Almost five years ago, in the spring of 2012, Adobe launched two major products at one time: Creative Suite 6 and the Creative Cloud. The Creative Suite 6 suites were well received and cost from US$1,300 to $2,600 – while Creative Cloud, a subscription to their full range of creative applications, had a much lower cost of entry and gave customers access to the CS6 tools and services, as well as ongoing upgrades. A year later, Adobe announced that CS6 would be their last perpetual software release, and there would be no CS7.

Since then, the Creative Cloud has evolved to include the newer milestone releases CC 2013, CC 2014, CC 2015, CC 2015.5, and now CC 2017. Over this time, thousands of new features and improve­ments have been delivered exclusively to Creative Cloud members, while the original CS6 release has remained largely static. By law, with the purchasing model that CS6 had, Adobe could not legally add significant new features to the traditional release.

By June of 2014, after the first two major CC versions, Adobe described new CS6 sales as “de minimis,” with the vast majority of customers choosing Creative Cloud instead.

Adobe did continue providing maintenance (bug/security) fixes to CS6 and refreshing Camera Raw through July 2015, over 3 years after CS6 came out – but then finally discontinued support in order to evolve the platform and pursue further innovations in image processing and workflow technology.

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[UPDATE (Nov. 2019) – The all-new Adobe CC 2020 release has launched and is now available! See what’s new in features and all the differences compared to older versions and CS6.]

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 2017 release and the previous CC 2015.5, CC 2015, CC 2014, CC 2013, or 2012’s Creative Suite 6 – or even the older CS5, CS4, CS3?  Or more fundamentally, what are the key new features and advancements in CC 2017 versus prior versions?

Now that the new CC 2017 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 2017 release, there have been thousands of significant updates – meaning new and enhanced features, added capabil­ities, and perfor­mance boosts – to the key creative applications.

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Now that the Adobe CC release has become ubiquitous with over 22 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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[UPDATE (Nov. 2019) – The all-new Adobe CC 2020 release has launched and is now available! See what’s new in features and all the differences compared to older versions and CS6.]

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 2015 release and the previous CC 2014, CC 2013, or 2012’s Creative Suite 6 – or even the older CS5, CS4, CS3?  Or more fundamentally, what are the key new features in CC 2015 versus prior versions?

Now that the new CC 2015 mile­stone release is out world­wide, everyone is entitled to either a free upgrade or a free 30-day trial (possibly up to 60 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 2015 release, there have been well over 1,000 significant updates – meaning new and improved features, added capabil­ities, and perfor­mance improve­ments – to the key creative applications.

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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 11 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
• Get the Brand New 51-Page Guidebook to Learn After Effects Free
• Learn Animate Free – Download 59-Page Guidebook + Assets
• Download Now: The Illustrator 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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[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 (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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[UPDATE – Some of these still work to download the old CS6 trials (plus Edge Animate 1.5), but Adobe has recently taken down many links… However, you can also now get the all-new Creative Cloud 2021 Direct Download Links!]

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

Creative Suite 6 is now available for instant download and direct shipping, and there are many important differences in this release compared to Creative Suite 5, including hundreds of new features added to the individual applications.

Here we’ve put together a complete set of Adobe CS6 direct download links for all the new products (Windows and Mac OS), for instant easy access and the ability to use your own download manager or download assistant if you have any difficulty with what Adobe normally employs and need to get the trials without it…

Whether you’re considering buying a full version or will be upgrading from a prior CS release, or even if you’re getting a volume license or joining the Creative Cloud, you can always use these free trials to install, run, and activate the CS6 software on your system, without needing to reinstall.  All of these CS6 trials will run fully for 30 (or possibly more) free days after initial launch.

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The 2015 edition of the Creative Cloud is the most powerful and versatile toolset Adobe has ever produced and we’re seeing a lot of demand for good training resources to learn how to best use this fast-growing product…

A while back, we posted details on over 1,000 pages of free ebooks for CS6.  But if you’re just getting started with the core CC 2015 design tools, what’s better than a step-by-step book that will teach you the essentials of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign from the ground up?

Fortunately there’s a very helpful new book you can download that will teach you all of this for free, courtesy of author Professor Thomas Payne… The way the book does this is 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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Ever since it was announced seventeen months ago, Adobe made it clear that Creative Cloud was going to be a new way of purchasing their software, an avenue for anyone to use a complete collection of the most recent versions of all of their industry-leading creative tools with a set membership plan.

Last May the company rolled out the offering, and we’ve seen the Creative Cloud continuing to gain momentum – in fact, recently passing millions of members and signing up tens of thousands more every week… Meanwhile, the tradi­tional option of buying a one-time Creative Suite license has remained for those customers who prefer that path.

Since the launch, Adobe has issued numerous free updates to Creative Suite programs (as is customary), as well as several rounds of entirely new CS product features that are only available to Creative Cloud members:

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