[UPDATE (5/7/2012) – If you'd like to download new CS6 directly see our full set of links.]

Even though Creative Suite 6 is out and is a phenomenal release, some folks still need the earlier versions for various reasons: 32-bit vs 64-bit (e.g., After Effects and Premiere Pro), compatibility with other software or systems owned, the rest of your class or company is still on CS4, you need to reinstall but no longer have your original disks or download file, etc… But this older software is now hard to find – Adobe doesn’t publicize or provide a web interface for it. So if you’ve been searching high and low all over the Internet to find the official Adobe trial downloads for CS4 or CS3, well your search is over!

Below are two tables for CS4 trial downloads in major languages. These links go to the auth­entic and original CS4 files residing on Adobe’s servers, are guaranteed genuine and will not change. For Windows, each program consists of two files, an .exe and a 7-Zip file (.7z). The .exe file will only work once the .7z package is fully down­loaded and resides in the same location. For the Mac, it’s just a single .dmg file for each program.

There are also optional “extra content” downloads included here for most products that consist of one or two additional files, which you can install separately after the main product is installed.

Note: Very Important Instructions

You need to have a free Adobe account and be logged into it to use the links below, as Adobe sets a session cookie on your browser that allows you to access the direct download links. Otherwise, you will receive an “access denied” or “resume your download” message prevent­ing the connection. So please follow these instructions carefully or the links will not work!

0. Adobe recommends temporarily turning off any surfing restrictions you might have running, like site or cookie blocking, firewalls or antivirus software.
1. Click «here» to visit this page like you want to try Photoshop CS6, and then select the “Download Now” button at the bottom.
2. If you already have an Adobe ID, then please sign in with it (checking “Remember me“), otherwise take a minute to create one for yourself.
3. Wait a moment and then close/cancel any download windows that pop up for the trial of Photoshop CS6 (you can do a full trial for it later).
4. Now that you’re logged in at Adobe with the trials cookie set, you can instantly download any of the software below. Just make sure you have plenty of disk space available.
5. Download the files either by clicking directly on the DDL links, or by right-clicking and choosing “Save Link As…” on the popup menu – and save all files to the same place.
6. Then follow the product installation instructions here.

Creative Suite 4 – Adobe CS4 Downloads

And for other countries, here are the CS4 trial download links for most Western European languages – which can include French/Français, German/Deutsch, Dutch/Nederlands, Danish/Dansk, Finnish/Suomi, Swedish/Svenska, Norwegian/Norsk, Italian/Italiano, Portuguese/Português, and Spanish/Español:

We suggest using a browser other than Internet Explorer to download any of the files above. They can be quite large and sometimes IE has difficulty with the file or the download. Using Firefox or Chrome will work better. IE has also been known to drop the extensions (.exe and .7z) from the filenames, so you may have to restore or rename them back.

Creative Suite 3 – Adobe CS3 Downloads

Here are the links for the official CS3 trials in English, all downloaded from Adobe servers. For CS3 on Windows, there are almost no .7z files; usually it’s only .exe files. For the Mac, it’s all .dmg files. All other instructions remain the same as for CS4 above.

If you’re looking for CS2, CS, or an even earlier release, you can try digging around on Adobe’s FTP server for older products (but that’s really only for advanced users).

It is strongly advised not to use unknown sites or sources to download Adobe software, as increasingly these files are being used to deliver viruses and trojans onto users’ computers.

Did these links work for you? Hope they helped you out; please let us know in the comments below… And please see our companion page if you want the direct download links for all CS5.5 products.

Related Posts

• Download Adobe CS6 Trials: Direct Links (no Assistant or Manager)
• Photoshop Elements 10 Direct Download Links: Free Trials, Premiere
• Download Adobe CS5.5 Trials: Direct Links (no Assistant or Manager)
• Adobe Acrobat X (10) Pro, Reader, and Suite Direct Download Links
• Photoshop Elements 9 & Premiere Elements 9 Direct Download Links

Even though Creative Suite 5 has been out for over a year, and CS 5.5 since the spring, some components of Creative Suite 4 remain surprisingly popular… In particular, the two applications After Effects CS4 and Premiere Pro CS4, which were released in the fall of 2008, are still sought by many. At first this might seem odd, but there’s good reason… Why does this duo of earlier tools remain in demand?

