ProDesignTools

Here’s the Best Way to Get Adobe Direct Download Links

ProDesignTools — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:35:24 +0000

Adobe is discontinuing public direct download links for older versions of their software – not just for subscription products like Creative Cloud, but also for non-subscription and older legacy software like Creative Suite.

To replace them, the company has launched a new online portal to download the standalone installers you need. This web-based facility is free and self-service, meaning you can get these desktop installers immediately without having to contact Adobe Customer Care:

Download now

All you have to do is sign in to your online account with your free Adobe ID, and then enter your serial number or license key. This will instantly register your software with Adobe (if it is not already), and then if the installer is still available, a “Download” button will appear so that you can access the offline installer file for the language and platform you need, on Windows or Mac. For example:

Products available through this new facility include Creative Suite (CS6, CS5.5, CS5), Acrobat, Photoshop/Premiere Elements, Lightroom, Captivate, eLearning Suite, and Technical Communication Suite. All you need is a valid serial number. If you’re not sure how to locate your serial number, then see this help page.

Get it now

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

How to get direct download links for Creative Cloud apps

What about downloading desktop installers for older versions of Creative Cloud? Well, Creative Cloud does not have serial numbers because it is a subscription-based product, so this facility is not the way to obtain standalone/offline installers for Creative Cloud.

Instead, you have to contact Customer Care directly and request offline installers for Creative Cloud apps. Adobe has an “N-1” Support Policy, meaning that the two major releases available for download are Creative Cloud 2026 (the latest version) and Creative Cloud 2025 (the previous version):

Download now

Naturally, most customers download their Creative Cloud tools through the CC Desktop app, for the current and previous release. This app is very useful but it doesn’t give you access to the actual .exe/.dmg installer files themselves, should you need them for any reason now or ever in the future.

These reasons include having your own backup copy available should you ever need it, as well as for hardware or operating system compatibility with your particular computer, because Adobe is always advancing the official system requirements in future releases of Creative Cloud… This especially applies if you have an older computer or are running an aging operating system.

For example, Windows 10 reached end of support (“retirement date”) on October 14, 2025, and Adobe is phasing out support for it. So if you depend on your Creative Cloud software running on Windows 10, then it’s probably a very good idea to secure the specific app installers which will still run on Windows 10 because going forward, future CC versions may not work on Windows 10 should you ever need to reinstall.

Other reasons to download the offline installers include standardizing your work on a common product version (and file format) together with your colleagues, or possible compatibility with third-party software like plugins or extensions. Or, maybe even just having a personal preference for a particular CC release – we see that a lot too.

For any of these reasons, if you think you may not always run the latest Creative Cloud release and might need to access or reinstall your current version at some point down the road, then we very strongly urge you to request those files now from Adobe Customer Service before the N-1 Support Policy ages out your release and then you can no longer get it under any circumstances:

Get it now

Free Stock! Download 1,000,000+ premium assets from the new Adobe Stock Free Collection

New activation process for legacy Adobe apps

Last year, Adobe instituted a new higher security sign-in and activation process for older, non-subscription apps including Creative Suite 6, Creative Suite 5 and 5.5, Photoshop Elements, Premiere Elements, and Acrobat perpetual. After launching the application on your computer, you now need to sign in using a QR code, like so:

Open the built-in camera app on your smartphone or tablet, point the camera at the QR code on your computer, and then tap the banner that appears on your device. Follow the instructions on the screen to finish signing in.

Once you have logged in from your mobile/tablet device or web browser, you will have automatically activated the Adobe app on your desktop computer.

If you have any difficulty with the QR code, then try using a different mobile device to complete the process. Verify that it has unrestricted access to the Internet and has the latest iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS updates installed. A smartphone or tablet are the easiest way to complete the sign-in, but a webcam from a Mac or Windows computer can also be used to trigger the QR code.

For customers using older computers, make sure to follow the guidance on this help page to ensure you’re using the right security protocol in order to communicate with Adobe’s servers. If you are also trying to use older applications, we suggest that you follow the recommendations given by Adobe here to update your computer to a secure version of Windows or macOS.

After all of those things are in place, then you’ll have a better chance be able to download the product updates for the legacy apps to bring them to their last available version using Adobe Update or the Adobe Application Manager.

Finally, note that this new sign-in process does not affect the offline activation procedure, which remains as it was before.

See the top highlights: What’s new in Creative Cloud 2026?

What’s New in Creative Cloud 2026?

Photoshop 2026 New Features

Chat With Photoshop Using AI Assistant

Download now

Get Adobe Stock for Free + Download 1,000,000 High-Quality Assets

ProDesignTools — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:10:22 +0000

Adobe is fast growing its curated collection of completely free stock photos, vectors, illustrations, videos, audio, and templates from talented providers – with now over 1,000,000 assets! The popular Adobe Stock Free Collection is available to everyone at no charge – plus these high-quality assets meet the same standards as their paid media, so all of them come with a royalty-free commercial license forever. Check out the free Stock here, and download away!

Adobe is doing right by the artists who created all this valuable content, too. Even though you’re getting access to 1+ million unwatermarked, world-class assets at no cost to you, Adobe still makes sure the artists are getting paid for providing it. So, you can use these assets in all of your personal, business, or commercial projects with the peace of mind that you are sourcing content ethically and respecting the artist community. But again, you pay nothing.

No subscription or credit card is required to access and download any of these Stock assets. All that you need is a free Adobe ID, if you don’t already have one. Here’s a quick one-minute video review of the free portfolio:

Download now

As large as the new Free Collection is, it still represents only a tiny fraction of the complete (massive) Stock library. If you’d like to go beyond the free assets, then Adobe has really been sweetening the pot lately for you to try out the paid content as well… These are engaging, hand-picked images, illustrations, vectors, pictures, design templates, graphics, video templates, 3D models, audio/music tracks and more from a vast collection of over 900 million assets to choose from – and they are all 100% safe for commercial use.

And they’ve made the free paid-asset trial a lot simpler for everyone… All new Stock subscribers now get the first month including 10 downloadable assets completely free (worth $50), with no payment required until the second month. But if you cancel during the first month, then your credit card is never charged – and your service continues until the end of that first month. Even if you cancel up to 14 days after the second month begins, you’ll still be fully refunded.

On top of that, they’ve enabled easy online cancellations for any customer who decides not to continue. Cancellations can be made at any time by visiting your Manage Account page (or by contacting Customer Support in your region).

Note: You do not need to be a Creative Cloud subscriber to sign up for Stock (not even the free level of CC), or even to be using Adobe software at all – because Stock can also work standalone. Either way, all you need in order to take advantage of this offer is an Adobe ID, which can be quickly created by anyone for free.

So now at no risk and no charge, you can have US$50 worth of professional, high-resolution stock images, forever. With this plan, you can mix and match standard images, HD or 4K videos, templates, audio, vectors, and more – prices vary. The standard license to use this content is royalty-free and granted in perpetuity, with no geographical restrictions or expiration dates.

Sign-up is immediate and fast, so you can choose and download your best favorite assets right away:

Get it now

Adobe Stock is Seamlessly Integrated into Your Workflow

Better still, Stock has some really cool features that integrate the service with all of your favorite tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as impressive Visual Search capabilities to make it easy to use and fast to find the perfect image for your needs. You can search, edit and license right inside your apps, using advanced filters to discover the perfect asset.

The Stock integration with the CC tools is very helpful and a big time saver. For example, you could do a quick search to find a dozen Stock images to try out and see which one works best. You can drag them all into Photoshop and then continue to edit and manipulate your composition. Then when you’re done and have decided which ones to keep, just tell Photoshop to license them – and those preview images will be seamlessly replaced with the full-quality, non-watermarked versions, while retaining all of your edits without missing a beat!

An independent research report found that “Adobe Stock provides tight integration with Creative Cloud applications that resulted on average in 10x efficiency gains over working with common stock image services in the benchmarks conducted for this research. Productivity gains measured in these benchmarks are very significant.”

This can save you serious time: “… licensing, replacing, and making multiple image adjustments takes 42 seconds in Adobe Stock, versus 7 minutes and 16 seconds with other stock providers.”

Get it now

And if you’re part of a larger organization, then you can use the group-enabled capabilities of Adobe Stock (such as sharing pooled images) to collaborate together with your coworkers on larger projects using Creative Cloud for Teams.

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

Are You a Photographer or Designer? Sell Your Work on Adobe Stock

On top of being an Adobe Stock customer, you can also easily become a contributor as well – and set yourself up to make money by doing so. There are no registration or portfolio management fees, and you’ll be able to showcase your work to millions of buyers around the world, 24/7. Thanks to enormous daily sales volumes and royalties typically one-third of the sales price, you could potentially earn thousands of dollars every month. Plus, Adobe recently added a Bonus Program which grants complementary access to Creative Cloud for active contributors.

Just submit your best original work, and if it’s accepted after a short review period, then you’ll receive a royalty every time one of one of your images or designs is sold through the service – via both Adobe Stock and Fotolia. The submission process is simple and automated, thanks to the smart auto-keywording and auto-categorization tools.

Selling your work to the millions of creatives on Adobe Stock is an easy way to add more revenue that both complements your creative career and diversifies your portfolio. Contributing to Stock can be part of any creative lifestyle, whether you’re looking for a full-time commitment or a part-time gig. This can provide whole new opportunities to expand your portfolio and earn meaningful income – essentially, helping you to make money doing what you love. Heck, with a little ingenuity, you could potentially even turn your next vacation into a paid holiday.

If you have any additional questions, you’ll probably find them answered in the comprehensive Adobe Stock FAQ! Or feel free to ask them below.

Learn After Effects Free! Download 51-Page AE Guidebook Now

ProDesignTools — Thu, 21 May 2026 15:05:15 +0000

Over the years, we’ve put together a large collection of free Adobe books that we share with you, our readers, here… This extensive set of helpful ebooks has now grown to over 30 different titles that you can legally download, use, and learn from for free, forever.

These instructional books cover Creative Cloud, Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Premiere Pro, Dreamweaver, Animate, XD, Lightroom and more – but until recently, we haven’t had a solid offering for Adobe After Effects.

Fortunately, this changed with the publication of the “Motion Graphics in After Effects that Speaks to Your Brain” guidebook, which comes from Adobe Community Professional and renowned AE guru, Dr. Mathias Möhl.

