I will consider buying Adobe products again IF AND ONLY IF they stop their subscription model and allow me to purchase their software outright.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Adobe Launches Photoshop for iPad
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you read carefully you may know that I don’t support the subscription model at least in its current form.
Is there a prize for the 200th person to say he will never buy subscription-based software?
[automerge]1572933380[/automerge]
isn’t that what Photoshop Essentials is for?
[automerge]1572933380[/automerge]
isn’t that what Photoshop Essentials is for?
Last edited:
Catalina, for me a necessary but reluctant install, drew angry slashes on my dock through 14 of my CS6 Adobe applications (among others.) Along with my monthly subscriptions for Netflix, DCUniverse, Hulu, iCloud, Vox, WaPo, chess coaching, gigabit ethernet, and various other services and products clinging to my checking account like vampiric barnacles, Adobe would like $53 a month to replace all those perfectly-working apps that dropped dead. And I can actually feel their fingers in my pockets for the $21 we can flush to have Photoshop in the bathroom. This, as it is said, adds up.
I know. No one is putting a gun to my head - it only feels like it.
Fortunately, the rent here in San Francisco is dirt cheap...
I know. No one is putting a gun to my head - it only feels like it.
Fortunately, the rent here in San Francisco is dirt cheap...
So I tried it a bit yesterday and it is certainly interesting app. I tried to edit one photo and for detailed retouching it is better than to look at iMac display. But crucial thing what is missing is that you can't see how large your brush while painting with pen is so you just guess. Or in Hue/Saturation panel there is no option to select specific colors, only Master one. Better to wait for further updates to fix that.
Nope, this is a heavily dumbed down version.
It's getting absolutely slated in reviews, it was a huge error for Adobe to let Apple and the press coverage misrepresent this as the "real" Photoshop, because it isn't even remotely.
I don't think there is a right, or wrong answer to the subscription model, in an ideal world they would offer both.
If you are a professional who always needs the most up to date Adobe suite, then the subscription model won't particularly bother you. But having said that, I know professionals who still manage perfectly well on much older versions of Adobe software, who now, if they ever decide to upgrade have no choice but to look elsewhere as the subscription model just doesn't make sense to them.
If you were always upgrading within a three-year timescale for the full suite, the subscription model is fine. But if you didn't, it's a very expensive prospect. In the UK it's now £600 a year for the full suite, as opposed to say £2500 or so with the old single purchase model. So if you only ever upgraded every six years , you're now looking at a higher cost.
That's before you consider people who only needed the £1200 Design Standard, with Photoshop and Illustrator. Nowadays, you'd have to get the full subscription, so in that six year timeframe it's £3,600 vs £1,200.
So it really depends on your use case, everyone is going to have a different set of needs.
That's before you even consider the extended use of the old system. When you upgraded, you still had a physical set of discs, which could be used on systems for projects with less demanding needs, donated to friends, sold, or whatever you used to do with them.
A final consideration for some, based on my own use just as an example. Many years ago, when I was using the Adobe suite on a daily basis, I purchased the full suite for whatever the cost was at the time, a couple of grand. It served its purpose well and when I moved to a different line of work a few years later, that same suite of Adobe apps were still made use of by me for years, mainly just personal use, after which someone else has been using them and still is.
So that 2 grand purchase would have cost five times as much on a subscription model, not to mention that if you wanted to keep using the software for as long as it had some practical use to you, you'd have to be paying Adobe the £60 every single month - I dread to think how much that would have added up to now.
Point being, not everyone - professionals included, need to upgrade often enough to make the current subscription model value for money. we can afford to pay it every month, that's not the issue, it's simply a value proposition. If you don't care much about value for money in your business, you're doing it wrong, even multi-billion dollar companies care about value.
What if in a year or two you realise that the versions of the Adobe suite you're using would last you for years without upgrading? Do you just stop paying Adobe and continue with the version you have? No, you have no choice but to continue paying them unnecessarily. But hey, it's your dime.
Some people prefer to buy things outright, and always will, you never know what the future holds, so software you own a physical copy of can be of more use to you, for a longer period and be significantly better value for money than any subscription model.
Oh, and if you're wondering - I still use Adobe, but I have started evaluating Affinity.
If you are a professional who always needs the most up to date Adobe suite, then the subscription model won't particularly bother you. But having said that, I know professionals who still manage perfectly well on much older versions of Adobe software, who now, if they ever decide to upgrade have no choice but to look elsewhere as the subscription model just doesn't make sense to them.
If you were always upgrading within a three-year timescale for the full suite, the subscription model is fine. But if you didn't, it's a very expensive prospect. In the UK it's now £600 a year for the full suite, as opposed to say £2500 or so with the old single purchase model. So if you only ever upgraded every six years , you're now looking at a higher cost.