It’s no doubt owing to the 64-bit-only requirement for those two products (and only those two products) in Creative Suite 5… Adobe explains the reason for this is because developing in native 64-bit gives the best optimized performance benefits with the demanding technical requirements of working with high definition video. But these won’t run on many older computers.

Note this is more of a Windows factor and does not affect the majority of Mac systems using Intel proces­sors… But with no 32-bit Windows versions of After Effects CS5.5 or Premiere Pro CS5.5 offered, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising the CS4 releases continue to be needed. After all, statistics show that 43% of the broad Internet community still runs on Windows XP – making it still the most widely-used Microsoft Windows platform – but which isn’t supported for those CS5 apps.

The question then becomes, what to do about it? If you’re still on 32-bit or XP, but need one of these products after the free trial has run out, would your best choice be to buy the previous generation version of CS4? Doubtless your next computer will be 64-bit – so wouldn’t it be better to invest and get both – CS4 (for current use) and CS5.5 (for future growth) – two for the price of one? Especially since these two latest releases have been getting stellar reviews from many sources…

Purchase CS4 and CS5.5 Together, Same Price

Adobe has never sold the previous version of any software once a new major version is out, but fortunately in this case they have made arrange­ments. Today if you purchase a new suite edition, either CS5.5 Production Premium or CS5.5 Master Collection, you will receive both the CS5.5 and the CS4 releases for these particular applications – two versions to cover all possible instal­lation scenarios, at no additional charge. The solution comes in the form of an extra 32-bit Support Package that contains the two CS4 releases.

So with this bonus, Production Premium becomes a pretty sweet deal as it includes seven major CS5 products but costs less than two of them – plus now you also get two CS4 apps on top. Add it all up and you’re getting a total value of $6,641 in the suite for the price $1,699, or almost 75% off individual prices with the collective package.

[UPDATE (Jan. 2012) – This could become an even better deal now with Adobe's new discount: save an extra 20%-off on CS5.5 upgrades.]

If you qualify for it, the Student and Teacher Edition is an even bigger savings at $449, which is an incredible 93% off… And naturally you can try it out first for free if you like (separately from those CS4 links), completing the trial picture.

Or, One Other Option – For Buying a Standalone CS4 Product

There is one other way to do it, if you prefer not to buy a suite – but instead want to buy just After Effects CS4 or Premiere Pro CS4 by itself… or, if you want to purchase any other CS4 product or suite.

You can get an Adobe “business” license (a.k.a. volume license) – even if you are not a business or not buying in volume… With this option, you can purchase CS5.5 online but request a previous version instead. In other words, you order the current version but receive and use a prior version – see the Backward Licensing Policy. Thus (for example) you could buy After Effects CS5.5 via this method, but actually get and run After Effects CS5 or CS4 (genuine and safe) in its place. Or pick any other product and do the same thing.

And with this approach too, you can switch back up to CS5.5 later if you want, at no extra charge… So in all cases, you’re effectively buying CS4 and getting CS5.5 free as a bonus, for future use.

One final note: Trying to find these older programs from any other / non-Adobe sources (like eBay) these days is definitely not recommended.

Related Posts

• Adobe Plans CS5 “Mid-Cycle Release” (CS5.5?), Mulls Subscriptions
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• How to Get or Buy Older Adobe Software Versions like CS4 or CS5
• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March
• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]

= BREAKING NEWS =

Two months ago Adobe made a major change in the Creative Suite upgrade policy that had been in place since CS3 came out in April 2007…

Had you heard about it? If not, here’s what they said on the new upgrade policy for CS6…
In a nutshell, Adobe said only customers running Creative Suite 5 products would be eligible for discounted upgrade pricing to the new CS6 when it comes out.

Customers spoke up and reaction to the change was pretty unfavorable across the web… Results from our own poll here showed a striking 90% against the move including the company’s related business model changes to the Creative Cloud.

