Photoshop CS or Photoshop CC?

[holyindian]

Hi all,

i have recently brought a rMBP 15.4 inch. and i am pretty much new to Mac OS.
Hence the confusion. I am using Photoshop CS on windows, however while looking online i see PhotoShop CC for mac. I believe its based on cloud, and you gotta pay service charge per month for it.
I don't need cloud, just the original latest Photoshop... what is the version i should go for? can someone post a link for this.

 

[NukeIT]

CS6 was the latest edition that wasn't cloud based pay per month. You should be able to still find boxed verison via amazon, etc.

I went this route last year since I rather own the rights to it forever vs being milked dry every month and then being stuck without a paddle if I decide not to renew.

 

[thekev]

You can use CS6 as long as it works. Eventually it may be Creative Cloud only on the newest hardware.

 

[NukeIT]

True. At some point it won't be backwards compatible on new OS's or hardware.

 

[Liquidstate]

You have to be careful where you buy Adobe CS6 products. There are a lot of dubious sources on the web. You need to buy from a reputable source. Otherwise, you could end up with software that either doesn't run, or soon won't run, with no recourse.

Note that there is no such thing as a legal used copy of CS6. Adobe only licenses to the original owner, and does not allow the software to be sold. Yeah, you can buy a used copy and then use the name of the original owner, but what happens when that owner upgrades?

I bought my copy from Apple.com. It cost more, but no problems.

I wish there was a viable competitor to Photoshop, but there isn't. Welcome to computer application monopolies.

 

[phrehdd]

You have to be careful where you buy Adobe CS6 products. There are a lot of dubious sources on the web. You need to buy from a reputable source. Otherwise, you could end up with software that either doesn't run, or soon won't run, with no recourse.

Note that there is no such thing as a legal used copy of CS6. Adobe only licenses to the original owner, and does not allow the software to be sold. Yeah, you can buy a used copy and then use the name of the original owner, but what happens when that owner upgrades?

I bought my copy from Apple.com. It cost more, but no problems.

I wish there was a viable competitor to Photoshop, but there isn't. Welcome to computer application monopolies.

I am in 100 percent agreement with you. I wish there was a good competitor for Photoshop. While there are other photo programs such as GIMP, Corel's offering for Windows, Pixelmator...they don't have the full power and design that PS has. However, most people who just want to do standard editing of Photos can get away with Aperture, Lightroom (Adobe product) and Pixelmator. The first two allow a very rich amount of 3rd party plug-ins/filters that are usually more than enough for typical photo editing.

I use CS6 for photo restoration and retouch. I use Capture One Pro for my photo RAW files as it does excellent work with my particular RAW files (Fuji X series). I will hold out with CS6 as long as I can. Adobe is shameful in forcing people to switch over and some of the differences between CC and CS6 should not have existed as CS6 should have been updated as well. The latter is just of course my irked opinion.

 

[tuthill]

Hi all,

i have recently brought a rMBP 15.4 inch. and i am pretty much new to Mac OS.
Hence the confusion. I am using Photoshop CS on windows, however while looking online i see PhotoShop CC for mac. I believe its based on cloud, and you gotta pay service charge per month for it.
I don't need cloud, just the original latest Photoshop... what is the version i should go for? can someone post a link for this.

Photoline is similar to Photoshop and will handle most Photoshop plugins. You can get a trial at:

http://www.pl32.com

 

[PicnicTutorials]

If there is any dif between the two it def not worth the monthly fee. Just get cs6. Visually they both looked exactly the same to me when I tried them.

 

[thekev]

I am in 100 percent agreement with you. I wish there was a good competitor for Photoshop. While there are other photo programs such as GIMP, Corel's offering for Windows, Pixelmator...they don't have the full power and design that PS has. However, most people who just want to do standard editing of Photos can get away with Aperture, Lightroom (Adobe product) and Pixelmator. The first two allow a very rich amount of 3rd party plug-ins/filters that are usually more than enough for typical photo editing.

There are reasons for this. One is a matter of product planning. Most them ape photoshop to some degree, so as to maintain some level of familiarity. There are so many overlapping tools in PS that really wouldn't survive any large rewrite today. It's not a profitable endeavor to write a PS competitor, simply because so many users are indoctrinated to its tool set. You can find some okay programs for iOS, but that's devoid of color management. The areas where we have seen options pop up have been where Adobe is terrible. For example part of the appeal of mari was that it alleviated the headaches of going between PS and Nuke. I don't think many developers would flourish trying to make a $30 PS competitor, and once you get past the extremely cost sensitive crowd, people tend to use what they know. Even with Pixelmator, they're based in a low cost country and use Apple's native APIs wherever possible beyond the level that would be typical with any cross platform app. It would be interesting if some of the paint apps in iOS acquired some photo editing features, which typically rely on primitive LUTs and matrix operations, some kind of parametric method of (essentially) addressing image gamma, and a set of basic slider based operations. There are even a couple raw processors that could be forked and fed in on the back end, but it's a lot of work.