Dr. Möhl started writing this book before Covid, and then generously decided to provide it 100% free for everyone for an unlimited time with no strings attached, as his contribution to supporting the community during the pandemic. His advice: use your time wisely and keep learning new skills, as they’ll help you to run a successful business when you’re able to launch one. Thanks to his hard work, you can download the book for free here:

Get it now

Here is the overview description of this 51-page guide:

So, you’ve started playing around with After Effects, maybe watched some YouTube tutorials, and wondering what the next step is? Or perhaps you already know After Effects pretty well, but still feel there’s a gap between you and a ‘real’ motion graphics professional? Well, there is a difference between knowing how to use the software and creating good motion graphics. For the latter, you need to know not just which buttons to click, but also a great deal about design, workflow, and even how your audience’s brain works.

This book is here to bridge the gap between what you can figure out with learning by doing and what you need to know to become a professional motion graphics artist.

The first quarter of the book gives you a solid foundation in animation and design (color, type, layout, storyboards and music), before moving on the meat of the volume: animating, keyframing, staging, focus, squashing and stretching, templates and automation.

You can download this guidebook for offline viewing in Apple Books or ePub or Zip format via the link given below, or read it there online in your web browser… It is not available in Kindle or PDF format because of many essential videos embedded within the content, which those platforms do not support. The full digital ePub book (or Zip file) is ~420 MB in size:

Download now

What’s more, there’s now over 23 hours of top, expert-led video courses for Premiere Pro and After Effects available for FREE for a limited time here.

Here are a few reader reviews for the book:

“Fantastic book with amazing explainer videos. This is a great place to start.”

“Excellent reference! Helped fill in some gaps in my knowledge. And it’s free!”

Thank you for writing this. I’ll be sharing this informative resource with many people.

“You should 100% download this free eBook if you are getting into MoGraph and AdobeAE.”

“Read this book. Very useful; I learned a lot of things. Thanks for this book!”

“This free eBook simplifies principles that everyone in the field must know.”

“A great case study project with tons of AE tips and tricks.”

“Simply put, the most useful book you can read on After Effects.”

You’ll need After Effects itself to complete everything as outlined in the book. If you don’t have the software yet, just download a free working trial for any CC 2025 product for Windows or Mac (or try the complete Creative Cloud) – then install and start right away.

Install now: Get all new Creative Cloud 2026 direct download links and free trials.

If you prefer video training instead (or in addition), then check out the free Adobe Learn Series for After Effects. For more free video tutorials on many different tools and topics, see the 175 new courses and sessions from the Adobe MAX conference.

And to continue learning, don’t miss dozens more free books for many Adobe products, covering recent versions of all major applications… This large collection includes the official Adobe user manuals, which are comprehensive in size and scope.

Free Stock! Download 1,000,000+ premium assets from the new Adobe Stock Free Collection

After Effects Book Trailer Video

Dr. Möhl, the author, has just one request:

If you’ve enjoyed this free AE book, please recommend it to others. Take a few moments to rate it on Apple Books or Goodreads, write a review, or tell your friends about it. Thank you! This makes a big difference for us – it helps us to continue creating content for you, and helps others to discover the book.

How to Protect Yourself From Pirated & Counterfeit Adobe Software

ProDesignTools — Thu, 14 May 2026 16:12:29 +0000

From time to time, we encounter readers who have unknowingly downloaded counterfeit software. It is only after attempting to install or seek support for the product that they discover the trouble. No doubt it’s a frustrating experience, but one that can be avoided.

One frequent story we hear is people buying software from third parties, especially someone offering an incredible deal on Adobe products. Offers of “cheap OEM” software and 80% discounts just aren’t credible. The old adage applies, “if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is”… (Only Adobe’s Student & Teacher Editions can legally be offered at significant discounts, but are clearly labeled as such).

Another common thread exists among users who purchase Adobe products with modest discounts from non-authorized resellers on Amazon Marketplace, Best Buy Marketplace and through other similar sites – like eBay, Reddit, or Craigslist. Users, in these cases, believe they’re purchasing from Amazon or Best Buy, but are instead buying from random sellers who post illegitimate offers through Marketplace channels or display ads on these sites.

“Free Photoshop Downloads” are Not Actually Free

Another alarming trend is the increasing prevalence of harmful malware in pirated software. This is now very common through file sharing and torrents, for those looking for cracks, keygens, “portable” versions (which don’t legitimately exist), or files such as “amtlib.dll” or “GenP”… But these are dangerous: Studies show that over 60% of non-genuine software includes embedded malware.

A recent IEEE analysis of 750 crack downloads confirms this high level of risk, warning that anti-virus and other security programs miss these infections as often as 70% of the time. The report concludes: “Given the potential for malware to steal information or create malicious backdoors, its high prevalence within pirated software poses a substantial security risk to end users.”

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Taken a step further, what this means is that even a cheap or “free version” online isn’t really free because you may be paying for it with an undetected breach which installs a virus on your system that steals your financial info and compromises your other personal files and private data.

Quoting one news article:

The second Trojan was discovered Sunday, hidden inside torrented copies of Adobe Systems’ Photoshop program. Once installed, the backdoor software silently lets someone else take remote control of the computer and rob the sensitive data upon it.

In addition to viruses and spyware, using inauthentic or unlicensed software found online through Reddit and elsewhere will expose you to other problems, including system crashes and bugs, as well as no support, training, or upgrades.

How to Protect Yourself Against Infections and Hacks

Rule #1: Avoid disreputable sources and untrusted or unfamiliar sellers!

Rules #2 and #3: See Rule #1.

Put plainly, the best way to ensure you purchase genuine software and not get duped is to buy the product directly from Adobe itself. That way there is zero chance of fakes and counterfeits, and the pricing is usually the same (or close) because Adobe products are not heavily discounted outside of the company.

Adobe’s site also offers a list of Authorized Resellers which can be a handy reference to help avoid situations like these. Purchasing and downloading software directly from adobe.com or alternatively via an official Authorized Reseller guarantees that you will receive Adobe Genuine software.

Be aware that Adobe products can only be legally downloaded from these sites – and no others. If you see something elsewhere, it’s definitely a fake.

To avoid fraud when buying Creative Cloud, the most important thing to know is that it is a subscription-only product and Adobe does not offer permanent or lifetime or perpetual licenses… There is no such thing as non-subscription versions with one-off purchases. There does exist a free level of membership – but for the major apps like Photoshop or Acrobat, this includes only a free trial.

For example, in every release of Photoshop since 2013, it should say “License Type: Subscription“ in “System Info…” under the “Help” menu – otherwise it is for sure an illegal version. Your better and safer bet is to download the real thing directly from Adobe (guaranteed), including the free trials:

Download now

Have You Received an Adobe Genuine Service Alert?

To protect customers from the risks of counterfeit software, Adobe applications self-test for software modifications and invalid license keys or serial numbers. When these are found, the program will notify you. If you see one of these notifications – an “Adobe Genuine Service Alert” or “Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Service” notice or other “unlicensed app” warning – click on the link provided to see what you can do about it. You may be eligible for a discount.

If you have non-genuine software on your computer or have received an AGS alert, what steps should you take? As the best protection against the security risks, Adobe recommends that you attempt to uninstall the bogus software, reformat the hard drive, then run current anti-virus tools to remove as many traces of it as possible, and then install Adobe Genuine software:

» How to remove pirated Adobe software from your computer

Reactions to this will certainly range from “users who pirate software get what they deserve” to the invariable “Adobe is just trying to scare you into buying their software.” Of course, Adobe engineers would like their efforts to be paid for. Who wouldn’t? In all honesty, they also want people to be successful with their products and avoid the stress and heartache of being scammed or hacked.

For More Assistance and Information

To conclude, we’ve provided a few links below to help users make informed decisions, ensure you get Adobe Genuine Software, and avoid phony products, costly scams, and devastating malware. Please see:

» Six important steps you can take to prevent fraud

» What is counterfeit software? How can I tell if it’s real or fraudulent?

» Risks associated with piracy (and counterfeit products)

» How to report Adobe piracy or suspicious Adobe email phishing

And if Adobe’s regular product prices are out of reach for you, see if you qualify for their deeply-discounted education versions, which are much lower priced for students, teachers, and staff at all levels – even homeschoolers.

Get Started with Premiere Pro: Download the Quick Start Guides

ProDesignTools — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:01:48 +0000

Adobe Premiere Pro is a powerful and sophisticated video editing application, used by leading filmmakers and other video producers worldwide… But it can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming to get started with this professional tool. These free Quick Start Guides can help you get going quickly and learn how to best use Premiere in your video projects.

To quote one of the guides:

Adobe Premiere Pro is a professional-level non-linear video editing application. While it’s easy to make movies with simpler programs like Apple’s iMovie, you’ll soon hit a brick wall the moment you try to do anything sophisticated. Enter programs like Premiere Pro which are powerful enough for doing high-end professional work, flexible enough for a wide range of media makers, yet anyone can master the basics with a reasonable amount of practice.

Premiere will confront you with a learning curve, but if you review the steps in this guide while remaining focused on the fundamentals, you be off to a good start editing. Find a project you want to cut immediately afterwards to help reinforce what you’ve learned.

These easily-read ebooks cover setting up a new project, understanding the workspace, importing video, creating a sequence, timeline features, adjusting audio levels, essential editing tools, making titles, transitions & effects, adjusting video speed, color correction, editing workflows, video formats and rendering, exporting your final video, and a helpful glossary of terms. They go over common stumbling blocks and give you plenty of tips and tricks along the way.

Together, they comprise 51 pages and we recommend them to all beginners as helpful primers for learning how to use and get rolling with Premiere Pro with a minimum of fuss. These guides are no cost and freely-available here:

Download now

Bonus! You can now also download a 139-page ‘Best Practices & Workflow Guide’ at the same location… It’s a deep-dive anthology of expert, step-by-step advice and illustrated examples, covering a broad range of essential topics for more advanced users.

If you don’t have the actual Premiere Pro software yet, just download a free working trial for Windows or macOS (or try the whole Creative Cloud) – then install, run, and start your training…

Another option would be to first try the free new Adobe Premiere mobile app instead, which is a simplified yet still powerful tool to get started editing your video anywhere. It’s easy to learn and use at no cost, and you can export an unlimited number of pro-quality videos in 4K resolution with no watermarks. Projects created in the mobile version of Premiere can be imported into the full desktop version of Premiere Pro to do even more.

If you like free video training as well, then don’t miss the many hours of free tutorials online at Adobe’s help site – which are excellent and very helpful:

Watch now

What’s more, there’s now over 23 hours of top, expert-led video courses for Premiere Pro and After Effects available for FREE for a limited time here.

And to continue learning, don’t miss dozens more free books for many Adobe products, covering recent versions of all major applications… If you’re also using After Effects, then there’s a free book for AE which you’ll want to download too. Our large collection of titles also includes the official Adobe user manuals, which are comprehensive in size and scope!