And now, in a stunning turnabout, Adobe says they have been listening and are backing off the new policy, in response to customer feedback…

Yes, it’s true – and just as we were one of the first to break the original story, we’re back now with the good news that the older Creative Suite versions like CS3 and CS4 will indeed be able to get upgrade discounts to CS6 in the future.

Here it is from our Adobe Partner Update:

CS6 Upgrade Offer for CS3 and CS4 Customers

With these great new releases coming in 2012, we want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to discover which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to our customers who own CS3 or CS4.

This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.

In other words, Adobe will effectively be restoring their longstanding “three versions back” upgrade policy through the launch of CS6, until the end of this year…

You can read more details about the new policy here, under the section, “What is Adobe’s upgrade pricing policy?”  Note you will be able to purchase future CS products just like today, as perpetual (permanent) desktop licenses… They are not phasing those out in the slightest; the cloud is separate and strictly optional.

So, all you folks with CS3 or CS4 can now rest easy if your plans have been to upgrade to CS6 all along, as this will give you the chance to do it with lower prices as you had been expecting. For those customers now on CS5 or CS5.5, it should cost even less for you to upgrade to CS6 under Adobe’s Tiered Upgrade Pricing Policy, because you own a more recent version.

Note the company has not announced CS6 pricing for anybody yet, so at this point we don’t know these exact numbers and how different they’ll be from those for CS5, if at all.

But if you do get on board with CS6 later this year, then looking forward under the new policy starting in 2013, you’d have nearly four years to think about later upgrading from CS6 to CS7 down the line.

So it’s good to see that after all the discussion, Adobe listened – and rethought this policy in a way that gave enough notice and made more sense for customers.

Please spread the word and share this news with anyone who you think should know!

See also:

— Acrobat, Lightroom, and Elements: How Are They Affected By Creative Cloud?

— News: All CS6 Upgrades Now Only Available through Adobe Direct

— What’s the Difference Between Photoshop CS6 vs. CS5?

— What’s New in CS6: Premiere Pro, After Effects & Audition

— Win Adobe Photoshop CS6 + Lightroom 4 FREE! ($1000 Giveaway)

Related Posts

• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]
• Adobe Says No CS6 Upgrade Discounts from Older CS2, CS3, or CS4
• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March
• What are the Differences between CS5.5 vs. CS5 vs. CS4 vs. CS3?
• How to Move Adobe CS6 Between Computers, or from PC to Mac

Adobe’s Creative Suite 5.5 has been out since May, and has generally been well-reviewed and even lauded as a must-have release…  Nevertheless, some folks are still looking for or require older versions of the software, like CS5.0 or CS4.  Why?

Two common reasons are the higher system requirements – 64-bit for some components of CS5 like After Effects & Premiere Pro, as well as cases where the rest of a customer’s site is still running an older version and would like to add a new setup with the same compatibility. And occasionally some folks say they prefer the earlier, simpler versions over newer ones with more features.

The challenge is, once a new release comes out, Adobe no longer officially sells the older version (with one exception). So if you need a prior release, what do you do?

If you want the trial version to use for 30 days, that’s easy – Adobe actually keeps most older original trials still available for download on their servers – including all of CS4 and CS5, plus earlier releases of Acrobat, Lightroom, Elements, etc… You can find those trials all linked for download here.

But how about when you want to actually buy CS4 or CS5?

If you ask Adobe, they’ll usually tell you to check their official list of authorized resellers & retailers to see if someone still has the version you want in stock. The problem is it’s inconvenient to search as often those stocks are thin or sold out, and no longer available.

So, do you turn to other random sources like eBay or Craigslist?  If you’re smart, definitely not – we strongly advise against eBay et al.  So what do you do?

The Solution: Order “Prior-Version Software”

Fortunately, there is an easy solution. It’s little-known, but Adobe actually sells a special type of license that can be “downgraded.” These unique products come from the Adobe Business Store (and are also known as volume licenses) – but you don’t have to be a business to get them, or even buy more than one copy, and they can be easily purchased online instantly with a credit card.

