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 virtually the entire 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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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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“Creativity for All” is the key theme of the all-new CC 2020 release, which was just announced by Adobe this week at their annual MAX conference. This next generation of Creative Cloud includes hundreds of new features and advancements across their product line, focusing on three core goals: faster, more powerful & more reliable tools, creating anywhere & anytime with anyone, and exploring new frontiers…  CC 2020 is the next major release following the CC 2019, CC 2018, CC 2017, CC 2015, CC 2014, and CC 2013 versions, which in turn replaced CS6 from 2012.

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Every year, Adobe’s creative product launches seem to get bigger – and this year is no exception… This morning, in front of a record 15,000 attendees at the annual MAX conference, Adobe unveiled the new CC 2020 Release, which feels like their biggest product launch since they first introduced Creative Cloud over seven years ago.

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Having originally launched almost eight years ago, by now you’ve heard about Adobe’s fast-growing Creative Cloud, you’ve dispelled the common myths about it, and perhaps are considering sub­scribing to CC now that over 15 million of your colleagues already have…

You probably also know that Adobe stopped development of the older “CS” releases back in 2012, and that there have been thousands of new product features, enhancements, and perform­ance improvements added to CC since Creative Suite ended, as well as integral new services.

But did you know that no matter what you do, you can sign up right now for a zero-cost class of membership that never expires and provides free benefits for life?  Anyone can have this free level currently in 83 countries worldwide, even if you still use the older tools instead, or even if you use no other Adobe products or services at all.

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A short while ago, Adobe shipped version 2020 of Adobe’s “Elements” line – and since Elements releases are now named by the upcoming year instead of a version number, this edition would be the equivalent of version 18 in the previous numbering system.

And continuing our tradition of publishing the direct download links for major Adobe products such as Creative Cloud, Lightroom 6/CC, and Acrobat DC, below you’ll find the direct links from Adobe’s servers for the free trials and full offline installers for the new releases of Photoshop Elements 2020 and Premiere Elements 2020, for both Windows and macOS.

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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 180 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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We’ve got another great resource for you – a freely-available collection of custom Photoshop textures to help set your work apart… This exclusive set of 29 different handcrafted textures has been released by War Unicorn Media at no cost and is 100% royalty-free. This collection comes complete with an 18-page guide (available online or as a download­able PDF), filled with tips and tricks on how to best use textures in your Photoshop workflow, as well as how to create your own!

Textures are super-easy to apply and use in Photoshop. Just load the texture into a new layer above your composition, and then set its Blending Mode and Opacity for how you want it to impact the photograph or image underneath. More details and ideas are given in the short tutorial video included below.

Here is James Rodel’s introduction from the accompanying guide, which is packed with examples and entitled, “Textures, the Universe, and You“:

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Adobe wants to give you US$50 worth of professional, high-resolution stock images right now. We’re talking about premium-quality, curated photos, illustrations, vectors, graphics, and more from an enormous collection of over 180 million assets to choose from…

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We’re on the Adobe Help Forums every day and regularly see users posting queries like “Can’t install Photoshop from the Creative Cloud” or “CC 2019 won’t download,” or “my product updates aren’t working”… It could be for the free trials or for the full paid versions.

Often the issue is related to one or the other download managers (DLM) that Adobe uses to deliver its software install­ers. Over the years and for various tools, they have used the Akamai Down­load Manager, the Adobe Down­load Assistant (ADA), the Adobe Applica­tion Manager (AAM), and now the Creative Cloud’s CC Desktop App.

Adobe employs these helper utilities because their downloads are usually large – multiple gigabytes – and download managers can help correct for unreliable Internet connections, and resume a download after it has been paused or unexpectedly broken.

But it turns out there can be interactions between the DLM and configurations of your computer, web browser, anti-virus software, Internet connection, or something else which causes it not to work. Read more…