Black Friday in the Spring: Adobe Offers Amazing Deal on Creative Cloud

ProDesignTools — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:01:10 +0000

[UPDATE – See all of Adobe’s current deals & discounts!]

Something rare is going on for the next two weeks, and we thought you should know about it. For one of the few times outside of the traditional Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale period, Adobe is offering a huge discount on Creative Cloud to the general public…

For a limited time, first-time subscribers to the Creative Cloud Pro ‘All Apps’ plan can get a 50% discount off the regular price for your first year. This promotion is close to the lowest price ever offered on these popular products.

This top-of-the-line package includes Adobe’s entire collection of 20+ creative desktop apps: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Acrobat Pro, Animate, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and many others. It also includes complementary mobile apps, 100GB of online cloud storage, an Adobe Portfolio website, all Adobe Fonts, and the premium version of Adobe Express.

The three big offers are:

— Creative Cloud for Individuals: 50% off. Normally US$69.99/month for new customers signing up for an annual plan, now the complete Creative Cloud Pro membership (All Apps) is available at a special discounted rate of $34.99/month for one year – that’s half price! No previous software ownership or other qualifications are necessary to receive this price reduction.

— Creative Cloud for Teams: 50% off. New customers save $50 per month on your first year of the Pro Teams plan. That’s also half price! This is Adobe’s solution when you have a group of people or multiple users working together on creative projects, because the Teams edition offers significant advantages over the standard CC plan for individuals.

— Adobe Firefly Pro Plus 50% Off: Firefly is your AI-powered creative space to generate images, video, audio, and designs using top AI models from Adobe, Google, OpenAI, Runway, and more. Includes 10,000 credits per month for image and video creation at scale, plus Adobe Express Premium and Photoshop. Now just $20.97/month for your first year for new subscribers.

To put the price into perspective, the Creative Cloud Pro offer of $34.99/month is lower than Adobe’s Black Friday special in 2015 of $39.99/month – and Creative Cloud has gotten a lot bigger and better since then.

These discounted CC promotions are available until Sunday, May 10, 2026, for direct purchases only. This one-time deal will give you the entire Creative Cloud – all of Adobe’s best desktop tools and services which are included in the new 2026 release, plus ongoing product upgrades and support:

Get it now

If your membership is canceled before the 12-month commitment has been met, a cancellation fee would apply – although Adobe offers a Money-Back Guarantee for a full refund within 14 days of your initial purchase. See the complete Terms and Conditions here.

Here’s a quick overview of what the complete Creative Cloud Pro package (‘All Apps’) contains:

The latest 2026 desktop releases of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat Pro, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and many more
New desktop tools like Character Animator and Dimension
Literally thousands of new features and advancements added since CS6 in 2012
4,000 monthly Generative Credits to use Adobe’s stunning new AI capabilities in your projects, including video too
Access to tens of thousands of dollars of desktop and web Adobe Fonts
Full access and use of the Adobe Portfolio website builder
The premium versions of Adobe Express and Photoshop on iPhone
Full integrated use of Adobe’s family of web & mobile apps (over a dozen strong), which Creative Cloud Standard does not include
100 GB of online cloud storage for syncing, sharing and collaboration, with the option for up to 15 TB
Ongoing upgrades and updates for all included applications and services
Download and use of prior releases, if needed or desired
Access to hundreds of exclusive online video tutorials in Creative Cloud Learn
Install all desktop applications on up to two of your computers
Easily move the products between different systems you own
No previous purchase necessary, and no prior software required

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

We know this question will be asked, so here it is: If you recently bought CC from Adobe – within the past 14 days – then you may still be able to take advantage of these one-year promotions. That’s because Adobe has an easy Return/Exchange Policy for direct purchases, which allows customers to swap out whatever they bought for a different choice for up to one month after purchase. Recent buyers can just submit online for a full refund and then sign up to get one of the new offers above instead.

Other currently-available Adobe deals can be found on our Coupons page, including the opportunity to instantly download thousands of free images from Adobe Stock’s large professional asset collection. And one of the nice things about Adobe software is you can always try it out before you buy… So if you want, you can instantly download any application(s) you like for a fully-functional free trial – then just be sure to purchase & activate the software within the savings period to benefit from the discount:

Download now

Free Stock! Download 1,000,000+ premium assets from the new Adobe Stock Free Collection

Please spread the word to share Adobe’s one-time offers with others who might be interested… And to receive notification on future discounts and promotions, subscribe to our RSS feed or like us on Facebook or Twitter… Or just enter your email and have new articles sent directly to your Inbox. We are reader-supported; when you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

What’s In Adobe Creative Cloud?

All Adobe Apps Explained in 9 Minutes

How to Get the Creative Cloud Student & Teacher Discount and Save 70+%

ProDesignTools — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:20:46 +0000

The upfront prices for Adobe’s products have seemed expensive in the past, especially on a student’s budget. The last perpetual version, Creative Suite 6 from 2012, historically had full prices ranging from $399 for Dreamweaver through $999 for Photoshop Extended and on up to $2,599 upfront for the Master Collection suite, which contained all major applications. Those prices are still a lot of money today and as good as that software was, it was hard to afford in school – even after the student and teacher discount.

Adobe stopped selling CS6 over nine years ago, as the version reached EOL and end of support – but fortunately the company still offers deep discounts for education customers on the latest Creative Cloud Pro release. Several years ago, in fact, they increased the discount on Creative Cloud to up to 78% off the regular prices. And while there are a lot of misconceptions about CC and “the cloud,” the main products like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, etc., all still download and run on your computer desktop as normal.

Free Stock! Download 1,000,000+ premium assets from the new Adobe Stock Free Collection

Get All Tools with the New 2026 Release

So if you want it all – and all in one complete package – then Adobe offers full Creative Cloud Pro membership at a 71-78% discount for students and teachers (at just $19.99 or £16.24 or €19,50 or A$23.99 a month for your first year, or less than $1/day)… This gives you the entire “Master Suite” and much more – essentially, the new 2026 versions of all the latest and greatest products that Adobe makes, with thousands of new features and improvements compared to CS6 – plus ongoing upgrades included at no additional cost, so your tools are always up to date with current technology and innovations.

Adobe offers an education discount only on the Creative Cloud Pro “All Apps” subscription – meaning you get all CC tools and services for one (reduced) price. A single CC tool could instead be purchased by itself via a Single-App Subscription – but there is no academic discount on that plan, meaning it could work out to be more expensive than just getting everything for a student or teacher. So, basically you get 20+ apps for the price of a single app or two.

Differences vs. the Individual Version

So what are the differences between the Student & Teacher Edition vs. the Individual version? How do they compare? Are there any limitations in functionality or restrictions like watermarks, etc.?

Well, the academic editions actually work the same as the regular versions – the tools and services are identical. Plus, you can continue to use the products after you graduate or whenever you leave your current school or term of study, for a limited time. You can also use the software for commercial purposes or professional / paid projects, if you so desire. The sole restrictions are one discounted membership per education customer and the products may be used on your own computers only.

After your first year at the $19.99/month introductory pricing, you can cancel the plan or (if you’re still a student or educator) you can continue at the normal educational rate, which is currently $39.99/month and remains a significant 42% discount from the regular (non-educational) $69.99/month pricing for the Creative Cloud Pro plan. See the complete offer terms here.

Install now: Get all new Creative Cloud 2026 direct download links and free trials.

How to Get the Student/Teacher Discount

All of this software is available via instant download at the Adobe Education Store for both Windows and macOS. Adobe’s education discounts are available internationally as well – in many other countries and currencies (for example, Europe/euro, UK/pound, Australia/dollar), where the percentage reductions are similar or greater.

To get these lower prices, essentially all you have to do is prove your academic status at a qualified school. Most students and teachers of most grades and institutions can qualify, from primary school through university levels. Importantly, even part-time students or folks who enroll for a class at their local community college can be eligible – there is no upper age limit. Online colleges are on Adobe’s list too, and there is even a path for homeschoolers. If you think about it, sometimes going back to school could even pay for itself in such cases.

You can validate your status with proof of enrollment such as your school ID card, report card, transcript, tuition bill or statement, etc. Any documents dated within the last six months are considered current for these purposes. The verification all happens online so takes only 1-2 days. In the meantime, you’ll be able to download and install your products as a fully-functional free trials to get going right away, start learning with free tutorials, and so on.

Recently, Adobe added an even simpler option – now if you just provide a school-issued email address during purchase (like ending in “.edu” or “.k12”), then your institutional affiliation will be instantly verified and you’ll automatically receive the student & teacher discount pricing.

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

You can install the software on up to two computers and move it between them anytime. If for some reason you change your mind after buying Creative Cloud, you can easily return the product within 14 days for a full refund.

Get it now

A Word on Software Piracy – “If It Sounds Too Good To Be True…”

Some folks think they might be able to do better by trying to find and download Adobe software for free or cheap using torrents, cracks, keygens, untrusted sources, unfamiliar sellers, old or used versions, no-name websites, auction sites, links posted on Reddit, and so on. The first thing to say is any electronic download or serial number delivery from anywhere besides Adobe is inauthentic, so it’s illegal. The second thing is that it’s very risky – but not only because it’s illegal…

Increasingly, the desire to save money on software by getting it from sources or sites you’ve never heard of leads to identity theft, credit card fraud, virus infections, email spamming, and more. A great deal of the hacked and illegitimate Adobe software out there now is embedded with malware. This malware includes viruses, worms, and trojans that can do significant harm to your computer, data, and privacy (like quietly taking your sensitive information such as logins, passwords, and credit card numbers). And now there is new ransomware that can hold your entire hard disk hostage with no fix available.

Cracked and hacked copies are easily manipulated and infected. For example, the Asia-Pacific region has a very high piracy rate of 60%, and correspondingly the highest rate of infection in the world – nearly 70% of the computers in these countries are riddled with malware. There is a direct correlation.

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In other words, the hackers that create and distribute these “free” or “cheap” copies are receiving payback in other ways (e.g., silent backdoors) – meaning in the end, you can do far worse damage to your computer and yourself than to Adobe. Why install unknown and untrusted software onto your valuable system? Why give a stranger control of your machine, or your financial credentials?

Further, law enforcement agencies have really been cracking down on download theft in recent years – in one case, the authorities were able to obtain the locations and contact information on 23,000 illegal BitTorrent users and the fines paid are $3,000 per download!

