On April 23 this year Adobe launched Creative Suite 6 which has been called one of the best releases by many professionals and industry editions. But what really makes this launch stand out of the row of Adobe CS releases is introduction of Adobe Creative Cloud. This new product completely changes the way how people get access to Adobe products. US$ 49.99 per month looks like a really affordable price for anyone who makes money using Adobe software and this is great! But that’s not all. Very soon when Adobe Creative Cloud is here designers, developers, video and photo professionals and others who decided to subscribe to the Cloud will find that they really have access to almost every Adobe application, not only the set of software they are used to.

Ok, what does it mean and what impact it may have on professional activity? Well these days everything changes very quickly and you never know what skills and tools you will need tomorrow. For example not so long ago thousands of designers found that if they wanted to keep pace with the industry they had to start creating not only for print but also for web editions and that required them to learn how to add video and animation to their designs, how to create web pages, how to publish for multiple screens and so on. Previously in many cases if you wanted to master some new professional skills you had to invest in new software first and then learn how to use it. Today with Adobe Creative Cloud membership you have access to almost any Adobe software any time and that means that if you tomorrow’s needs require you to learn how to edit video in Premiere Pro CS6, or produce posters and brochures in InDesign CS6, or create web pages in Adobe Muse you will be able to start learning and using necessary software without additional investments.

Here we have prepared some links where you can find Adobe CS6 tutorials for some of the most popular products:

Adobe Photoshop CS6 tutorials:

• Learn what’s new in Photoshop CS6 on Adobe TV’s Photoshop CS6 Feature Tour
• Photoshop CS6 tutorials and new features on Lynda Training
• Join the world’s top Pro Photographers and Adobe Photoshop Experts on Kelby Training

Adobe Illustrator CS6 tutorials:

• Adobe Illustrator CS6 new features on Adobe TV
• Illustrator CS6 tutorials with Justin Seeley on Lynda Training
• Illustrator CS6 New Features on Lynda Training

Adobe InDesign CS6 tutorials:

• InDesign CS6 new features on Adobe TV
• InDesign CS6 New Features with Anne-Marie Concepcion on Lynda Training
• InDesign CS6 tutorials with David Blatner on Lynda Training

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 tutorials:

• Premiere Pro CS6 new features in CS6 & Creative Cloud Feature Tour for Video on Adobe TV
• Premiere Pro CS6 tutorials with Abba Shapiro on Lynda Training
• Premiere Pro CS6 New Features with Richard Harrington on Lynda Training

Adobe Flash Professional CS6 tutorials:

• Flash Professional CS6 new features in CS6 & Creative Cloud Feature Tour for Web on Adobe TV
• Flash Professional CS6 tutorials on Lynda Training
• Flash Professional CS6 New Features with Anastasia McCune on Lynda Training

Adobe Fireworks CS6 tutorials:

• Fireworks CS6 new features in CS6 & Creative Cloud Feature Tour for Web on Adobe TV
• Fireworks CS6 tutorials and Fireworks CS6 New Features with Ray Villalobos on Lynda Training

Adobe After Effects CS6 tutorials:

• After Effects CS6 new features on Adobe TV
• After Effects CS6 tutorials with Ian Robinson on Lynda Training
• After Effects CS6 New Features with Chris Meyer on Lynda Training

Adobe Audition CS6 tutorials:

• Audition CS6 new features in CS6 & Creative Cloud Feature Tour for Video on Adobe TV
• Audition CS6 tutorials with Garrick Chow on Lynda Training

Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 tutorials:

• Dreamweaver CS6 new features in CS6 & Creative Cloud Feature Tour for Web on Adobe TV
• Dreamweaver CS6 tutorials and Dreamweaver CS6 New Features with James Williamson on Lynda Training

Adobe Edge preview tutorials:

• Introduction to Adobe Edge preview on Adobe TV
• Edge First Look with Mordy on Lynda Training

Adobe Muse tutorials:

• Adobe Muse Feature Tour on Adobe TV
• Adobe Muse tutorials with James Fritz on Lynda Training

Adobe Prelude CS6 tutorials:

• Introduction to Prelude CS6 on Adobe TV

Adobe SpeedGrade CS6 tutorials:

• Introduction to SpeedGrade CS6 on Adobe TV

Adobe CS6 launch event took place two weeks ago and all the products of Creative Suite 6 have been available for pre-order until this moment, but today May 7, 2012 Adobe CS6 shipment begins! What does it mean? It means that you can buy Adobe CS6 or upgrade your Adobe CS3, CS4, CS5, or CS5.5 software right now. What is more, today you can download Adobe CS6 trial versions of software.

