With the continuing popularity of Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan where anybody can get both Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC for just 10 bucks a month, we’ve had some readers asking us the best ways to learn these two top imaging tools…

We always mention about the free video tutorials on Adobe TV, as well as the super­lative, compre­hensive courses offered on Lynda.com – but we can also recom­mend two new terrifi­cally helpful ebooks that you can work through step-by-step at your own pace. And fortu­nately, both books are completely free.

The first is the Adobe CC/CS6 Design Basics book that we’ve featured before on this site, which is 200+ pages taking you through the core essentials of Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, and InDesign CC.

The second book is Victoria Bampton’s excellent Lightroom Quick Start Guide, just out in a new 79-page edition which tells you every­thing you need to know to get going with Lightroom from the ground up.

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The 2015 edition of the Creative Cloud is the most powerful and versatile toolset Adobe has ever produced and we’re seeing a lot of demand for good training resources to learn how to best use this fast-growing product…

A while back, we posted details on over 1,000 pages of free ebooks for CS6.  But if you’re just getting started with the core CC 2015 design tools, what’s better than a step-by-step book that will teach you the essentials of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign from the ground up?

Fortunately there’s a very helpful new book you can download that will teach you all of this for free, courtesy of author Professor Thomas Payne… The way the book does this is by intro­ducing and explain­ing the tools in a logical way that builds upon what is previ­ously learned. These applica­tions present a vast array of buttons and gadgets that can be over­whelming to the new user. This book makes sense of it all, not showing how every­thing works, but instead giving a found­ation and a path to learn about all those controls and what they can do for you.

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The crowd erupts at Adobe MAX 2014 when Microsoft gives every attendee a new Surface Pro 3.

[UPDATE – Also see our new Adobe CC 2020 Giveaway!]

MAX 2015 – the big annual conference intersecting creativity and Adobe technology – is coming up this fall in Los Angeles, California… And continuing our long tradition of free Adobe giveaways, we’ve got one free regular full conference pass (worth US$1,595) to give away, plus one US$400-off ticket savings, both courtesy of our friends at Adobe Systems!

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[UPDATE – Also see our new Adobe CC 2020 Giveaway!]

Last June, Adobe shipped the new CC 2014 product line, a major milestone of creative tools and services that upgrades last year’s CC 2013 version, which itself replaced CS6 from 2012.  This latest CC 2014 release contains over 1,000 new features and innovations compared to CS6 (across all apps), and it is available only via Creative Cloud membership.

As both CC 2014 and CC 2013 came out in mid-June, we expect the annual major release cycle to soon begin anew with the imminent launch of CC 2015… And that is exactly what we’re giving away for free below, and this offer is open to everyone world­wide.

Update: Now confirmed! The official shipping date for CC 2015 will be on June 16th.

In all, Creative Cloud 2015 will come with over a dozen new desk­top applica­tions (Photoshop CC 2015, Illus­trator CC 2015, InDesign CC 2015, Muse CC 2015, and all your favorites), together with other comple­mentary tools and services (such as Behance ProSite, Typekit, Creative Cloud Market) and more… In fact, the all-new Light­room CC 2015 plus Acrobat DC Pro are already out today and available for download. See the entire contents of what’s in Creative Cloud, where all ongoing upgrades are auto­matic­ally included at no addi­tional cost.

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[UPDATE – Also see our new Adobe CC 2020 Giveaway!]

In June Adobe shipped the new CC 2014 product line, a major milestone of creative tools and services that upgrades last year’s CC 2013 version, which itself replaced 2012’s CS6.  This latest CC 2014 release contains over 1,000 new features and advancements compared to CS6 (across all apps), and it is available only via Creative Cloud membership.

Adobe CC 2014 is also known as the Creative Cloud 2014 Release… And that is exactly what we’re giving away for free below, and this offer is open to everyone world­wide.

In all, Creative Cloud 2014 comes with 15 new desk­top applica­tions (Photo­shop CC 2014, Illus­trator CC 2014, InDesign CC 2014, Muse CC 2014, and all your favorites), together with other comple­mentary tools and services (such as Acrobat Pro, Light­room, Edge, Behance ProSite, Typekit) and much more. See the entire contents of what’s in Creative Cloud, where all ongoing upgrades are auto­matic­ally included at no addi­tional charge.

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The newly-expanded 3rd edition of Pixel Perfect Precision for Photoshop is out – and it’s better than ever plus still free – so if you don’t have it yet, go grab it now…

This designer bible comes to us from respected Adobe partner ustwo, the digital design studio who just won a 2014 Apple Design Award for their gorgeous Escher-inspired app, Monument Valley.

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[UPDATE (Nov. 2019) – Watch 120 hours of new training & tutorials from MAX 2019!]

The Adobe MAX 2014 conference was held earlier this month, and as in previous experiences, it’s always the three most intense days of the year…

It comes complete with major product announcements from the company, inspirational key­notes from creative wizards, scores of learn-till-you-drop training sessions, plentiful opportunities for networking with colleagues, checking out the latest cool technology on the pavilion floor, meeting the Adobe product teams in person, the great buzz over “Sneak Peek” demos of mind-blowing features under development, and of course the all-out MAX Bash party with 6,000 of your peers.

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Some good news – because of the major new feature updates announced last week at the big annual MAX conference, Adobe informed us that they reset the 30-day free trial period for Photoshop CC 2014 on both Windows and Mac…

In other words, no matter which version of Photoshop you’ve used or tried in the past, everyone now gets a brand new free trial of the latest-and-greatest release of this core application. This will give all users a chance to check out the new Photoshop for themselves, at no cost.

Of course, if you are already a Creative Cloud member, then these latest updates have already come to you auto­matically or whenever (as soon as) you want.

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Next to Photoshop, Acrobat Pro & Standard is Adobe’s top-selling product line of all time: it’s offered standalone plus included in all the Creative Suites as well as the newer Creative Cloud – so clearly there are a lot of people using it worldwide. The two free books below will help you learn how to use it better and more effectively…

The first book is all about the Acrobat XI release, and the second is for the older Acrobat X from 2010. Both these guides contain dozens of helpful tutorials that will help you discover the advantages of using Acrobat and how to get the most out of it… Following the easy walkthroughs will quickly introduce you to new ways to save time and simplify complex projects.

Each chapter includes step-by-step instructions for performing common tasks efficiently. Keep a copy of either ebook access­ible on your computer as an easy–to–use resource for learning new techniques.

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[UPDATE – Also see our new Adobe CC 2020 Giveaway!]

MAX 2014 – the big annual conference intersecting creativity and Adobe technology – is coming up this fall in Los Angeles, California… And continuing our long tradition of free Adobe giveaways, we’ve got one free regular full conference pass (worth US$1,495) to give away, plus one US$400-off ticket savings, both courtesy of our friends at Adobe Systems!

Adobe MAX 2014, The Creativity Conference – running from October 4-8 – will be chock full of expert keynotes and presentations, technical ses­sions and talks, product announce­ments and sneak peeks, evening events and get-togethers, and possibly some surprises… The show is an amazing experience where they really take care of you from start to finish while you soak up all the growth and learning you can.

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