With one year wrapped up and a new one just beginning, it seemed a great time to put together a comprehensive review of the best and most-shared posts published here since our site launched in 2009, 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 228-Page Book
• Two Free Books! Get the Lightroom Quick Start Guides (108 Pgs)
• Learn Adobe Dreamweaver CC + CS6 – Download New Book
• Get Free How-to Books: the Acrobat Pro Tutorial Guides
• Download Now: The InDesign New Features Guidebook
• Free! Download 30 Adobe Books at No Cost, Learn All Products

Creative Cloud (CC)

• New CC 2018 Release Now Available – What You Need to Know
• Compare Versions: What’s New in the CC 2018 Release vs. CS6?
• Are Adobe CC Files Backwards Compatible with CS6?
• The 10 Most Common Myths About Creative Cloud
• What’s the Difference Between CC for Teams vs. Individuals?
• The 14 Ultimate Adobe Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheets

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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 2018 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 most recently 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 some configuration on the user’s computer, web browser, anti-virus software, Internet connection, or something else which causes it not to work… So the first step is to try something different with those.

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We’ve got a terrific new deal for you, one that is only available here to readers of ProDesignTools… For a limited time and while our allocation lasts, you can get an annual membership to the CC Photography plan – which includes the latest-and-greatest releases of both Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC – for 20% off the regular price worldwide. That works out to just US$7.99, £5.71, €7.99, or A$7.99 per month (plus applicable taxes or VAT) in several major currencies.

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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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Adobe has been hinting at introducing a new “photographer’s offering” in Creative Cloud since the launch of the all-new CC release in May:

“Photographers and photo-enthusiasts are looking for a more tailored Creative Cloud offering that focuses on their particular needs… We are looking at potential CC bundles to recognize this.”

So now, an incredible new package called the Photoshop Photography Program was just announced by Adobe at the Photoshop World conference today:

Since introducing Photoshop CC we’ve listened to feedback from a spectrum of our customers, from advanced pros to casual enthusiasts. One common request was a solution specifically tailored for photographers. We listened and are announcing a special offer for our loyal Photoshop customers. Beginning today, all customers who own Photoshop CS3 or higher are eligible for a special Creative Cloud membership offer that includes all of the following for just $9.99/month (available worldwide; pricing varies outside the US):

• New Photoshop CC 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 over 200 exclusive online video tutorials in Creative Cloud Learn
• Continuing upgrades & updates for all included applications and services

This is the ongoing price for anyone who signs up by June 30, 2014. So if you sign up now, then when you renew next year, the price will still be $9.99 per month. We do not currently have any intention of raising this price.

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[UPDATE (April 2015) – The new Adobe Lightroom 6/CC release is now shipping! Download a free trial instantly or check out what’s new in Lightroom 6 vs. 5.]

Yes – the final Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 is just out and now shipping! Pretty much on the time­frame we forecast, you can download a free trial today… And the new product will work side-by-side with any previous releases of Lightroom you may own. If you have an earlier version installed on your system(s), Lightroom 5 will ask if you’d like to upgrade your catalog and copy everything over.

After a 50% price drop for LR4, the price for Lightroom 5 standalone continues to be US$149 for the full version, and $79 to upgrade from any previous release (LR1, LR2, LR3, or LR4)… Students and teachers can get the full education edition for $79.

If you’ve joined the Creative Cloud, then the full release of Lightroom 5 is already available for you to download and use now as part of your membership – it comes automatically and at no additional cost.

Install now: Get all new Adobe CC 2018 direct download links and free trials.

Also, if you happened to purchase Lightroom 4 within the past 30 days, then if you like you can return it under Adobe’s Refund Policy and order Lightroom 5 instead. It’s not an official “grace period,” but it works.

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[UPDATE (June 10th) – The Lightroom 5 final release is now shipping!]

Adobe has just announced a free public beta release of the eagerly-anticipated Photoshop Lightroom 5, with new tools and advancements to develop, enhance and share your digital photographs… Lightroom 5 provides photographers with an elegant and efficient way to work with their growing digital image collections, bring out the best in their images, and make an impact from raw capture to creative output, all while maintaining the highest possible quality each step of the way.

“The Lightroom team is proud to introduce the fifth major version of the product designed for and by photographers. We’ve been hard at work improving an application that’s intended to be as easy to use as it is powerful. This release builds on the image quality improvements in Lightroom 4 to provide a truly complete workflow and imaging solution. We encour­age you to try the beta release and provide your feedback to the product team.”

Available as a free public download for Windows and Mac, the Lightroom 5 beta is a limited-time preview of new features and capabilities that will be offered in the final release of LR5, expected in mid-2013 and available separately as well as part of the Creative Cloud.

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[UPDATE (June 10th) – The Lightroom 5 final release is now available!]

Last week Adobe Lightroom 4 celebrated its first birthday – yes, it was released one year ago this month – and so this is usually around the time when people start asking: when will Photoshop Lightroom 5 be released, and what new features will be included in it?

Adobe hasn’t said, and has not given advance notice in the past. But as shown in the chart below, Lightroom has run an average of about 20 months between releases (ranging from 17 to 23 months). So if history is any measure, then moving forward twenty months from when version 4.0 came out could put Lightroom 5 shipping in the fall of 2013…

But there’s more to the story. Every previous release of Lightroom has had at least one public beta period – and even all the dot-releases have had betas as well – so a beta release would generally be expected for Lightroom 5 too. These beta periods have lasted 2-3 months each. Adobe has not yet announced a Lightroom 5 beta, so it’s reasonable to assume that we should be seeing one on Adobe Labs well before the official release of the product. In other words, don’t expect (the final) Lightroom 5 for at least several months from now – or from the time the beta comes out.

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“What’s the difference between the different Photoshops?”

We’ve seen this question sooo many times, we just had to write a complete article about it.  With four different members of the Adobe Photoshop family, it can be confusing what is what and which to get…  And now that Elements 11 is out, it’s a good time to look at this.

If you ask Adobe, they’ll tell you:

Q:  How do Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Extended, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom software differ?

A:  Photoshop Elements 11 (US$99) is designed for people who are just getting started with digital photo editing, and delivers powerful yet easy-to-use options that help you organize, edit, create, share, and help protect your personal photos.

Photoshop CS6 (US$699) is the professional standard for creating and manipulating powerful images, and Photoshop CS6 Extended (US$999) delivers every­thing in Photoshop plus tools for creating and editing 3D images and objects. [Both of these versions have recently been replaced by Photoshop CC, which is available by sub­scription (US$10-20/month), and has additional features compared to CS6.]

Photoshop Lightroom 4 (US$149) addresses the workflow needs of professional and serious amateur photographers, enabling them to import, process, organize, and showcase large volumes of digital photographs quickly, or develop a single image. [Lightroom 4 is succeeded by Lightroom 5 – see the differences between the two.]

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Adobe Evangelist Terry White has a terrific new training session out showing you how to get started achieving immediate and impactful results using new Lightroom 4… This 37-minute class covers all the basics and walks through how to accomplish the top 10 things that beginners always want to know how to do.

Here’s the overview:

In this episode we’re going to take a look at how to get started with Lightroom 4 – the ten things beginners want to know how to do.  It’s kind of keeping up with a primer series I’ve been doing: I started with Photoshop and then I did InDesign, and now it’s time to do Lightroom.  So let’s jump right in and talk about the 10 things beginners want to know how to do right off the bat.

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