So these “business” licenses have this helpful capability which allows you to order the latest release (like CS5.5 or Acrobat X) but then optionally receive and use the prior version instead (like CS5.0 or CS4, or Acrobat 9).  Here it is spelled out:

Backward Licensing Policy
Adobe allows program members to order a current-version license but to use a prior version. These members can contact Adobe Customer Service to request a serial number for the earlier version if they do not already have one.

Prior-version software is available via Electronic Software Delivery [download from Adobe]. The program member must follow all guidelines of the current-version EULA.

Adobe has a name for this program (which again, anyone can buy from) – it’s called the Transactional Licensing Program (TLP) and it doesn’t cost extra – in fact customers typically get discounts off the regular price. And there are other nice features of these licenses as well, including the ability to run your software multi-platform on both Windows and Mac OS – which is also not possible elsewhere.

So if this is what you need to do now, then you may want to check this out.

Related Posts

• How to Install or Run Adobe CS6 on Both Windows PC and Mac OS
• How to Move Adobe CS6 Between Computers, or from PC to Mac
• How Many Computers Can You Install or Run Adobe CS6 On?
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March

Adobe has just extended their popular current offer for all customers to save an additional 20% off the regularly-discounted upgrade price when you move up to CS5.5 (to either a suite or an individual product) from any earlier qualifying Adobe tool listed below.

This special was set to expire at year-end but has now been extended into March 2012 and continues to be available worldwide, with no coupon or promotion code required.  It’s valid for upgrading to all the latest CS5.5 versions, and also includes Photoshop CS5.1 and Illustrator CS5 as well.

The additional time comes following Adobe’s recent news of a major change in upgrade policy whereby only users with CS5.5 or CS5.0 would qualify for upgrade pricing to CS6 when it is released.

[UPDATE (February 13th) – Save 50%!  Half-price on full versions of CS5.5 Premium Suites or 15% off everything else with special coupon code...]

The new expiration dates for the additional 20% off upgrade savings are:

   North American Store:  Extended through March 15, 2012.
   European Stores:  Extended through 15 March 2012.
   Australia/NZ + Asia:  Extended through 15 March 2012.

So if you currently have one of these Adobe products with a valid license (either commercial or for education/student), then you qualify for this promotion:

• Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, or Master Collection
• Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, or Master Collection
• Creative Suite 2 Premium or Standard
• Adobe Production Studio Premium or Standard
• Adobe Design Bundle (Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium and Macromedia Flash Pro 8)
• Adobe Web Bundle (Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium and Macromedia Studio 8)
• Adobe Video Bundle (Adobe Production Studio Premium and Macromedia Flash Pro 8)
• Macromedia Studio 8
• After Effects CS4, CS3, or 7.0 (Professional or Standard)
• Flash CS4 Pro or Flash CS3 Pro, Macromedia Flash Pro 8, or Flash Basic 8
• Illustrator CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Audition CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Dreamweaver CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Fireworks CS4, CS3, or CS2
• InDesign CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Photoshop CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Photoshop CS4 Extended or CS3 Extended
• Premiere Pro CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Any version of Adobe Premiere

If you want to try out the product upgrade first, you can download the free trial for any software you choose, and then later convert the trial to a permanent version using this offer if you like. This works even for upgrades, which will run side-by-side with your other installed Adobe tools without difficulty.

This discount offer is available in the following Country Stores: USA, Canada, Mexico, UK, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand), China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Hope this news helps save you some money…

Read more about CS5.5

To receive future notification of special promotions and coupon codes like these, get on our free occasional Adobe Special Offers mailing list in the sidebar just up and to the right.

Related Posts

• Adobe Says No CS6 Upgrade Discounts from Older CS2, CS3, or CS4
• Get Your Upgrade to Adobe CS5.5 for 20% Less – Limited Promotion
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]
• What are the Differences between CS5.5 vs. CS5 vs. CS4 vs. CS3?

Adobe Photoshop is a sophisticated tool with a 21-year history and a seemingly-endless array of powerful capabilities.  And after spending $549 for the product with discounts (or $199 for students), who wants to pay a lot more to learn how to use it all?

Fortunately there are a number of avenues to get great training and tutorials for free. The first stop is Adobe TV, which has nearly four hours and 37 chapters of 100% free tutorials for Photoshop CS5 alone. There is also a wealth of content for prior versions like Photoshop CS3 and CS4. It’s a good place to get started and orient yourself with the major functions, and all of it is gratis.

