Adobe CC 2018: The Latest Example of Why Adobe Software Remains Unexcelled
Just when we thought Adobe’s Creative Cloud couldn’t get any better, it did! Adobe released Creative Cloud 2018 at the Adobe MAX creativity conference on 17 October 2017. With an audience of over 12,000 members, this is arguably their biggest release since its inception 5 years ago.
While there were many product demos to showcase their latest tools and features, most of them in respect of Photoshop and Illustrator, we’ll be taking a look at what’s new in Adobe InDesign CC 2018, since there are a few new features that we’ve been hoping to get for some time. If you’d like to find more products in the Adobe range or contact this company.
The new features in InDesign will definitely impact our workflow, design layout options, as well as the way we work with InDesign text assets and fonts. Let’s have a look at some of them:
Endnotes
There’s no longer a need for 3rd party products of scripts to add endnotes to documents, because InDesign now has an endnotes options dialog, which will assist you in creating stylized endnotes, which will be placed at the end of the document automatically. It will also be easy to navigate from the endnote reference number to the endnote text.
Paragraph Borders
Paragraph borders allows us to highlight text with these borders which flow with your text. Adding a different design element to text just became a lot easier.
Font List Filter
This filter saves so much time, because we no longer need to search through all of the fonts we have available to us. It simply allows us to choose the fonts we want to use.
Object Styles Specifications
This is what all object style users have been waiting for: the ability to add specifications in regard to the size and position of the object. It also allows us to choose the object position’s proxy.
Text Assets
Text assets can be added to our Creative Cloud Libraries and can be used in InDesign as well as Illustrator. Not only can we save formatting and styles with the asset; if we drag and drop it into a document, the text will maintain all of the formatting we’ve applied.
True visionaries in the editing software niche, Adobe continuously pushes the envelope, upgrading and improving their software far beyond expectation, making it possible for creatives to take their creativity to levels never imagined before, regardless of the niche they’re in. Adobe Creative Cloud 2018 is a brilliant example of why Adobe continually transcends other editing software.
Read MoreCreative Freedom with Adobe Creative Cloud’s Subscription Model
While the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription model was met with lots of resistance when it was first introduced a few years ago, most designers, photographers, videographers, and other creatives have since realized how amazing it actually is.
Prior to the Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) subscription model, one would need to purchase niche specific apps individually. These apps were rather expensive, so everyone couldn’t afford to purchase all of the apps they needed. Added to this, each time a new version of an app came out, the user would have to purchase the new app. Photographers, for example would need to purchase Lightroom and Photoshop separately to edit photos, whereas now, they can choose to pay a monthly subscription fee for each app or pay a higher monthly subscription, giving them access to all the apps Adobe CC has to offer. Needless to say, Adobe CC pricing is more far more affordable because users no longer need to purchase apps. By paying a monthly subscription, users will always have access to the latest versions of all the apps they subscribe to.
For those of you wondering what’s included in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite: You’ll get 20 Gigabytes of Cloud storage, access to Behance, all the tools that were contained in the Production Premium and Master Collection, along with Adobe Lightroom 5, Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe InDesign CC, Adobe After Effects CC, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe Audition CC, Adobe Muse CC, Adobe Prelude CC, Adobe Dreamweaver CC, Adobe Edge Web Fonts, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Digital Publishing Suite – Single Edition, Adobe Scout, Adobe Edge Inspect, Adobe Edge Animate, Adobe SpeedGrade CC, Adobe Flash Builder 4.7 Premium Edition, Adobe Edge Code preview, Adobe Fireworks CS6, Adobe Extension Manager, Adobe Flash Professional CC, ExtendScript Toolkit, Adobe Edge Reflow preview, along with many other tools and services.
Creatives can work on projects from anywhere in the world, from any desktop or mobile device, at any time – even if they don’t have their own computer or laptop with them, because it’s online and mobile friendly. This means you can start a project on your computer, continue working on it on your tablet or laptop and edit it from your mobile phone whenever ideas cross their minds. This is great for anyone in a creative field, because they’ll be able to incorporate their concepts and designs, no matter where they are or what they’re doing.
Being able to use the entire Adobe Creative Cloud suite means that creatives have the freedom to explore different creative niches and move from one creative field to another, should they wish. They can set new trends in the designing and editing niches and are only limited by their imagination.
