Here’s a very handy resource from Jamie Spencer – the complete set of essential keyboard shortcut cheat sheets for every major Adobe CC application… These comprehensive sheets can save you loads of time every day by speeding up your work and allowing you to bypass the need for mouse clicks and movements, getting you to the function you need in the fastest possible way. They are extremely helpful assets to have in your arsenal – and can easily be consulted anytime as an instant reference, or printed out in high resolution and posted, or even used as desktop wall­paper. They are completely free and available for download here:

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Well, MAX just wrapped up its first-ever all-virtual conference and Adobe broke all records with over half a million attendees tuning in from all over the world for three full days! But the best part is the majority of the sessions were captured on video and are being offered online – for free! In other words, pick your favorite Adobe tools and you can learn the latest tips, tricks, and techniques from the top instructors in the field from the comfort of your laptop, tablet, or phone.

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Every year, Adobe’s creative product launches seem to get bigger – and this year is no exception… This morning, with over 500,000 people attending the first-ever all-virtual (and completely free!) MAX conference, Adobe rolled out the new CC 2021 Release, which has to be the largest product launch since they first introduced Creative Cloud over eight years ago.

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This strange, tumultuous year has changed the way we all live and work. To help creative people around the world overcome the unique challenges of 2020, Adobe is launching today the Creative Cloud 2021 release – with hundreds of improvements to help creatives level up their skills, work efficiently together, get more done, and succeed in new forms of creation. And fittingly, it’s all happening online this week at the annual MAX conference, which is 100% free and 100% virtual for the very first time.

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HUGE NEWS! – Adobe has just launched a brand new curated collection of over 75,000 completely free photos, vectors, illustrations, templates, and videos from talented Stock providers… This new Adobe Stock Free collection is available for everyone to download at all times – plus these high-quality assets meet the same standards as the paid collection, so all of them come with a royalty-free commercial license forever. Check out the free Stock here, and download away!

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We’ve got another great resource for you – a freely-available collection of custom Photoshop textures to help set your work apart… This exclusive set of 29 different handcrafted textures has been released by War Unicorn Media at no cost and is 100% royalty-free. This collection comes complete with an 18-page guide (available online or as a download­able PDF), filled with tips and tricks on how to best use textures in your Photoshop workflow, as well as how to create your own!

Textures are super-easy to apply and use in Photoshop. Just load the texture into a new layer above your composition, and then set its Blending Mode and Opacity for how you want it to impact the photograph or image underneath. More details and ideas are given in the short tutorial video included below.

Here is James Rodel’s introduction from the accompanying guide, which is packed with examples and entitled, “Textures, the Universe, and You“:

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OK, so your old computer is running out of gas, you’re upgrading or changing systems, adding a new machine, or switching from a PC to a Mac, or vice versa — and you want to move over your copy of CC/Creative Cloud or CS6 (or CS5 or CS4) Adobe software — what do you do, and how do you do it? Just follow our complete guide below, which also works for other Adobe desktop products such as Acrobat, Elements, Lightroom, Captivate, and more.

As we’ve covered previously here, you are generally allowed to install and activate most Adobe software on up to two computers, with the restriction that the software can not used on both systems at the same time. So right off the bat, you might be good to go with installing the software on a second computer, although you may wish to double-check the licensing agreement for your product to be sure.

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This is one of the most common questions we get, and the answer may pleasantly surprise you…  The place to look to find the answer is the Software License Agreement, also called the terms of use or EULA. This agreement governs the use of your Adobe product, and is translated into 28 languages within each document. It also covers some basics about product activation.

So, in general, how many systems can you install Adobe software on, including the Creative Cloud (CC) and CS6?  The answer for individuals (as opposed to businesses) in most cases is two.  The catch is that both computers must be used only by you and the two systems cannot be used at the same time. This policy was designed so that you could run Creative Cloud (or Creative Suite) at home on your desktop PC, as well as while traveling with your laptop or tablet PC. But the types of computers and their usage has blurred so much now that you can just pick any two systems you own and the product should install and properly activate on both…

For example, here is the key text from the Terms of Use for CC Software:

1.1 Use of Software: Subscription-Based License. Your subscription lets you activate the Software on up to two devices (or virtual machines) at a time, however, you may not use the Software on the two devices simultaneously.

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With the fast-growing adoption of Adobe’s Creative Cloud and the recent release of the all-new CC 2020 versions of creative applications, some readers are telling us they’re not certain if they need all the tools that are included in the complete Creative Cloud offering, or aren’t ready or able to join for US$50 a month…

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What are the differences between the types of Creative Cloud membership? This is a question we get a lot, so here’s a handy comparison guide on the major differences between Creative Cloud for Teams vs. CC for Individuals. In another article, we already covered the all the differences between Creative Cloud Student & Teacher vs. regular editions.

Creative Cloud for Teams is Adobe’s volume licensing solution for businesses, studios, design shops, agencies, companies, offices, schools, and other organizations. It includes everything that CC for Individuals does, but gives you substantially more features and capabilities for managing and working with different users. It’s meant for groups (such as small to midsize businesses and departments) with multiple seats using the products at the same time. For large businesses, Adobe recommends Creative Cloud for Enterprise.

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