For learning how to use the best new features added in Photoshop CS5, take a look at our collection of articles with tours of:

• Content-Aware Fill
• Puppet Warp
• Top Masking Techniques
• Creating Time-Lapse Videos
• Impressionist Oil Painting

We also have a regular page here on the site with a rotating selection of tuts for all versions of Photoshop, stepping through various tips and tricks. And for a terrific set of little-known but very handy techniques, check out Adobe’s Photoshop “Hidden Gems” series with Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes.

Lynda.com is the leading independent website providing online video training for Adobe products, with nearly 800(!) hours of coursework for Photoshop – covering all versions dating back to Photoshop 6 in 2002. Courses are extensive, often running several days – and there are always some chapters that are free for anybody to view, with full access starting at $25/month. But we have partnered with them for our readers to receive a free 7-day trial with unlimited access to the entire site, and get one week of all 1,036 courses in their Online Training Library for free.

If you’d like a free top-flight course to really get you going in Photoshop from the ground up, check out the three online skills clinics below from the experts at National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP)…  These exclusive web-based training sessions with the “Photoshop Guys” are a great opportunity to quickly get up to speed on the timesaving features and breakthrough tools in the latest version.

If you don’t already have Photoshop, just download the free trial so you can work side-by-side in these three classes, which were originally given live to customers but are now available free to all users via on-demand replay:

• Class 1: Photoshop CS5 – Up & Running in No Time
• Class 2: Cool Photoshop Skills – Effects and Retouching Anyone Can Do with Photoshop CS5
• Class 3: Photoshop CS5 Street Smarts – Shortcuts, Killer Tips, and Next-Level Skills

These excellent Photoshop tutorial videos run four hours in total and can be viewed here: Exclusive Adobe Photoshop Clinic Webcasts.

Related Posts

• Free Printing Guide for Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator & Acrobat
• Free New Adobe CS5 Tutorials: 17+ Hours of Online Video Training
• Free New Adobe CS6 Tutorials: 18 Hours of Online Video Training
• How to Use Photoshop to Create a Time-Lapse Video from Photos
• Free: 4 Hours of Video Tutorials for New Photoshop Elements 10 & 9

[UPDATE (January 11th) – Adobe has listened to customers and just reversed this change!  CS3, CS4, & CS5 are all good for upgrade to CS6 now.]

[UPDATE (May 2012) – Creative Suite 6 has been released!  See how much it costs to upgrade from older versions... CS6 upgrades are now only available from Adobe direct.]

Earlier this month Adobe made a major change in the Creative Suite upgrade policy that has been in place since CS3 came out in April 2007…

Have you heard about it yet? If not, you might want to read the new upgrade policy for CS6.

Also helpful: see Adobe’s planned new business model, a membership-based Creative Cloud.

OK, all caught up? Good. So, how will these changes affect you?

First off, for anybody currently running the latest major release, Creative Suite 5 (either 5.0, 5.1, or 5.5), you’re fine. You will not be affected by this revision, and will be eligible for the discounted pricing on upgrades when CS6 comes out.

For everyone else, if you’re still running older versions – like CS2, CS3, or CS4 – when CS6 releases, you wouldn’t qualify for that upgrade price break. And customer reaction on this point has been understandibly unfavorable.

Adobe is trying to mitigate the impact of this change by offering an extra 20% off all CS5.5 upgrades worldwide until the end of the year the extended date of March 15, 2012 (see banner).

But in trying to figure out what this means for everybody, it might be helpful to first take a step back with the Creative Suite release history and expected future schedule… Here’s how the big picture looks:

So if Adobe continues as they anticipate, anybody who is running CS5 (or CS5.5) right now will be able to get low upgrade pricing to CS6 (or CS6.5) until that cycle completes in mid-2014. That’s over two years from now.

In other words, it’s likely that part of Adobe’s reasoning for moving from “three versions back” to a “one version back” upgrade policy is that the major releases are now spaced out to once every two years – so that someone who bought CS5.0 the moment it came out in 2010 could still qualify for discounted upgrade pricing to CS6.5 nearly four years later in 2014.

