Anyone know if Acrobat is finally Retina optimized yet? Screenshots on the Adobe web site seemed to indicate that it finally is.
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Adobe Announces Creative Cloud Updates, Expanded Creative Profile
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I don't get all the whiners that are still around. Either Adobe fails or wins at this experiment, and so far they're making a ton of money so don't expect anything to change. Professionals pay the monthly fee and move on. It's a pittance compared to monthly revenue.
I was the guy who leaked Lightroom Mobile to 9to5Mac a few months ago. I came across it on their website and signed up for it early. Their senior product and marketing managers were nothing but courteous in dealing with me when they had every reason to be furious at my find. Fast forward a few months and apparently when Adobe "fixed" my account it royally screwed up my CC Subscription in their system when it came time for my renewal in May (signing up for non-existent services tends to do that). But they were awesome about it and even gave me a free year of Creative Cloud for my trouble. I don't even think Apple has customer care that good!
Creative Cloud is even more enticing for the "jack of all trade" types that are becoming more common in the design field. I regularly switch between coding websites, building app UI in Photoshop using layer comps, editing RAW photos and managing my catalog in Lightroom (on my iPad too now), making a logo or some icons in Illustrator, putting together a quick animation in After Effects (such as a demo), putting together an ad layout in InDesign, or editing together a news clip in Premiere (and cleaning up the audio in Audition). Designers are now expected to do more than ever before. About the only thing I don't use in my everyday workflow is Dreamweaver or Muse. I use Coda 2 and Codekit. And I use TypeKit in the sites I build. And there aren't many companies out there that are integrating together mobile and desktop apps like Adobe are. The iPad is going to become a tremendous design tool in the years to come.
For people like me CC is a steal. But I do think they should have some lower price tiers for users who only use a few apps. They could either have a "pick 3 for $30/mo" tier or put together packages that make sense. Like a Design package that has Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat Pro. Or a Media package that has Premiere, After Effects, SpeedGrade, and Audition. They did that with Photoshop and Lightroom for $10/mo and it seems to work well.
My only complaint is the cloud storage aspect seems tacked on. Can't do a whole lot with 20GB (I had earned more free space than that with DropBox before I upgraded), so I use DropBox instead for my freelance and personal stuff and might switch to iCloud Drive if that is any good. I like the collaborative aspect of CC with teams, but our team uses a convoluted network share with 1TB of space that is consistently running low on space. We would most definitely need a bigger boat.
I was the guy who leaked Lightroom Mobile to 9to5Mac a few months ago. I came across it on their website and signed up for it early. Their senior product and marketing managers were nothing but courteous in dealing with me when they had every reason to be furious at my find. Fast forward a few months and apparently when Adobe "fixed" my account it royally screwed up my CC Subscription in their system when it came time for my renewal in May (signing up for non-existent services tends to do that). But they were awesome about it and even gave me a free year of Creative Cloud for my trouble. I don't even think Apple has customer care that good!
Creative Cloud is even more enticing for the "jack of all trade" types that are becoming more common in the design field. I regularly switch between coding websites, building app UI in Photoshop using layer comps, editing RAW photos and managing my catalog in Lightroom (on my iPad too now), making a logo or some icons in Illustrator, putting together a quick animation in After Effects (such as a demo), putting together an ad layout in InDesign, or editing together a news clip in Premiere (and cleaning up the audio in Audition). Designers are now expected to do more than ever before. About the only thing I don't use in my everyday workflow is Dreamweaver or Muse. I use Coda 2 and Codekit. And I use TypeKit in the sites I build. And there aren't many companies out there that are integrating together mobile and desktop apps like Adobe are. The iPad is going to become a tremendous design tool in the years to come.
For people like me CC is a steal. But I do think they should have some lower price tiers for users who only use a few apps. They could either have a "pick 3 for $30/mo" tier or put together packages that make sense. Like a Design package that has Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat Pro. Or a Media package that has Premiere, After Effects, SpeedGrade, and Audition. They did that with Photoshop and Lightroom for $10/mo and it seems to work well.
My only complaint is the cloud storage aspect seems tacked on. Can't do a whole lot with 20GB (I had earned more free space than that with DropBox before I upgraded), so I use DropBox instead for my freelance and personal stuff and might switch to iCloud Drive if that is any good. I like the collaborative aspect of CC with teams, but our team uses a convoluted network share with 1TB of space that is consistently running low on space. We would most definitely need a bigger boat.
