With over 18 million paid members for Creative Cloud and growing, we often get this question from readers: “What’s a good book to get started with the most popular Adobe tools?” While there are a lot of great CC books for sale on Amazon, why not begin with an excellent title that’s available to everyone for free, and that you can download instantly?

Over the years, we’ve compiled a collection of over 30 free books that you can download and use for learning all of Adobe’s different creative tools… But there’s one volume that always stands out as a favorite – and even better, it has just been republished in a brand new expanded edition for the CC 2020 tools.

So if you’re just getting going with (or would like a solid primer covering) the core Creative Cloud design tools, then what better than a step-by-step guide that will teach you the essentials of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Adobe XD from the ground up?

So here it is: the very helpful “Adobe Design Basics” that will give you all of this for free, courtesy of author Professor Thomas Payne… The book works 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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In November, Adobe shipped the new 2020 collection of tools and services – a milestone marking the eighth major release of the Creative Cloud product line, which replaced CS6 from 2012. This latest CC version contains thousands of new features and advancements compared to CS6 (across all creative applica­tions), and it is available only via Creative Cloud membership – a community which now surpasses 18 million paid subscribers.

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Adobe MAX—The Creativity Conference is lined up for October 20-22 back in Los Angeles, Cali­for­nia – and planning is already underway to make the 2020 MAX experience better than ever: “Join over 15,000 like-minded creatives from around the world for a week of sessions, labs, speakers, events, inspiration and fun — everything you need to keep you creative for the rest of the year. Can’t wait to see what we come up with in LA for 2020!”

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Seven years ago, Adobe acquired Behance – the leading online community and social media plat­form for creative professionals, which is often referred to as “The LinkedIn for Creatives.” Back then, Behance had about 1 million members. Since that time, with Behance’s inclusion into Creative Cloud (even with the free level), growth and participation have exploded – and the Behance community now boasts over 21 million members receiving 70 million project views per month.

With Behance, you can easily upload your photo­graphs, projects, or portfolios and gain a fantastic way to showcase, share, and get exposure for your work as well as receive feedback from your creative peers, and get inspired for future work. You can publish many types of media such as images, text, illustrations, video and audio, and follow statistics on how many views your projects are getting, and potentially make money. There’s even a helpful job list for creatives and freelancers, with over 1,000 available employment opportunities.

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With one year wrapped up and a new one just beginning, it seemed a perfect time to put together a review of the best and most-shared posts published here since our site launched in 2009 (over 10 years ago now!), including some very popular free books.

These are the top posts that consistently have the highest readership on our site, month after month, covering all major Adobe software products…  They’re broken out by topic below in case you’ve missed any, or are new here – so bookmark, share, and enjoy!

Free Adobe Books

• Download Adobe CC Design Basics, Free! New 243-Page Book
• Two Free Books! Get the Lightroom Quick Start Guides (134 Pgs)
• Learn Animate Free – Download 59-Page Guidebook + Assets
• Download Now: The InDesign New Features Guidebook
• Learn Adobe Dreamweaver CC + CS6 – Download 79-Page Book
• Free! Download 30 Adobe Books at No Cost, Learn All Products

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For decades now, Adobe has provided industry-standard standalone installers for their creative products, for many valid reasons… Recent examples include the company publicly posting the direct download links for the CC 2019 and CC 2018 releases. In our view, the need is strong and they should continue to do the same going forward.

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Not long ago, Adobe added a brand new product to the Lightroom ecosystem, surprisingly called “Lightroom CC.” This cloud-based photo service was different from the longstanding version of Lightroom that we know and love, the desktop-focused application which was simultaneously renamed to be “Lightroom Classic.”

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In response to our How to Join Adobe’s Creative Cloud for Free post, we received this question from a reader:

Hi – is it really true that Adobe Bridge (the full version) is totally free to download and use forever, and I don’t have to pay for it or have a subscription?

The answer is yes, it’s absolutely true – although not that many people know about it because Adobe hasn’t really publicized it widely…

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Just back from Adobe MAX 2019 and as in previous experiences, it’s always the three most intense days of the year… It’s wall-to-wall with larger-than-life presentations, keynotes with creative luminaries, diverse educational sessions, connecting with other leaders in the Adobe space, hands-on with the latest design tools, meeting the product teams, feeling the energy of the Pavilion floor, the buzz over mind-blowing “Sneak Peek” demos of cool new technology, and of course the fantastical MAX Bash party with 15,000 of your closest friends.

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Yes, it’s that time of year again. Adobe is having a worldwide sale with money-saving deals through Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019 (and beyond), and we’ve got the complete guide below… There are some exceptional offers for major products in this “season of savings” – with discounts as much as 74% off the regular prices!

The company is running four major promotions for the all-new Creative Cloud 2020. These are the all-time lowest prices ever offered on these popular products. The holiday deals begin today and will run continuously until Thurs­day, Dec­ember 5th (extended!) at 11:59pm Pacific Time. So don’t miss out, as these values only come once per year!

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