But for “version skippers” and other folks still running prior releases, what are your options?

Here are what the choices look to be:

1. Upgrade to CS5.5 now so you’re current, taking advantage of the additional 20% discount – and then revisit the question again before CS7 comes out in 2014.
2. Wait now, and then pay full price for a new copy of CS6, CS7, or a subsequent release.
3. Keep using the older software that you own now.
4. Convert to the optional “Creative Cloud” rental model, with access included to more applications and services so long as you’re paying the per-month subscription fee.

So, which will it be, what will you do?

And regarding Adobe’s business focus here, with the cloud model – what do you think, will it work? Is it the right move, at the right time? Or do you feel otherwise?

Take our instant poll:

Adobe’s Changes in the Model

Yes, I like what’s happening

No, it doesn’t appeal to me

Indifferent, I’ll buy either way

View resultsVote Now

Create an online survey quiz or web poll

Yes, I like what’s happening0%

No, it doesn’t appeal to me0%

Indifferent, I’ll buy either way0%

Create an online survey quiz or web poll

Tell us more below – here’s your chance to express your thoughts and feedback… We will be sharing the results with Adobe directly.

See also:  Acrobat, Lightroom, and Elements – How Will They Be Affected?

Related Posts

• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe Says No CS6 Upgrade Discounts from Older CS2, CS3, or CS4
• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March
• What are the Differences between CS5.5 vs. CS5 vs. CS4 vs. CS3?
• How to Move Adobe CS6 Between Computers, or from PC to Mac

[UPDATE (January 11th, 2012) – Adobe has listened to customers and just reversed this change! CS3, CS4, & CS5 are all good for upgrade to CS6 now.]

HUGE breaking news out from Adobe, regarding substantial changes in upgrade pricing and policies for their very popular Creative Suite software…

For several years, the company has offered a “three-versions-back” upgrade policy – meaning anyone who owned a prior CS product up to three major versions back would be eligible for discounted upgrade pricing when moving up to the latest release.

Meaning, if you’ve got CS2, CS3, or CS4 – either a full suite or an individual point product like Photoshop – you can receive price reductions of up to 80% when upgrading to CS5.5.

Adobe now says that will be ending – the policy is going to shift dramatically, worldwide.

Starting in 2012 when CS6 comes out, this will be changing to a “one-version-back” plan – meaning to receive a price break when upgrading to CS6, you need to already be on some flavor of Creative Suite 5 – either CS5 or CS5.5.

So, what does this mean for anybody still running CS2, CS3, or CS4 at that time?  Basically, if you want to upgrade later or have been waiting for CS6 to do so, it would cost you full price… To receive a discount from older versions, you’d need to upgrade to CS5 before CS6 ships.

Here it is straight from Adobe’s “Conversations” Blog:

With regards to upgrades, we are changing our policy for perpetual [permanent] license customers.

In order to qualify for upgrade pricing when CS6 releases, customers will need to be on the latest version of our software (either CS5 or CS5.5 editions).

In other words, soon Adobe will only be offering the traditional upgrade savings for one major version behind…  This will apply for both suites as well as the standalone applications.

There is a saving grace however – the company wants to help folks using these older versions to get current now with an extra 20% off the currently-discounted upgrade price:

If our customers are not yet on those versions, we’re offering a 20% discount through December 31, 2011 the extended date of March 15, 2012, which will qualify them for upgrade pricing when we release CS6.  [see banner below]

Why is Adobe doing this?  It’s part of extending their CS subscription offerings to encompass the recently-announced Creative Cloud initiative, which is also a subscription-based program.

Basically, they want to make more frequent innovation updates to the software to reflect our increasingly-dynamic environment with the web, smartphones, tablets, and mobile applications – and are adjusting the model to try to encourage customers towards cloud membership and keep them as current as possible with the products.

However, you can stick with traditionally-owned software if you desire, just like now:

For customers who prefer to remain on the current licensing model, we will continue to offer our individual point products and Adobe Creative Suite editions as perpetual licenses.

