Adobe has long been the leader in desktop graphics software and have announced a few updates to their Creative Cloud plan. The bigger announcement though is that Adobe is finally entering the stock photography arena with the launch of Adobe Stock.
Adobe’s “next big evolution” of Creative Cloud will further extend the power of desktop to mobile, expand on assets, and create a unified experience across desktop and mobile. Fifteen Creative Cloud desktop apps are getting upgrades, and performance has been increased by up to 10x mostly through GPU enhancements. Assets are now linked using Adobe’s CreativeSync technology which will now sync assets across Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. The Creative Cloud asset libraries are now accessible in Premiere Pro and After Effects, allowing users to easily use their assets in any project.
“Adobe CreativeSync ensures that your files, fonts, design assets, settings, and more all instantly appear in your workflow wherever you need them. And you can start your creative work on any device and seamlessly pick it up on another.”
A big addition to Adobe Photoshop CC is that of artboards. Designers will be able to design multiple design surfaces within a single Photoshop document, making it easier to view designs across various size canvases to tweak how they look and scale.
Adobe feels that apps should work as one across desktop and mobile and have released Brush CC, Shape CC, and Color CC to Android devices. These “capture apps” allow you to capture a sketch or photo and convert it into a useable asset which you can add to your asset library. Photoshop Mix was also released for Android, and updates have been made to the iOS versions of some of these apps as well.
The biggest news however is a new service called Adobe Stock which propels Adobe into the stock photography market. Adobe Stock will allow users to buy and sell creative assets. With 85% of creatives who buy stock photography and other assets using Adobe software, the company felt that it was a no brainer to launch a service with deep integration with desktop apps. The service will feature 40 million assets at launch, and users will be able to launch Adobe Stock right from Photoshop, Illustrator, or other Adobe apps. Adobe wants to make it super easy to add assets to your compositions and you’ll be able to add a watermarked comp into your design. Once approved and the higher resolution asset is purchased, any edits made to the low-res watermarked version will automatically be applied to the hi-resolution image saving designers time.
Adobe Stock will initially contain images but will support video and other types of content in the future. The service will cost $9.99/image, $49.99/month for 10 images per month, or $199.99/month for 750 images per month. Creative Cloud plan members – including those with the basic Photography Plan – will receive a 50% discount on the middle package which will cost them $24.99/month. This is an ongoing price and not just an introductory price for Creative Cloud plan members. Another key feature of the service is that any images you don’t use will roll over to the next month. For example, if you use 7 images one month, you will then have 13 images the next month. If you only use 2 that month, then you will have 21 for the following month as unused images continually roll over for a 12 month period up to a maximum of 120 images.
Contributors will also be able to contribute to Adobe Stock and will be paid 33% of the purchase price of their images, which is above the average 25% payout most other stock services offer.
What do you think about the updates to Adobe products? Will you be signing up for and using Adobe Stock? Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
