as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash Professional and After Effects.

“While Creative Suite 5 continues Adobe’s storied history of delivering astonishing new creative features, this release first and foremost addresses the challenges facing publishers and creatives worldwide -- how to build profitable businesses around digital content,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer at Adobe. “By coupling sophisticated online business analytics with dazzling creative tools, we’re ensuring that publishers, designers and marketers can create, deliver and optimize beautiful, high-impact digital experiences across media and devices.”

As they’ve done in previous years, Adobe is making the software available in five different bundles, depending largely upon which tools you need and how much you want to pay.

CS5 Design Standard is aimed largely at print designers and includes Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat 9 for $1,299 ($499 upgrade). Design Premium extends its reach to both print and the web, adding Photoshop Extended, Acrobat 9 Pro, Flash Catalyst, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver and Fireworks for $1,899 ($599 upgrade). Web Premium juices up your web design skills by swapping out InDesign for Flash Builder 4 Standard and Contribute for $1,799 ($599 upgrade).

Videographers will likely go for Production Premium, which includes Premiere Pro, After Effects, Soundbooth, OnLocation and Encode as well as Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Flash Catalyst and Flash Professional for $1,699 ($599 upgrade). But if you really need it all, Adobe has you covered with the $2,599 ($899 upgrade) Master Collection. Separate versions of each product are also available for those who only need a single program.

Collectively, CS5 boasts more than 250 new features across all of the applications featured in the Master Collection, in addition to making them faster -- both in speed as well as creativity. As a result, CS5 will only run on Intel Macs running 10.5.7 Leopard or 10.6 Snow Leopard. 64-bit native support has also finally arrived for Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects as well.

Expected to ship within the next 30 days, you can preorder your new or upgraded editions today by visiting Adobe’s online store and receive free shipping on orders placed before April 29th.