Yes – Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11 are just out and avail­able immediately!  Pretty much on the timeframe we forecast, both products are available on both Windows and Mac with the same features across platforms…  See what you can do with these tools now with the Elements family comparison.  You can instantly download the free trials as well, and the new software will work side-by-side with any previous release(s) of Elements you may own. If do you have an earlier version installed, you can automatically import and convert your work.*

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Just out and completely free! Download the new Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 Guide and Premiere Elements 11 Guide ebooks, together containing 22 chapters and 185 pages of visual tutorials and feature how-to’s, and both 100% gratis for personal use…

These e-books are great overviews and introductions to the Elements 11 tools, and cover a good deal of helpful material for getting started with the products or picking up more skills and techniques if you’re already familiar. Each volume is a collection of techni­cal lessons for learning how to best use the popular programs.

The downloads are 7.5 MB (PSE) and 5.5 MB (PRE) in size, in PDF format (get the free and better Adobe Reader XI, if you haven’t done so yet). All you need to do to activate the ebook downloads is sign in with your Adobe ID (which is easy to create if you haven’t already got one).

If you don’t yet own Elements 11, just download the fully-working trial from Adobe to run it for free for 30 days. Some of the training in the book will be relevant for older versions of Elements as well, although if you need them we’ve also got older ebooks for Elements 9/10.

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New Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 is here, and one of the recurring upgrade questions we see is what’s new, what’s different, and what’s improved compared to Elements 10?  Or more essentially, what are the key new features in PSE 11, versus PSE 10, 9, 8, or even version 7?  We published a quick list here of what’s changed since the last release, but how about a version-by-version, feature-by-feature table? You’ll find this down below (or shortcut here), but first let’s take a closer look at some of the major additions.

The biggest news with Elements 11 is the user interface has received a welcome upgrade, as its big brother Photoshop CS6 did earlier this year.  Responding to years of feedback, Adobe has reengineered the PSE Organizer and Editor to make them faster and more efficient while being easier to use at the same time. The redesigned interface is fresh and clean with three editing modes you can smoothly switch between: Quick, Guided, and Expert (full). Providing these different levels allows the program to work according to your abilities and vice versa, making it easier to learn, use, and improve your skills. Reviewers generally are saying positive things about the crisp new user-friendly editing environment and the improved performance.

Some other significant new features in Photoshop Elements 11 are Mapping (geo-tagging of photos), a new Actions Panel, a very handy Refine Edge Detection capability for complex selections (including hair and fur), new Guided Edits (Tilt-shift, Vignettes, and High- and Low-key effects), new Filters (Lens Blur, Comic, Graphic Novel and Pen & Ink), plus an updated Adobe Camera Raw engine with new algorithms and controls.

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We’ve previously covered 30 hours of free video tutorials for Adobe’s Creative Suite 6, as well as four hours for Lightroom 4 – so here are some helpful (and free) new learning resources for the just-released Elements 11 product line…

Because Elements 11 has an all-new intuitive editing environment with a revamped Organizer plus other new features, the content here doesn’t carry well to older versions of Photoshop Elements.  However, we do also have a page still available with several hours of free tutorials for PSE 10 & 9 and earlier.

In the brand new course given below, the experts share how to get started with Photoshop Elements 11, the basics of the software, new features, how to use key tools and functions, plus their favorite tips and techniques. In sum, there is nearly 3 hours of free training video, with 33 separate chapters.

Most modern cameras now also take great videos in addition to photos, so Photoshop Elements is well-integrated with Premiere Elements for video editing – and since many people use the tools together, we’ve also included links for over two hours of free tutorials for learning how to use Premiere Elements 11.

If you need a copy of Photoshop or Premiere Elements 11 to get going right away, just download the free trials and they will work fully for 30 calendar days, which should be plenty of time to get through the classes. Note at the bottom of this page, you’ll also find quick demos of the two programs.

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Continuing our custom of providing the direct download links for major Adobe products such as Creative Suite 6, Lightroom 4, and Acrobat XI, below you’ll find the direct links from Adobe’s servers for the free trials of the all-new releases of Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11, for both Windows and Mac OS.

These links go to the authentic and secure files residing on Adobe’s servers, are guaranteed genuine, safe, and will not change. They are especially useful when you are unable to download Adobe’s free trials via other means – often due to difficulties with the Akamai Download Manager or Adobe Download Assistant…

With the links provided below, you can use your own browser’s download capability (without DLM), or another download manager of your choice.

For setting up Elements on Windows (both PSE 11 and PRE 11), each program consists of two downloaded files: an .exe and a 7-Zip file (.7z). The .exe file will only work (and install) once the .7z file is fully downloaded and resides in the same location. For the Mac, it’s just a single .dmg file for each program.