Download Adobe CS6 Trials Now!

So, if you want to learn what’s new in Adobe CS6 before making a decision on upgrade you can download a trial version of almost any CS6 product* and use it absolutely free for 30 days. If you are satisfied with the product after the trial period in most cases you will be able to easily convert the software into purchased versions without needing to reinstall it.

Useful links on adobe.com:

• Adobe Creative Suite 6 trial FAQ
• Adobe CS6 Installer instructions
• System requirements for CS6 Master Collection, Design Standard, Production Premium, Design and Web.
• Get up to 80% off and free shipping on Adobe CS6 Student and Teacher Edition. Through June 30th.

If you decided to opt for Adobe Creative Cloud membership it will be available for users only Friday, May 11. Today you can only pre-order Adobe Creative Cloud membership. But still while waiting for Creative Cloud launch you can start using Adobe CS6 apps by downloading their trial versions and again after you Creative Cloud membership is activated you won’t have to reinstall your software.

If you are a current user of earlier versions of Adobe CS products be aware that starting with the release of Creative Suite 6, individual upgrades — both CS suite editions and point products like Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6 — are available for purchase only through Adobe.com.

Also if you own CS3 or CS4 versions of Adobe products and decide to keep your software upgraded instead of becoming an Adobe Creative Cloud member you should remember that upgrade to Adobe CS6 from CS3 or CS4 will remain available only before December 31, 2012. Unfortunately for CS2 users since today May 7, 2012 there is no way to upgrade their software.

*From Adobe Creative Suite 6 trial FAQ: Note that Adobe Encore CS6 and Adobe Prelude CS6 are not available for trial. Encore and Prelude will be installed as part of the trial for CS6 Production Premium and Master Collection but will not be available for use until you purchase. The trial versions of Adobe After Effects CS6 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 do not include some features that depend on software licensed from parties other than Adobe. For example, some codecs for encoding MPEG formats are available only with the full version of these products.

CS6 & Creative Cloud Feature Tour for Video, Design, and Web

Adobe Creative Suite 6 & Creative Cloud Launch Week

Adobe learning solutions

Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta expired on May 3, 2012 and one could guess that Photoshop CS6 shipment was just around the corner. And here it is – Photoshop CS6 is available for purchase today! If you tried Photoshop CS6 beta and liked using the software for free there is good news for you: now you can download Photoshop CS6 trial and continue using this app for free for 30 days more. But if you are ready to buy Photoshop CS6 it is now available for download.

Get Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 for only US$99 when purchased with Adobe Photoshop CS6.

If you wish to know more about what’s new in Adobe Photoshop CS6 don’t miss today’s Julieanne Kost’s show, which will take place on Monday, May 7, 2012 at 10am Pacific (find out what time it is in your time zone). Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist Julieanne Kost will cover the new enhanced image processing and improved controls in Adobe Camera Raw 7, new blur effects, type styles, all-new Crop tool, power of Content-Aware Patch Content-Aware Move tools, great performance of the new Mercury Graphics Engine and much more new features in Adobe Photoshop CS6. This webinar is a part of Ask A Pro Launch Week series, and you can register for the session here.

NOTE: There is limited capacity in the webinars, so if a session fills up, a recording will be available on adobe.com/events.

Until recently the fullest set of Adobe products could be acquired with Adobe Master Collection and all additional applications and services had to be bought additionally. But this year Adobe has introduced a completely new approach to distribution of its apps and services by launching Adobe Creative Cloud. This is a new product which makes access to the most up-to-date industry standard tools easier and more affordable.

