DEAL on Adobe CC Photography Plan

Download.com has negotiated a deal with Adobe for the Adobe CC Photography Plan (Photoshop CC and Lightroom). Instead of $9.99/mo the first year of the plan, they’re offering 20% off the first year of the plan, so your first year is $7.99/mo (and will go up to $9.99/mo after that). This offer is valid through June 30th, so take a look!

https://creative.adobe.com/promo/downloadccpp

By the way, this may be more important than you think… Adobe seems to have just announced that their Trial versions will no longer be valid for 30 days, but for only 7 days. See a future post for more info on that one!

For the love of Typography

As most of my design and graphics students know, I’m a bit of a type geek. In almost every class, even if it’s not in our regular syllabus, I try to include at least a brief introduction to Type as Design – or, Typography. 

And, you probably also know how I stress the idea of kerning – the way individual letterforms fit together, as a method of refining your work, adding a cohesive look and confirming that you’ve taken some time and put in some effort at making your type look good, as well as read well.

Today, I found an excellent infographic at Digital Synopsis.com, that may help you to make better decisions about how to improve your Headers, your Titles, and all display type. Take a look!

Nik Collection – Photoshop Plugins FREE to Everyone!

Today, Google announced that their excellent Photoshop Plugin “The Nik Collection” is going to be free to everybody.

This excellent collection includes: Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine – professional level controls to refine your images. I’ve been using it for several years (along with some other plugin sets) for efficient control over my effects, sharpening, noise removal and more.

For those of us who use Photoshop on a regular basis, getting this (previously $149) plugin for FREE is a boon!

Check out their post at: https://plus.google.com/+NikCollection/posts/AFGsG2Di7EK

Deal on On1 Plugin for Photoshop

Hi guys. As you know, I love Photoshop, use it extensively and work intensively with almost all of it’s features (certainly not all on one project, since it’s so very vast.

Long ago, I won a silent auction for OnOne Perfect Effects. I hadn’t used plugins in a few years, but the ease of use and functionality of this set of controls made what I usually did in Photoshop SO much faster, and gave me so many options, that I quickly became addicted. For any photo, we can run our entire workflow while only using On1 (they changed the name) and it’s functions. Please note, this set is for photo enhancement and adjustment – with very powerful features, but it’s not a replacement for Photoshop, since it’s not a program “about” compositing, 3d, video.

On1 is on their version 10 right now, and they’re offering a great deal: On1 Photo 10 (Photo editing, effects, masks, organization, state-of-the-art enlargement), a Training set, Presets (which, by the way, they send you new ones monthly for free), and a magazine – all for $80!

I now use quite a few sets of plugins (there are some really great deals out there, if you watch for them, or meet them at a trade-show), but On1 gives me so much functionality, it’s become a strong part of my go-to package.

Take a look: On1.com

NOTE – there’re only 2 days left on this promotion

 

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Adobe is transitioning from Revel app for Devices

Today, Adobe released the announcement that the free Adobe Revel app for devices is being replaced with the Adobe Lightroom App. While the device app is free to use, it’s suggested use is with the Adobe Creative Cloud (for which, I understand, the price will be going up next year), or with the Photoshop/Lightroom CC subscription.

If you’re a user of Adobe Revel, please be sure to download your photos from your device and your Revel Cloud space prior to the switchover in February.

Here’s Adobe’s message:
This is a friendly reminder that Adobe Revel will no longer be available after February 23, 2016. This is the last day you’ll be able to sign in to the Revel app or access your photos and videos.
Members tell us that the Creative Cloud Photography plan — which includes access to Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC — is the best solution for organizing, editing and sharing their images. Lightroom works on your iOS and Android mobile devices, so you can access all your images anywhere you are — just as you could with Revel.
To get started with the Creative Cloud Photography plan, download your Revel photos and videos and import them into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
If you used Revel exclusively on your mobile device and still have copies of your files in your camera roll or gallery, download Lightroom for mobile to get started.
If you no longer have copies of your Revel files on your device, use our Download tool to download them to your computer.

