A year after its launch, Adobe has delivered a milestone release of the Adobe Creative Cloud — its biggest release globally since CS6 in spring 2012. This release represents a step forward in helping the creative community keep up with the rapid pace of change, especially owing to the explosion of mobile devices and a world which is more connected than ever. The India launch of the new release was held in New Delhi on 19
June 2014. At the event, Adobe launched 14 new versions of Creative Cloud desktop applications, including essential tools such as Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Dreamweaver CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC. The release also includes four new mobile apps, updates to Creative Cloud services and new offerings for enterprise, education and photography customers.
Before you get too excited, remember that most iterations of Adobe software bring incremental rather than revolutionary changes. And so it is here, with a wide-ranging collection of updates that focus mainly on making specific jobs easier, rather than shaking up anyone’s day- to-day workflow.
The promise of frequent updates is a big part of the CC proposition, and several of its major packages are now four versions along from the CS6
editions. The difference is starting to become significant, especially in applications such as Illustrator and Dreamweaver, which have seen improvements to key everyday tools. In particular, the new in-browser editing feature in Muse in particular is the sort of innovation that keeps professionals coming back to Adobe. On top of all this come the new mobile apps, although whether these sweeten the deal will depend on your workflow.
All in all, it’s maddening that the only way to get these tools is through subscription.
Unhappy users
A young designer says, “I bought a student version of CS5 roughly three years ago for US$ 350 and still use it today. If that were a subscription service, I would have spent around US$ 2000 at this point. I’m sorry, but that’s expensive, and as a designer, I’m poor.”
As it is, Adobe Creative Cloud 2014 remains a toss-up. If you have a regular, professional use for four or five of these applications, all this great creative potential might be worth around `50,000 a year to you. If your work is centred on one or two core apps, with occasional dips into a third, there’s no doubt CC has something to offer — but the recurrent outlay may
be hard to justify.
