Ask any creative about the favorite part of their job, and it’s unlikely someone will answer “the mundane tasks.” Things like adapting a single element across hundreds (if not thousands) of assets, or going through the pains of re-working a previewed stock photo after attaining the license. And yet, those same tasks are all-too-often a habitual part of what creatives still do today – and something Adobe has worked to streamline through the capabilities in and the tight integration of Adobe Stock and Creative Cloud Libraries.

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Last fall, Adobe launched the all-new CC 2018 product line, a major milestone of creative tools and services marking the sixth major release of the CC product line. This latest version contains thousands of new features and advancements compared to CS6 (across all creative applica­tions), and this product is available only via Creative Cloud membership – a community which now surpasses 12 million paid subscribers.

Adobe CC 2018 is also known as the Creative Cloud 2018 Release… And that is exactly what we’re giving away for free below, and this offer is open to everyone world­wide.

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Some incredible news out this morning: Adobe has announced they’re making their popular new experience design tool – Adobe XD, a major part of the Creative Cloud – completely free(!) for anyone who wants to download and use it, forever:

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Adobe recently added a brand new product to the Lightroom ecosystem, surprisingly called “Lightroom CC.” This cloud-based photo service is different from the longstanding version of Lightroom that we know and love, the desktop-focused application which was simultaneously renamed to be “Lightroom Classic CC.”

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Here’s a very handy resource from Jamie Spencer – the complete set of essential keyboard shortcut cheat sheets for every major Adobe CC application… These comprehensive sheets can save you loads of time every day by speeding up your work and allowing you to bypass the need for mouse clicks and movements, getting you to the function you need in the fastest possible way. They are extremely helpful assets to have in your arsenal – and can easily be consulted anytime as an instant reference, or printed out in high resolution and posted, or even used as desktop wall­paper. They are completely free and available for download here:

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Let’s face it, Adobe’s traditional product prices have seemed expensive over the years, espe­cially if you’re on a student’s budget. The last perpetual version available, Creative Suite 6 from 2012, historically had full prices ranging from $399 for Dream­weaver through $999 for Photoshop Extended and on up to $2,599 upfront for the Master Collection suite, which contained all CS6 applications. As cool and powerful as this software was, it’s hard to afford when you’re in school – even after the student/teacher discount.

Adobe eventually stopped selling CS6, as the version reached EOL and end of support – but fortunately the company still offers deep discounts for education customers on the newer CC release. A few years ago, in fact, they increased the discount on Creative Cloud to up to 70% off the regular prices. And while there are a lot of misconceptions about CC, the main products like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc., still download and run on your desktop as normal.

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A reader asked about a message he received from Adobe about a change in CC subscrip­tion pricing in North America. Per the company’s email, some membership costs will be rising 5-6% for individuals in the US, Canada and Mexico – the first increase since Creative Cloud came out in 2012. Here is an excerpt from the notice Adobe sent about the pricing adjustment in these countries:

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Now that the Adobe CC release has become ubiquitous with over 12 million paid customers, more folks are asking us whether the new versions of the tools in the Creative Cloud can read or save older data/document/project file formats like CS6, CS5.5, CS5, CS4 & CS3…

In fact, since Adobe’s flagship creative toolset CC 2018 is now six major releases past CS6 from 2012 (which they no longer sell), file version compatibility can some­times be an important decision point in moving forward.

In the past, new Adobe product versions have often brought different or expanded file formats to support significant new features – and customers want to know if their existing projects will easily carry forward with them when they upgrade, or if they will be able to save back to older formats for coworkers or clients who may still be running an earlier revision of the programs…

OK then, here’s how it works. Generally, your new CC tools will be able to open and use any and all earlier CS project and data files – including CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5, and CS6 files – with no problem or loss of information. In other words, all Adobe software is able to read or import file formats from previous versions of the same program – and it should happen seam­lessly and automatically. The only exception to this is Premiere Pro, where it’s best to open/edit projects in the same versions that created them.

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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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Over the years, we’ve put together a large collection of free Adobe books that we share with our readers here… This extensive set of helpful, no-cost books has now grown to over 30 different titles that you can legally download and use royalty-free, forever.

These digital books cover Creative Cloud, Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Muse, Lightroom and more – but up till now, we haven’t had a good and recent offering for Adobe Animate CC (formerly Flash Professional).

Fortunately, this has just changed with the publication of the new “Rich Content Creation for Multiple Platforms with Animate CC” guidebook, which comes from award-winning Adobe Education Leader and longtime Animate guru Joseph Labrecque.

Mr. Labrecque conducted a paid Animate CC workshop at the last Adobe MAX conference, and is now making the class’s training materials available to the general public completely free of charge. This special offer includes the main 104-page course workbook together with 17 MB of sample working assets, all of which you can download for free here.

Here is the overview description of this course:

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