Adobe is Severely Limiting it’s Font Installations

In a recent article on InDesign Secrets, I can finally find the reason why so many of my InDesign classes have been having font errors when using files from the Adobe courseware. It seems that InDesign – and all of the Adobe programs, for that matter, are no longer installing the fonts that used to come with the programs! I’ve been using Adobe programs for too many  years than I want to count, so of course, I have the fonts installed, but so many of my students are downloading demo software for their classes, and work in an environment with security limitations, so they can’t easily access Adobe’s Typekit (part of the Creative Cloud suite).

In my opinion, this is a terrible move on Adobe’s part, and I can’t quite figure out why they’re choosing to do it. Over the years, I’ve seen Adobe seemingly losing touch with their users in quite a few ways, but in software that’s ABOUT design, I can’t imagine what they’re thinking.

To view the post on InDesignSecrets.com, please visit http://indesignsecrets.com/adobe-drops-fonts-leaves-users-stranded.php

There’s an earlier article about the issue here: http://indesignsecrets.com/happened-fonts-indesign.php   (which includes a work-around)

And, for a list of the fonts originally installed, and mostly still necessary, please see Adobe’s article here: http://www.adobe.com/products/type/creative-suite-6-installed-fonts.html

As for me, I’ve backed up ALL of my installed fonts into a directory I use for my font management program. I suggest you do the same. If you’d like instructions for doing so, please comment on this post.

 

Good deal on Adobe Training Videos by TrainSimple

I’m not usually one to suggest people learn from others, considering Adobe Training is what I do – but I firmly believe that giving students ideas for supplemental learning can always help them to practice what I teach and help to embed the information they learn in my classes.

So, I thought sharing a deal on a lifetime subscription to TrainSimple’s Adobe Training might be helpful to those who want reference information, and ways to practice what I teach. Take a look at this deal – good ONLY today!

https://deals.cultofmac.com/sales/lifetime-of-train-simple-adobe-training

MANY new Adobe Updates coming SOON!

Up until today, I was under NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) to not reveal what’s coming up to MANY of my student’s favorite Adobe Apps – but today, with the announcement at NAB, all may be revealed. In fact, Adobe themselves revealed what’s to come to Adobe Premiere Pro (oh, my goodness, what they’re doing!), After Effects, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash, Muse, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Audition!

You can check out the upcoming changes to the Video Editing apps here:
http://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/coming-next-to-adobe-pro-video-tools/

I’m sure there’re going to be many more blog posts at Adobe, to tell us the rest…

FREE Photoshop Techniques Ebook!

Jeffrey Tranberry’s Adobe Blog has posted a VERY nice 214 page ebook about Photoshop Techniques. It specified “screen designers”, but the techniques and ideas can be applied to any media. You can find the download here: http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2014/03/pixel-perfect-precision-useful-design-tips-photoshop-techniques-for-screen-designers.html?PID=2159997 There are also “Extras” that can be downloaded for the book, which can be downloaded here: PPP Extras (scripts, etc., 0.5MB) Don’t you just LOVE FREE!!!

Adobe Extends Discount Offers

Here’s an email I received from Adobe tonight:

We are excited to let you know about the following offers — some of the best deals around!

PS-SPECIAL-EXTENDDeadline Extended to Dec. 8 to get Photoshop + Lightroom for $9.99/mo

Due to the fantastic response, the offer for the the Photoshop Photography Program , available to anyone for $9.99/month, has been extended until December 8th. This is available worldwide, wherever the bundle is available on Adobe.com.

The offer includes access to Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5, 20GB of cloud storage and a Behance ProSite.

CC-SPECIAL-EXTENDExtended Upgrade Plan to Creative Cloud for $29.99/mo Until May

We are also extending our Creative Cloud membership $29.99 promotion into 2014. With this extension, anyone owning CS3+ who has not yet made the move to Creative Cloud, will continue to be able to join Creative Cloud at the rate of $29.99/month for their first year of membership.

Here’s the link to all their current Creative Cloud Discounts:
http://www.adobe.com/products/discount-software-coupons.html?promoid=KHQFR