That's before you consider people who only needed the £1200 Design Standard, with Photoshop and Illustrator. Nowadays, you'd have to get the full subscription, so in that six year timeframe it's £3,600 vs £1,200.
So it really depends on your use case, everyone is going to have a different set of needs.
That's before you even consider the extended use of the old system. When you upgraded, you still had a physical set of discs, which could be used on systems for projects with less demanding needs, donated to friends, sold, or whatever you used to do with them.
A final consideration for some, based on my own use just as an example. Many years ago, when I was using the Adobe suite on a daily basis, I purchased the full suite for whatever the cost was at the time, a couple of grand. It served its purpose well and when I moved to a different line of work a few years later, that same suite of Adobe apps were still made use of by me for years, mainly just personal use, after which someone else has been using them and still is.
So that 2 grand purchase would have cost five times as much on a subscription model, not to mention that if you wanted to keep using the software for as long as it had some practical use to you, you'd have to be paying Adobe the £60 every single month - I dread to think how much that would have added up to now.
Point being, not everyone - professionals included, need to upgrade often enough to make the current subscription model value for money. we can afford to pay it every month, that's not the issue, it's simply a value proposition. If you don't care much about value for money in your business, you're doing it wrong, even multi-billion dollar companies care about value.
What if in a year or two you realise that the versions of the Adobe suite you're using would last you for years without upgrading? Do you just stop paying Adobe and continue with the version you have? No, you have no choice but to continue paying them unnecessarily. But hey, it's your dime.
Some people prefer to buy things outright, and always will, you never know what the future holds, so software you own a physical copy of can be of more use to you, for a longer period and be significantly better value for money than any subscription model.
Oh, and if you're wondering - I still use Adobe, but I have started evaluating Affinity.
Last edited:
I use my iPad pro quite often, but honestly the filesystem is still an annoying limitation. They desperately need to support a full finder-like filesystem. Files is moving in the right direction, but its still clunky to work with. Some apps support it, others don't. Some need to be "Shared", some are save-as, etc. Very unintuitive.
I'm also a fairly recent switcher to Affinity Designer. After getting used to it, Its all I personally need.
I'm also a fairly recent switcher to Affinity Designer. After getting used to it, Its all I personally need.
I wish Affinity would come out with a Lightroom clone, and a bonus if it used LR presets.
My LR 5 is getting long in the tooth and is the one thing making me think about reupping the Photography suite. Especially now that presets can be synced to mobile.
My LR 5 is getting long in the tooth and is the one thing making me think about reupping the Photography suite. Especially now that presets can be synced to mobile.
Hardly the same thing, but as an interim option, you can use the rather good Neofinder for DAM and Affinity Photo for your editing work.
As far as DAM apps go, Neofinder does a good job and it’s compatible with the .afphoto format, which many other DAM apps lack.
Then give GIMP a try.
It's really good just different from photoshop.
Adobe is milking their patents but they are totally right to do that until nobody buys them which will not happen any time soon. As long as people still making money from them they do not care about the total price of the tools they are using.
As a hobbyist you can not say you need the best industry standard CNC router for your home decoration that totally make no money and complain about the price for the router. The price is set to meet the demand of those who make money from it.
[automerge]1572967627[/automerge]
The problem of 6 year upgrade path is support. Old software may not support new system and cause a chain effect that lock you into an older system and older hardware and overall worse experience. You are not paying money for nothing. You got the flexibility to use latest stuff which may sounds not interesting to designer professionals but all IT professionals know how important and less frustrating this will be.
Last edited:
100% agree with this sentiment. I used to be deep into the Adobe world but, with their subscription software stunt, I kicked them to the curb. Adios Adobe!
Unfortunately, I believe you cannot do that (unless Adobe changed their plans). When you sign up for the phography plan at 9.99 a month it is for a year. If you cancel before the year is up you have to pay half of whatever time is left on your subscription.
Unless it's changed, each Adobe CC subscription can be used on two computers, not just one. Maybe try logging in from home, and download an app, and see if it works there, too? Just a thought.
[automerge]1572979565[/automerge]
I think that Adobe's brand has some issues. Yes, they have the standard software in multiple disciplines. I have the "all apps" subscription and I use Adobe products every day. But, the details under the subscription options are not always in the customers favor. If you've ever tried to use Adobe's technical support, it's one of the worst experiences in the world. When something doesn't work correctly, they are quick to blame 3rd party plug-ins or Apple's OS. Their remedies for solving issues involves remotely logging into your machine, and making drastic changes to the Activity Monitor, sometimes leaving your computer in a very precarious state.
However, if they could reach out to make the subscription model look less "corporate," and more flexible, I think that more people would embrace it.
Adobe Photoshop for iPad seems like a solid place to start, but, I don't see many of the effects that were demoed last year. Adobe Fresco actually has some interesting features.
Last edited: