Today Adobe announced the immediate availability of the all-new CC 2019 release, the next generation of Creative Cloud with hundreds of new features and advancements across their product line surrounding three key themes: to accelerate your work, to liberate your creativity, and to help you create anything…  CC 2019 is the next major release following the CC 2018, CC 2017, CC 2015, CC 2014, and CC 2013 versions, which in turn replaced CS6 from 2012.

The 18 upgraded CC desktop applications are Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, InCopy, Adobe XD, Dimension, Animate, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Character Animator, Media Encoder, Prelude, Bridge, Camera Raw, Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic. In addition, there’s a recently-improved version of Acrobat DC Pro, plus a brand new 1.0 product in Premiere Rush CC for all-in-one, cross-device video editing that makes creating and sharing online content easier than ever – as well as Read more…

Last October, Adobe unveiled the new CC 2019 Release, which the company says is the biggest product launch since they first introduced Creative Cloud over six years ago. Pam Clark, Senior Director for Photoshop, exclaimed, “Today is by far the largest product announcement and launch experience of my career on the Photoshop team, and at Adobe. We have never delivered so much amazing new innovation to customers on the same day. I can’t wait to see what you create!”

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One of the most common upgrade questions we see out there is asking what’s new, what’s different, what’s better, what’s changed between Adobe’s just-launched CC 2019 release and the previous CC 2018, CC 2017, CC 2015.5, CC 2015, CC 2014, CC 2013, or 2012’s Creative Suite 6?  Or more fundamentally, what are the key new features and advancements in CC 2019 versus prior versions?

Now that the new CC 2019 mile­stone release is shipping world­wide, everyone is entitled to either a free upgrade or a new free trial for 7 days. Ongoing access to these tools requires a Creative Cloud mem­ber­ship (either for one app or for all of them), with discounts available for education custom­ers. Adobe says that if you look at all of the changes since CS6 to the current CC 2019 release, there have been thousands of significant updates – meaning new and enhanced features, added capabil­ities, and perfor­mance improvements – to the key creative applications.

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With over 15 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 2019 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, Adobe XD, and Muse from the ground up?

So here it is: the very helpful “Adobe CC 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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Let’s face it, Adobe’s traditional product prices 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 latest 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, Premiere, etc., still download and run on your desktop as normal.

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With over 15 million customers having already signed up in the six years since it launched, Adobe’s Creative Cloud (CC) product line has been a success exceeding even the company’s own expecta­tions.  Still, there are a lot of misconceptions out there that we see from time to time, or that some folks seem to believe… (do you?)  Here below we dispel and debunk the top 10 most common myths we’ve heard – and hopefully even if you already know the scoop or use Creative Cloud you’ll pick something up… read on!

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Now that the Adobe CC release has become ubiquitous with over 15 million paid customers, some 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 2019 is now seven 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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Every autumn brings MAX – Adobe’s big annual creative conference – and every recent MAX has also brought a major new release of Creative Cloud… For instance, CC 2019 was unveiled at MAX last year, and we expect this year to be no different. In fact, Adobe has already tipped this off with a new article about changing requirements for the next Photoshop and Lightroom:

Upcoming changes for MAX 2019

As we prepare for our next major releases of Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic and Lightroom at MAX 2019, we wanted to give you a heads up on upcoming changes to our System Requirements…

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Adobe has really been sweetening the pot lately for you to try out their massive Stock photo collection… These are high-quality, curated images, illustrations, vectors, graphics, templates, photos, and more from a vast collection of over 150 million assets to choose from. After acquiring Fotolia in 2015, Adobe rolled out a one-month-free offer which was nice, but it required paying for your first month up front (which would later be refunded if you canceled).

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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.

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