So if you’re one of them – and are happy and comfortable with your current permanent product instead of renting – then you might want to take a closer look at this fleeting window of upgrade opportunity, particularly with the extra 20% off worldwide – while it lasts.

Please spread the word and share this news with anyone who you think should know!

[UPDATE (Dec. 1st) – Share your thoughts and take our new poll on Adobe's model change, or see the impact on Acrobat, Lightroom, and Elements.]

[UPDATE (Jan. 11th, 2012) – After feedback, Adobe has now deferred this policy change.]

Related Posts

• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]
• Get Your Upgrade to Adobe CS5.5 for 20% Less – Limited Promotion
• What are the Differences between CS5.5 vs. CS5 vs. CS4 vs. CS3?

[UPDATE (Jan. 2012) – This offer is extended!]

Are you thinking about moving up to to Creative Suite 5?  Well then here’s a special new offer – a nice bonus – that will help…

Right now you can save a further 20% off the normally-discounted upgrade price when you upgrade to CS5.5 (to either a suite or an individual product) from any earlier qualifying Adobe tool listed below.

This new offer is now available worldwide, with no coupon or promotion code necessary.  It’s valid for upgrading to all the latest CS5.5 versions, but also includes Photoshop CS5.1 and Illustrator CS5 as well.

North American Store:  Offer period is October 3, 2011 – December 31, 2011  March 15, 2012.
European Stores:  Offer period is 3 October, 2011 – 31 December, 2011  15 March 2012.
Australia/NZ + Asia:  Offer period is 9 November, 2011 – 31 December, 2011  15 March 2012.

So if you currently have one of these Adobe products with a valid license (either commercial or for education/student), then you qualify:

• Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, or Master Collection
• Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, or Master Collection
• Creative Suite 2 Premium or Standard
• Adobe Production Studio Premium or Standard
• Adobe Design Bundle (Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium and Macromedia Flash Pro 8)
• Adobe Web Bundle (Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium and Macromedia Studio 8)
• Adobe Video Bundle (Adobe Production Studio Premium and Macromedia Flash Pro 8)
• Macromedia Studio 8
• After Effects CS4, CS3, or 7.0 (Professional or Standard)
• Flash CS4 Pro or Flash CS3 Pro, Macromedia Flash Pro 8, or Flash Basic 8
• Illustrator CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Audition CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Dreamweaver CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Fireworks CS4, CS3, or CS2
• InDesign CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Photoshop CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Photoshop CS4 Extended or CS3 Extended
• Premiere Pro CS4, CS3, or CS2
• Any version of Adobe Premiere

[UPDATE (February 13th) – 50%-off Production Premium is back!  Switch to this full CS5.5 suite and get it for half price with coupon code... likewise for Premiere Pro CS5.5.]

If you want to try out the product upgrade first, you can download the free trial for any software you choose, and then later convert the trial to a permanent version using this offer if you like. This works even for upgrades, which will run side-by-side with your other installed Adobe tools without interference.

But take advantage of it while you can because pretty soon, CS2, CS3, and CS4 will not be upgradeable and you’ll only be able to upgrade from CS5 or later!

This offer is available in the following Country Stores: USA, Canada, Mexico, UK, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand), China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Hope this helps save you some money!

Read more about CS5.5

To receive future notification of special promotions and coupon codes like these, get on our free occasional Adobe Special Offers mailing list in the sidebar just up and to the right.

Related Posts

• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March
• Adobe Says No CS6 Upgrade Discounts from Older CS2, CS3, or CS4
• Amazing Adobe Coupons: Half Price on Full CS5.5 Premium Suites!
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]

Adobe has just put out an excellent resource updated for CS5 / CS5.5 – a free printing guide in the form of a 140-page downloadable e-book. Earlier versions of this have been out for previous releases (see the older CS4 and CS3 links below), but now this is fully refreshed and upgraded for the latest versions of the products.

This very handy tome will tell you everything you ever need or wanted to know about getting great print results with your projects in Photoshop CS5 (including Extended), Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5/CS5.5, and Acrobat X Pro. All the different tools, setups, settings, options, functions, and formats – what they mean and how to best use them to achieve your goals.