Lastly, stay away from deals or “bargains” on eBay or Reddit or Craigslist, or any seller you’ve never heard of (including on Amazon Marketplace), or anything that seems too good to be true – because it probably is… there are authentic-looking fakes everywhere. Reputation means everything in this area – because you don’t want to end up in regret, like so many there do, after their money has left their hands permanently and the software or their computer has stopped working.

Read more details on why you shouldn’t buy from eBay, Craigslist, Amazon Marketplace, or similar sites.

So all in all, it’s not something for nothing – and really the only sensible and safe choice is getting the real deal straight from Adobe at up to 78% off the regular prices.

Here’s a helpful Adobe Education Eligibility Guide & FAQ that should answer any other questions you may have…

6 Fabulous Free Books to Boost Creativity & Inspire Your Best Work

ProDesignTools — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:35:04 +0000

Longtime readers know that we offer a series of free books for Adobe software with over 30 different titles that anyone can download on how to best use the different major products… These books are very popular and well-received.

But since Adobe software is all about creating, for a long time there was a missing piece: a collection of totally free books simply about building your creativity – something that everyone in the world can use and benefit from… So here is that set!

You can legally download and use the six PDF e-books below to inspire your own creative process and help improve your work, no matter what you do in life – whether you use Creative Cloud (even the unpaid free version) or not. These books are (in our view) all easy, enjoyable, and enriching reads.

Book #1: The Creative Aid Handbook (142 Pages)

Co-creators Richard Tapp and Nicole Smith of Kooroo Kooroo rightly describe The Creative Aid Handbook as a outside-of-the-box resource to get your creative juices flowing: “We wrote, designed, and illustrated a book featuring unusual tips to nurture your creative well-being, boost your creative intellect and foster internal inspiration. Meant to serve as a mini-resource for your creative projects and food for your creative thoughts. We’ve included our own valuable references and resources we know and trust as a means to help you get your projects done. We want to give you the creative push from a direction you may not have thought of, be it informative, inspirational, or simply entertaining.”

And included with this must-have volume for creatives is free companion artwork you can download as well (in AI format): “In keeping with our principles and an open-source ideology, all of the art featured, plus extra concept work for this book is downloadable in vector (.AI) format. This means you are free to download, keep, re-use and alter all art for whatever creative needs, purposes or endeavors you may have.”

Book #2: Creative Turnaround (69 Pages)

CreativeLive was founded on the principle that everyone should have the right and the means to pursue their creative aspirations. That includes you. They offer many great online classes, and the live ones are always free. And in this spirit, they’ve also put together a terrific book for you: Creative Turnaround – Advice & Inspiration for Artists + Artisans.

Within these pages, they’ve assembled inspiring and practical advice from world-class experts on how to take your own vision for the coming year and turn it into a reality. They offer this guide as a free gift to you in the hopes that something here will move you to open your heart and take a risk: start a project, share your work, leave your day job, follow your dream, start your own business.

Wherever your creative passion takes you, this can be a helpful resource for you at every step of the journey. So what are you waiting for? Go for it and good luck!

Book #3: The Creative Self Workbook (23 Pages)

When was the last time you felt connected to your creative self? The Creative Self Workbook is an invitation for you to engage with your creative self as a practice, over five days of exploratory exercises designed by creative coach Tina Essmaker.

You’ll explore: What does the Creative Self mean to you? Have you clarified your purpose? Are you in touch with your creative voice? Are you in alignment with your chosen career? How do you connect to the community around you? And where is this all taking you tomorrow, next month, next year?

In these pages, you’ll begin with discovering, or rediscovering, your voice and purpose. Then you’ll think about how you can best nurture the parts of yourself that support your creativity. You’ll be encouraged to consider people who are a source of strength to you and communities where you can thrive creatively. Ultimately, you’ll be asked to lay the foundation for an ongoing practice that embraces actions and truths to sustain you into the future and continue long beyond today.

Book #4: What Is Creativity? (75 Pages)

“Be more creative” is a phrase often used within business and marketing with little consideration given to its meaning. Many fields have seen seismic shifts over the last few years and being creative is now an essential ingredient to success. But what does it mean to be creative?

What Is Creativity? is a 75-page ebook written and illustrated by Shelli Walsh. The book is an introduction to what creative thinking is, with nine chapters to teach thinking skills and techniques on how to be more creative. It’s chock full of helpful tips and inspirational quotes from luminaries that you probably have never heard before.

The second half of the book asks noted industry thought leaders five key questions about what inspires them, entitled “What does creativity mean to you?” Chapter contributors include: Rand Fishkin, Wil Reynolds, Dave Trott, Lee Odden, Paddy Moogan, Neil Patel, Bas Van Den Beld and Chris Brogan, who all share their perceptive insights within.

Book #5: How to Be Creative (49 Pages)

Author Hugh MacLeod, an advertising executive and popular blogger with a flair for the creative, gives his 26 tried-and-true tips for being truly creative. Each point illustrated by a cartoon drawn by the author himself.

Written in irreverent and provocative style, How to Be Creative highlights the value of authenticity and hard work, and reveals the challenges and rewards of being creative. Notable chapter titles include: Ignore everybody, Everyone is born creative, Sing in your own voice, You are responsible for your own experience, Keep your day job, Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside, Avoid the Watercooler Gang, and Write from the heart. Caution: this book does contain some colorful language.

If you’ve ever felt the draw to do something creative but just haven’t been able to pull it together, you’ll love this manifesto. It’s a practical guide to being your best and forgetting the rest.

Book #6: Time Management for Creative People (29 Pages)

In order to create anything well, you’ve got to have the time to get it done. And while our increasingly digital and connected world brings great promises, it also brings great distractions. Happily for us, longtime business coach and trainer Mark McGuinness has learned a lot about what it takes to get original work done in the midst of the demands and distractions of the 21st-century workplace – and he shares it freely in his ebook, Time Management for Creative People.

This book has been downloaded over 100,000 times, and has received enthusiastic feedback from people all over the world who say it has transformed their working habits and helped them achieve their artistic and professional goals. It’s full of practical advice for creatives, including: Finding the method in your creative madness, Identifying and prioritizing your most important work, Getting in the right state of mind for focused work, How to minimize interruptions and distractions, Managing e-mail effectively and How to remember – and fulfill – all your important commitments.

Download Now for Free (387 Pages Total)

So there you have it – six amazing and inspiring titles to download, read and share – all completely for free. You can download all of them here… hope they help let your creativity soar!

Download now

More Free Adobe Books (2,000+ Pages)

And to continue learning, don’t miss the dozens more free books for many Adobe products, covering recent versions of all major applications – learn how to best use Creative Cloud (CC), Creative Suite (CS6 and older), Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, XD, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Animate, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Lightroom, Elements, and more… Get them here!

Acrobat Pro, Standard & Reader DC 2026: Direct Download Links

ProDesignTools — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:38:45 +0000

Adobe has released Acrobat DC 2026, the latest version of the Acrobat family of products. “DC” stands for Document Cloud, the set of integrated online services to help manage all your documents. At the core of Document Cloud is Acrobat DC, the industry standard for creating, sharing and editing PDFs. Use Acrobat software to make, scan, convert, and sign PDF files with seamless workflows between your computer and all your devices.

Acrobat DC is available as a desktop product in Standard, Pro, and Studio editions, and together with integrated mobile apps and online services, it is offered via subscription only. With Acrobat DC 2026, ongoing updates are included so you always have the newest version with the latest product innovations and a complete set of seamless tools for desktop and mobile use.

Note that this newly-upgraded desktop release of Acrobat Pro DC is also included as one of the many applications that all subscribers get with the complete (“All Apps”) membership to Creative Cloud 2026.

And in keeping our tradition of providing the direct download links for major Adobe products, you’ll find the direct links for the newest Acrobat releases below. Direct download links for the all the other apps in CC 2026 are also now available – see how you can get them here.

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

What’s New in Acrobat DC 2026 vs. DC 2025?

The major new features available in the Acrobat DC desktop, web and mobile ecosystem are detailed on this Adobe page. The biggest improvement in DC 2026 is the continuing evolution of Acrobat’s impressive new AI Assistant, which will answer queries about your PDF documents to give fast, insightful answers and generate one-click summaries or polished presentations, while protecting your privacy. Importantly, your content is not used to train AI Assistant or any of Adobe’s generative AI models.

Acrobat DC 2026 and Reader 2026 are available as 64-bit applications on Windows, as well as 32-bit applications if still needed. You can direct download either installer below, depending on what your system supports. Further, Acrobat is fully supported on Windows 11 (64 bit). On macOS, all installers continue as 64-bit programs, as before.

Unsure if your computer can run the latest version? You can check Adobe’s official system requirements here.

Install now: Get all new Creative Cloud 2026 direct download links and free trials.

Here Are the Acrobat DC 2026 Direct Download Links

The links given below go to the authentic and secure files residing on Adobe’s servers, are guaranteed genuine, safe, legal, and will not change. They are especially useful when you are unable to download these products via other means – perhaps due to issues with the Adobe’s Download Manager. Here the file access is open and you can just use your browser, or another DLM.

More Direct Download Links
CC 2026
CC 2019
Acrobat DC 2025
Captivate 2019
Elements 2023

Note there is no actual trial version of Acrobat DC Standard for any platform, but Pro includes all Standard features – so you can try out Pro for free and then decide which version you want at the time of purchase. In other words, the Acrobat Pro and Acrobat Standard installers are the same. Ditto for Acrobat Studio. Naturally, the free Acrobat Reader 2026 for PDF is also downloadable for both operating system platforms – Windows (7, 8, 10, 11) and macOS (v. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15).

If you need further help, see the product installation instructions here.

Acrobat Pro/Standard/Studio DC 2026 – Direct Download Links

This is the trial or version to download for the Acrobat DC subscription – Adobe’s main PDF software – via an affordable monthly or annual plan. Subscribers are entitled to the complete product featureset, including forthcoming new features and improvements on an ongoing (or “Continuous Track”) basis at no extra charge, along with all product fixes and platform support enhancements:

» Windows (64-bit) – Acrobat Pro DC 2026 free trial, 26 languages (1.7 GB)
» Windows (32-bit) – Acrobat Pro DC 2026 free trial, 26 languages (1.4 GB)
Version 2026.001.21367 (or newer)

» macOS (v. 12+) – Acrobat Pro DC 2026 free trial, 24 languages (1.5 GB)
Version 2026.001.21367 (or newer)

Again, if you’re unsure which Windows installer to download (32 bit or 64 bit), see what your computer supports. Also note that these same direct download installer links work for the new Adobe Acrobat Studio product.

Acrobat Pro 2024 – Direct Download Links

So, what is “Acrobat 2024”? It’s not the same as the main Acrobat DC product line above; there are very significant differences. For starters, Acrobat DC is sold via subscription, whereas Acrobat 2024 is a time-limited term license.

