A New Boost To Adobe Creative Cloud

One of the mainstays in any graphic artist’s toolbox is the Adobe family of products. But where artists, designers, and other professionals once had to purchase individual software titles (and then hope they didn’t upgrade their hardware and have to buy it all over again), Adobe has streamlined the process through its subscription-based offering, Adobe Creative Cloud.

Creative Cloud gives users the full suite, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier Pro/After Effects, Photoshop Sketch, Capture, just to name a few. But with the recent update to Creative Cloud that launched this summer, pros and newcomers alike can access a host of new options:

• Photoshop is perhaps the most widely heard of part of the suite, and one of its newest features is the ability for the software to “fill in the gaps” when you use Crop to rotate an image or move it past the original size.
• In Illustrator, users can retrieve aspects from their artboards and then change so many things about them–including resolution, format, and size–with the click of a mouse.
• Creative Cloud Library now lets you collaborate with team members or send renderings to clients in a read-only format, meaning some well-intentioned group member isn’t going to alter the working original.
• In Adobe Capture, you’ll be able to grab images from your mobile device and manipulate them for use in your Photoshop work sphere without the process of getting the image off your phone, storing it to your computer, and then trying to work with it.
• Speaking of mobile, Sketch has a whole new tool set for creating with your iPhone or iPad, especially if you need to fine tune those brushes or use layers.
• A professional artist is only as viable as his professional face to clients–after all, if no one can see your work, it doesn’t matter how good you are–so Adobe expanded the Portfolio feature with the ability to include Masthead and Contact Page options on your hosted website.

There’s a new workflow preview included in the update, and that’s the option to try out Adobe Experience Design, what the company is calling the perfect tool for UX designers looking for an all-in-one option. Even better, Adobe has a full file set of existing material for you to test our Adobe XD on their content rather than risking it on work you’ve already created.

That’s one of the biggest draws that professionals have towards Adobe. Sure, with more than forty desktop and mobile apps, even dipping your toe in the water can be daunting (there’s a reason design schools and universities offer entire courses on how to use even one piece of Adobe’s puzzle). But with the extensive tutorial library for all of its tools, Adobe has you covered when it’s time to get to work.