Adobe describes it as, “learn the best ways of handling and preparing CS5 and CS5.5 files for print with this in-depth technical reference, designed especially for printers and production artists” – but anybody who would like a tutorial on how to print and generate the most optimal output from their designs can gain something here…

Because some technologies and concepts – such as PDF creation, transparency, and the Graphics Model – are common across all Adobe products used for print design and production, the first chapter of a dozen pages is devoted solely to explaining common terminology and back­ground resources. And with the groundwork laid, the rest goes into comprehensive detail on things you probably have wanted to know at some point but were afraid to ask or didn’t know where.

So now, whether you print from Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, or Acrobat, this ebook explains all you need to know about successful printing and output generation.

And luckily, the price is right!

• Read/download the Adobe CS5/CS5.5 Printing Guide (PDF, 140 pages, 20MB)
• Read/download the Adobe CS4 Printing Guide (PDF, 139 pages, 5MB)
• Read/download the Adobe CS3 Printing Guide (PDF, 120 pages, 7MB)

You may also be interested in another free e-book, the 172-page “Learn CS5: Step-by-Step and On-Demand” for training on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, and Flash…

Related Posts

• Download Free Adobe CS5 eBook on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, more
• Adobe Photoshop Best Tips, Tricks, Techniques, Training & Tutorials
• Adobe Working on New Release of Creative Suite 5 (CS5.3? CS5.5?)
• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March

[Now updated for CS 5.5...  Also find out more on the complete differences from CS5.]

One of the most common upgrade questions we see out there is asking what’s new, what’s different, what’s better, what’s changed between Adobe CS5.5 and CS5 or CS4? Or more fundamentally, what are the key new features in CS5.5, versus earlier versions, even CS3?

Creative Suite 5 contains hundreds of new or enhanced features and func­tions across the 13 point products that comprise it. So the easiest way to look at it is by major product… For example, Photoshop CS5 Extended con­tains 18 new features that CS4 didn’t have, plus a further 14 more that have been enhanced. The numbers are similar for other products and even greater over CS3 of course – although generally speaking CS5 has significantly more improvements and innovation compared to CS4 than CS4 had over CS3.

Creative Suite 4 was certainly a capable release (we used it here every day), but some folks have com­mented that CS5 is really the release they wanted when CS4 came out and that CS5 is a game-changer over both previous versions… On that account, we haven’t seen a bad review of CS5 yet.

Creative Suite 5.5 adds further to this with significant new features and enhancements in the areas of mobile, publishing, HTML5, video, audio, and Flash…  Read our full release guide for CS5.5, or find out even when CS6 is due.

So here they are, the breakouts by individual product – the CS5.5 vs. CS5 vs. CS4 vs. CS3 version comparisons:

See also our new focused comparison of CS5 vs. CS5.5, including specific details on all the new features added.

Related Posts

• Adobe CS6 Upgrade Policy Changes Postponed! CS3 & CS4 on Track
• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March
• Adobe’s New Upgrade Policy for CS6: What It Means for You [Poll]
• Adobe Says No CS6 Upgrade Discounts from Older CS2, CS3, or CS4
• Get Your Upgrade to Adobe CS5.5 for 20% Less – Limited Promotion

The CS4 collections come in several flavors – two for Web (Standard/Premium), two also for Design (Standard/Premium), Production Premium (which adds audio and video), and Master Collection (which includes every single CS4 app together in one big integrated bundle).

Now, as for exactly which applications are in each of these, the complete descriptions, and how much they cost, happily the answers are right here, all on a single page: www.CS5selector.com

Of note: The larger suite you buy, the more money saved. For example, with the Web Standard edition, you save 37% off the price of each of its products sold separately. But in going all the way up to Master Collection, you save over 60% off the individual components.

Related Posts

• Adobe Extends 20%-Off CS5.5 Upgrades Discount Offer to March
• Adobe Says No CS6 Upgrade Discounts from Older CS2, CS3, or CS4
• Get Your Upgrade to Adobe CS5.5 for 20% Less – Limited Promotion
• Adobe CS6: Can No Longer Upgrade from Single Tool to a Suite
• Adobe Releases CS6 – Now Shipping plus Download Free Trials