The Adobe Creative Cloud FAQ

Streaming Media by Jan Ozer

The next generation of Adobe’s Creative Suite applications — including Premiere Pro , Photoshop, and After Effects — is going to be radically different that what you’re used to. That’s because the next generation of Creative Suite is called Creative Cloud, and you’ll no longer buy your apps, but subscribe to them.

Confused? No doubt. That’s why we’ve created this helpful FAQs article.

What is Creative Cloud and how will it work?

Adobe is making all updated Creative Suite products available solely via the Creative Cloud, an online subscription model that requires a monthly license fee. To avoid alienating users, like Apple did with Final Cut Pro X, Adobe will wisely continue to sell CS6-level products and suites. Those will be fully supported, but not updated.

Products acquired via the Creative Cloud are downloaded and installed on your computer, just like current applications. You can install working versions of subscribed apps on two computers at a time, whether they’re Macs, Windows, or both. If you try to install any CC application on a third computer, you’ll have to sign out from one of your other two licensed computers.

How do I subscribe?

You can join the Creative Cloud on a yearly or monthly basis. If you join yearly, your computer has to contact Adobe every 99 days to verify the license. If you purchase monthly, your computer has to check in every 30 days. All you need is an internet connection and it should happen automatically. No doubt there will be multiple, highly publicized “my software quit working at the worst possible time even though I was fully licensed” stories, but Adobe has bright folks and they’ll work hard to minimize these occurrences.

Once you leave the Creative Cloud, your applications stop working, but any local or cloud-based files you worked on are yours to keep.

You can lease any single application or the entire Creative Cloud, but there are no sub-suites as there were before. It’s either one product or the whole enchilada. Once a member, you’re free to download and install any application at any time. Adobe will archive older versions of the application on the Creative Cloud, so you won’t be forced to upgrade to newer versions before you’re ready. read more...