Adobe previously rebranded the old Acrobat 2020 perpetual/standalone version to be called “Acrobat Classic” – and then renamed it again to “Acrobat Pro 2024″… There are no new changes to the functionality or features of the product outside of the name itself. The company describes it as follows:

Acrobat Pro 2024 is an updated version of Acrobat 2020 desktop-only software designed to replace the older perpetual software versions. It’s available as a 3-year term license, non-renewing, and paid upfront with a one-time payment.

Once activated, you can use it offline for the entire three-year period. It includes all the features of Acrobat Pro 2020, plus additional enhancements, including a new interface, the ability to star a document, improved accessibility tagging, and more. It doesn’t include Adobe Document Cloud services or file sharing.

With Acrobat Pro 2024, you have full access to PDF tools on your desktop only (no web or mobile access/apps). Acrobat Pro 2024 doesn’t receive feature updates and lacks web-based features like e-signing, sharing for review, and AI Assistant capabilities. If you want additional features and cloud services, you can choose an Acrobat subscription instead.

You can read more about it in the Acrobat Pro 2024 FAQ (including how to purchase it, if you’re interested), as well as the official system requirements to see if your computer is supported. These are the free trials:

» Windows (64-bit) – Acrobat Pro 2024 free trial, 26 languages (1.4 GB)
Version 2024.001.30356 (or newer)

» macOS (v. 12+) – Acrobat Pro 2024 free trial, 24 languages (1.2 GB)
Version 2024.001.30356 (or newer)

Free Acrobat Reader 2026 – Direct Download Links

This is the new Acrobat Reader 2026 (a.k.a. Adobe Reader or PDF Reader), which is completely free for all users:

» Windows (64-bit) – Acrobat Reader 2026 in 27 Languages (777 MB)
» Windows (32-bit) – Acrobat Reader 2026 in 27 Languages (681 MB)
Version 2026.001.21367

» macOS – Acrobat Reader 2026 in 22 Languages (662 MB)
Version 2026.001.21367

Adobe Acrobat DC Updates

If you also want the direct download links for the latest Acrobat Pro/Standard product updates (i.e., all the included upgrades since the initial release above), here are complete sets for PC and Mac… These updates are cumulative and require that a previous version of the same major release of Acrobat already be installed on your system.

To determine which version of you currently have installed, select “About Acrobat…” from the Help menu, and then download and apply the correct update patch file from this collection:

Download Links for All Acrobat DC Updates: Windows/Mac

Installation Tips

The trial version includes all desktop features of Acrobat Pro for 7 days from the time you first launch the program on your system.
Installation of Acrobat Pro DC trial may uninstall any older perpetual version of Acrobat on Windows computers. If you want to reinstall the earlier release at a later time, then you’d need your original serial number and software disc/installers.
Acrobat Distiller DC, the batch engine for converting other types of documents into PDF files, is included within the Acrobat Pro/Standard downloads above.
Make sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements for Pro/Standard/Studio and the Reader.
For the smoothest installation experience, exit any open programs, including virus protection software, prior to installing the product.
Install with an account that has administrative privileges (not a Limited User Account if you are using Windows).
If you encounter any difficulties, try Adobe Assistance.

AI Assistant in Acrobat Video Playlist

How to Work 10X Faster with Adobe Stock and CC Libraries

ProDesignTools — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:54:55 +0000

Ask any creative about the favorite part of their job, and it’s unlikely someone will answer “the mundane tasks.” Things like adapting a single element across hundreds (if not thousands) of assets, or going through the pains of re-working a previewed stock photo after attaining the license. And yet, those same tasks are all too often a habitual part of what creatives still do today – and something Adobe has worked to streamline through the capabilities and tight integration of Adobe Stock and Creative Cloud Libraries.

The popular Adobe Stock service gives you high-quality, curated photos, images, illustrations, vectors, graphics, video clips, design templates, audio & music tracks, and more from a vast collection of over 900 million assets to choose from, integrated right into your Creative Cloud tools. And powerful collaboration features like CC Libraries allow you to access, share, and update assets everywhere across your desktop and devices as well as those of your colleagues, automatically.

Even in the age of AI, creatives generally still like to start with a piece of genuine content to adapt their composition from. Whether you are a marketer, graphic designer, or video editor, you can use Adobe Stock (for free!) to bypass the blank canvas and “jump-start” your work to immediately begin customizing top-drawer, professional assets to fit your vision, especially when your time or budget is limited.

Using Adobe Stock and CC Libraries: Up to 10X Faster

Content velocity continues to increase, and creatives now produce more content than ever before. But if you could save 90% of your time working with stock assets because they are now built into your everyday tools, would it be worth it? You can stop interrupting your creativity and instead search for and license Adobe Stock assets directly inside your Creative Cloud apps… Use watermarked images to see how things look, and work with preview assets – and then later they’ll be replaced with high-resolution versions the moment you license them, so you can keep your ideas flowing.

And with CC Libraries, you can create and share images, colors, logos, text and character styles, brushes, patterns, videos, and more across your favorite Creative Cloud apps. This indispensable collaboration feature makes it easy to follow and share assets, as shared libraries automatically update across all desktops and devices so that you and your team are always on the same page. Working with materials like style guides and branding elements is fast, seamless, and consistent.

Free Stock! Download 1,000,000+ premium assets from the Adobe Stock Free Collection

What the Research Says on Adobe Stock

Check out this Pfeiffer benchmark report on Adobe Stock to see how 10X productivity gains can be achieved. The analysis finds that streamlining a team’s frequent repetitive operations can end up saving hours over the course of just one week.

Traditionally, stock imagery has been typically accessed through a web browser, downloaded to a computer, and edited with watermarks prior to sharing for approval, licensing, and re-editing of the finished asset. But because Adobe Stock is integrated directly into Creative Cloud desktop apps such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and more, you have access to the ever-growing catalog of assets without ever having to leave your design environment, and all edits made to a watermarked image are preserved once the image is licensed. In other words, many steps are eliminated from the “traditional” process of working with and buying stock imagery.

Quoting the report, “Adobe Stock provides tight integration with Creative Cloud applications that resulted on average in 10x efficiency gains over working with common stock image services in the benchmarks conducted for this research. Productivity gains measured in these benchmarks are very significant.”

This can save you serious time: “… licensing, replacing, and making multiple image adjustments takes 42 seconds in Adobe Stock, versus 7 minutes and 16 seconds with other stock providers.” And with 60,000 new assets being added daily, it is easy to find visual content that is relevant to your projects.

What the Research Says on Creative Cloud Libraries

More organizations are also using CC Libraries to manage their creative workflows and replace static style guides or production bibles. Everything is kept and shared in the Creative Cloud, while accessible from anywhere and updated in real-time everywhere – better collaboration, fewer mistakes and less time spent on mundane tasks, more time to do the work. When teams fully embrace it, CC Libraries “just work,” and before long people don’t even notice they’re there.

Quoting the Libraries research report, “Real-world productivity gains for sharing settings and assets through CC Libraries can be substantial. Applying shared color themes took seconds with CC Libraries, compared to over two minutes in a conventional workflow.”

What’s more, “Cumulative productivity gains in a workgroup situation can add up significantly: our workgroup benchmark took just over 3 minutes with CC Libraries, compared to almost twenty minutes otherwise. Beyond productivity gains, CC Libraries lays the groundwork for an increasingly efficient and sophisticated organization of creative workflows.”

This solution is much better and easier than using Dropbox, because CC Libraries give you the advantages of intelligent in-tool support with instant collaboration via live updates across all projects globally using the shared (linked) assets. That’s something that generic online storage facilities can’t touch.

As one customer wrote, “I use the libraries as they are much faster than having to grab assets from a folder every time I need them. I do automotive ads at my day job and sometimes someone wants to change a car color much quicker with libraries than with individual assets.”

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

Try It Yourself

Great news: Adobe has launched a new curated collection of over 1,000,000 completely free photos, vectors, illustrations, templates, and videos from talented creators… This Adobe Stock Free collection is available for everyone to download – plus these high-quality assets meet the same standards as the paid collection, so all of them come with a royalty-free commercial license forever.

And for 10 additional paid assets of your choice at no charge, you can also tack on a free one-month trial to download any 10 premium assets here. As with the Free Collection, all standard-licensed assets are yours to keep and use always, without royalties, and with no geographical restrictions or expiration dates.

To try out the Creative Cloud apps (with CC Libraries built in), just download the free trials and get started today to see how they can help your productivity:

Download now

Get the Free White Papers

— Creative Best Practices: Experience 10x Productivity with Adobe Stock (8 pages)

— From Cliché to Mission Critical: How Stock Photography Is Evolving in Beauty, Breadth, and Efficiency (15 pages)

— Adobe Stock for Enterprise: Professional Asset Licensing for All Your Business Needs (12 pages)

— Adobe Stock for Video Production: How Integration Boosts Productivity (4 pages)

— Finding the Perfect Image: Three Ways the Right Stock Service Can Accelerate Creativity (6 pages)

— Adobe Stock Implementation Guide: A Practical Guide for Rolling out Adobe Stock in Your Company (20 pages)

— Achieving Deliciousness: Adapting to an Increasingly Content-Hungry World (20 pages)

— Creative Cloud Libraries Implementation Guide: Unlock the Benefit of CC Libraries for Your Workflow (55 pages)

— Creative Best Practices: Collaboration with Brand and Style Guides (9 pages)

— IT Best Practices: Empower Your Users with the Right Apps and Services to Do Their Best Work (12 pages)

Save Time with the Adobe Stock Free Collection

Get it now

Don’t Need Full Cloud? Get Any Single CC Tool for $10-23 a Month

ProDesignTools — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:02:23 +0000

With the fast-growing adoption of Adobe’s Creative Cloud and the recent release of the all-new CC 2026 versions of creative applications, some readers are telling us they’re not certain if they need all the tools that are included in the complete Creative Cloud offering, or aren’t ready or able to join for ~$55-70 a month…

The complete (or All Apps) Creative Cloud membership gives you the latest-and-greatest versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Animate, Dreamweaver, and others – together in a well-integrated suite with ongoing product upgrades included as soon as they’re available.

But if you don’t need or aren’t ready for Adobe’s entire creative collection on your desktop, then there is another option. This alternate route is called a Single-App Membership Plan – also known as a single-tool subscription. This plan gives you full access to the latest version of any single Adobe creative application for just US$10-23 a month – and you can choose any tool you want. And as with all Creative Cloud products, no previous purchase is necessary and no prior software is required to buy or use them.

