Creative Cloud review

 

 

• Price: Creative Cloud for individuals from £14.65 plus VAT per month . Creative Cloud for teams from £37.11 plus VAT per month
  
• Company: Adobe
  

Should you upgrade to get your hands on Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, After Effects CC, Premiere Pro CC, Dreamweaver CC, Flash Pro CC, Edge CC et al?
Adobe has today released what under its previous approach to upgrades would have been called CS7 (or late yesterday if you're in the US). But as the company has moved to a largely-subscription-only model – bundling in online services for online typography and portfolio hosting, alongside its core desktop applications – this could be just another day in the life of Creative Cloud. A day, however, that has seen upgraded 'CC' versions of all the key creative tools, from old favourites, including Photoshop and Illustrator, After Effects and Premiere Pro, Flash Pro and Dreamweaver, to newer tools such as Muse and Edge Animate.
I've written much on why Adobe has made this move – and seen it respond to current customer's fears – so here I'll concentrate on one central question:

Should I upgrade to the Creative Cloud?

The answer to the ten-million-dollar question – or the somewhere-between-£15-and-£65-per-month question – is a slightly nebulous maybe. There are many different types of creative who use Adobe's applications, so alongside the reviews of the individual products we're running in our Creative Cloud Guide, I'm going to take you through what CC has to offer based on the mediums you work with, so you can work out whether Creative Cloud is right for you/and your studio.
First off, the cost. If you’re a freelancer, monthly pricing for the first year varies, depending on whether you have CS6 (£14.65 plus VAT), CS3-CS5 (£22.78) or are still on CS1-2 (or somehow don’t own Creative Suite – either way it’s £39.06). Adobe is putting the pressure on, too. After 31 July, it’s £39.06 per month whether you have an older version or not.
If you just want one tool – Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Dreamweaver CC, Flash Pro CC, After Effects CC, Premiere Pro CC et all – you can stump up £14.65 plus VAT.
The ‘Teams’ version of Creative Cloud, which lets the studio boss or IT team manage licences and gives you better support, is pricier: £37.11 per month, per seat before August 31 for every CS3+ licence you own, and £65.44 after.
So if subscribing to Creative Cloud makes sense for you, it’s best to get in quickly. However, these low prices hide the fact that in a year’s time you’re going to have to pay full whack – and full whack may be more than it is now. Adobe will almost certainly raise prices in the future, and while we hope it’ll only be inflationary, there’s no way to know what will happen. You need to ask yourself how you’d feel if in a year’s time it cost you £50 per month, or £70 – or your studio £100 per month, per seat. Once you’re in, you’re in – and going back might be trickier than you think, as Adobe has been hazy about how exactly you’ll be able to downconvert CC-created project files to what you’ve got now.
Pricing aside, let’s look at whether there are currently enough useful functions for different types of users to justify switching over to the Creative Cloud.

Graphic designer: probably not 

Primarily print-based graphic designers will get the least from Creative Cloud – especially if you're already on CS5, 5.5 or 6. Pretty much all of the relevant new features added in InDesign CC, Illustrator CC and Photoshop CC could be classified as nice, but aren't creatively exciting or time-savingly useful.
InDesign CC has a dark interface like its sister app and can make QR codes (but doesn't include tips for persuading clients to use them). Illustrator CC lets you manipulate type with the mouse, and you can place multiple images in turn a la InDesign CS5. Both have better type filtering. Photoshop CC can also do rounded corners.
(You’ll also get features added to Photoshop and Illustrator between CS6 and now, but again they’re relatively minor).
Muse CC is only available to Cloud subscribers and is useful in its own way. It's a web design tool for projects for clients with low expectations – fewer than 10 pages and requiring you to make any changes. A web design tool for when your local independent coffee shop comes calling, if you will. It's easy for long-term InDesign users to get to grips with, but it's no use if you need something more interesting than a flat site – or need to work with developers (in which case, check out the £35 Illustrator-style Sketch).
The services that sit alongside the applications include one definite winner: the desktop-friendly Typekit – though this wasn’t launched today as it's not ready yet, apparently. This will give you access to 700 fonts – and fonts you can use in any app, not just Adobe's. Okay, it appears that a lot of these are free Google web fonts, but there are some great typefaces here including the Digital Arts' 'house font' Futura, Aktiv Grotesk, Franklin Gothic, and more.
Is this worth the monthly fee alone? Well, certainly not until it launches. Other services include Dropbox-style file sharing (which appears to have not launched either) and a free Behance ProSite, which if it's going to appeal, you probably already have.
More interesting is the ability to learn other tools without having to pay more – the chance to get into motion graphics or proper web design is a great opportunity. But again, you have to ask yourself whether this is worth the cash?