Save $20/month for the first year on Adobe Creative Cloud            

You can join Adobe Creative Cloud for just US$49.99 per month on an annual plan or US$74.99 per month on a month-to-month plan. Also if you are a current licensed user of Adobe CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.5 or CS6 products you can get Adobe Creative Cloud membership for just US$29.99 per month for the first year (see details of the offer). The same price is available for Adobe Creative Cloud Student and Teacher Edition.

Adobe TV: Adobe Creative Cloud

With Adobe Creative Cloud you just pay a monthly fee and get access to all Adobe CS6 applications and all upgrades as soon as they are released. So far it looks pretty much like Adobe Master Collection but on a subscription basis. Well, actually Creative Cloud includes more than Adobe Master Collection. At the moment it includes two applications not included in Master Collection, as well as access to online services which owners of Master Collection have to pay for additionally, and some services that are available only to the Creative Cloud members. So let’s check up what apps and services are a part of Adobe Creative Cloud that are not included in Master Collection.

Applications

Adobe Muse is an application for designers who want to create HTML web pages without writing code or collaborating with developers. It contains a set of tools that make this work easy and intuitive.  The application is not a part of Adobe CS6 and thus is not included in any Creative Suite. There are only two ways to get the application: subscribe for US$14.99 or 24.99 per month (depending on a subscription plan), or get it as a part of Adobe Creative Cloud.

Adobe Edge preview is a great, easy to use app for creating HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript based interactive motion content for the web. Edge works natively in HTML and consistently displays across multiple browsers and devices. The application is available only as a part of Creative Cloud.

Services

More applications, affordable price without the need to face considerable upfront cost, timely upgrades – all this is great, but the real potential of Adobe Creative Cloud is in its ability to streamline creative process and allow professionals to enjoy more freedom. With Device and PC sync and Cloud storage services you can create your artwork on a tablet, easily access it from your desktop and edit at any time. With Cloud storage you get 20GB of online storage for your files, which can be easily shared with other users, who can open them in a browser even without having associated applications installed. What is also exciting about Adobe Creative Cloud it’s the ability to use both Windows and Mac versions of software on two of your computers, and files stored in the cloud will be automatically synced for running on any of these machines.

Though Creative Cloud allows easy syncing of files created on your tablet with your other computers for further editing, Adobe Touch Apps are not a part of the Cloud and must be purchased separately. Annual plan members receive a complimentary month of membership upon signing into Creative Cloud from three qualifying Touch Apps.

Device and PC sync and Cloud storage are exclusively available for Adobe Creative Cloud members and you cannot subscribe to them if you are not using Creative Cloud. But there are even more services that you will get with Cloud membership: Business Catalyst, Typekit, and Story Plus. And unlike Adobe Master Collection CS6 users (or any other Adobe Creative Suite users) Cloud members won’t need to pay any additional money for access to these services.

Adobe is also planning to provide Creative Cloud members with access to Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Single Edition, which will enable them to create and deliver portfolios, brochures, and other immersive content to iPad and other tablets without writing code.

Adobe applications for professionals in design, photography, web and video have become some of the most popular tools for creation of print and web editions, engaging videos and web sites. Actually these products are industry standard and tens of thousands professionals use them. And of course Adobe is interested in providing its customers with all possible assistance in learning how to use the products, how to increase productivity and develop career skills.

Get free shipping on Adobe CS6 Student and Teacher Edition

(Through June 30th)

Students and Faculty Save up to 80%! on Adobe CS6 products

To qualify for a student discount, you must be enrolled in one of the following:

1. University or college — accredited public or private university or college (including community, junior, or vocational college) that grants degrees requiring not less than the equivalent of two years of full-time study
2. Primary or secondary school — accredited public or private primary or secondary school providing full-time instruction
3. Homeschool — defined by state homeschooling regulations

• Student eligibility guide on Adobe.com

To qualify for a teacher discount, you must be one of the following:

1. Faculty or staff — employed by an accredited primary or secondary school, public or private university or college, school district, or board of education (including emeritus status professors)
2. Teacher of a homeschooled student — defined by state homeschooling regulations

• Teacher eligibility guide on Adobe.com

Institution discount

To see if you can purchase software for your school at education discounts, check the following list of eligible types of institutions.  The following requirements apply to the United States and Canada.