I'm not at all sure how they think designers want to pay $50 a month to have access to a lot of programs they'll never use.
i do print and web and i'll never have a need for premiere, the gaming kit or any of the audio apps, yet i'm forced to pay for them.
adobe needs to create a shopping cart option for subscribers - indesign, illustrator, photoshop, muse and maybe dreamweaver for designers
dreamweaver, flash etc for web designers
and so on.
they used to offer this option when they still sold the suites in boxes.
they might just get more people to abandon cs6
and heres a thought, why not let subscribers with at least two years keep the apps if they can't afford to subscribe anymore. the apps could downgrade to the last update, but still be able to open whatever was worked on last.
i do print and web and i'll never have a need for premiere, the gaming kit or any of the audio apps, yet i'm forced to pay for them.
adobe needs to create a shopping cart option for subscribers - indesign, illustrator, photoshop, muse and maybe dreamweaver for designers
dreamweaver, flash etc for web designers
and so on.
they used to offer this option when they still sold the suites in boxes.
they might just get more people to abandon cs6
and heres a thought, why not let subscribers with at least two years keep the apps if they can't afford to subscribe anymore. the apps could downgrade to the last update, but still be able to open whatever was worked on last.
Um, can you explain that statement to me? How is it more affordable for me to rent software instead of owning it? Do you think renting a house is better than owning it? Perhaps renting a car instead of purchasing it?
You know, the older I get the more this phrase becomes truer and truer: "A fool and his money are quickly parted".
-P
Like I said before, it offers a far lower barrier of entry, and for Adobe, gives people plenty of reasons to get a legit copy for a little bit a month compared to pirating it because that one time large chunk is a little too large.
Though the one thing you're not considering is that SAAS has to offer that "service" on the end of it. If Adobe were just dangling the Creative Suite in front of everyone with a subscription price, everyone would....well...they'd still buy it, because nothing else quite compares, but they'd be far more begrudging about it. The CC does at least offer you a few nice perks to go along with having to subscribe to get your software, which, for some people at least, makes it worth the while.
Ultimately, the move to a sub service affects us freelancer and hobbyist types, because the pro market has been all but renting software for years and years now. They're used to it, and probably find the CC to be a better deal over what they had before. Hence why Adobe is making a killing on it.
So a fool and his money are soon parted? More like a fool is someone who doesn't look at the whole picture and consider all the angles. There are down sides, I'll grant you that, but they're not shafting us completely, and it's not all doom 'n gloom.
People rent housing all the time because it's more economical than buying (having you seen housing costs in places like NYC, LA and SF?) and I know people in Chicago and NYC that don't own cars because it's not worth the cost in those cities. Public transit, cabs/Uber and/or renting as needed is much cheaper than monthly car payments, monthly parking payments, car insurance, gas, routine maintenance, etc.,.
True story, I signed up for CC on a lark just to take some of the apps on an extended test drive. 30 day trials were never long enough and the full cost of the software was prohibitively expensive for just wanting to kick the tires. A few months later I landed a gig that had to be cut on PPro and I have made way more money than what the CC subscription will cost me.
W/o the lower cost of entry I wouldn't have picked up the apps, which means I wouldn't have landed a fun, well paying gig. I'm not worried about costs 5 years or 10 years down the line because I really doubt I'll be using the same editing software continuously for that long. FCP X, PPro, Lightworks, Avid MC, Resolve... it's turning into a real dog fight in the NLE marketplace.
.... they have no incentive to make any major improvements with these updates.
Except for the fact that they did . . . . just now.
We can all say what we please about the updates, but even on the surface they are far more substantial than what other software providers give us.
All good points, and I've had the same thing happen to me with Avid MC. The university I was working with was moving from FCP7 to Avid MC and because i was classified as an educator I qualified for the EDU discount (which they take VERY seriously) I picked up a copy of the software for $295 and when it came time for me to take a gig they asked what I cut on and I threw MC in there just incase.
Sure enough they were looking for an Avid editor.
The cost of entry for Avid is WAY high, so me getting it for $295 was very helpful. In the end, Adobe is making it extremely easy for creatives to pick up industry standard tools and get to work. Same for Apple with FCPX and Motion and Logic, and somewhat for Avid.
DaVinci took the industry by storm IMHO. A free . . . . . FREE platform agnostic NLE that has a pro color grading system attached . . . . yeah, you can't beat that. Folks can boot that up on a Windows tablet I've heard.
Getting over our personal feelings about subscribing to software should have been done about two years ago. It's more than proven its worth now.
Like it or not, this CC model is beneficial to the majority of Adobe services users. And for the ones using them professionally, it's a (very) small % of the income.
Plus, they attract a new fraction of users that would otherwise pirate the applications because they were way to expensive to buy. For instance, when i first started working as a freelancer, many years ago, it was a HUGE (and let me repeat) H-U-G-E investment to get license of Photoshop alone and later the design suite… If we had CC back then it would've been a lot easier.
I've been using it since the first day (I'm a CS costumer that migrated to CC when was available) and i don't regret it.
