[UPDATE (February 2013) – The commercial version of Project ROME will remain free for public download! (Windows and Mac OS)]

In all the excitement last week with the hundreds of free online sessions from the Adobe MAX conference, there was a brand new product debut that should get just as much press. Adobe launched a free preview of their new Project ROME content creation and publishing applica­tion for print, photo, presentations, animation, and web. And this is a pretty cool tool if you haven’t checked it out yet. The streamlined interface with plenty of templates helps you get started quickly, and the “all-in-one” nature allows you to easily borrow and repurpose content across projects or from the cloud.

The best way to get a sense of it is a quick one-minute demo:

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Yesterday at the big MAX conference, Adobe finally announced their Digital Publishing Suite – a new publishing solution that allows authors to deliver innovative digital reading experiences that attract readers and advertisers. This set of end-to-end, turnkey hosted services plus viewer technology build on the foundation of Creative Suite (including InDesign CS5) and allows publishers to use existing staff, skills, and workflows to design and deliver engaging, digital content direct to consumers, through content retailers or leading mobile marketplaces. You may have seen this already being used very successfully by magazines such as WIRED and The New Yorker.

The Digital Publishing Suite will be released in the second quarter of 2011, likely in conjunction with a CS5.5 point release update. In the meantime, Adobe Labs has made some tools available now for writers to get started and create, preview and share their content in the new format. The tools include the Digital Content Bundler and Interactive Overlay Creator, plus the Digital Publishing Plug-in for InDesign, which allows InDesign to interface with and transfer information to the Digital Content Bundler.

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[UPDATE (February 2012) – See how you can “create your own grace period” for any Adobe software purchase at any time!]

Adobe announced Acrobat X yesterday and it is open for preorder but not shipping yet… The company says the release date will be within 30 days, and in the meantime you can still buy Acrobat 9 (or download the Acrobat 9 Pro free trial) if you need something going today.

Historically, Adobe’s policy for major product releases has been that you may qualify for a free upgrade if you buy the previous version after the new product has been announced, but before it ships… The advantages are threefold: (1) you get software available for immediate download, (2) you get a more mature release if you prefer and can move up later at your leisure, and (3) you win a lower upgrade cost (e.g., from Acrobat 6, 7, 8), because you’re buying fewer steps to go up (to Acrobat 9 rather than to X).

The good news is this post-announce free upgrade policy remains in effect for Acrobat X, according to the chat session below with Adobe Customer Service. So it looks like you can get the best of both worlds and buy or upgrade to Acrobat 9 now, and then later get a free upgrade to Acrobat X when you—and it—are ready.

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[UPDATE (October 2018) – These still work to download the old Elements 9 trials. We also now have the new Elements 2019 Direct Download Links!]

Continuing our history of providing the direct download links for major Adobe products such as Creative Cloud, CS6, Lightroom 6/CC, and Acrobat DC, below you’ll find the direct links for the brand new releases of Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9. And for the first time ever, Adobe is offering both products for both Windows and the Mac.

The links given below go to the authentic and secure files residing on Adobe’s servers, are guaranteed genuine 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 (the Adobe DLM). With the links provided below, you can use your browser’s down­load capability, or another download manager of your choice.

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There’s a fantastic new resource available for After Effects users – a free three-hour in-depth tutorial on After Effects CS5. This introductory course covers a broad range of topics: learning the basics of compositing and animation, how to use keyframes as well as spatial and temporal interpolation, using parenting to group animated elements together, how to use masks and layers, introduction to effects, importing Photoshop documents into AE, syncing transitions to music, creating a master composition, how to render out your finished video to a standalone file, and more. The program is hands-on and includes downloadable sample files to follow along with for creating a motion graphic title sequence.

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With the surprise news out from Apple that removes all previous restrictions on the development tools that can be used to create iOS apps, the doors open for standalone Flash-built apps to finally be migrated to the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Adobe at first released a simple statement, “We are encouraged to see Apple lifting its restrictions on its licensing terms, giving developers the freedom to choose what tools they use to develop applications for Apple devices.”

Later, Adobe issued a more complete response that confirms these apps are already being accepted into the App Store:

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[UPDATE – Download the newer free Acrobat XI and X books!]

While we’re waiting for the release of Adobe Acrobat 10, you can save countless hours in minutes by getting more out of Acrobat 9… Increase your productivity with a free download of 21 Key Ways to Save Time with Acrobat 9, featuring simple, step-by-step tutorials designed for both basic and advanced users. Easily get up to speed in no time with this resource guide featuring one-page, printable “cheat sheets” on creating PDF documents, assembling PDF Portfo­lios, working with forms, Acrobat collaboration, keeping files secure, and more. The easy-to-use instructions introduce you to new ways to save time and simplify complex projects.

The eBook has five categories with step-by-step instructions for performing common tasks effi­ciently. Keep a copy of this PDF portfolio on your computer as a quick resource for learning new techniques. Here’s what the collection includes to help you unlock the power of Adobe Acrobat:

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[UPDATE – Elements 11 is out!  Get free tutorials for the new version.]

We’ve previously covered 17 hours of free video tutorials for Creative Suite 5, plus three hours for Lightroom 3 – so here’s a chance for Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements… Below the experts share how to get started, the basics of the programs, new features, plus their favorite tips and techniques. Most of the lessons will work for either version 8 or 7. All together there is five hours of free content, spanning over 50 chapters.

The majority of the videos were produced by Lynda.com, which is another excellent source of online tutorials (some free, some paid), and just released a new app for software training on the iPhone.

If you need a copy of either Elements product for your work, just download a free trial.

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Over the next six weeks Adobe is launching a new series of in-depth online seminars to learn the best and get the most out of some top CS5 products, including InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and Flash Professional…

The presentations are 90-minute live “deep dives” with Adobe product experts where you can get firsthand detailed information on the new features of these releases, see demonstrations, and get direct answers to your questions. All sessions are from 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM ET on upcoming Tuesdays, and will be presented in English:

Deep Dive: Adobe Illustrator CS5
Tuesday, July 13, 11:30am – 1:00pm US/Eastern
Complimentary Registration

Deep Dive: Adobe InDesign CS5
Tuesday, July 27, 11:30am – 1:00pm US/Eastern
Complimentary Registration

Deep Dive: Adobe Flash Professional CS5
Tuesday, August 10, 11:30am – 1:00pm US/Eastern
Complimentary Registration

Deep Dive: Adobe Premiere Pro CS5
Tuesday, August 24, 11:30am – 1:00pm US/Eastern
Complimentary Registration

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As we reported last month, Adobe is working on a Lightroom-related app for Apple’s iPad – but since it may be a while before we see it being released, in the meantime here are some handy presets to export/publish your photos to the iPad for use as a presentation device or display portfolio…

On the iPad, images will look better if they are saved, sent, and displayed at the size of the iPad’s screen rather than having iPhoto or the iPad resize them down. Also the iPad won’t automatically fill the entire screen with an image if its aspect ratio is different from the iPad’s screen size – instead you’ll get black bars at the edges (similar to a letterboxing effect).

So the two free presets linked here take these factors into account, and it’s your choice which of them to use… The first preset will preserve all photos at original size and aspect ratio (and the iPad will automatically add black bars to adjust at the edges), and the second preset will fit the photos to the full iPad screen (by automatically doing a center-based crop in Light­room when it exports).

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