Overview of Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere is a video editing software package suitable for both amateur enthusiasts and professionals. It can be purchased and used alone, or alongside other applications such as Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, etc.

This page provides a very general overview of Premiere. For more detailed information see our Premiere tutorials or more general editing tutorials.

How Does Premiere Work?

Like most editing software, Premiere works by importing video from a source such as a video tape onto your hard drive, then allowing you to create new edited versions which you can export back to tape, disc or other medium.

How Good Is Premiere?

Premiere is a powerful editing tool, capable of producing broadcast-quality and high-definition video. It is a very popular package amongst video enthusiasts and professionals, although other packages are usually preferred for the very top level of television production.

Premiere has a nice clean interface which is relatively easy to use for people of all skill levels.

What Can Premiere Do?

• Import video, audio and graphics in a wide variety of formats.
• Edit, manipulate and arrange these elements in a visual timeline.
• Add effects, filters, titles, etc.
• Export your edited video in a variety of formats, including video tape recordings, DV, DVD, and common Internet video formats.

What Can't Premiere Do?

Although Premiere can do all common editing tasks and is suitable for most situations, if you are looking for a high-performance solution you should note the following:

• The built-in title maker is fine for most titles but is not particularly advanced.
• Premiere has some good audio mixing and effects features, but serious sound editing will need a specialist sound application (e.g. Adobe Audition or Soundbooth).
• The range of transitions and special effects is adequate but professionals are likely to want to purchase more from third party suppliers.

Some features are absent by design, encouraging you to purchase separate Adobe products such as After Effects (special effects) or Audition (audio). The good news is that, if you really need these features, you can purchase multiple Adobe products in various bundles which gives you a very powerful production suite at a very reasonable price.

Note: From version CS3, Premiere ships with Encore (DVD) and OnLocation (File capture, Windows-only).

What Does Premiere Cost?

Premiere is a mid-range application. If budget is your main concern, you can probably find something cheaper to suit your needs. Conversely, if budget is not an issue and performance is paramount, you can pay many times the price of Premiere for the very best systems.

In our opinion, Premiere Pro is a good, cost-effective option for most editing situations.

Summary

Adobe Premiere has been around for a long time and enjoys a very stable user base. It is a solid, professional-level application which will be more than adequate for most editing situations.

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