One of the most appealing offerings here is the popular Photography Plan where for the regular price of only $19.99/month you can get both Photoshop and Lightroom on desktop – plus their iPad, mobile, and web versions – together with other benefits.

And yes, you can combine or stack multiple Single App plans together, if you want more than one tool. So, for example, you could purchase the Lightroom plan ($12/month), plus the Acrobat Pro plan ($20/month), and come out to around US$32/month, which is less than half the cost of an All Apps Creative Cloud Pro plan at $70/month.

What You Get with the Single-App Plans

Included in all single-app plans you get 100GB – 1TB of online storage and the ability to sync and share your work on virtually any device. All single-app subscribers also receive Adobe Portfolio to publish and host your own customized online work portfolio website. You also get full access to Adobe Fonts – a massive library of 30,000+ fonts – for use in desktop applications and websites (an over $25,000 value if purchased alone).

The premium version of Adobe Express is also included with all single-app plans over $20/month. This plan by itself normally costs $9.99/month.

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

Importantly, none of these CC programs run online or “in the cloud” (that’s a common myth) – your single-app membership lets you download and install the software directly on your own desktop, providing you all the functionality that Adobe’s Creative Suite products had in the past, and much more… In fact, thousands of new features have been added since that time.

You can run the new Creative Cloud software on up to two of your computers, including both a Windows PC and a Mac. For more than two machines, a multiple-user edition of the single-app membership is sold via the Creative Cloud for Teams plan.

The single-app option is now available in 94 countries, making these tools more affordable to everyone without the large upfront cost… The best news is all major new releases plus ongoing upgrades are included and are immediately available for you to download and use as a member at no additional cost – there’s no waiting or paying extra to upgrade. You can always be running the best and most current version and be your most productive.

Install now: Get all new Creative Cloud 2026 direct download links and free trials.

Which Creative Cloud Apps Are Available?

Over a dozen different Adobe applications are now offered this way – see the complete list of products you can get. And if you want to upgrade from a single app to the full Creative Cloud down the line, that’s no problem as Adobe will automatically credit your account for any unused amount.

There are both annual and month-to-month plans for increased flexibility. The month-by-month option costs more, but you can stop and start access as needed. So if there’s a period of time where you won’t need to use the software, you can simply turn it off and pay nothing – then reactivate when you want to run it again, without needing to reinstall. For the annual plans, prepaying the year upfront will often get a discount over paying monthly. And in some regions, you can even pay using PayPal instead of a credit card.

Generally, the math works out pretty attractively – for example, instead of the old days where you needed to come up with $1000 for a static version of After Effects CS6, you can get over four years of the latest and most powerful releases of After Effects (today’s latest version and beyond) with the annual Single-App plan.

All of the standard free trial downloads can also be converted to single-app memberships without reinstalling the software. And if for some reason you should decide within 14 days of joining that it’s not for you, you can easily cancel for a full refund. So there’s a money-back guarantee with no hassle.

Get it now

What are the Differences Between the Photography, Photoshop and Lightroom Plans?

A very good question so we wrote a post specifically on this topic! Please see the article here for the complete answer on what’s different between these plans and what you get with each one.

Do you have any questions about Adobe’s single-app subscription editions, or Creative Cloud in general? Just ask them below and we’ll get you answers fast!

Creative Cloud Annual vs. Monthly Plan: Which Should You Choose?

ProDesignTools — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:20:46 +0000

Most – but not all – Creative Cloud app subscriptions from Adobe offer either Annual (yearly) or Monthly (month-to-month) plans. As with most things in life, buying in larger size and making a longer-term commitment gets you a lower average cost – but is the Annual option always the best deal? The answer is: most (but not all) of the time…

So the question customers usually have is this: The Monthly plans cost more (50% higher per month) but the Annual plans have a termination fee if you cancel before 12 months is up (50% of the remaining term), so which works out better for your needs?

We’ve done the math and the solution is clear:

If you need the software for six months or less, then getting a Monthly plan (month-to-month but cancel at any time) works out better.
If you need the software for more than six months, then getting an Annual plan (12-month commitment) is better financially, even if you cancel in the second half of the year.

The tools and services you receive are the same in all cases, and ongoing upgrades come with all included products at no additional charge.

So all things considered, the breakeven point is right at the six-month mark because that’s when the 50% higher cost of the Monthly plans balances out against the cancellation fee of 50% of remaining contract obligation for the Annual plans. [See the complete Terms and Conditions for all subscriptions.]

Can you avoid paying the cancellation fee if you stop your Annual plan early? Quite possibly. Adobe will waive the cancellation fee if you switch to a different Creative Cloud plan (like changing from Acrobat or Photography to All Apps or Single App)… So typically cancellation fees only apply on Annual plans if you stop subscribing entirely before your year is up. If the cancellation fee is waived, then the pricing for an Annual plan is always a better value than a Monthly plan for the same products.

The takeaway is that Adobe wants to make sure you have the plan that’s right for you. Further, thanks to the company’s Money-Back Guarantee, you can cancel any Creative Cloud plan within 14 days of initial purchase (for any reason) via your online account… Your subscription will end immediately and you will receive a full and complete refund, with no questions asked.

Lastly, some plans do not offer month-to-month options, such as the Student and Teacher plan ($19.99/month). That’s because these subscription bundle offers are already significantly discounted from the list price. In these cases, only 12-month (full year) plans are available.

Join now

So month-to-month subscription plans certainly have their place, for short-term or flexible use at any time – basically for any duration up to six months, or for subscribing only when you need the apps and stopping when you don’t. They allow you to optimize your payments for intermittent use. By contrast, Annual plans (as you’d expect) are always better for longer timeframes.

Undoubtedly, the best way to start with any plan is with a fully-functional free trial, to download, install, and get going right away. Or even easier: begin with the free level of Creative Cloud that Adobe offers to everyone at no cost.

If you still haven’t decided before the free trial is up, then consider signing on for just a month or two with the Monthly plan… That will give you more time without a yearlong commitment. Or, go ahead with the Annual plan knowing that you can still get a full refund within two weeks of your order, if desired.

Hope this article has helped make sense of the different options available and helped make your choice easier! Get started here:

Download now

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

Special: Save 50% on Adobe Creative Cloud Pro for First 3 Months

ProDesignTools — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:06:29 +0000

Adobe just launched a new promotion they’ve only ever offered once before. For a limited time, you can save 50% on a Creative Cloud Pro plan – including Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro, Premiere Pro, and many more – for the first three months of your subscription. All together, you get 20+ creative apps and services for photography, design, video, and more. What’s more, this gives you the incredible new AI features released in Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and other products. With this plan, you’ll have everything you need to create anything using these industry-leading tools.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud Pro plan usually runs $69.99/month, based on a one-year (Annual or Yearly) commitment. So with this deal, you’re getting the reduced price of $34.99/month for the first three months. This discount offer is available pretty much worldwide, from what we can tell. For students and teachers, the deal is even better – just $19.99/month for your first year, which is over 71% off the regular price of Creative Cloud Pro:

Get it now

Free Stock! Download 1,000,000+ premium assets from the new Adobe Stock Free Collection

Included in the All Apps plan you get complementary mobile apps plus 100 GB of online cloud storage with the ability to sync and share your work on any device. Subscribers also receive Adobe Portfolio to publish and host your own custom work portfolio website. Plus you get full access to Adobe Fonts – a.k.a. the entire Typekit library of 30,000+ fonts – for use in desktop applications and websites (an over $25,000 value if purchased normally). Another bonus is the premium version of Creative Cloud Express included in the plan.

The current 50%-off promotion for the first three months of membership applies only to the Annual (12-month) plans. Alternatively, you can go with a Monthly (month-to-month) option with more flexibility to cancel, but it also comes with a higher price. Which is best to choose depends on how long you’ll need the tools. We’ve done the math and the breakeven point is detailed here.

This offer is available to first-time subscribers who purchase directly from Adobe. Please read the complete terms of the promotion here for students and teachers, and here for everyone else. Check out this page to see everything that’s included in the plan, or download and run a free trial first:

Download now

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

You can find other current Adobe deals on our Coupons page, including the opportunity to instantly download thousands of free images from Adobe Stock’s large professional asset collection. As noted above, one of the nice things about Adobe software is you can always try it out before you buy… So if you want, you can instantly download any application(s) you like for a fully-functional free trial – then just be sure to purchase & activate the software within the savings period to benefit from the discount.

Free! Download 90,000+ Stock Videos in HD and 4K from Adobe Stock

ProDesignTools — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 15:17:46 +0000

The new Adobe Stock Free Collection is simply amazing. Not only do you get 1,000,000+ free high-quality images, illustrations, vectors, templates, graphics, photos, audio tracks, and 3D models to choose from for your next creative project, but you also now get over 90,000 free professionally-shot HD and 4K stock videos to download for almost any use you desire! And there’s no catch.

All of these no-cost assets meet the same standards as the Adobe Stock paid collection, meaning they’re premium grade, curated by experts, and come with an “Enhanced” royalty-free commercial license forever. And even though all this valuable content is being furnished gratis to you, Adobe still ensures the talented producers who created it are being compensated. So, you can use this footage in all of your projects knowing that you are sourcing your content responsibly while supporting the creative community.

Here’s a wonderful selection to give you a quick idea of what’s included: it’s the Featured Free Videos page from from the Adobe Stock Free Video Collection. You can see here that this is top-notch footage and worthy of incorporating into any work you or your collaborators produce:

Check it out

The value they’re offering here is pretty incredible. Normally, Adobe Stock videos sell individually for US$79.99 apiece in HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) and $199.99 each in 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels). Those are the regular prices for one single video clip. But here, you can choose any of over 90,000 different stock videos to download at any time, completely for free. Of those 90,000+ videos, nearly 60,000 are being given away in 4K resolution.

Doing the math, the total retail value of this free video collection is $14,000,000!

This includes free videos up to one minute long in all styles and orientations: close-ups, long shots, macro, aerials, looping, timelapse, horizontal, vertical, square, and panoramic.

Also included are hundreds of free video templates and motion graphics templates (MOGRTs) for easy titles, transitions, and graphics to level up your videos instantly, plus free music and audio tracks to give your creation a great soundtrack and that final professional touch.

All you need to get started is a free Adobe ID, which comes with the free tier of Creative Cloud membership. You do not need a paid membership or to be a Creative Cloud subscriber to download these, or even to be using any Adobe software at all. And the videos you receive are permanent, without royalties, and are not watermarked.