I use CS6 for photo restoration and retouch. I use Capture One Pro for my photo RAW files as it does excellent work with my particular RAW files (Fuji X series). I will hold out with CS6 as long as I can. Adobe is shameful in forcing people to switch over and some of the differences between CC and CS6 should not have existed as CS6 should have been updated as well. The latter is just of course my irked opinion.

I wouldn't call it shameful. It is what it is. They've never been the best in anything. Capture One was better from day one, in spite of its extremely finicky nature. No company is just going to put a lot of money into non-critical updates on a prior generation of a given software package, and most aren't that big of a deal. Even their formats are bloated compared to what is possible today. Their biggest strength has been backward compatibility. Some layer structures have broken between versions, but they always maintain some way to open your old work, and it goes way beyond what you can typically expect from other companies. In the end you should hope that they make only compliance and security updates to CS6, because it decreases the chance that they will break something.

 

[holyindian]

Gosh this has become so confusing these days. Cloud good or bad? Mainly good but I guess these are some of the evils we will have to live with.

 

[phrehdd]

Gosh this has become so confusing these days. Cloud good or bad? Mainly good but I guess these are some of the evils we will have to live with.

Cloud is neither good or bad. It has advantages and for some, major disadvantages. However, a pay as you go subscription service as opposed to buy and you "own" (licensed to use) outright is the crux of all the debate.

I admit to being old school. I prefer to buy my products or at least have the choice to buy and to decide when to upgrade. Some Photoshop users find they prefer to skip or upgrade when there are two version out above their present. Example being from CS4 to CS6 etc. Just realize that if you stop paying for CC version of Photoshop, you have NO Photoshop to work with. If Adobe instead offered a subscription service that after 2 years of use, if you stop, you can continue to use the product but no upgrades etc., it might have been more tempting to some of us who are old school. The only plus I see to pay as you go, is that for many, it is far easier to stomach small payments than the huge up front cost. This is the ONLY real advantage in my estimates.

 

[holyindian]

I think one of the main reasons they are promoting this is to stamp out piracy. With a subscription based service/app pirated software cannot be distributed.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I think one of the main reasons they are promoting this is to stamp out piracy. With a subscription based service/app pirated software cannot be distributed.

This, and it's much easier to pay for. It does suck that we have to "continuously" pay for month to month but for those that use a majority of the apps on a daily basis it's a much better model than dropping $2500 every two years.

 

[holyindian]

Interesting. Are the also providing storage on cloud to upload our photos with this monthly subscription?

 

[decksnap]

This, and it's much easier to pay for. It does suck that we have to "continuously" pay for month to month but for those that use a majority of the apps on a daily basis it's a much better model than dropping $2500 every two years.

But it was never $2500 was it? I think the typical upgrade pricing for the full suite incl. web apps was closer to $800. I've run the math for our agency, and it still makes sense to get CS6 for us at this point. It depends on what you do though, there were literally no features in CS6 coming from 4 that I needed or felt were worth it.

 

[leventozler]

PS CS6 retails $699 on amazon, and you can get PS CC & Lightroom subscription for $9.99/month (limited-time offer).

It's no brainer really. $120/year is even cheaper than paying $199 upgrade price they used to charge every year.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Interesting. Are the also providing storage on cloud to upload our photos with this monthly subscription?

They do, but it's only 20GBs.

But it was never $2500 was it? I think the typical upgrade pricing for the full suite incl. web apps was closer to $800. I've run the math for our agency, and it still makes sense to get CS6 for us at this point. It depends on what you do though, there were literally no features in CS6 coming from 4 that I needed or felt were worth it.

It was $999 coming from the previous version non master collection, and $1499 from the any version before that. If you wanted to go from a Design or Print Standard or Premium it was around $649 - $800.

The price is just right if a user doesn't want to upgrade any time in the near future, or if they don't plan on using 60% of the software.

I agree about the features. Adobe is much like Apple in that regard. They'll give you one piece of goodness here and there and call it an update.

 

[holyindian]

I finally subscribed for photoshop and brought the monthly package. After installing it, i am failing to understand just one thing. Why isn't this full screen? meaning when i open photoshop it does not occupy the whole screen, the menu on the bottom is still visible.its like 2 inches from the bottom above.

 

[thekev]

I finally subscribed for photoshop and brought the monthly package. After installing it, i am failing to understand just one thing. Why isn't this full screen? meaning when i open photoshop it does not occupy the whole screen, the menu on the bottom is still visible.its like 2 inches from the bottom above.

Hit f on your keyboard when you're in photoshop. That will put you in full screen mode. It's not like windows. On macs tabs do float like that. You can also drag the corner if you like. I suggest having the doc on auto-hide if you want to go that route.

 

[holyindian]

Tried the f shortcut and it did not work. I was expecting a Windows os kinda interface where you have more screen area to work on. Yea the dock hiding did work.. But i still prefer the doc on other desktop screens

 

[Dana Beck]

Turn on the Application Frame. Under the Windows pulldown menu at the top.