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“What’s the difference between the different Photoshops?”

We’ve seen this question sooo many times, we just had to write a complete article about it.  With four different members of the Adobe Photoshop family, it can be confusing what is what and which to get…  And now that Elements 11 is out, it’s a good time to look at this.

If you ask Adobe, they’ll tell you:

Q:  How do Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Extended, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom software differ?

A:  Photoshop Elements 11 (US$99) is designed for people who are just getting started with digital photo editing, and delivers powerful yet easy-to-use options that help you organize, edit, create, share, and help protect your personal photos.

Photoshop CS6 (US$699) is the professional standard for creating and manipulating powerful images, and Photoshop CS6 Extended (US$999) delivers every­thing in Photoshop plus tools for creating and editing 3D images and objects.

Photoshop Lightroom 4 (US$149) addresses the workflow needs of professional and serious amateur photographers, enabling them to import, process, organize, and showcase large volumes of digital photographs quickly, or develop a single image.

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We’ve previously featured 30 hours of free video tutorials for Adobe’s Creative Suite 6, as well as four hours for Lightroom 4 – so here are some terrific (and free) learning resources for the recently released Elements 11 product line…

In the course given below, the experts share how to get started with Premiere Elements 11 for editing your videos, the essentials of the software, new features added in PRE 11, how to use important tools and functions, plus their best tips and techniques. In total, there is over 2 hours of free video training, spanning 21 separate chapters.

Most modern cameras now take both great photos and videos, so Premiere Elements is well-integrated with Photoshop Elements for your image editing – and since many people use the two tools together, you may also be interested in three hours of free tutorials for learning how to use Photoshop Elements 11.

Because Elements 11 has an all-new intuitive editing environment with a revamped Organizer plus other new features, the content here doesn’t carry well to older versions of Premiere Elements.  However, we do also have a page still available with several hours of free tutorials for PRE 10 & 9 and earlier.

If you need a copy of Premiere or Photoshop Elements 11 to get going right away, just download the free trials and they will work fully on your computer for one month, which should be plenty of time to get through the classes. Note at the bottom of this page, you’ll also find quick demonstrations of the two programs.

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With one year wrapped up and a new one just beginning, it seemed a good time to put together a review of the best and most popular posts here since our site launched in 2009.

These are the top articles that consistently have the highest readership on our site, month after month, covering all major Adobe software products…  They’re broken out by topic below in case you’ve missed any, or are new here – so bookmark, share, and enjoy!

Adobe Photoshop

• Learn How to Use Photoshop CS6 Free: The Top 10 Techniques
• What’s New and Improved in Photoshop CS6 vs. CS5?
• What Is the Difference Between Photoshop Standard vs. Extended?
• Best Free Training and Tutorials for Photoshop CS5, CS4, CS3 …

Creative Suite

• Download Free Adobe CS6 eBooks — 1,022 Pages of New Tutorials
• What’s the Difference Between CS6 vs. CS5 vs. CS4 vs. CS3?
• New Adobe CS6 Video Tutorials – 30 Hours of Free Online Training
• How to Save/Open CS6 Files on CS5, CS4 or CS3 – and Vice Versa
• Complete Creative Suite 6 System Requirements, for Windows/Mac
• What’s Next After CS6? New Features in the Coming New Release

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NEWS! (9/25/2012) — Adobe introduces all-new Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11, both products are now available for direct download!

We’ve had a few reader questions about this recently, so it’s time for a post – when will Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11 be available?

Adobe historically ships a new version of Elements every year, in the fall – but when exactly? Let’s do some digging and find the release schedules for recent versions:

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Judging by the amount of attention that Adobe’s recent upgrade policy changes have been receiving, as well as our subsequent visitor poll on the company’s model shift to the new “Creative Cloud,” this is a big and important issue…

And while this cloud model is optional, two of the persistent questions so far have been: How are the Acrobat and Lightroom products affected by all of this?

Both of these tools have historically different release schedules from Creative Suite – and while Acrobat is included in the suites, Lightroom is not.  Looking back, CS5.5 launched in May 2011, Acrobat X in November 2010, and Lightroom 3 in June 2010.

[See:  When will Adobe CS6 be released?  When is Lightroom 4 coming out?]

So first off, we can clarify: both Acrobat and Light­room are currently slated to be included in Adobe’s Creative Cloud, at least according to this slide from a recent analyst presentation – although there is a disclaimer at the bottom which states, “list of included products [is] not yet final.”

[UPDATE (January 25th) — Adobe now says that Lightroom will not be included initially, but is "planned for a future release."]

The next question then is, will either of these two popular standalone products be affected by Adobe’s new upgrade policy?

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