cs6

When Adobe Systems launched its Creative Cloud subscription last week, it turned out not to be as comprehensive a package of software and services as the company first planned.

The company initially pitched the $50-per-month subscription plan as an all-you-can-eat offering, but limits on app store sales meant that Adobe had to strip its Touch apps for Android and iOS tablets out of the Creative Cloud.

"Our intention is to have Touch Apps included in the annual membership. However, we use iOS App Store and Google Play to deliver this software and unfortunately, the infrastructure of the app marketplaces … Read more

Adobe is among the most successful purveyors of boxed software, but today it began a new chapter in its history: the expansion to a $50-per-month subscription service called the Creative Cloud.

Traditionally, Adobe has sold perpetual licenses to products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and other members of the Creative Suite. With the Creative Cloud, people get access to the full range of programs -- plus online services -- for a monthly fee. Adobe had hoped to include its Touch collection of tablet apps, too, but the app store sales models don't integrate well, so instead … Read more

Adobe Systems today began selling Creative Suite 6, its mammoth but expensive collection of software for designers, artists, photographers, videographers, publishers, and others in the "content creation" business.

The software is available in the $2,599 Master Collection, the smaller $1,899 Design and Web Premium or Production Premium collections, or the yet-smaller $1,299 Design Standard collection. About three quarters of Adobe's unit shipments today are in these collections, but individual packages are available, too, such as Photoshop CS6 for $699 in its standard version or Illustrator CS6 for $599.

With CS6, Adobe tried to mix … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Adobe took over the modern art collections on the De Young Museum's off-day today to introduce its Creative Suite 6 and a modern, cutting-edge synchronization system called Creative Cloud.

What we already know about the Creative Cloud is this: It's a significantly cheaper way to get access to the Adobe Creative Suite, with the major difference being that you pay a monthly fee instead of a buying a one-time, "perpetual" subscription. The Creative Cloud license gets you access to the entire phalanx of software in the Creative Suite, along with online storage, synchronization, and cloud-only … Read more

There aren't a boatload of updates to this version of Illustrator, just a select few interesting ones. In addition to performance boosts, Adobe has updated its tracing engine, introduced a new pattern creator tool, added variable-width strokes and the capability to apply gradients to strokes, and tweaked the interface. Toolsets can tear off the toolbar instead of just fly out, which is nice for the frequently used sets.

It looks drastically different on startup because it defaults to the same dark gray as Photoshop, but here I switched it back to the lighter setup. I'm not sure why -- maybe because it's so print-centric -- but I just feel like Illustrator should be light. Adobe has also tweaked the content of some of the panels as well as the way the tools orient. Small changes, like the addition of hex values to the picker and the expandable color spectrum are really welcome.… Read more

I'm not a big fan of Adobe's new business strategy, in which it begins to channel all its users toward subscription-based usage (although Stephen Shankland does a good job explaining why it's good for Adobe); to me it looks a lot like the way cable companies operate. But -- despite some gripes about incomplete implementations -- but with only a few reservations, I am a big fan of this release of Photoshop.

It's the first version of Photoshop to take video seriously and to make it into the Standard Edition of the product rather than the extra-pricey Extended version (which is moot if you buy via Creative Cloud). It's the first version to integrate the company's GPU-accelerating Mercury Graphics Engine (MGE). And for the first time in more than 20 years, Photoshop goes dark. … Read more

Adobe Systems is about to begin a difficult -- but smart -- transition.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company will overhaul its core software business in May when it launches a subscription service called Creative Cloud, which bundles its new Creative Suite 6 products with a swath of other products and services. To make it a success, it'll have to convince customers that it's a better value than traditional software licensing.

Here's an indicator of how hard the change will be: A CNET survey in March showed a frosty reception, with 41 percent of respondents viewing Creative Cloud negatively, … Read more

Adobe Systems first showed a few paws, then a tail, then a couple ears and some whiskers -- but now the company is letting the complete Creative Suite 6 cat out of the bag.

After a series of sneak previews and early announcements, Adobe now is detailing the full CS6 line, the meat and potatoes of Adobe's business. It's important to a large number of people involved with photography, videography, design, and publishing on the Web or on paper, and it's set to be arrive within 30 days, Adobe announced today.

But CS products aren't cheap, … Read more

Quick access to software features is nice, but there can be too much of a good thing. That's what Adobe concluded when designing Premiere Pro CS6, the upcoming version of its video-editing software.

Adobe was pleased with the current CS5's Mercury Playback Engine, which on computers with higher-end Nvidia graphics cards provides a major hardware acceleration boost for some tasks. But the user interface was too cluttered, said Premiere Pro Product Manager Al Mooney.

"The car on top of the beautiful, powerful engine was not as nice to drive as modern editors wanted it to be," … Read more