Adobe’s Creative Cloud is a collection of 20+ desktop and mobile apps and services for photography, design, video, web, UX and more. Explore your creativity with software like Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. Voted #1 in graphic design software.
Pros:
- Industry-standard and highly recommended by creative experts.
- Complete package with more than 20+ creative apps.
- Free trial available. No credit card needed.
Cons:
- Only available for a monthly or annual subscription.
- Less suitable for beginner or amateur use due to the relatively high cost.
More About Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud Reviews
Find out what each expert had to say about Adobe Creative Cloud.
Nicole Garcia
Myra Wafiqoh
✓ Adobe Creative Cloud
For software, it usually depends on the type of design being worked on, if a lot of work with vectors, then usually use vector-based applications such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.
But if you use a lot of raster images or work with photos, for example, photo/image editing, or digital imaging, then use a raster-based program, such as Photoshop. There are many other programs that are more specific, for example for editorial layouts such as magazines, for example, using Adobe InDesign. But in general, mostly use vector and raster-based applications will be or Adobe Photoshop or Illustrators.
Aaron Hockley
For basic editing using tools that you might already have, take a look at using Apple Photos if you have an iPhone or Google Photos if you use Android. These programs have increasingly-sophisticated editing tools and take advantage of artificial intelligence to make your photos even better. Both offer cloud sync options and have companion apps that can be installed on your desktop computer for backup and sync as well.
✓ Adobe Lightroom
✓ Adobe Photoshop
If you want to take things to the next level, regardless of whether you’re using Windows or a Mac, the Adobe Photography Bundle is one heck of a deal at $10/month. You’ll get access to the full versions of Lightroom and Photoshop. Lightroom will help manage your image collection and provide a powerful set of editing tools for your images. Photoshop takes things to the next level to provide detailed retouching and composite tools for advanced users. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but these are the industry standard tools and time you spend learning them will pay off in the long run.
Jose Gomez
✓ Adobe Photoshop
There is no doubt in this one. Photoshop is the best software out there for photo editing. It has a massive community behind it, and Adobe is always improving it and enhancing its features.
It is a super complete software that allows you to do all kinds of image editing tasks. The learning curve may be challenging at first, but it is worth it.
Ray Morrone
As the lines get blurred between Graphic Design, User Interface Design and Front End Delevopement most Creative Directors look for designers with a full toolbox of software knowledge.
✓ Adobe Creative Cloud
Knowing Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop is mandatory. But having knowledge of After Effects to create Ui/Ux annimations and prototypes is increasingly valuable.
✓ Cinema 4D
Knowing 3D software like Cinema 4D lets you take your projects to an impressive new level.
For example, a typical corporate logo project may start with the logo being created in Illustrator. Then the work will be imported into Cinema 4D and manipulated as a 3D object. From there it will be animated, cleaned up and refined in After Effects..
Catherine Nguyen
I use a combination of Adobe LightRoom, Bridge, and Photoshop.
✓ Adobe Bridge
I mostly use Bridge to rename batches of my files quickly.
✓ Adobe Lightroom
I use Lightroom as my primary catalog of images. I also use Lightroom as a way to preview my images and do a first-round edit by getting rid of those which I will not submit to the client. Then, I use LightRoom’s Develop feature to correct for color temperature, exposure, contrast, reduce noise, correct for lens distortion, etc.
✓ Adobe Photoshop
If I find that further in-depth masking and editing need to be done, I take the photo from LightRoom into Photoshop and complete my retouching there. Lastly, I use LightRoom to export my images in the requisite file formats for my clients.
I recommend LightRoom because it is a very powerful organizing as well as editing tool. It is an integral part of my post-production process. It allows you to develop your RAW images as well as manage your image catalog, assign metadata and export or print your images. In addition, there are Map, Slideshow, Book and Web features.
Roxanne Brown
✓ Adobe Creative Cloud
For a solution that covers most broad-based graphic design needs, most industry professionals including us, would recommend Adobe’s offerings. Adobe has become the standardized format for the industry, pushing giants like QuarkXpress and others to the wayside. Unfortunately, like many companies, Adobe has moved to a SaaS (Software As A Service) model that a lot of graphic artists/designers grumble about. Gone are the days where you can just buy software in a box and update when you wanted or needed to. With the new model (which isn’t exactly new because they rolled out the Creative Suite SaaS model back in 2012), you’re forced to pay a monthly fee for a subscription to their family of applications.
There are plenty of good alternatives to Adobe products, but they’re not conveniently all under one roof – or company. If you don’t mind using apps from various companies, there are even quite a few free options out there. These programs may be compatible and open certain files but may cause problems when you want to save to a specific proprietary file format.
Joseph Black
The best photo editing software in the world must be Adobe Photoshop, right? It’s an easy answer, but the wrong one!
The best photo editing software isn’t necessarily from Adobe! There are plenty of Photoshop and Lightroom rivals that bring very different tools, styles, effects and possibilities for keen photographers.
Remember that Photoshop is also for artists, designers, videographers and illustrators too. There’s a lot in Photoshop you won’t need, and there’s only a finite amount of space inside Photoshop for photography-specific tools.
So Photoshop is great at what it does, but what it does start to look pretty limited. Which is why the other programs on our list all deserve a long, hard look? Many are cheaper, many are simpler, and many are smarter.
Lightroom is so powerful you may not need Photoshop at all, Affinity Photo does everything that Photoshop does at a fraction of the price, Capture One Pro is like Lightroom for pros and DxO PhotoLab can make the results from ordinary cameras and lenses look better than you could ever have imagined.
✓ Adobe Photoshop
If you’re looking for cheaper all-in-one photo editors, get Adobe Photoshop Elements if you must, but first take a look at ON1 Photo RAW2020, Exposure X5 and Skylum Luminar. Adobe might still be the big name in photo editing, but don’t decide anything until you see what its rivals can do!
Here is the list of different software names that’s also a substitute for Adobe Photoshop.
✓ Affinity Photo
✓ PhaseOne Capture One Pro 20
✓ DxO Nik Collection 3
✓ Luminar 4
It depends on the needs of the designer which one he will select, as per his requirements.
Dan Cruz
✓ Adobe After Effects
After Effects is a powerful tool, which allows you to create custom animations faster than any other “easy to use” software out there. To top things off, it allows you to export animations in SVG format, which loads much faster than a gif or a png on a web page. It also allows me to create custom product interactions efficiently to show our developers how a user will interact with the product.
✓ Adobe Creative Cloud
Of course, I use Adobe Creative Cloud every day (Photoshop and Illustrator mostly), but Figma and After Effects are those two tools that empower my design workflow.
William Angelos
✓ Adobe Photoshop
I think that if we’re talking about the best everyone is going to think about Adobe Photoshop. It has all the features and can do just about anything anyone might need to do. It is however super expensive, and for most people it is complete overkill.
✓ Affinity Photo
Most people will just never need to do all that this program can do. For those people there is Affinity Photo by Serif. Rather than charge a monthly fee they just charge a 1 time price of $50. Adobe Photoshop is something you rent at $10 a month. Affinity Photo does +90% of what Photoshop does. So when cost and actual use is considered for me Affinity Photo is my choice for best photo editing tool.