• Institution eligibility guide on Adobe.com

Today Adobe provides a number of education programs for students and educators. For example you may join a yearlong, project-based curriculum in Foundations of Design and Print Production, Foundations of Web Design, or Foundations of Video Design and Production. These curriculums are absolutely free and help to develop career and communication, project management and technology skills. All you need to get a curriculum is to create an account on Adobe.com

Also Adobe holds various web events such as Adobe Education Webinar Series which is going to take place May 15-22, 2012. Join Adobe education and industry experts as they conduct free online seminars about how to leverage industry-standard Adobe products. These live sessions will help to learn more about completely new methods of preparing engaging curriculum, teaching important digital communication skills, empower students to creatively express what they’ve learned, simplify complex concepts, and improve communication.

Adobe Education Exchange

If you are an educator and wish to keep up with technology, collaborate with other professionals, share your experience and learn more about how to engage students in learning, unleash creativity, and prepare them for career success, you should definitely join Adobe Education Exchange. This is a great online community for educators designed to help them share their insights, perspective, and content. There is a new Adobe Education Exchange portal where you can find lots of information about Adobe CS6 including digital careers curriculum for CS6 and Adobe CS6 tutorials.

During a couple of years Adobe Education Exchange has grown into an incredible resource for educators with more than 50.000 members. Registration on the portal is absolutely free, so all you need to start using this great source of information is to spare several minutes to create an Adobe account.

Earlier this month before the official launch of Adobe CS6 we could figure out only some of the new features of this release like introduction of two new applications Prelude CS6 and SpeedGrade CS6, and uniting of Adobe Design Premium and Web Premium into one new package Design & Web Premium CS6. But today much more information is available and we can finally compare new Creative Suites 6 with their previous versions and answer the question “what’s the difference between Adobe CS5.5 and CS6”. So let’s compare Adobe CS6 packages with their previous versions and try to understand whether it is worth upgrading.

Adobe CS6 Master Collection 

Remember – only before May 6 you can upgrade to Adobe Master Collection CS5.5, Adobe Web Premium CS5.5,  Adobe Design Premium CS5.5,  Adobe Design Standard CS5.5, or  Adobe Production Premium CS5.5 and get CS6 upgrade without additional payment. Find out exactly how much you save! Also you may Pre-order Adobe Creative Suite 6 products now! Shipping begins May 7th.

Adobe has introduced two new applications Prelude CS6 and SpeedGrade CS6 and now they are the part of Master Collection CS6. At the same time four products didn’t make it into Adobe CS6 Master Collection: OnLocation, Device Central, Flash Catalyst, and Contribute.

SpeedGrade CS6 is a new Adobe application for advanced color grading based on Lumetri Deep Color Engine.

Adobe Prelude CS6 is one more brand new application in CS6 family designed to ingest nearly any file-based format and begin logging immediately, creating searchable markers and other temporal metadata that flow through post-production.

One of the key features of CS6 Master Collection is a great increase in performance. This is achieved thanks to both: new features and tools such as content-aware or 3D tools in Photoshop CS6, Content Collector tools in InDesign, etc., as well as native 64-bit support on Mac OS and Windows, Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine in Photoshop Extended, Adobe Mercury Performance System in Illustrator CS6, Global Performance Cache in After Effects etc.

So let’s compare the set of software in Adobe Master Collection CS5.5 and CS6, and take a brief look at some of the new features in the CS6 applications:

Adobe CS6 Design & Web Premium

In this Adobe Creative Suite release there are only four packages because Adobe Design Premium and Adobe Web Premium suites have been united in one package – Adobe CS6 Design & Web Premium.

Adobe CS6 Design & Web Premium includes all the same products as previously Adobe CS5.5 Design Premium, but without Flash Catalyst and Device Central, also you may have noticed that two products from Web Premium CS5.5 are not included in this new Suite namely Flash Builder, and Contribute. Flash Builder 4.6 is now available only as an individual product or as a part of Adobe CS6 Master Collection and also for members of Adobe Creative Cloud.

As for Flash Catalyst “Adobe has decided to discontinue the production of Flash Catalyst in order to streamline the product line”. The same has happened to Adobe Device Central. Both apps have been discontinued effectiveApril 23, 2012 and will no longer be included as part of Creative Suite editions or individual products.

