Deals: Adobe Offering Up to 71% Off Creative Cloud All Apps for Black Friday

[citysnaps]

Does it have a Lightroom replacement?

Unfortunately, no. Still love Lightroom, a superb DAM and editor, especially with their recent AI-based masking updates.

Having many thousands of nondestructively edited RAW files in LR, unless something better than LR comes along, AND, will import my LR-edited RAW files (going back 15 years) with edits intact and still non-destructive, I don't ever seeing myself moving away from LR.

For me $10/mo is a reasonable price for what LR gives me.

I did purchase Affinity Publisher V2 a couple days ago for $40. A bit of a learning curve coming from Adobe In Design. But so far, so good on a photo book I'm putting together.

 

[stainless]

But weren't Adobe products always for professionals? 🤔

In the old days... no average consumer would pay $700 for Photoshop or $2,600 for Adobe Master Collection. You'd be crazy to pay all that money if you were just a hobbyist.

It was simply too expensive for normal people. There were other cheaper products from other vendors.

In my case... I am a professional. I make money with Adobe software. I have no problem paying the monthly fee because I like Adobe's software. And I can cover the monthly fee with just a couple hours of work.

But a normal consumer? It's not for them. It was never for them.

So yeah... Adobe might be too expensive for non-professionals now... but Adobe was too expensive for non-professionals back then, too.

Humbly disagree! As an owner and publisher of real estate publications, you weren't serious if you couldn't make the small investment of $2,600 (You could always negotiate with Adobe and get it for $1,800). What you're saying is that I want to be an investor but don't want to invest.

Think of it this way, we bought the Master Creative suite in 2011 and would use it at a dedicate station and we would go several years without upgrade and only upgraded when Adobe offered a "REAL" upgrade features as many of their upgrades was BS bloatware... even today compare CC6 to what you are ACTUALLY using and I beat CC6 does 99% of what you are using today and think about those savings.

Adobe going to a subscription was when we left them, mind you we use QuarkXpress over InDesign anyway. CC6 Photoshop today handles masking, color correction, CYMK, EPS/PDF, layers, plugins, etc. etc. Thus saving us $1,200/year for the past 11 years or $13,200, and that is REAL MONEY vs Adobe pocketing it.

Plus with Affinity and Vectornator (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vectornator-graphic-design/id1219074514) as a replacement for photoshop and illustrator is a real thing. We prefer our money remain in our pocket vs the greed of Adobe.

 

[newton4000]

Unfortunately, no. Still love Lightroom, a superb DAM and editor, especially with their recent AI-based masking updates.

Having many thousands of nondestructively edited RAW files in LR, unless something better than LR comes along, AND, will import my LR-edited RAW files (going back 15 years) with edits intact and still non-destructive, I don't ever seeing myself moving away from LR.

For me $10/mo is a reasonable price for what LR gives me.

I did purchase Affinity Publisher V2 a couple days ago for $40. A bit of a learning curve coming from Adobe In Design. But so far, so good on a photo book I'm putting together.

As above, for many people, I suggest they look at Darkroom, which is catching up quickly! It overlays the Apple Photos DAM. That is both a plus and maybe a minus.
However, in your use case scenario, I think you are better off staying in the Adobe ecosystem. You will not be able to move with your edits maintained that way. I've faced the same problem and in the end, decided to make jpg exports of all my edits and start the raws afresh. However, this is a tough decision and I get it's not for everyone. But it has freed me from Adobe.

 

[stainless]

A FREE alternative to Adobe Illustrator is Vectonator on the Apple Store here https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vectornator-graphic-design/id1219074514

 

[japanime]

Ahhh.. that’s why there was no news surrounding Affinity v2 when it was released.

I had been wondering why the big Affinity announcement last week wasn't mentioned at all on the front page of MacRumors. Now I know. (Oh, but we did get our monthly front-page story about Nanoleaf's hideous LED lights. 🤣)

I wonder how much impact Affinity has on Adobe? Are they taking a significant chunk of revenue away from the rip-off Adobe subscriptions? I'm all for subscriptions when they're reasonable. The prices Adobe charges looks like they think everyone is a million dollar company.