Read MoreWhy Use Creative Cloud for Web Design
If you’d like to pursue creative endeavors, you must follow the right channels and have the right tools, and web designing is no exception to this rule. Creative Cloud is the perfect solution for all your needs as a web designer. With its compact applications, robust suite of features and functionality, you’ll probably find it to be the best choice of software to guide you in your professional creative career of web design.
Creative Cloud includes Adobe Photoshop CC, one of the most popular and well-known applications. Thanks to its powerful editing features, Photoshop is used throughout an immense range of creative careers, including photography, graphic designing, animation, advertising, films and, of course, web designing. The latest features available in Photoshop CC 2017 include its capability to manipulate images to perfection with ease.
Another key aspect is its ability to optimize image adaptation. It can help you design and use scalable images without losing its quality. This means that the graphics in web contents can easily be projected to other devices like mobile phones or tablets, solving one of the most common issues in web designing.
Creative Cloud’s library is also a powerful kit that can help you as a web designer. You get access to their TypeKit collection which includes thousands of fonts and icons. Creative Cloud also gives you heaps of images, videos, and website design templates through Adobe Stock. All of which, can gear you up and help you build the unique feel that you aim for in your design.
Another reason to use Creative Cloud is that it has made it easier to access applications used for both graphics and web design. The fact that it is less expensive than buying programs that provide different functions separately, adds to its sweet benefits. Plus, you can opt for a free trial, so you can see what you’re getting before you pay for it.
Some of the new features in Creative Cloud include PhoneGap Build which is used for building mobile apps that work identically across different platforms, Scout, a tool to help you profile SWF, an App-building tool called FlashBuilder using ActionScript language, and many more.
Adobe CC has given us this plethora of tools and libraries that can help us get through a rather vast and sometimes complex discipline of web designing and that is why it’s a good choice.
Read MoreThe Tools and Features of Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is arguably the most popular and most well-known photo-editing software in the world. It’s versatile, effective and easy to learn. Over the years, Adobe Systems has upgraded this software to provide both experienced and novice graphic designers with all the tools they need to effectively edit their image files. If you want to learn more about Photoshop and its features then here’s what you need to know.
Adobe Photoshop is primarily a photo editing tool that’s most commonly used for graphic design or digital painting. Here is a brief breakdown of what it can do for you:
– Photo Editing
– Digital Painting
– Enhancing Colors
– Adding Contrast
– Cropping Images
– Retouching Images
– Enhancing Old or Ugly Images
– For information on the uses of Photoshop, visit http://learningcurve.co.za/adobe/photoshop/
Additionally, Photoshop can also be used as an educational platform to teach students of graphics design the tools of their trade. See Photoshop packages for students at Learning Curve.
Features and Tools
Photoshop CC has numerous features and tools, all of which are designed to help edit image files. Here are some of the most important tools you will encounter:
– The Quick Selection Tool
– The Quick Mask Tool
– The Patch Tool
– The Pen Tool
– The Crop Tool
– The Type Tool
– The Eyedropper Tool
– The Healing Brush Tool
– The Liquify Tool
– The Magic Wand Tool
– The Polygon Lasso Tool
– The Rectangular Marquee Tool
– The Slice Tool
– Content-Aware Fill
– Field Blur
– Colorize Live Shapes
– Color Range
– Select and Masking Tools
– The Rotate View Tool
The best way to use these tools is to experiment with them. You should start with the most important and most basic mechanics of Photoshop CC, such as layers and cropping for example, to see how they influence the final results of your work. Once you have learned that, experiment with more of the basic editing tools available, such as the Magic Wand Tool, which allows you to pick a color range or select a block of color based on the area that you’ve clicked on. Another basic tool that you should experiment with is the Healing Brush Tool, which you can use to eliminate or repair scratches, thus improving the appearance of the images you’re editing.
Once you’ve have mastered the basic tools, you can move on to more complex features and tools, like the Slice Tool for example. Again, the key here is to experiment and see the results for yourself. Additionally, you should also check the Options bar at the top to find other tools and features that you may not find on your toolbar. Experiment with as many tools as possible and see how they affect your image.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that you don’t need to master all the tools at once. Just focus on the ones that are relevant to your photo editing goals. The rest will come naturally to you once you get used to using Photoshop.
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