It would be awesome if they would create a "do it yourself" packet, as we could choose lets say 3 or 5 applications instead of the all package. But thats not a big of a deal.
Another nice thing that would address some of the anti-subscription folks problems, would it be to retain the usage of the application after X months of subscription (18-24-36-whatever). No more updates after the moment one would stop paying and all other CC services would stop, but at least we could use the application at that state. I don't mind this renting scenario because as i stated before, as a professional this CC subscription is a small % of my income (and getting all these top applications for a small % is great really), but i think this would be a clever move from Adobe.
Plus, they attract a new fraction of users that would otherwise pirate the applications because they were way to expensive to buy. For instance, when i first started working as a freelancer, many years ago, it was a HUGE (and let me repeat) H-U-G-E investment to get license of Photoshop alone and later the design suite… If we had CC back then it would've been a lot easier.
I've been using it since the first day (I'm a CS costumer that migrated to CC when was available) and i don't regret it.
It would be awesome if they would create a "do it yourself" packet, as we could choose lets say 3 or 5 applications instead of the all package. But thats not a big of a deal.
Another nice thing that would address some of the anti-subscription folks problems, would it be to retain the usage of the application after X months of subscription (18-24-36-whatever). No more updates after the moment one would stop paying and all other CC services would stop, but at least we could use the application at that state. I don't mind this renting scenario because as i stated before, as a professional this CC subscription is a small % of my income (and getting all these top applications for a small % is great really), but i think this would be a clever move from Adobe.
Agreed.
They used to have Adobe Master Collection... which was ALL Adobe programs. But they also offered Production Premium, Design Standard, and Design & Web Premium which included only the programs that were tailored to a particular industry.
While I have no problem covering the $50 each month... I, too, will never use ALL the programs.
Adobe's subscription pricing is kinda weird... especially since they made Photoshop/Lightroom $10 a month.
They still offer a single CC program for $20 a month... which would make two programs $40 a month.
But for $50 a month... you get 28 programs. Wha?
There doesn't seems to be anything between one or two programs... and 28 programs.
It's still a hell of a deal... but very few people need ALL those programs.
I would love it if they brought back the old Production Premium bundle for $30 a month. But that would be a odd price considering it includes 13 programs... while one program by itself is apparently worth $20 a month. (and Adobe's flagship product, Photoshop, can be had for $10 a month)
So I dunno... there's not much more they can do outside of $10, $20, or $50 a month.
You either get one or two programs... or all 28
It's still good though.
That's because the $10 PS/Lightroom sub is a limited time offer that only lasts subscribers a full year. Once 365 days pass, anyone who jumped in on it will be paying $20 for each just like everything else.
And yeah, I agree that their pricing structure is weird as hell, and could use some work.
Fixed Layout ePub Impressive
I tried the fixed layout ePub export on an existing print publication and the result is visually absolutely perfect. The fonts still have to be replaced with unencrypted versions but this is really impressive and very welcome for image-intensive ePubs such as cookbooks. The ePub file actually opened in Comic Creator when double-clicked and, while the results were far from perfect, they were good enough to offer some hope of creating a fixed format Kindle publication, if one can be bothered to put in the effort.
I tried the fixed layout ePub export on an existing print publication and the result is visually absolutely perfect. The fonts still have to be replaced with unencrypted versions but this is really impressive and very welcome for image-intensive ePubs such as cookbooks. The ePub file actually opened in Comic Creator when double-clicked and, while the results were far from perfect, they were good enough to offer some hope of creating a fixed format Kindle publication, if one can be bothered to put in the effort.
Did they? The biggest improvement I can see in say Indesign, was that you can drag a row to a new position in a table, that's the sort of thing you would expect to see in a minor point release. They even had the audacity to claim that the new Indesign 'not messing up your existing settings' is a major new feature.
Did they? The biggest improvement I can see in say Indesign, was that you can drag a row to a new position in a table, that's the sort of thing you would expect to see in a minor point release. They even had the audacity to claim that the new Indesign 'not messing up your existing settings' is a major new feature.
I don't use InDesign extensively, so I can't say that it is or isn't a new feature.
However, Premiere, Lightroom, Photoshop, After Effects, SpeedGrade, and Muse got some work done to them.
They've been adding in minor updates for some time, but this is definitely a "major" update.
Not to mention way more cloud integration and mobile app support.
I don't think it's for a year only I think they stated on the keynote that it was "forever". The thing is that you have access to Photoshop and Lightroom, but no access to cloud features, plus other services included in the 1 app sub, like Typekit or Edge tools.
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Did they? The biggest improvement I can see in say Indesign, was that you can drag a row to a new position in a table, that's the sort of thing you would expect to see in a minor point release. They even had the audacity to claim that the new Indesign 'not messing up your existing settings' is a major new feature.