Every time I watch an Affinity tutorial on YouTube, an Adobe advertisement plays beforehand. Adobe is definitely afraid of Affinity — and for very good reason.

 

[citysnaps]

As above, for many people, I suggest they look at Darkroom, which is catching up quickly! It overlays the Apple Photos DAM. That is both a plus and maybe a minus.
However, in your use case scenario, I think you are better off staying in the Adobe ecosystem. You will not be able to move with your edits maintained that way. I've faced the same problem and in the end, decided to make jpg exports of all my edits and start the raws afresh. However, this is a tough decision and I get it's not for everyone. But it has freed me from Adobe.

With more than 100,000 LR-edited images it's simply not an option for me.

Still, I have absolutely no regrets with Lightroom. I've been using LR since it was launched (I also tried out Aperture - glad I made the right decision ) and over the years editing is quick and mostly from muscle memory on autopilot. I automatically know what to do and how to get there.

For me, $10/month is an outstanding value as Adobe updates have been frequent and outstanding - especially their latest AI-based auto-masking - it's effn magic how well, how precise, how fast, and how easy it is to use.

 

[Evil Spoonman]

so you are admitting that neither one does the job that Premiere can do. You have to use both.

That's not what "or" means. Reading comprehension, please.

 

[4743913]

That's not what "or" means. Reading comprehension, please.

the fact that you cannot pick one tells me everything.

 

[Evil Spoonman]

Ahhh.. that’s why there was no news surrounding Affinity v2 when it was released.

I noticed this too. Every time Twitter's corpse twitches there's an article about it on here, even though it really has nothing to do with the Mac. But a large scale update, and a good deal, on some of the most competent and affordable creative tools on the Mac... not a peep. Was fairly strange. I don't know if this "affiliate partnership" with Adobe explains that, but it's not really a good look either.

 

[Evil Spoonman]

the fact that you cannot pick one tells me everything.

What kind of weird person are you? There's an abundance of choice. I personally use and prefer Final Cut. But both are good and will take their users far.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Think of it this way, we bought the Master Creative suite in 2011 and would use it at a dedicate station and we would go several years without upgrade and only upgraded when Adobe offered a "REAL" upgrade features as many of their upgrades was BS bloatware... even today compare CC6 to what you are ACTUALLY using and I beat CC6 does 99% of what you are using today and think about those savings.

Adobe going to a subscription was when we left them, mind you we use QuarkXpress over InDesign anyway. CC6 Photoshop today handles masking, color correction, CYMK, EPS/PDF, layers, plugins, etc. etc. Thus saving us $1,200/year for the past 11 years or $13,200, and that is REAL MONEY vs Adobe pocketing it.

Oh you're right... if you can buy a piece of software once and use it for 5-10 years... that's definitely the way to do it!

Unfortunately Adobe didn't want to do that business model anymore... thus their switch to the subscription model. And it made a lot of people upset.

The good news is... look at all the alternatives that appeared after Adobe went subscription-only. There's more great software today than there was when Adobe was selling perpetual boxed software. We have options.

I can subscribe to Adobe and get continual updates... you can continue to use CS6 since it does everything you want it to do... or people can choose cheaper alternatives from Affinity or free options like DaVinci Resolve, etc. Everybody wins!

The whole reason I jumped into this conversation was when the claim "it's still too expensive non-professionals" was made.

And I agreed... adding that Adobe software has always been rather expensive for non-professionals. Adobe isn't known for consumer hobbyist software. Moms and dads weren't paying $700 back then for Photoshop to make artwork for their children's soccer team... and they shouldn't pay a monthly fee either for non-professional work today.

There are alternatives!

 

[Shirasaki]

71% off, without Pantone colour.
Idk if this deal is good enough.

 

[4743913]

What kind of weird person are you? There's an abundance of choice. I personally use and prefer Final Cut. But both are good and will take their users far.