It looks like with CS6 release instead of Flash Catalyst designers will get a brand new Adobe Muse which similar to Flash Catalyst enables designers to create websites without writing code. But Adobe Muse is available only as a part of Adobe Creative Cloud.

In the following table you will see what the difference between Adobe Design Premium CS5.5, Web Premium CS5.5 and Adobe CS6 Design & Web Premium is:

Adobe CS6 Design Standard

Adobe CS6 Design Standard includes all the same applications as Adobe CS5.5 Design Standard apart from discontinued Adobe Device Central, which is replaced by Media Encoder CS6. Thus the following applications are inside Adobe CS6 Design Standard:

• Photoshop® CS6
• Illustrator® CS6
• InDesign® CS6
• Acrobat® X Pro
• Bridge CS6
• Media Encoder CS6

Adobe CS6 Production Premium

Adobe CS6 Production Premium now includes two new apps: SpeedGrade CS6, Prelude CS6, but Flash Catalyst CS5.5, OnLocation CS5, and Device Central CS5.5 are not in this package any more. As it was mentioned Flash Catalyst and Device Central will not be supported and sold by Adobe since April 23, 2012. As for Adobe OnLocation, it looks like it is replaced by Prelude CS6 in Adobe CS6 Production Premium.

Adobe CS6 has been finally launched! At yesterday’s Creative Cloud and Creative Suite 6 Launch event Adobe unveiled some ground breaking features of the release as well as more details about the much rumored Adobe Creative Cloud. So now all possible information about CS6 is available such as pricing, special offers, videos, products included in Creative Suites, CS6 shipment date, etc. And what does it mean for the Adobe customers? It means that it is high time to make a decision, whether they are going to buy Adobe CS6 upgrade, skip this version or move to Creative Cloud. You also can pre-order Adobe CS6 now and the software will be shipped after May 7, 2012.

Special Offers

• Upgrade to CS6 starting at $399! Only at Adobe.com
• Get up to 80% off with Adobe CS6 Student and Teacher Editions
• Save time and save money with Adobe Volume Licensing
• Save up to 50% on Adobe software – use your 2011 tax refund and save today!
• Free Shipping on orders over £350 in the Adobe European Stores

Want to know exactly how much you save if you upgrade to CS5.5 now (before May 6th) and get a free CS6 upgrade – Read more 

CS6 Upgrade

If you own some separate Adobe applications or a Creative Suite you should know several important things about some new Adobe policies and special offers. First of all Adobe is completely changing its upgrade policy. If earlier you could own one of three previous versions of software to be eligible for upgrade to a most up-to-date version, starting from this release all customers have to be on the previous version of software to upgrade to the current version. For example you will be able to upgrade to Adobe CS6 only if you own CS5 or CS5.5 software, and when Adobe CS7 is released only owners of CS6 and CS6.5 will be eligible for upgrade. But if you are still using Adobe CS4, CS3 or even CS2 there still is a chance to stay updated. As it is said in Adobe Creative Suite family FAQ: “Owners of CS3 or CS4 individual products and suite editions will receive temporary upgrade pricing to CS6 until December 31, 2012.”. The last chance to upgrade for Adobe CS2 users is to grab Adobe offer to upgrade to CS5.5 now and get Adobe CS6 without additional payment when it is shipped. Actually this offer may be a good way to save for Adobe CS3 and CS4 owners as well. Let’s compare the cost of upgrade to CS5.5 and to CS6 for some Creative Suites and separate products:

Master Collection Upgrade 

You own one of the following products	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Master Collection CS5.5, US$	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Master Collection CS6, US$	How much you save if you upgrade to Adobe Master Collection CS5.5 now (before May 6th) and get a free CS6 upgrade	Adobe.com Direct Link
Creative Suite 2.x Premium or Standard	1,399.00	n/a (full version – 2,599.00)	1200.00	Upgrade Now
CS3.x Master Collection	1,399.00	1,399.00	0.00	Upgrade Now
CS4 Master Collection	949.00	1,399.00	450.00	Upgrade Now
CS5 Master Collection	549.00	1,049.00	500.00	Upgrade Now

