Event Coverage

Adobe Announces the Next Generation of Apps Exclusive to the New Creative Cloud

By Alvin Soon - 7 May 2013

Adobe Announces the Next Generation of Apps Exclusive to the New Creative Cloud

Adobe today announced that the next evolution of their apps will be exclusive to the new Creative Cloud. Instead of an update to Creative Suite 6 to Creative Suite 7, the new versions of Adobe apps will be rebranded to CC, like Photoshop CC, and only available to Creative Cloud subscribers.

The current version of Creative Suite 6 with a perpetual license will still be available (Adobe says there are no current plans to end sales of CS6), but there will be no further updates to the suite, except when needed to keep up to date with operating system updates. Adobe says that there is "excellence in focus" and that focusing development on Creative Cloud will help speed innovation and "broaden the type of innovation the company can offer the creative community."

Creative Cloud is Adobe's subscription-based software licensing service, which gives you access to Adobe software as well as cloud storage and syncing services, plus access to new features and products as soon as they're released. Instead of paying a flat fee upfront for software, users pay monthly for access to full versions of Adobe's popular desktop applications and install them as they wish. Previous versions of the software, starting from CS6, will also be available for installation.

Adobe says that installed CC apps will ping Adobe's servers only once a month to check payment. If payment has not been received, a warning message will flash upon launching a CC app and Adobe will extend a grace period of 7 days. If a user has no internet access at the time, he can call Adobe customer service for help. 

Different plans are available; for example the education plan offers a substantial 60% discount, and users can also sign up for a single app subscription. Adobe is also offering a discount to current Creative Suite users (from CS3 to later).

The four focuses for the new Adobe CC apps.

Adobe wants to shift from helping users make content, to making, managing, monetizing and delivering content.

New Photoshop CC and Apps Announced with Deep Cloud Integration

New versions of Adobe's apps were also announced today; including Photoshop CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Dreamweaver CC and Premiere Pro CC. With the Creative Cloud, Adobe is doing away with the idea of massive upgrades every 12 to 18 months with a new suite, instead new features will be plugged into the existing apps as and when they're released, and will be freely available to CC subscribers.

The new versions of Adobe's apps also integrate more deeply with the Creative Cloud, as well as Behance, the portfolio social network Adobe bought late last year. Users can store, sync and share files in the cloud with collaborators, as well as save personalised workspaces which can be synced across multiple devices. The Creative Cloud gets its own dedicated desktop app, which lets you do things like install Adobe apps, upload files, download fonts and see a stream of updates from your Behance network.

The Creative Cloud gets its own dedicated desktop app, which lets you manage files, apps as well as get Behance updates.

The new CC apps also plug into the Creative Cloud in interesting ways. For example, users can take a photo using the upcoming Kuler iOS app, which then extracts the photo's main colours as a colour swatch. This swatch can then be synced to your desktop apps, so you can open Illustrator CC and start using that swatch immediately.

With the upcoming Kuler app, users can upload color swatches based on photographs taken with the phone, and sync them to their desktop apps.

Using the Creative Cloud, a designer can send a live preview of a website from Edge Inspect CC to multiple mobile devices and check how the design works on various screen sizes. Any change applied to the design on the desktop will be automatically updated on those devices. Adobe's integration with Behance also means that users can now upload to their portfolio directly from within Adobe's apps.

Using Edge Inspect CC, a designer can send a live preview to multiple mobile devices.

Another massive announcement is that Adobe - through Typekit, which they acquired in late 2011 - is now able to offer fonts from 175 professional font families for download for use on the desktop, at no additional charge for CC subscribers.

New Adobe CC App Highlights

The new Adobe CC apps come with hundreds of new features. Here are the highlights:

  • Camera Shake Reduction, which was shown at the last Adobe MAX conference, finally comes to Photoshop CC. The tool removes blur from images that are caused by camera shake (not by a slow shutter speed). A new Smart Sharpen tool makes texture and detail pop, and Adobe Camera Raw 8 adds an ability to straighten horizons and perspectives, similar to the new Upright tool in Lightroom 5 Beta. Photoshop CC is the first Adobe desktop application to include the ability to post files directly to Behance from within the application.

The Camera Shake Reduction tool, previewed at previous Adobe events, helps remove blur from images caused by camera shake.
 

  • With the Touch Type tool in Illustrator CC, users can move, scale, and rotate text characters which remain editable. This feature works with a mouse, stylus or multi-touch device. Illustrator also enables painting with a brush made from a photo. Art, Pattern, and Scatter brushes can contain raster images, so designers can create complex organic designs quickly, with simple brush strokes.

    A new, modern architecture for InDesign CC turbocharges performance, and in-browser editing in Adobe Muse CC – a tool for designers to create and publish HTML websites without writing code – allows clients to make edits to a published website, which can then be reviewed, approved, and updated by the designer.

In Illustrator CC, users can manipulate individual characters without having to rasterise the layer.

  • Premiere Pro CC integrates powerful color workflows, with the addition of the Lumetri Deep Color Engine to easily apply rich color grading looks. Adobe After Effects CC allows users to work more easily in 3D with the new Live 3D Pipeline with Maxon Cinema4D integration. There are also all-new versions of Adobe SpeedGrade CC, Audition CC, Prelude CC and Adobe Story CC Plus.

Premiere Pro CC comes with a new Live 3D Pipeline with Maxon Cinema4D integration.
 

  • The latest Edge Animate CC lets web designers create animated and interactive content using native HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Adobe is also previewing a new workflow from Photoshop CC to Edge Reflow CC that will enable creatives to build web designs in Photoshop that can easily be turned into responsive web sites. Dreamweaver users can look forward to the most up-to-date CSS and properties via the intuitive visual editing tool, CSS Designer. And Adobe Flash Pro CC features a modern, modular 64-bit architecture rebuilt from the ground up to be fast and reliable.

 

New Creative Cloud Coming in June

The new Adobe Creative Cloud apps will be available in Singapore from June 18th. Adobe offers several pricing options for Creative Cloud subscriptions: new users can buy a subscription at S$66/month with a year long commitment (or $99 on a month by month basis), which gets you access to the full suite of software plus, all of Adobe's Edge services and 20GB of cloud storage.

Users of CS versions 3 to 5.5 can get their first year of service at a reduced rate of S$39 a month for the first year, while current CS6 users can subscribe for S$26 a month for the first year.

For users who want access to a single application, all CS apps are available for S$26/month.

Like the boxed versions, all Creative Cloud subscriptions give you a license to use the software on up to two different computers.

Creative Cloud plans for teams, enterprise and educational institutions and government are also available.

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