Don't get your feelings hurt there little dude. It was TIC. If Davinci Resolve on the iPad "Pro" comes close to the macOS version, I will take a look at that before my next Adobe renewal. FCP is a lost cause though. Ive owned it for two years and don't like it. I wonder if it goes the way of Aperture when DR sets up camp across both platforms.

 

[4743913]

71% off, without Pantone colour.
Idk if this deal is good enough.

it was too good to quit.

 

[svish]

Good for those who want to use Adobe apps. Otherwise better to go for Affinity apps and pay one time fee.

 

[leicaman]

Considering how badly Photoshop and Bridge are crashing these days on Ventura, I'm not sure they shouldn't be paying me to use their stuff.

 

[LV426]

Probably not much at this stage.

They need to get entrenched at the grass roots level…which means getting students in colleges and universities to start using them. At the same time, go after ad agencies and design studios.

It’s a long road ahead to challenge Adobe. But it’s doable. Look at Figma. They become the de facto standard for UX prototyping that Adobe’s response was to buy them out.

Just imagine the stink there would be if Adobe bought out Serif, the makers of Affinity!

 

[laurieballard]

Im summary, if you are using the products regularly and making money off using them, i.e. they are part of income generation for you then $40 a month is a worthwhile investment.

If not, just get Affinity.

 

[Zest28]

They're not just better off using free/"alternative" apps. You can get Adobe stuff on sale way cheaper than this. A lot of photo/video software goes on sale for way cheaper than this. Capture One, DaVinci Resolve, etc. If you can time your buys (which is what Black Friday is all about) you can do way better than this even if you need professional grade software.

Indeed. I make amateur YouTube videos and Davinci Resolve is excellent for it. And it is free too.

My videos look very pro based on comments I have received despite using free software.

 

[Zest28]

Or you can pay 100.- for an universal license (Mac+iPad+Windows) of Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher to replace Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop/InDesign if you only occasionally need to do design work and don't want to pay every month for a subscription. 😉💸 https://affinity.serif.com/

That is a good deal. Looks I will buy that.

 

[Spacetime Anomaly]

Never in my life have I ever been attracted to a "reduced price for x amount of months" subscription to anything. Even if that reduced price is "free".
It's crack dealer pricing.

 

[Xenobius]

Read before purchase:
https://blenderartists.org/t/adobe-pantone-colour-subscription/1415223

 

[edubfromktown]

I just restored my Mojave Time Machine backup on an older MacBook Pro with Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6. More than enough for what I do.

I'm still using LR 6.14 to do the few mods I need to and keep things cataloged.

I "tamed" an LrC 11 trial (removed all of the extraneous resource-sapping Creative Cloud components) and it was not too bad. Just can justify a $9.99 monthly subscription for such a limited use case coupled with continued poor quality software development and release management from Adobe.

 

[4743913]

71% off, without Pantone colour.
Idk if this deal is good enough.

The world cried out for Freetone.

FREETONE - Pantone-ish colour palette for Adobe products by Stuart Semple

FREETONE by Stuart Semple contains 1280 colours including digital versions of his Pinkest Pink, Incredibly Kelinish Blue, Black 3.0 and TIFF. A SIMPLE & TOTALLY FREE COLOUR PALETTE PLUGIN FOR ADOBE That unlocks a whole books worth of very Pantone-ish colours. 1280 Liberated colours are extremely...

www.culturehustleusa.com

 

[Shirasaki]

The world cried out for Freetone.

FREETONE - Pantone-ish colour palette for Adobe products by Stuart Semple

FREETONE by Stuart Semple contains 1280 colours including digital versions of his Pinkest Pink, Incredibly Kelinish Blue, Black 3.0 and TIFF. A SIMPLE & TOTALLY FREE COLOUR PALETTE PLUGIN FOR ADOBE That unlocks a whole books worth of very Pantone-ish colours. 1280 Liberated colours are extremely...

www.culturehustleusa.com

While it looks cool, it remains to be seen if and how creativity industry would accept that instead of ridiculously expensive Pantone colours.