Design Standard Upgrade 

You own one of the following products	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Design Standard CS5.5, US$	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Design Standard CS6, US$	How much you save if you upgrade to Production Premium CS5.5 now (before May 6th) and get a free CS6 upgrade	Adobe.com Direct Link
Creative Suite 2.x Premium or Standard	699.00	n/a (full version – 1,299.00)	600.00	Upgrade Now
CS3 Design Standard	699.00	699.00	0.00	Upgrade Now
CS4 Design Standard	499.00	699.00	200.00	Upgrade Now
CS5 Design Standard	299.00	549.00	250.00	Upgrade Now

Production Premium Upgrade 

You own one of the following products	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Production Premium CS5.5, US$	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Production Premium CS6, US$	How much you save if you upgrade to Production Premium CS5.5 now (before May 6th) and get a free CS6 upgrade	Adobe.com Direct Link
Creative Suite 2.x Premium or Standard	949.00	n/a (full version – 1,899.00)	950.00	Upgrade Now
CS3 Production Premium	949.00	949.00	0.00	Upgrade Now
CS4 Production Premium	649.00	949.00	300.00	Upgrade Now
CS5 Production Premium	399.00	749.00	350.00	Upgrade Now

Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium Upgrade 

You own one of the following products	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Design Premium CS5.5 or Web Premium CS5.5, US$	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Design Premium and Web Premium CS6, US$	How much you save if you upgrade to Adobe Design Premium CS5.5 or Web Premium CS5.5 now (before May 6th) and get a free CS6 upgrade	Adobe.com Direct Link
Creative Suite 2.x Premium or Standard	949.00	n/a (full version – 1,899.00)	950.00	Upgrade Now
CS3 Design Premium or CS3 Web Premium	949.00	949.00	0.00	Upgrade Now
CS4 Design Premium or CS4 Web Premium	649.00	949.00	300.00	Upgrade Now
CS5 Design Premium or CS5 Web Premium	399.00	749.00	350.00	Upgrade Now

Photoshop Upgrade 

You own one of the following products	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS5, US$	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS6, US$	How much you save if you upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS5 now (before May 6th) and get a free CS6 upgrade	Adobe.com Direct Link
Photoshop CS2	199.00	n/a (full version – 699.00)	500.00	Upgrade Now
Photoshop CS3	199.00	199.00	0.00	Upgrade Now
Photoshop CS4	199.00	199.00	0.00	Upgrade Now

Photoshop Extended Upgrade

You own one of the following products	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended, US$	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended, US$	How much you save if you upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended now (before May 6th) and get a free CS6 upgrade	Adobe.com Direct Link
Photoshop CS2	349.00	n/a (full version – 999.00)	650.00	Upgrade Now
Photoshop CS3 Extended	349.00	399.00	50.00	Upgrade Now
Photoshop CS4 Extended	349.00	399.00	50.00	Upgrade Now

InDesign Upgrade 

You own one of the following products	Cost of upgrade to Adobe InDesign CS5, US$	Cost of upgrade to Adobe InDesign CS6, US$	How much you save if you upgrade to Adobe InDesign CS5.5 now (before May 6th) and get a free CS6 upgrade	Adobe.com Direct Link
InDesign CS2	199.00	n/a (full version – 699.00)	500.00	Upgrade Now
InDesign CS3	199.00	249.00	50.00	Upgrade Now
InDesign CS4	199.00	249.00	50.00	Upgrade Now
InDesign CS5	119.00	249.00	130.00	Upgrade Now

Illustrator Upgrade

You own one of the following products	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Illustrator CS5, US$	Cost of upgrade to Adobe Illustrator CS6, US$	How much you save if you upgrade now to Adobe Illustrator CS5 (before May 6th) and get a free CS6 upgrade	Adobe.com Direct Link
Illustrator CS2	199.00	n/a (full version – 599.00)	400.00	Upgrade Now
Illustrator CS3	199.00	249.00	50.00	Upgrade Now
Illustrator CS4	199.00	249.00	50.00	Upgrade Now

