Adobe’s finally done it. In case you haven’t heard yet about the new Photoshop Playbook, you should.

After years of offering free video tutorials – and following on to Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes‘ success with his “Hidden Gems” series – Adobe has built a new collection of bite-sized lessons that cover exactly the kinds of things that many, many people want to (know how to) do with Photoshop.

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When comparing Creative Cloud to the older Creative Suite model, one of the promises of CC is an ongoing stream of product updates that comes included with every membership. Paying extra for upgrades is a thing of the past because your tools are always up to date with the latest-and-greatest versions – instantly as soon as the download is available, or whenever you want it to happen…

So, after a long history of monolithic 18-24 month product cycles, how is the company now adapt­ing and delivering on this new rapid refresh model in this time of fast-paced techno­logical changes?

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[UPDATE (Jan. 2017) – Adobe just stopped selling CS6 entirely – here’s why.]

When Creative Suite 6 arrived in 2012, there came with it a new way to buy Adobe software that the world had not seen before: the Creative Cloud.  Traditionally, most Adobe products had only been sold with “perpetual” licensing that doesn’t expire. The flip side is that these best-in-class tools often come with a steep price tag that is out of reach for many folks – though there have always been substantial discounts when upgrading from recent older releases, plus much lower pricing for some market segments like students and teachers…

When Creative Cloud first entered the scene, there was (and still is) some uncertainty about what it meant and where it was going… But despite that skepticism, the Cloud has since gained strong adoption to become the company’s dominant product line with most customers choosing it over CS6, which Adobe still continues to sell for people who want it.  With Creative Cloud you receive the newer “CC” release that succeeds CS6 as the latest and greatest toolset, and generally gets high ratings from users.

Related: Compare Features – What’s New in Adobe CC vs. CS6?

Adobe CC is available only via a subscription model which, yes, is cloud-based in some ways – but the name has been called confusing and misconceptions abound because in fact the major applications are not online or web-based, but still run locally on your computer as before.  What’s more, the company has been clear that powerful tools like Photoshop may add some online capabilities but will never run completely in the cloud.

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Charting strong growth since its initial release and receiving near-five-star ratings from customers, Adobe’s new all-in-one Creative Cloud offering has also been benefiting from high renewal rates from current and returning customers, the company divulged during a recent business presentation…

This is the first time that Adobe has publicly disclosed this information.  In response to the audience question, “What statistics can you share with us on Creative Cloud renewal trends?” CFO Mark Garrett said:

So back in 2011 when we announced this transition, we had modeled 80% retention – which we thought was conservative – and that’s planning out to be true, meaning our retention is better than 80%. We haven’t disclosed exact numbers yet, but the reten­tion is well within the constraints of the model that we set and the guidance that we set. So we’re really pleased with that.

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[UPDATE (July 2015) – These still work to download updates for the older CC 2013 release… However we also now have direct links for the new CC 2015 product updates.]

One of the great benefits of the Adobe CC release is receiving an ongoing stream of product updates at no extra cost… No longer do we have to wait 1-2 years for our tools to innovate and keep pace with evolving technologies; instead we get the latest & greatest features and improvements as soon as they are ready.

Since the initial launch of CC in June, Adobe has issued new upgrades for each individual app about once every 3-4 months, bringing new power and capabilities to all subscribers.

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[UPDATE (July 2015) – These still work to download updates for the older CC 2013 release… However we also now have direct links for the new CC 2015 product updates.]

One of the great benefits of the Adobe CC release is receiving an ongoing stream of product updates at no extra cost… No longer do we have to wait 1-2 years for our tools to innovate and keep pace with evolving technologies; instead we get the latest & greatest features and improvements as soon as they are ready.

Since the initial launch of CC in June, Adobe has issued new upgrades for each individual app about once every 3-4 months, bringing new power and capabilities to all subscribers.

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Some exciting news for photographers: Adobe has just brought back a special offer that opens up the popular Photoshop Photography Program to any customer worldwide who would like to participate… This was Adobe’s big “Black Friday Deal” that is now making a surprise return – meaning for the next few months, this new discounted plan is available to everybody!

The Photoshop Photography Program includes all of the following for only US$9.99/month with an annual membership (Adobe’s best deal ever on PS):

• New Photoshop CC complete with Bridge CC and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR)
• New Lightroom 5 for desktop plus Lightroom Mobile for iPad & iPhone
• 20 GB of online storage
• Behance ProSite for building a beautiful online portfolio site (normally $100/year)
• Access to hundreds of exclusive online video tutorials in Creative Cloud Learn
• Continuing upgrades & updates for all included applications and services

Adobe says this is the regular ongoing price for anyone who signs up for the program by June 30, 2014.  So if you join now, then if/when you renew in a year’s time, the price will still be $9.99 per month. They do not have plans to change this price.

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In late 2012, Adobe acquired Behance – the leading online community and social media plat­form for creative professionals, which is often referred to as “The LinkedIn for Creatives.” Since that time, Behance has grown like wildfire: it now has over 3 million members receiving over 160 million page 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 the creative community, and get inspired for future work. You can publish many types of media such as images, illustrations, video and audio, and follow statistics on how many views your projects are getting, and potentially make money. There’s even a job list for creatives and freelancers, with hundreds of employment opportunities.

A year ago today, Adobe announced it completed integration of Behance with the Creative Cloud, and it was making the premium-level Behance ProSite (which is normally US$99/year standalone) completely free for Creative Cloud subscribers.

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[UPDATE (Jan. 2017) – Adobe just stopped selling CS6 entirely – here’s why.]

You most likely already know the news that Adobe ended the Creative Suite line (there is no CS7), and that new releases of all the CS tools (and more) have been relaunched as “CC” – and these new versions are available only via a Creative Cloud membership…

At the same time, Adobe is continuing to sell 2012’s CS6 version for people that prefer the traditional licensing model instead of CC sub­scriptions, though statistically fewer than 1 in 5 customers are still going that direction.

Meanwhile, the 15 new CC applications have brought hundreds of new features and enhancements compared to CS6, with more being added all the time through ongoing upgrades that are included free with all memberships… Thus far, the latest CC tools have been getting nearly 5-star reviews from customers, as they sign up at the rate of 65,000 per week.  But still, because of the relative newness of the Creative Cloud offering, some confusion abounds and there remain a few big myths floating around out there.

So all in all, there has been a lot of change to digest over the past year, and folks often ask us which route is best to take – what are the pros and cons of each option?

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[UPDATE – Also see our Winter Creative Cloud 2020 Giveaway!]

This June Adobe shipped the “CC” lineup of products, the new release that replaces last year’s CS6.  The CC version contains hundreds of new features compared to CS6, and it is available only via Creative Cloud membership…  And that is exactly what we’re giving away for free below, and it’s open to all.

In all, the Creative Cloud comes with 15 new desktop applica­tions (Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Muse CC, and all your favorites), together with other comple­mentary tools and services (Acrobat XI Pro, Light­room, DPS, Typekit, and many more). See the entire contents of what’s in Creative Cloud, where all ongoing upgrades are auto­matic­ally included at no addi­tional charge.

Also now available are all the free CC trial downloads, if you want try them out to see what’s new for yourself – and they will install and run side-by-side with any older CS versions you may have, with no problem. Even if you’ve tried previous Creative Suite tools, everyone is entitled to a brand new free tryout period with all of the CC apps.

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