Adobe announces major update to Creative Cloud

Adobe revealed a major update to its Adobe Creative Cloud offering over a dozen exclusive new features for Adobe Photoshop.  Creative Cloud now has  more than 1 million free and paid memberships, including approximately 326,000* paid individual members who have signed up through November 2012.

Adobe is introducing a new version calledCreative Cloud for teams, making it easy for creative professionals to collaborate with colleagues; showcasing new capabilities for mobile website design with Adobe Muse; launching Creative Cloud Connection for desktop synching and collaborative sharing; debuting Creative Cloud Training, a library of premium instructional video from leading partners; and demonstrating the unlimited access to the Digital Publishing technology used by major publishers to create interactive content for the iPad.

“It’s been remarkable to see over 1 million users join Creative Cloud in just seven months,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media, Adobe. “Our goal is to make Creative Cloud the ultimate hub for creatives, where they can access the world’s best creative tools, store and collaborate around their work and ultimately showcase their creations. Now with the availability of the new Creative Cloud offering for teams, we’re making it easier for workgroups to create and collaborate.

New Photoshop CS6 capabilities available to Creative Cloud members, include:

·         Immediate support for HiDPI (Retina) displays for Apple MacBook Pro. This feature was also made available to perpetual license customers as a free update.

·         Smart Object support for Blur Gallery and Liquify.

·         The ability to quickly export CSS code for text and objects, and import color swatches to easily design incredible websites.

·         New workflow timesavers including Crop tool refinements.

·         3D enhancements including improved live (OpenGL) previews of shadow effects and additional control over illumination using 32-bit color picker to create glow effects.

·         Conditional Actions that automatically select the appropriate Action based on user-defined rules, giving users enhanced image processing speed.

New Offering Brings Teams into Creative Cloud
Also available today, Creative Cloud for teams is designed to help creative professionals work better together. Creative Cloud for teams delivers everything that’s included with the individual version of Creative Cloud – all of the same desktop tools, online services for publishing and file sharing, and upgrades and feature updates when they are released. Plus it also includes easy management of virtual workgroups, 100GB of cloud storage per user (versus 20GB for the individual Creative Cloud offering), expert support services, centralized administration for the quick and easy deployment of new seats, and centralized billing and efficient license management.

Other new Creative Cloud additions include an update to Adobe Muse, a desktop app that allows designers to create professional, HTML websites without writing code. Adobe Muse now includes the ability to create unique layouts for desktop, iPhone, iPad and other mobile device versions of a website. Designers can now customize each experience whether the site is viewed on a large monitor while sitting at a desk, or viewing on a small screen while on-the-go. 

Also added is Creative Cloud Connection, a desktop sync app, which allows users to automatically sync files to a Creative Cloud account by saving files to the desktop folder, or simply dragging and dropping. In addition, new exclusive Creative Cloud Training (available to all paid Creative Cloud members soon) offers an extensive library of tutorials and trial courses from renowned training partners, Kelby Training, video2brain and Attain, designed to help make Creative Cloud members successful with the tools and services available to them. These select partners, along with Adobe, will provide training videos for an international Creative Cloud audience in English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and Italian, with more languages to be added later.  Also today, Adobe Illustrator was updated to support HiDPI (Retina) displays and this feature was made available to both Creative Cloud members and perpetual license customers.

Digital Publishing Single Edition
During Adobe’s Create Now online event, the company is demonstrating core Creative Cloud capabilities, including Digital Publishing Suite (DPS), Single Edition. DPS, Single Edition significantly simplifies the mobile app development process by enabling designers to create and deliver digital publications to iPad through the Apple App Store, without writing a single line of code. With DPS, Single Edition members can create single-issue content, including brochures, catalogs or personal design portfolios, and submit an unlimited number of apps to the Apple App Store for publication, at no additional cost.This gives freelance designers, design agencies and small-to-midsize businesses easy access to the same core digital publishing technologies that leading publishers worldwide are using.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Creative Cloud membership for individuals is US$49.99 per month based on annual membership; existing customers who own CS3 or later get their first year of Creative Cloud for individuals at the discounted rate of US $29.99 per month. Students and teachers can get Creative Cloud for $29.99. Creative Cloud for teams is priced at US $69.99 per month per seat with an annual contract required; existing customers who own CS3 or later get their first year of Creative Cloud for teams at the discounted rate of US $49.99 per month per seat. Creative Cloud for teams is available for purchase today on Adobe.com; annual memberships are also available worldwide through a growing network of Adobe certified resellers. The new Photoshop and Adobe Muse features, Creative Cloud Training, and Creative Cloud Connection preview are immediately available to Creative Cloud members.