So don’t miss the entire free Stock footage collection linked below, royalty-free and production-ready. Search and find the videos and audio you’d like, and start downloading today to bring your story to life:

Download now

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

More Advantages of Adobe Stock

As large as the new Free Collection is, it still represents only a small fraction of the complete Stock library, which now includes over 900 million assets of all kinds (with 60 million videos)… Of course, if there’s something you find the paid collection which appeals to you, Adobe will be pleased if you purchase it. And they even offer a free 30-day trial where you can download any 10 paid assets you like for free (videos not included).

But that is entirely optional, and there is no obligation either way. So if you prefer, you can simply use the Free Collection for as long as you like and never pay a cent.

By the way, one of the great things about Adobe Stock is how it is seamlessly integrated with the Creative Cloud tools you already use (if you do)… This means you can intelligently search for and add Stock assets to your projects and compositions directly from your current workflows. This exclusive capability turns out to be very helpful and great way to work faster, save a lot of time, and boost your productivity.

Get it now

Finally, in addition to being an Adobe Stock user, you can also easily become a Stock contributor as well – and set yourself up to make money by doing so. There are no registration or management fees, and you’ll be able to showcase your work to millions of buyers around the world and around the clock. For content creators, this is a fun side hustle and nice way to make some extra spending money.

If you have any additional questions, you’ll probably find them answered in the comprehensive Adobe Stock FAQ! Or feel free to ask below, and we’ll get back to you with the answers.

Download Thousands of Free Audio Sound Effects from Adobe

ProDesignTools — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 15:06:57 +0000

The Creative Cloud bundle includes thousands of uncompressed, royalty-free, sound effects. These can be used with Adobe’s Audition desktop app, on their own or in any other tool, and for any purpose at all.

However, you don’t have to be a paid subscriber in order to download this massive library of top-quality audio effects! In fact, everyone can access and use them at no cost – they are free now and forever, for all.

Here’s how to get them. All of these high-definition .WAV audio files have been grouped together by type and gathered into ZIP archives which can be downloaded from this page, no subscription required:

Download now

Here is a high-level listing of all of the 26 categories of original sound effects included in this complimentary collection:

Ambience
Animals
Cartoon
Crashes
Drones
Emergency Effects
Fire and Explosions
Foley
Foley Footsteps
Horror
Household
Human Elements
Imaging Elements
Impacts
Industry
Liquid and Water
Multimedia
Noise, Tones, DTMF, and Tests
Production Elements
Science Fiction
Sports
Technology
Transportation
Underwater
Weapons
Weather

All together, there is over 10 GB of free audio .WAV files here that you can use for whatever you need, so don’t miss this offer! Here’s the link:

Get them now

In addition, did you know that Adobe Stock now offers audio and music? It’s not free, but there are over 85,000 tracks to choose from – and, like the sound effects above, they are also royalty-free. You can use them to enhance virtually all of your projects with professional soundtracks. They make a real difference!

Install now: Get all new Creative Cloud 2026 direct download links and free trials.

Learn Adobe Audition – Tutorials for Beginners from Mike Russell

And if you want to learn Adobe Audition and get started editing audio in Creative Cloud, check out these excellent tutorials by audio legend Mike Russell – there’s no one better:

What’s the Difference Between the Photography, Photoshop and Lightroom Plans?

ProDesignTools — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 13:55:13 +0000

One sometimes-confusing aspect of Creative Cloud is the different plans for Photoshop that Adobe offers… What do you get with each one? When is Lightroom included and when is it not? Are the same versions of the programs included in the various Photoshop, Lightroom, and Photography plans?

Most commonly, customers want to know: What the difference is between the Photoshop Single-App subscription and the less-expensive Creative Cloud Photography Plan?

So here are the answers.

Adobe’s US$19.99/month Photography plan includes the full version of Photoshop for desktop, iPad, and mobile (iPhone or Android); also the premium version of Photoshop Express on mobile; as well as Lightroom – both the Cloud-based and Classic versions for desktop, plus Lightroom mobile and web.

Alternatively, with the $22.99/month single-app Photoshop plan, you get all the same Photoshop apps but not Lightroom… However, it comes with the full, premium version of Adobe Express – which normally costs $9.99/month on its own, and is not included in any other Photoshop or Lightroom plan.

If instead you’re a photographer who just wants Lightroom, then for $11.99/month you can choose the Lightroom-only plan, which includes all versions of Lightroom (two desktop apps – Cloud-based and Classic, plus LR for mobile and web), but not Photoshop.

New! For each of these plans, there is now a Monthly option (higher-priced; subscribe month-to-month and cancel at any time) in addition to an Annual (12-month commitment) option.

Importantly, the applications themselves are the same in all cases. There are no differences between the apps nor any limitations on their functions in any plan.

The following table should help make everything clearer:

Compare All Photoshop & Lightroom Plan Features

Feature	Lightroom Plan (1TB)	Photography Plan (1TB)	Photoshop Single-App	Adobe Firefly Pro
Cost per month (U.S.)	$11.99	$19.99	$22.99	$19.99
Photoshop on desktop		Included	Included
Photoshop on iPad (full)		Included	Included	Included
Photoshop on mobile (full)		Included	Included	Included
Photoshop Express (full)		Included	Included
Lightroom (Cloud-based)	Included	Included
Lightroom Classic	Included	Included
Adobe Express Premium			Included	Included
Cloud photo storage	1 TB	1 TB	100 GB	100 GB
Generative AI Credits	250 Monthly	1,000 Monthly	25 Monthly	4,000 Monthly
Adobe Portfolio	Included	Included	Included	Included
Adobe Fonts (full)	Included	Included	Included	Included
Adobe Fresco (100% free)	Included	Included	Included	Included
Adobe Bridge (100% free)	Included	Included	Included	Included

Join now

Note: The Firefly Pro plan listed above doesn’t include Photoshop on desktop; it just has the premium versions of Photoshop for web and mobile.

And Included in All Creative Cloud Plans

So with all of the above plans, you also get these additional tools and services:

Adobe Fonts, a massive library of over 30,000 high-quality fonts that you can search, browse, and use everywhere you need them. You don’t have to worry about installation, licensing, or limits, because it’s automatic and all personal and commercial use is covered.
Adobe Portfolio, which gives you a quick and intuitive way to create a beautiful portfolio website to show off your work, without having to write a single line of code.
Adobe Bridge, the full version – although this is actually a completely free application available to everyone with no subscription required.
Ongoing upgrades and updates for all included applications and services.
Access to hundreds of exclusive online video tutorials in Creative Cloud Learn.
Flexible and budget-friendly payments through monthly or yearly subscription options.
You can install all of the desktop programs on up to two of your computers, and easily move the software between different systems as needed.
All desktop applications – including Lightroom – are installed locally on your computer. You don’t need an ongoing Internet connection to use them. Adobe’s desktop apps only need to connect online once every 99 days to revalidate your membership.
Get going! Download the free 314-page guide to Digital Photography, Photoshop & Lightroom.

If you’d like to try out any of the desktop applications first, then just download the fully-functional free trials to get started:

Download now

The Top 21 Benefits of Creative Cloud’s Photography Plan

ProDesignTools — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:11:06 +0000

In our view, the best deal going in Creative Cloud (if you’re not a student or teacher) is the Photography plan. You get not one, not two, but three core desktop products, plus additional tools and services, for around $20 a month.

The Photography plan was originally created as a one-time special offer in 2013, but it proved so popular that Adobe eventually made it permanent. So what makes it such a great deal? With the US$19.99/£19.97/€23,99/A$30.99 per month Photography Plan, you get the latest versions of Photoshop, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and much more in the package. Here’s an overview of everything that’s included:

The full desktop release of Adobe Photoshop (not a reduced or limited version), the industry-standard image editing tool for over 35 years.
The latest Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plugin, the foundational raw imaging engine to import and enhance your photographs.
Adobe Bridge, Creative Cloud’s flagship desktop media browser and digital asset manager (although it’s true that Bridge is free for everyone).
Photoshop on iPad – the real deal on iPad, which shares the same underlying code base as its venerable older sibling, PS for desktop.
The premium version of the highly-rated new Photoshop for iPhone, as well as the Photoshop Express app to install on both iOS and Android.
New: Photoshop on the Web to edit, review, and share Photoshop cloud documents right in any web browser – anytime, anywhere.
Adobe Lightroom, Adobe’s powerful cloud-based desktop application to non-destructively edit, organize, and process all your photos.
Lightroom Classic, the original desktop-focused digital photography solution which uses your local hard drive(s) for photo storage.
The Lightroom Mobile app for iPad, iPhone, and Android, which shares many features and has connected workflows to the LR desktop apps.
1 TB of online Creative Cloud storage (upgradable), including online photo storage on Lightroom Web.
The complete Adobe Fonts library for desktop and web, with 30,000+ different typefaces for any personal or commercial use.
Full access to Adobe Portfolio, which allows you to quickly and easily build a website to showcase your creative work.
25 monthly generative credits for Photoshop and Lightroom to use Adobe’s new AI capabilities.
Ongoing upgrades and updates for all included applications and services, so long as your subscription remains active.
Access to hundreds of exclusive video tutorials in Creative Cloud Learn.
Download and use two previous major versions of your apps, if desired.
Install all desktop applications on up to two of your computers, and easily move the products between different systems you own.
The Photography plan is upgradable to the complete Creative Cloud “All Apps” plan at any time, which includes many more tools.
You can download and run a fully-functional free 7-day trial to try out all the software on your own computer and devices first.
All direct purchases from Adobe automatically come with a 14-day full Money Back Guarantee, in case you change your mind.
Get going! Download the free 314-page guide to Photography, Photoshop & Lightroom.

In addition to this Photography bundle, Adobe offers other flavors of Lightroom / Photoshop plans: one with Lightroom only and one with Photoshop only which also includes Adobe Express premium. You can compare the plans here.

But again, in our view, it’s tough to beat the value offered by the standard Photography plan – as this collection of best-of-breed professional tools previously cost well over $1,000 upfront just to get in the door, which didn’t include upgrades. Heck, Photoshop by itself used to cost $699-$999 upfront for a static copy.

So for our money – with the exception of the Student & Teacher Edition (if you happen to qualify) – the Photography plans continue to be the best deal Creative Cloud has got going, and Adobe’s lowest-priced desktop offerings.

Get it now

Further questions? See the Creative Cloud Photography plans FAQ here.

Free Guide! Download Your Creative Career Start-Up Manual Now

ProDesignTools — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 14:53:12 +0000

Thirteen years ago, Adobe acquired Behance – the leading online community and social media platform for creative professionals, which is often referred to as “The LinkedIn for Creatives.” Back then, Behance had about 1 million members. Since that time, with Behance’s inclusion into Creative Cloud, growth and participation have exploded – and the Behance community now boasts over 50 million members receiving 180 million project views per month.