The above chart clearly shows that in some cases it would be very wise to grab the offer and upgrade to CS5.5 before May 6, 2012, because it can help to save up to US$1200.00. It is natural that the biggest amount will be saved if you are currently using Adobe CS2 products, because when this offer expires you will have to pay a full price for Adobe CS6 software. If you are using Adobe CS4 or CS5 Creative Suites and upgrade now to Adobe Master Collection CS5.5, Design Standard CS5.5, Production Premium CS5.5, Design Premium CS5.5 or Web Premium CS5.5 you can save from US$200 to US$500 depending on a suite. But at the same time if you are using one of CS3 packages the cost of upgrade to CS5.5 will be the same as the cost of upgrade to CS6. In case with individual products you can save from US$50 to US$500 if you upgrade now.

Pre-order

From April 23, 2012 all Adobe CS6 products are available for pre-order. The shipment will begin on May 7. So today you can pre-order Adobe CS6 software and it will be delivered in the first half of May.

For students and educators

New Adobe Creative Suite 6 Student and Teacher Editions give students – and now educators – access to low prices on full versions of the latest Adobe design software and allow saving up to 80%! The low prices enable educators and students to acquire tools to more easily produce standout work. Using the software, students can develop skills for academic and career success.

Skip

Previously many users chose to skip one or another Adobe release, but this time due to the above mentioned changes in Adobe upgrade policy skipping releases becomes virtually impossible unless you are planning not to upgrade your software at all. With these new rules customers have to “be on the most current version of Creative Suite in order to qualify for upgrade pricing when new versions are released. This means that customers need to be on CS5 or CS5.5 in order to receive upgrade pricing when CS6 is released”. Well as you may know customers using Adobe CS3 or CS4 will be able to upgrade to CS6 until December 31, 2012, but when the year 2013 begins, that’s it – only CS5 or CS5.5 users will be eligible for upgrade. And taking into account considerable upfront cost of Adobe products this is a good reason not to skip upgrades. Still you may choose not to buy mid-release upgrades, such as Adobe CS 6.5.

Cloud

Another absolutely new way to keep your Adobe software permanently upgraded is by joining Adobe Creative Cloud, especially taking into account the exciting offer to get Creative Cloud membership for just US$ 29.99 (for CS3, SC4 and CS5 owners only).

It happened at last! Adobe has officially launched Adobe Creative Cloud and Creative Suite 6! All the information about the new products including prices, videos and the date of shipment has become available earlier this day. And finally at 10 a.m. PT Adobe Creative Cloud and Creative Suite 6 were introduced during an exciting live webcast. Read more:

Save $20/month for the first year on Adobe Creative Cloud           

CS6 Buying Guide     Adobe TV: Adobe Creative Cloud

What is very special about this launch is that along with its traditional Creative Suite Adobe introduced a completely new product: Adobe Creative Cloud membership. It was announced several weeks ago that membership cost based on an early commitment would be only US$ 49.99. And it looked like a really compelling price for the ability to use all Adobe creative applications including Adobe Muse and Edge Preview which are going to be available only for Creative Cloud members. But at the launch Event we learned that the minimum Adobe Creative Cloud membership cost is even lower! There is a special offer which says that all existing Adobe CS3, CS4, or CS5 users can get their first year of Creative Cloud membership for as little as US$ 29.99 per month (the offer is valid through August 31). Also starting from today all Adobe CS6 products are available for preorder with shipment starting May 7th.  

Adobe TV: Adobe Creative Cloud

Actually there was quite a lot of attention paid to Adobe Creative Cloud during today’s live webcast. Even in the title of the event (Adobe Creative Cloud and Creative Suite 6 Launch Event) Creative Cloud stands at the first place and this may be an indication of what an important place this new product occupies in this launch. Well, maybe in the future Adobe is going to move all its products to the cloud gradually. But anyway today you can choose between buying CS6 desktop applications and joining Adobe Creative Cloud. Note that even if you choose Creative Cloud the applications you need for your creative work will have to be downloaded and installed to your machine. By the way Adobe has taken care to make downloading and installation of applications form the Creative Cloud a very easy and seamless process, and that was also demonstrated at the Adobe Creative Cloud and Creative Suite 6 launch event.     

