In keeping with their mission of “changing the world through digital experiences,” Adobe has launched a milestone release of its flagship Adobe Creative Cloud tools and services. They also announced the availability of the new Adobe Stock content service.
The 2015 release of Creative Cloud includes major updates to Adobe’s desktop tools, including Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, Premiere Pro CC and InDesign CC. It also provides new connected mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Adobe Stock is the first stock content service to be integrated directly into the tools creatives use every day.
Adobe Stock Content Service
Adobe Stock makes 40 million photos, vector graphics and illustrations accessible directly within CC desktop apps. You can launch Adobe Stock with CC desktop software, add watermarked images to Creative Cloud libraries, and then access and work with images across multiple desktop and mobile tools. When ready to license an image for finished work, you can do it directly within the CC desktop software application. You can also edit a watermarked image in an applications such as Photoshop CC. When licensed, the edits are automatically applied to the purchased full-resolution image.
Based on the acquisition of stock content provider Fotolia earlier this year, Adobe Stock is available in 36 countries and 13 languages worldwide, including the US, UK, Australia and Japan. It is expected to be available in India in the near future.
Because Adobe Stock is a standalone service, you don’t have to be a Creative Cloud member to download, purchase, or sell stock images. You can buy single images as needed or purchase a monthly plan.
If you are a Creative Cloud member, you can save up to 40 percent when you add an Adobe Stock annual plan to your Creative Cloud membership.
Adobe Stock may shake up the $3 billion global stock image market, because Adobe customers not only contribute to stock image services but are also regular purchasers of stock content. An estimated 85 percent of creatives who buy stock content use Adobe tools. More than 90 percent of stock content sellers use Adobe software to prepare photos and images.
Photographers and designers who contribute content to Adobe Stock can access a worldwide community of stock content buyers and receive industry-leading rates for content.
According to David Wadhwani, senior vice president of Digital Media, “Adobe Stock extends Creative Cloud’s value as a vibrant global marketplace.” When accessed through Creative Cloud, the new service simplifies the buying and selling of stock content.
“Our customers–the best photographers and designers on the planet–will have the opportunity to contribute millions of new photos and images to Adobe Stock,” says Wadhwani. “This is really going to raise the bar in the world of stock content.”
Improvements to Creative Cloud
Wadhwani believes Creative Cloud 2015 is Adobe’s most powerful and comprehensive release to date.
Since Creative Cloud was introduced in 2012, Adobe has championed the idea that mobile devices should be integral to the creative process, with free companion mobile apps working seamlessly with CC desktop tools. Adobe has now released Brush CC, Shape CC, Color CC and Photoshop Mix on Android for the first time, bringing connected mobile workflows to millions of creatives worldwide. Adobe has also updated many of its popular Creative Cloud mobile apps for iPhone and iPad, including Adobe Comp CC, Photoshop Mix, Photoshop Sketch, Illustrator Draw, Brush CC, Shape CC and Color CC.
In addition to these updates, Adobe debuted Adobe Hue CC. Hue CC provides an easy way to capture and share production- quality lighting and color schemes — for video, film and broadcast — by using an iPhone camera and then applying these light and color moods into a Premiere Pro CC or After Effects CC project.
At the heart of Creative Cloud is Adobe CreativeSync, a signature technology that intelligently syncs creative assets: files, photos, fonts, vector graphics, brushes, colors, settings, metadata and more.
With CreativeSync, assets are instantly available, in the right format, wherever designers need them — across desktop, web and mobile apps. Available exclusively in Creative Cloud, CreativeSync means work can be kicked-off in any connected Creative Cloud mobile app or CC desktop tool; picked up again later in another; and finished in the designer’s favorite CC desktop software.
Advances in Desktop Tools
With the 2015 release of Creative Cloud, Adobe magic and Mercury performance provide speed and technology breakthroughs across 15 CC desktop applications:
Photoshop CC: Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Photoshop CC introduces Artboards, the best way to design cross-device user experiences in a single Photoshop document and quickly preview them on a device. Photoshop CC also includes a preview release of Photoshop Design Space, a sleek new work environment focused on the needs of mobile app and website designers.
Lightroom CC: Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC both gain the new Dehaze feature, which appeared first in October 2014. Dehaze eliminates fog and haze from photos, including underwater shots, for startlingly clear images. Haze can also be added to a photo for artistic effect.
Premiere Pro CC: The new Lumetri Color panel facilitates powerful color corrections using intuitive sliders and other simple controls. Morph Cut makes it easier to deliver polished interview content. It smoothes jump cuts in talking-head shots to create a cohesive, polished sequence.
After Effects CC: A new Uninterrupted Preview allows artists to adjust the properties of a composition and resize panels without impacting playback. Also, the ground-breaking Adobe Character Animator brings 2D figures to life using a webcam to track facial movements, record dialog and apply movements in real time onto a pre-configured character.
Illustrator CC is now 10 times faster and 10 times more precise than CS6. Powered by dramatic boosts to its Mercury Performance Engine, users can now pan and zoom smoothly without delays. With the new Chart tool (preview), designers can create beautiful custom charts and share them with others via CC Libraries.
InDesign CC gets its own Mercury performance surge. Zooming, scrolling, and paging through complex documents is now twice as fast. InDesign now also allows users to publish and distribute documents with a single click.
Dreamweaver CC has new responsive web design capabilities that let designers quickly lay out and build production-ready sites that adapt to any screen size.
Adobe Muse now includes instant access to premium fonts from TypekitAdditional updates to these and other CC desktop applications make this one of Adobe’s biggest releases in years.
Creative Cloud for the Digital Transformation of Enterprises
Adobe’s expanded Creative Cloud enterprise offering includes enterprise-grade administration, security, collaboration and publishing services for design-driven brands, businesses and large organizations.
These enhancements are designed to help large commercial, education and government customers who want to speed the development and publishing of customer experiences, as part of their digital transformation strategies.
The new enterprise edition of Creative Cloud includes all the product features from the Creative Cloud 2015 release, plus expanded security options and deep connections with Adobe Digital Publishing Solution (DPS) and Adobe Marketing Cloud.
Two new security capabilities ensure protection of corporate assets, including customer-managed encryption keys and a new managed service hosting option, which offers dedicated storage behind a customer’s firewall.
Creative Cloud for enterprise also supports an upcoming release of DPS, empowering existing teams in organizations to rapidly design and publish mobile apps without writing code.
A public beta of this major update to DPS is available this week, with more information available here. Content from Creative Cloud for enterprise also syncs with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), a key component of Adobe Marketing cloud, to accelerate marketing campaigns by streamlining creative-to-marketing workflows.
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More Details About the 2015 Release of Creative Cloud