With Behance, you can easily upload your photographs, projects, or portfolios and gain a fantastic way to showcase, share, and get exposure for your work as well as receive feedback from your creative peers, and get inspired for future work. You can publish many types of media such as images, text, illustrations, video and audio, and follow statistics on how many views your projects are getting, and potentially make money. There’s even a very helpful job list for creatives and freelancers, with hundreds of available employment opportunities.

Note that you do not need to be a paid member of Adobe’s Creative Cloud to join and use Behance… You can be a completely free member of Creative Cloud, and/or use other software tools entirely – and you can still sign up for Behance at no cost.

Free Stock! Download 1,000,000+ premium assets from the new Adobe Stock Free Collection

There are many, many amazing success stories. Russian Illustrator Fil Dunsky says most of his clients come from Behance – he’s gotten commercial projects from all over the world after posting his work, and is now able to work as a full-time freelancer. (Bonus: Check out two free freelancer books further below.) Digital artist Patrick Seymour writes, “Usher’s production team saw my work on Behance and asked me to create custom illustrations for his next world tour.” Saxon Campbell recounts how “Behance turned my freelance gig into a full-time success, and I am now running my own creative studio.” Yet another designer reports, “I created custom graphics for the end credits of ‘22 Jump Street‘ after my retro-futuristic logos went viral on Behance.”

And now, here’s a terrific way to help make it happen for you. You can download Your Creative Career Start-Up Manual, a 15-page guidebook to getting started and being successful on Behance. Learn more, go for it, and take your creative career to the next level! As Milton Berle once said, “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door”:

Download now

Here are the reader reviews for this free book: “Good resource. Behance is awesome!” … “Excellent material. Thanks” … “I’m excited to really start my artistic side” … “Wow, very good” … “thank you :)” … “Very excited to know more”… “This is definitely worth a try” … “I wish I knew about this publication a year ago.” … “Cheers!”

UPDATE – Also don’t miss Adobe’s new Career Resource Center with many great learning resources, as well as the opportunity to launch your creative career and get discovered with the Adobe Creative Apprenticeship – in other words, make your portfolio stand out with Adobe as your first client!

Bonus: Download Your Free Copy of “The Freelancer’s Roadmap” (68 Pages)

Here’s another superb free book that could help you a great deal in your creative career: it’s The Freelancer’s Roadmap, a 68-page guide from the helpful team at CreativeLive… In this informative eBook, you’ll learn about putting together a high-quality creative portfolio, how to build a powerful personal brand, how to calculate your best hourly rate, how to find new clients and write winning proposals, and how top freelancers can earn a very good living.

You can download this step-by-step roadmap here:

Download now

UPDATE – Also available from that same page is The Freelancer’s Bible: Your Guide to Going It Alone… Whether you’re already freelance or thinking of making the jump, this free ebook from Route One Print is full of useful freelance advice, with tips on how to market your business, find your Unique Selling Proposition, license your work, manage client relationships, complete tax returns, and much more.

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

New Video: Ten Tips to Improve Your Creative Career

The Greatest Hits: Our Most Popular Adobe Posts & Tips of All Time

ProDesignTools — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:00:22 +0000

With one year wrapped up and a new one just beginning, it seems a perfect time to put together a review of the best and most-shared posts published here since our site launched in 2009 (over 16 years ago now!), including some very popular free books.

These are the top posts that consistently have the highest readership on our site, month after month, covering all major Adobe software products… They’re broken out by topic below in case you’ve missed any, or are new here – so bookmark, share, and enjoy!

Free Adobe Books

Download Adobe CC Design Basics, Free! New 212-Page Book
Get 6 Free Books to Boost Creativity & Inspire Your Best Work
Adobe InDesign: Get the Guide to What’s New in All Versions
Learn Animate Free – Download 59-Page Guidebook + Assets
Download Now: The Illustrator New Features Guidebook
Free! Download 30 Adobe Books at No Cost, Learn All Products

Creative Cloud (CC)

The 10 Most Common Myths About Creative Cloud
The 14 Ultimate Adobe Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheets
How You Can Save 8% on Your Creative Cloud Subscription
What’s the Difference Between CC for Teams vs. Individuals?
16 Important Facts You Didn’t Know About Creative Cloud
Using the Newest Adobe Tools Can Save You Money – Here’s Why

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop’s New Generative AI Features Are Truly Revolutionary
The Complete Guide to What’s New in Photoshop, from CS to CC
The Top 21 Benefits of Creative Cloud Photography Plan ($19.99/mo)
What’s the Difference Between the Photography, PS vs. LR Plans?
Download the “Real” Photoshop on Your Phone – It’s Here and FREE

Adobe Lightroom

Download Free Book on Photography, Lightroom, Photoshop
Two Free Books! Get the Lightroom Quick Start Guides (134 Pgs)
Photoshop vs. Lightroom vs. Elements – What’s the Difference?
Adobe Unveils the Lightroom Mobile App for iOS, Now Shipping
Using the Newest Adobe Tools Can Save You Money – Here’s Why

Adobe Video/Audio Tools

Adobe Launches Astounding New Firefly AI Video Capabilities
Get 23 Hours of Free Training for Premiere Pro and After Effects
Download Thousands of Free Audio Sound Effects from Adobe
Get Quick Start Guides and Learn Video Editing with Premiere Pro
Download the New 51-Page Guidebook to Learn After Effects Free

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat DC Is Here: What’s New and What’s It All About?
Compare Versions: Differences Between Acrobat DC vs. XI
Download 3 Free eBooks: Acrobat DC, XI, X How-to Tutorial Guides
Over Two Hours of Free Adobe Acrobat DC Video Tutorials
Free Book on Printing in Acrobat, Photoshop, InDesign & Illustrator

Students & Teachers

How to Save up to 70% with Adobe’s Education Versions
Download Free Adobe CS6 Courses for Students & Teachers
Adobe Offers Big Discount on Creative Cloud for Education
What Are the Limitations of Student & Teacher Editions?

Direct Download Links

Creative Cloud 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018 Links
Direct Download Links for Adobe Acrobat DC 2026
Photoshop/Premiere Elements 2023 Direct Links
Direct Download Links for CS6, CS5.5, CS5, and Lightroom 6/CC
Adobe Captivate 2019 Direct Download Links

General How-to’s

How to Join Creative Cloud for Free – and Get Adobe Bridge for Free
How Many Computers Can You Install and Run Your Adobe Programs On?
How to Move Adobe Software Between Systems, or from Windows to Mac
So Many Different Creative Cloud Apps: Which Tools Are Right for You?
How to Work 10X Faster with Adobe Stock and Creative Cloud Libraries
How to Extend Creative Cloud Free Trials to 21 Days Long, Rather Than 7 Days

Everything Else

Adobe Fresco Premium Is Now 100% Free for All Users, No Subscription
Creative Cloud Annual vs. Monthly Plans: Which Should You Choose?
What Is Adobe Express? How Does It Work? Is It Free? (Yes and No)
Get Adobe Stock for Free and Download 1,000,000+ High-Quality Assets
Why You Should Never Buy Adobe Software on eBay or Amazon Marketplace
All Current Top Adobe Coupon Codes & Discount Promotions, Updated Weekly

What’s missing? Anything that you’d like us to cover? Any burning questions you’ve got on Adobe applications? Just let us know in the comments below and we’ll get you answers…

It’s been a great sixteen years so far, and we’re looking forward to an even better 2026 – Happy New Year!

The post The Greatest Hits: Our Most Popular Adobe Posts & Tips of All Time appeared first on ProDesignTools.

How to Use Photoshop to Create a Time-Lapse Video from Photos

ProDesignTools — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 15:12:02 +0000

Time-lapse photography videos never go out of style… Here is one of our all-time favorites from Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sorgjerd – incredibly beautiful and perfect for the clear, dark nights of the season (watch full-screen):

Prior to the extensive video editing tools first introduced in CS6, Photoshop wasn’t really known for its video capabilities – but in fact it’s always been possible to take a series of still photographs (manipulated as desired) and then quickly create your own timelapse video using Photoshop Extended…

The techniques given below will work for all Photoshop releases (the latest CC or the older CS) – and Extended is not required if you do still use CS6, as the Standard version can edit video as well. The newest Creative Cloud versions are always Extended, meaning you have even better video capabilities plus can do many other cool things as well:

Get it now

Check out the complete, in-depth guide to all the features added to Photoshop in all CS and CC versions.

Here now professional photographer and Adobe Community Expert Benjamin Root walks you through how to do it, if you have a recent version of Photoshop and want to create high-resolution (4K) timelapse footage:

Or if you are still using Photoshop CS6 or older, Adobe Senior Creative Director Russell Brown gives the details below on how to make and export your own creation:

Special: Legally download dozens of free Adobe books for a limited time!

Surprising that you can do this in Photoshop, right? Learn more about how to edit video in Photoshop CC …and/or in Photoshop CS6 …or even (somewhat) as far back as Photoshop CS3-CS5.

If you don’t yet have the latest release of Photoshop – which has added hundreds upon hundreds of new features and advancements since CS6 – then you can get the newest releases of both Photoshop plus Lightroom together in Adobe’s extremely popular $19.99/mo. Creative Cloud Photography Bundle.

If you want to try out the new tools first (before buying), then just download and install the free Creative Cloud trials to get started today… There are plenty of excellent free tutorials to help you learn how to best use these products on your own schedule, giving you everything you need to create anything.

Download now

Download the complete manual – free PDF documentation – for Photoshop, or any Adobe tool.

ProDesignTools

Here’s the Best Way to Get Adobe Direct Download Links

How to get direct download links for Creative Cloud apps

New activation process for legacy Adobe apps

What’s New in Creative Cloud 2026?

Photoshop 2026 New Features

Chat With Photoshop Using AI Assistant

See Also

Get Adobe Stock for Free + Download 1,000,000 High-Quality Assets

Adobe Stock is Seamlessly Integrated into Your Workflow

Are You a Photographer or Designer? Sell Your Work on Adobe Stock

See Also

Learn After Effects Free! Download 51-Page AE Guidebook Now

After Effects Book Trailer Video

See Also

How to Protect Yourself From Pirated & Counterfeit Adobe Software

“Free Photoshop Downloads” are Not Actually Free

How to Protect Yourself Against Infections and Hacks

Have You Received an Adobe Genuine Service Alert?

For More Assistance and Information

See Also

Get Started with Premiere Pro: Download the Quick Start Guides

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