Tried the f shortcut and it did not work. I was expecting a Windows os kinda interface where you have more screen area to work on. Yea the dock hiding did work.. But i still prefer the doc on other desktop screens

 

[thekev]

Tried the f shortcut and it did not work. I was expecting a Windows os kinda interface where you have more screen area to work on. Yea the dock hiding did work.. But i still prefer the doc on other desktop screens

Odd. It should allow you a full screen mode in which you can pan freely. I know what you're talking about with Windows. I just haven't seen it in a very long time.

 

[chrono1081]

If there is any dif between the two it def not worth the monthly fee. Just get cs6. Visually they both looked exactly the same to me when I tried them.

I disagree. I don't think anyone who discredits CC looked at the cost analysis.

OP: CC is the latest version of Photoshop. It already has a lot more features than CS6, its not just a "cloud version" it is essentially CS7.

As for cost right now you can get both Lightroom and Photoshop CC for $10 a month. Thats $120 a year for your first year after which it goes up to its normal price of $20 a month which is $240 a year.

Photoshop CS6 is $650 so you would have CC for roughly 3.2 years and have the latest version which is guaranteed to work on newer operating systems (CS6 may not work on newer OS's by then so you'd have to upgrade anyway).

Not to mention I just mentioned the price of Photoshop. Lightroom is included in CC too so there's an extra $80 you don't have to lay out.

That being said if you want to move away from Adobe Pixelmator is an excellent alternative.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

I disagree. I don't think anyone who discredits CC looked at the cost analysis.

OP: CC is the latest version of Photoshop. It already has a lot more features than CS6, its not just a "cloud version" it is essentially CS7.

As for cost right now you can get both Lightroom and Photoshop CC for $10 a month. Thats $120 a year for your first year after which it goes up to its normal price of $20 a month which is $240 a year.

Photoshop CS6 is $650 so you would have CC for roughly 3.2 years and have the latest version which is guaranteed to work on newer operating systems (CS6 may not work on newer OS's by then so you'd have to upgrade anyway).

Not to mention I just mentioned the price of Photoshop. Lightroom is included in CC too so there's an extra $80 you don't have to lay out.

That being said if you want to move away from Adobe Pixelmator is an excellent alternative.

Because I plan on living longer than 5 years i always choose one time cost over monthly fee. But to each his own. Ive had Dreamweavver cs3 and PS cs3 fort he last 3 or so years. I upgraded thinking they would both be lightyears ahead of my old ones - they were not. I'm sure there hare many hidden upgrades but non I used yet or even see.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I disagree. I don't think anyone who discredits CC looked at the cost analysis.

OP: CC is the latest version of Photoshop. It already has a lot more features than CS6, its not just a "cloud version" it is essentially CS7.

As for cost right now you can get both Lightroom and Photoshop CC for $10 a month. Thats $120 a year for your first year after which it goes up to its normal price of $20 a month which is $240 a year.

Photoshop CS6 is $650 so you would have CC for roughly 3.2 years and have the latest version which is guaranteed to work on newer operating systems (CS6 may not work on newer OS's by then so you'd have to upgrade anyway).

Not to mention I just mentioned the price of Photoshop. Lightroom is included in CC too so there's an extra $80 you don't have to lay out.

That being said if you want to move away from Adobe Pixelmator is an excellent alternative.

I agree, not to mention you're not locked into one version of the software or platform.

The last version I had to buy was Production Premium CS6, but that didn't include InDesign or Dreamweaver which I needed to use on and off. It also didn't include any of the HTML5 software which a colleague of mine uses on the regular.

We also switch off from Mac to PC at least daily. Or if I am on the move and need to make quick adjustments on a project I can fire up Illustrator or PS on my Windows 8 tablet.

If I am at a clients location and I can download Premiere or PS into a container, use my license, make edits and changes, then delete the folder.

That alone beats any reason to just pick up the old school version of Adobe apps, and is very reminiscent of the Dongle days of Avid.

Because I plan on living longer than 5 years i always choose one time cost over monthly fee. But to each his own. Ive had Dreamweavver cs3 and PS cs3 fort he last 3 or so years. I upgraded thinking they would both be lightyears ahead of my old ones - they were not. I'm sure there hare many hidden upgrades but non I used yet or even see.

The sad part is that none of them are really dramatically different. When I worked for the Baltimore Sun, they had upgraded from Photoshop 4 to Photoshop CS2 and non of us could understand why they waisted money on the upgrade. No one in the photo department was going to do any composite work.

The next version was CS4 to get Intel based Mac compatibility.

Next was CS5.5 to get Premiere, after the newspaper finally gave us the go ahead to do video work.

From PS4 to CS5.5 and the workflow never changed for the photo side, but all of these versions needed to be bought for minor reasons, and we had to pay full price for the apps/suites.

With CC, it's a 20th of the price, we stay up to date, and we can cherry pick the apps we want on our systems on the fly.

Both models have their ups and downs,