Adobe CS6 has been launched today! Long anticipated Adobe CS6 products are available for pre-order now! Also today April 23, at 10 a.m. pacific time everyone is invited to watch the official Adobe Creative Cloud and Creative Suite Event, where Adobe is going to present its new products and services.

It has been announced today that shipment of the CS6 products is going to start on May 7th. But already now you can pre-order any product. If you are not sure what product you need, please see this CS6 Buying guide.

Pre-order Adobe CS6 products now! Shipping begins May 7th

Watch New CS6 videos on Adobe TV

•  CS6 Design Standard
•  CS6 Design & Web Premium
•  CS6 Production Premium
•  CS6 Master Collection

Special Offer at Adobe European Store  Free Shipping on orders over £350

For those who have not followed the latest news let’s take a look at some of the new Adobe CS6 features:

• With Adobe CS6 software users will enjoy greater performance due to 64-bit native support and GPU acceleration
• New Content-Aware tools for easier image editing and retouching
• Ability to create HTML5- and CSS3-based designs; seamlessly manage content across multiple layouts; and freely edit video in native formats
• More user-friendly 3D tools in Photoshop Extended
• Powerful image tracing in Illustrator
• Dynamic timeline trimming in Adobe Premiere Pro
• SpeedGrade for powerful color grading in video
• Gradients on strokes in Illustrator
• Powerful video stabilizing tools in Adobe After Effects

This launch includes the following Suites:

• CS6 Design & Web Premium. See what is CS6 Design & Web Premium

Watch more CS6 Design & Web Premium videos.

• CS6 Production Premium. See what’s new in CS6 Production Premium

Watch more CS6 Production Premium videos.

• CS6 Design Standard. See what’s new in CS6 Design Standard

Watch more CS6 Design Standard videos

• CS6 Master Collection. See what’s new in CS6 Master Collection

Watch more CS6 Master Collection videos

Products included in Adobe CS6 are:

• After Effects CS6
• Adobe Audition CS6
• Dreamweaver CS6
• Fireworks CS6
• Flash Professional CS6
• Illustrator CS6
• InCopy CS6
• InDesign CS6
• Photoshop CS6
• Photoshop CS6 Extended
• Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
• SpeedGrade CS6
• Adobe Muse
• Adobe Story Plus
• Flash Builder
• Adobe Prelude
• Edge Preview
• Encore*
• Media Encoder *

*Adobe Bridge and Adobe Media Encoder are included with certain Creative Suite 6 software editions and creative professional products.

Together with CS6 Adobe is launching Adobe Creative Cloud:

Since the launch of  Photoshop CS6 beta thousands of professionals have had an opportunity to make sure that this is going to be a great release, many of them calling CS6 one of the best upgrades in Photoshop history. But what about another leading Adobe application Illustrator, is it going to get a similar amount of great and useful features? How is Adobe Illustrator CS6 going to change creative process?

Join Adobe April 23rd at 10 am PST for a live webcast on the new CS6!

We have already seen a new pattern creation feature in this popular vector graphics editor, but Adobe doesn’t stop heating customers’ interest up. This time they issued a video where Product Manager Brenda Sutherland demonstrates a new feature that looks really amazing. With Gradients on Strokes feature in Adobe Illustrator CS6 designers will be able to easily turn simple strokes into natural-looking prominent shapes. For more flexibility gradients on strokes can be applied along, across, or within a stroke. Just look, what stunning results can be achieved in vector graphics with the help of this new feature:

Gradients on strokes and new pattern creation features look really great but we will see even more Adobe Illustrator CS6 new features very soon – during the official Adobe CS6 and Creative Cloud launch event, that will take place at 10 a.m. PT on Monday, April 23.

Upgrade now!

Don’t forget that there are only two weeks remaining to buy Adobe Illustrator CS5 or one of Creative Suites 5.5, and take advantage of Adobe offer to get a free upgrade to CS6. This offer is especially important for customers using Illustrator CS2, because this is the last chance for them to upgrade. The offer expires on May 6^th. Also upgrade all the way to CS6 from your current Suite may be more expensive than upgrade to CS5.5 now.