About Adobe’s cloud-only software delivery policy
Adobe’s ‘creative cloud only’ announcement – the news that Adobe software will be available only as cloud-based subscription service instead of as traditional software packages one owns and installs on their computers- came as a shock to most photographers who use Photoshop.
I received lots of questions about how the ‘cloud’ works and what one should do. Here are my thoughts and recommendations:
1 – Upgrade to CS6. It’s a very good upgrade and who knows it may be the last opportunity to buy Photoshop that you can keep on your computer! I have it and I’ll keep it!
2 – I have a feeling Adobe will be forced to offer an alternative to the cloud. There’s multiple reasons why, one of them being the requirement to have online access to process images in PS. What if you don’t have online access for whatever reason? No photoshop possible?
3 – What about opening photos that you created a long time ago? Impossible unless you are a cloud subscriber. This means you have to pay the monthly fee, even if you don’t need photoshop, just to open your photos? That’s not right. Of course we can convert psd files to tiffs or other format, but when your photo library features several hundred thousand images, as mine does, that’s easier said than done!
4 – Here is the ‘official information’ from Adobe:
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/faq.html
and also here:
http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/2013/05/answering-your-questions-about-photoshop-cc.html
Please post your comments below.
Alain Briot
www.beautiful-landscape.com
I believe there were several errors in your comments concerning the Adobe Cloud. According to the web site that you site..
You download the software to your computer. The software resides on your computer just as it does now.
You do not need to be online to use Photoshop because the software resides on your computer.
However, if you stop paying the monthly fee, the software become inactive.
I’ve been using creative cloud for about 6 months There are up-sides and and downsides (mostly UP I think). There are some misconceptions about how it works. The first one that you mention is that there is some kind of requirement that you have to store photos on line. There is no such requirement. You CAN store images online if you want to but you don’t have to. To the best of my knowledge, You can open any locally stored image you have ever made or worked on when using in photoshop CC. Photoshop program is installed on your computer just as before and you can use it while disconnected from internet. That being said, you do have to login at least once a month to let Adobe’s security program confirm that you have paid for continuing use. I wondered, what if something is screwed up and the program does not renew? Well if it does happen Adobe has several methods to fix it right away using phone support or chat room support (my favorite but internet connection required, of course) and also email support. The biggest benefit for me is that I always have the latest build of photoshop and I learn new features as they come out instead of having an overwhelming amount of changes dumped on me all at once. New features are added and I just get them as part of my subscription so the learning curve is a nice stairway you can take one step at a time. Oh, and Adobe is finally providing a more complete set of learning tools to teach you what these new features, what they do and how each one might benefit your workflow, another big perk. I find myself buying less big fat how to books because the learning tools are included with the program. I used to buy those big (fat how to use photoshop) books a couple of times a year but really I just needed a few pages or maybe one chapter out of the book to solve a specific problem. Really, the only downside I can come up with is this: The program shuts off if you don’t pay the bill. There is a cornucopia of additional unexpected features that come with the Adobe creative cloud, too many to even mention them all and more REAL features are seemingly added each month.
I don’t work for Adobe and in fact over the years I have been a staunch critic of (some of) their policies and practices but I like the creative cloud very much, right now.