[UPDATE – Also see our new Holiday CC 2019 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.

Read more…

[UPDATE – See all of Adobe’s current deals & discounts!]

It’s been over two years now since the initial launch of the Adobe CC release (replacing CS6) and we’ve seen over 1,000 new features added and included since that time – so recently Adobe confirmed they will be ending their popular Creative Cloud 40%-off discount upgrade offer for existing customers of CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5, or CS6:

“Don’t miss out on 40% savings. For a short while longer, Adobe will provide Creative Suite customers worldwide (CS3 and later) the option of joining Creative Cloud Complete for 40% off or $29.99 / £27.34 / €36,89 / A$29.99 a month for the first year.”

The updated terms and conditions show that this upgrade discount offer for CS3 through CS6 to CC will only be available until May 29th, 2015:

Note that this offer is limited to one (1) purchase of one (1) discounted Creative Cloud Complete annual membership per customer – and may not be assigned, exchanged, sold, transferred, or redeemed for cash.

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The new version of Adobe Lightroom 6/CC was released for direct download recently, and we keep getting questions from readers like this one:

Are Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC the same?
If not, then what are all the differences between Lightroom 6 vs. Lightroom CC?

…so we thought it was time to write a new article about this topic.

Here’s the answer, with the differences put simply:

Lightroom 6 is the core program running on your desktop – the new version that follows Lightroom 5, with significant features and improvements added since LR5. Adobe is offering two options to customers, and the Lightroom 6 route is a perpetual license – basically standalone static software. The updates that Lightroom 6 users receive going forward will be for bug fixes and new camera and lens profiles only, but not new feature upgrades that Lightroom CC customers will receive on an ongoing basis.

Lightroom CC 2015 takes Lightroom 6 and offers it via subscription together with access to integrated mobile apps (like Lightroom Mobile) and online services (like Lightroom Web with unlimited online photo storage).  Lightroom CC also gives you ongoing new feature updates as soon as they are available – including the popular Dehaze and Boundary Warp functions, as well as the new Guided Upright feature and Local B&W Adjustment Sliders – none of which are in LR6.

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The long-awaited Adobe Lightroom 6/CC began shipping this week, and has got some folks pretty excited about the new features and capabilities… There’s a long list of them given further below, but some of the highlights include much improved performance, facial recognition, photo merge for both HDR and panorama, advanced video slideshows, improved web galleries, new Pet Eye tool, touch-enabled PC support, plus GPU acceleration and native 64-bit architecture on Windows and Mac.

One big change is the naming difference and what you get with the two options (Lightroom 6 vs. Lightroom CC). You can still buy a standalone perpetual version as before (either full or upgrade from an older release) – the product is then called Lightroom 6 and it will still receive bug fixes and new camera/lens additions, but will not get ongoing new feature updates and does not have access to online LR features and apps such as Lightroom Mobile and Lightroom web.

Read more…

[UPDATE (March 2019) – These still work to download the Lightroom 6/CC 2015 installers. We also now have Adobe’s all-new CC 2019 Direct Download Links!.]

Yes – the new release of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6 is just out and now shipping! There was no beta version/period this time, so we go straight to the final product. And as in the past, this release will work side-by-side with any previous revisions of Lightroom you may have. If you’ve got an earlier version installed on your system(s), Lightroom 6 will ask if you’d like to upgrade your catalog and copy everything over.

Read more…

Company Takes Microsoft’s Lead and Does Hundreds Better

SAN JOSE, Calif.—April 1, 2015—Following a recent software trend for skipping version numbers, reliable sources indicate that Adobe Systems will be foregoing the long-anticipated Acrobat 12 and leaping hundreds of releases higher instead.

When reached for comment, Founder John Adobe confirmed the rumors. “Hey, everyone thought it was the cat’s pajamas when old Microsoft skipped a version going from Windows 8 to the future Windows 10,” Adobe said. “Well forget about it, you ain’t seen nothing yet – we’re going to take that little bump and shoot it to the moon!”

So what in fact will the next release of Acrobat be called? Adobe himself was reluctant to give further details, but a leaked company document clearly indicates the next release will be dubbed Acrobat 600 – leap­frogging a full 588(!) revisions over the widely-expected Acrobat XII.

Why Acrobat 600?

When confronted with the internal memo, Mr. Adobe relented. “Okay, you got me,” he said. “We’re calling it that because it’s going to be hundreds of times better than the old Acrobat – and if you don’t believe me then just upgrade and see for yourself,” Adobe explained.

Read more…

It’s been quite some time since the last release of Adobe Acrobat – it’s Acrobat XI, which shipped in October 2012 – so we’ve been eagerly awaiting to see what the next major version of this core product line would bring…

And now, we finally have some answers, announced by Adobe not as “Acrobat XII” or “Acrobat 12” – but as Acrobat DC, where “DC” stands for Document Cloud.

The Adobe “Document Cloud”? What does that mean? Is this the same brand of Acrobat toolset that we know and love, and use daily? Are there still Pro and Standard desktop tools, and perpetual licenses? Or is this a new type of web-based application or service that we can only use online, or via subscription?

Not to worry. Everything is as you want, only better. It looks like this long wait for Acrobat DC was actually worth it… This is Acrobat XII or 12, only raised to the next level.

Read more…

For years it was difficult if not impossible to buy Adobe software online (especially the newer CC subscriptions) and pay with PayPal instead of a credit card or debit card. But finally, great news: Adobe has just made it possible to purchase all software using PayPal in many countries worldwide, so you can now buy Creative Cloud (or CS6) without a credit card.

These countries include the US, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Brazil, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and much of Europe (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain). Alternatively, payment using Switch or Solo is also supported in the UK.

[UPDATE – Adobe says: “We no longer have a published list of countries where PayPal is accepted. Instead, the customer will see the payment types that apply to their country on the Plans page.”]

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Hard to believe, but today Adobe Photoshop officially celebrates its 25th anniversary (or birthday, depending on how you look at it)… The first version of Photoshop shipped on February 19th, 1990, at a price of US$895.00. Adjusted for inflation, in today’s dollars that would cost almost $1,700! Now, of course, there are tens of millions of users of Photoshop who can pay less than $10 a month for the latest-and-greatest release of this iconic, industry-leading tool.

Indeed, the software has traveled a long way. When it first came out, Adobe predicted it would sell just 500 copies per month. Yet today, over 90 percent of creative professionals worldwide have Photoshop on their desktops. The original authors say they knew they had a groundbreaking technology on their hands, but never anticipated how much it would impact the images we see all around us. Adobe Fellow and Photoshop co-creator Thomas Knoll says, “Not in my wildest dreams did we think creatives would embrace the product in the numbers and ways they have. It’s inspiring to see the beautiful images our customers create, the careers Photoshop has launched and the new uses people all over the world find for Photoshop every day.”

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The Adobe Student and Teacher Editions look like a great deal. They offer big discounts, as much as 70% off normal prices. They’re available for most of Adobe’s most popular products, including the Creative Cloud (CC), Creative Suite 6, Lightroom 5, Acrobat XI, and Elements 13.  They can be purchased by anyone who qualifies – primary, middle, and secondary school students, homeschoolers, college or university students, faculty, teachers, and administrators.  Even part-time students or teachers can be eligible, and there is no maximum age limitation. They’re available pretty much worldwide in many languages on both Windows and Mac OS, and you don’t need any kind of coupon or promotion code to get the deep discounts.

So what’s the catch? Is the Academic software different or limited somehow? Read more…