[UPDATE (Oct. 2022) – The all-new Creative Cloud 2023 release has launched and is now available! See what’s new in features and all the differences compared to older versions.]
Adobe just launched the Creative Cloud 2022 release – with hundreds of new features and improvements to help creatives level up their skills, work efficiently together, get more done, and create in new ways. It’s all happening this week at the annual MAX conference, which is 100% free and 100% virtual for the second year in a row.
“Creativity for All” is the central motif of the major new release, which focuses on four themes: unleashing creative potential, enabling connected creativity, empowering creative careers, and combating disinformation. This next generation of Creative Cloud includes countless new features and advancements across Adobe’s product line, as well as the appearance of familiar apps on entirely new platforms.
The 18 upgraded CC desktop applications are: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, InCopy, Animate, XD, Dreamweaver, Premiere Rush, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Character Animator, Media Encoder, Prelude, Bridge, Camera Raw, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. In addition, there’s a recently-updated version of Acrobat DC Pro, plus these new innovations:
- Amazing new tricks for Photoshop and Illustrator, now extending to the web by actually running in your browser! See video demo just below.
- Content Credentials – new attribution capabilities are now available in Photoshop, to ensure content authenticity and combat misinformation.
- Introducing Creative Cloud Spaces and Canvas for online group collaboration and whiteboarding in real-time, right in your browser.
- Boost content-creation velocity by offloading and automating your repetitive imaging tasks to the cloud in batches with Project Aspen.
- Behance gives you new ways to prosper from your work, including the “hire-me” button and the ability to offer Creator Subscriptions, with zero platform fees for CC members.
- Subscribers to the All Apps and Single-App plans over $20 now receive the premium version of the new Creative Cloud Express product at no extra charge.
- The company continues to expand the Adobe Stock Free Collection, now with over 1 million high-quality stock assets available at no cost and royalty-free. Check it out and start downloading now!
Some of the major new desktop product features include: expanded Neural Filters (Photoshop), powerful new Masking features (Lightroom), enhanced Speech-to-Text capabilities (Premiere Pro), fast Multi-Frame Rendering (After Effects), improved 3D effects and materials (Illustrator), Body Tracker (Character Animator), Motion Creation (Fresco), video and Lottie import and playback (XD), and Hover Auto-Masking (Photoshop).
All current Creative Cloud members receive an automatic upgrade to the new 2022 Release, and all of the new free trial downloads are also now live online. As before, the new tools and services are available via budget-friendly annual or monthly memberships. Creative Cloud membership continues to expand around the world, with well over 30 million paid subscribers.
Install now: Get all new Creative Cloud 2025 direct download links and free trials.
What’s New in the Creative Cloud 2022 Release? [Video]
Note: The System Requirements Have Changed
Also important to know that the system requirements have evolved, on both Windows and Mac, in order to take advantage of the latest operating system features and technologies… On Macs, the CC 2022 release now requires macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later. If you’re not yet running a compatible version of macOS, then you can get a free upgrade directly from Apple to Catalina. Be aware, however, that in Catalina, Apple has dropped support for any older 32-bit programs that you may have. macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) and the newly-launched macOS 12.0 (Monterey) are supported by Adobe as well.
On PCs, Windows 10 (version 1909 or higher) is a fully-supported platform for all Creative Cloud applications. Windows 11 is supported with some caveats. Importantly, except for Acrobat DC, the CC 2022 apps do not support 32-bit or any Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating systems.
Adobe explains that focusing their efforts on more modern OS versions allows them to concentrate on developing the features and functionality most requested by members, while ensuring peak performance that takes advantage of modern hardware. For more details, please consult the complete CC 2022 System Requirements. If these specifications don’t work for you for some reason, then you can continue to use the older CC 2021 applications, or even CC 2019 or CC 2018.
Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!
Pricing and Availability
The 2022 release is now shipping and available for download. If you’re not ready for the complete Creative Cloud now (US$50/month prepaid) and prefer just a single application like Photoshop 2022, then you can get any standalone CC tool for $10-$20 a month with what’s known as a Single-App Membership, or (for both Photoshop + Lightroom) the CC Photography Plan.
Education customers still receive a discount of 65-75% off the regular CC prices, for students, teachers, and staff at all levels of school: primary, middle, secondary, college and university… See our guide on how to qualify.
If you need to run the software on multiple computers for a group of users, then Adobe offers Creative Cloud for Teams for the most flexibility and ease of management, plus other significant advantages over the Individual CC offering such as the game-changing Team Projects.
As a Creative Cloud member, all of these just-launched apps and services are available to you immediately. Just download and install the apps from your Creative Cloud account (completely on your schedule), or start using the new or updated services. Everyone else can run all apps for free with a 7-day trial:
You can find more details about all the new features on the Creative Cloud webpage and blog, or check out Adobe’s official press release. The extensive CC FAQ also answers many common questions, and don’t miss the broad collection of CC tutorials on Adobe Discover.
Check Out Hover Auto-Masking and Body Tracker – New in the 2022 Release
See Also
- The 10 most common myths about Creative Cloud
- What are the differences between Adobe CC vs. CS6?
- Download free Adobe books (choose over 30 titles)
- How to save 60% with the Student & Teacher Editions
- Free Adobe Stock! Download 1,000,000+ top images
- Don’t need full Cloud? Get PS + LR for $9.99/month
Do you have any questions about Creative Cloud? Just ask them below and we’ll get you answers fast!
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Perhaps you should correct your title – Adobe Ships New CC 2022 Release – Upgrade Free / Download Trials
Thanks Diana, good catch! Corrected.