This is not true For example, there are several great updates to Photoshop. Many other tools got big updates aswell. A major update doesn't requires to be a complete revamp to one tool.
Some day Apple will release a ne version of Mac OS X that will break CS6. It WILL HAPPEN. Maybe the version after Yosemite? Then what?
Adobe stops maintaining CS6 at some point and then after that CS6 stops working with the latest OSes from Apple or Microsoft. It will not happen this year but good chance it will happen next. It's a 100% certainty eventually. You have a a year or three before you will be forced to make a decision.
Turns out I was half right, half wrong. The deal itself is a limited time offer, but I'm grandfathered in at $10 a month for as long as I keep my sub active.
That's not bad at all, but I still think Adobe should make single apps $10 a pop, rather than $20. It makes a little more sense for people like me who only regularly use one or two programs out of the entire suite, instead of the 2 apps for $40, 28 for $50 setup they've got now.
Totally agree, and we've been down that road with CS2. Adobe wasn't (and didn't need to) spend the time or money into porting the PowerPC based CS2 over to Intel. They just waited until CS3.
I know many users that remained on CS2 years into the Intel transition, thinking faster Intel Macs with Rosetta will be able to bring back the speed and user experience they once had.
So what happened? Apple stopped supporting Rosetta. Now they were forced to upgrade and at that time it was CS4, only two cycles ahead. Which is where we are now, two product cycles from CS6.
I never thought about Adobe not supporting CS6 anymore, mainly because I figured everyone was just going to start moving with the rest of the industry and pick up a subscription.
I agree. Just that has happened before.
Maybe many of them are hobbyists, but don't belittle that fact. I think it is an overall help to society and to Adobe themselves if kids and people who don't make a lot of money using these tools still have the ability to experiment with them. They are creative tools, after all.
Would it be good if regular non-digital art supplies like paint and canvases were so prohibitively expensive that only professional artists could afford them? Nobody would argue that it would be good. Photoshop is a kind of pro-product, but I don't think that's really relevant. The point is that it's good if hobbyists are able to experiment with the tools and learn how to use them and to invent new effects and styles by creatively combining them.
That's not to say Adobe don't deserve to make any money from their products; obviously they do.
I think what most people are annoyed with is that the CC pricing isn't more progressive. The customers who cause Adobe the most amount of work are their biggest customers - the kinds of customers who have $50M ad campaigns depending on their digital artwork. Hobbyists are more like hitchhikers - they'd like to ride along and tinker with the thing, but you don't need to devote an inordinate amount of engineering or support resources to them. They don't really care too much about being on the latest version of the software (although obviously if they're paying they would expect it).
IMO, $50/month is too much for that kind of potential customer. Some of them will be students so they'll get the $20/month rate, but even that's too high and many of those customers won't be students.
Every time Adobe do anything to CC, we get back in to this discussion. Adobe won't change their model until they're forced to. We need to support folks like Pixelmator so they can catch up with Photoshop in as many areas as possible as quickly as possible.
Adobe's prices aren't preventing anyone from getting into photography, web design, graphic arts, video editing, etc.,.
I'm sure some brands of paint, canvases and brushes are prohibitively expensive to hobbyists and some brands of paint, canvases and brushes are affordable to hobbyists. If you can't afford Photoshop use Pixelmator. If you can't afford a $60,000 to shoot your movie on use a $2000 DSLR. If you can't afford a $2000 DSLR use your phone.
If you really need/want to use Adobe software then buy one of the older versions off of eBay (or CS6 which is still for sale at Adobe.com). The good thing about apps like Photoshop and After Effects being so old is that the basics haven't changed very much. If you can use a 4yr old version of Photoshop you can use the latest version of Photoshop too.
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I'm not a hobbyist but I'm not making a comfortable living either. I'm very happy that you are making a comfortable living but average incomes are much lower in the UK and many of us are struggling to make anything like the average income. Moreover, including Value Added Tax (which I can't claim back), the subscription price here is £46.88 which is about $79.70 at the current exchange rate (even without VAT, it would be $66.41). Having praised Adobe's improvements to InDesign, I have to say that I really can't afford the subscription charges.
$50 a month is for the entire Adobe subscription package... which includes 28 apps and services.
That used to be known as the Adobe Master Collection... which formally retailed for $2,799
Hobbyists and beginners weren't buying that either.
I understand both of your points... but the fact remains that Adobe software has always been rather expensive and catered to a more professional customer.
The good news is... Adobe still offers Photoshop/Premiere Elements for $150 or less. Those offer plenty of capabilities to get your feet wet in those areas.
Sadly... Adobe doesn't offer consumer-friendly versions of After Effects, InDesign, etc... and they never have. So hobbyists and beginners in those areas were always out of luck.