Biting the Adobe CC bullet

[sigmadog]

For around 5 years or so I've been refusing to subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud model, instead utilizing my CS6 Master Collection for all my professional design work. It's handled everything with aplomb and I have no regrets. I've saved about $6000 this way (2 users / 5 years / $600 per user per year).

But more and more now I've been running into issues with vendors and/or clients supplying art originally created in CC (like company logos, and other content they need translated to new design). Usually I can ask to have it saved in CS6, but this is becoming less of an option; plus it makes me look old and busted to my clients.

So I'm biting the bullet and signing up for Adobe CC. I've been downloading the apps all day. I haven't had much chance to look around inside, but the brief look I had in Photoshop has got me a bit concerned about the interface changes and whether there will be a learning curve as I get up to speed.

A little background: I've been a designer since the mid-80's so I'm no spring chicken, and I've used Adobe products from Pagemaker all the way through InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.

Any issues or learning curves with jumping from the CS6 Dark Ages to CC?

 

[MacGizmo]

Not much has changed in HOW you use the apps... they've just added more features, and added the ability to adjust the GUI colors. InDesign in particular has added quite a bit in the way of nice little touches such as the ability to automatically add borders around paragraphs, etc. Illustrator has dramatically improved stability and speed.

 

[sigmadog]

Not much has changed in HOW you use the apps...

Thanks, MacGizmo. That's good to know.

they've just added more features, and added the ability to adjust the GUI colors. InDesign in particular has added quite a bit in the way of nice little touches such as the ability to automatically add borders around paragraphs, etc. Illustrator has dramatically improved stability and speed.

Sounds like some good additions.

What about fonts? I know Adobe wants me to use their TypeKit (whatever that is), but I suspect there will be additional costs associated with syncing to their font library, correct? I've already got a large library of fonts I've purchased, and have no great desire to start spending money like a drunk, so I'll continue using these.

 

[eyoungren]

What about fonts? I know Adobe wants me to use their TypeKit (whatever that is), but I suspect there will be additional costs associated with syncing to their font library, correct? I've already got a large library of fonts I've purchased, and have no great desire to start spending money like a drunk, so I'll continue using these.

I'm using CC 2017 and Suitcase Fusion 7. No Adobe fonts other that what is already in SF's database.

 

[organicCPU]

FontExplorer X Pro is another good font management tool capable of handling old PS Type 1 fonts.

 

[MacGizmo]

What about fonts? I know Adobe wants me to use their TypeKit (whatever that is), but I suspect there will be additional costs associated with syncing to their font library, correct? I've already got a large library of fonts I've purchased, and have no great desire to start spending money like a drunk, so I'll continue using these.

As part of your Adobe CC subscription, you have complete access to thousands of fonts in the TypeKit collection. You access them from the CC menubar app, inside the apps, or via the website. You can only sync around 100 fonts at a time. There is no additional charge—and if you don't want to use it, you'll likely not even notice that it exists.

I can only speak for the latest version of Suitcase Fusion, but it works perfectly in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. Older versions of Suitcase (the app itself) will probably still work, but the plugins for auto-activation likely will not.

 

[sigmadog]

Yeah. Forgot to mention I use Suitcase Fusion as well, though I need to update the Adobe plugins for auto-activation. I used to use FontExplorer Pro, but switched back to Suitcase a few years ago when FontExplorer was slow to update their plugins.

Thanks to everyone for the helpful info.

 

[Juan Preuyt]

Personally im in the same boat as you although i have used the adobe suite ( cs6 ) Photoshop , illustrator , Dreamweaver and after effects mainly. I have the cc and yeah its a bit different in my opinion they have gone even more user friendly sacrificing alot more functionality for it. I now look for alternative programs if i cant use cs6 which was slow , cc is worse. But its user friendly ALL the way..... when it opens

 

[sigmadog]

Personally im in the same boat as you although i have used the adobe suite ( cs6 ) Photoshop , illustrator , Dreamweaver and after effects mainly. I have the cc and yeah its a bit different in my opinion they have gone even more user friendly sacrificing alot more functionality for it. I now look for alternative programs if i cant use cs6 which was slow , cc is worse. But its user friendly ALL the way..... when it opens

Sorry to hear of your issues with CC! I haven't had problems making the switch so far, just the usual bit with sorting out the interface. I mostly use Illustrator, and I'm still not completely sold on the contextual menu that supposedly shows only the settings specific to the tool selected - except, apparently, the ones I need.

 

[MacGizmo]

Sorry to hear of your issues with CC! I haven't had problems making the switch so far, just the usual bit with sorting out the interface. I mostly use Illustrator, and I'm still not completely sold on the contextual menu that supposedly shows only the settings specific to the tool selected - except, apparently, the ones I need.

I have that set up as a panel that's always showing right next to the toolbar on the left. It takes some getting used to, and it's certainly not all-encompassing - but it actually works pretty darn well. It apparently not only looks at the tool you're currently using, but also the object(s) you have selected in your document.

 

[sigmadog]

I have that set up as a panel that's always showing right next to the toolbar on the left. It takes some getting used to, and it's certainly not all-encompassing - but it actually works pretty darn well. It apparently not only looks at the tool you're currently using, but also the object(s) you have selected in your document.

I use two monitors, and I've grown accustomed to having all my palettes active on the second monitor. They are in the same place, and I can almost find them without looking. I also like to maximize the art board as much as possible and keep it free from clutter.

What can I say? I guess I'm just old and set in my ways.

 

[eyoungren]

I use two monitors, and I've grown accustomed to having all my palettes active on the second monitor. They are in the same place, and I can almost find them without looking. I also like to maximize the art board as much as possible and keep it free from clutter.

What can I say? I guess I'm just old and set in my ways.

I must be really old.

I use three monitors. Primary display has my main work area and my palettes are set on the edges of the other two displays close to the main monitor.

I'm a former long-term QuarkXPress user so I am not and remain not a fan of Adobe's focus on the mouse. At some point I went through the keyboard shortcuts and made them as equivalent to QuarkXPress as I could. My palettes are spring loaded, meaning they return to their icon state when I click off them. That functions as closely as possible to XPress's method of using dialogue boxes.

Wherever I could find a keyboard shortcut to defeat a mouse function I made it as QXP as I could.

I am much more of a keyboard shortcut user as that's pretty much where my hands are all the time.

PS. My Quad G5 at home has six displays attached (3 video cards).

 

[sigmadog]

I must be really old.

I use three monitors.

To be honest, so do I. My third monitor is a Wacom Cintiq that I only turn on when doing illustration or photo retouching work. I didn't mention it because it doesn't come into play with most of my Adobe apps.

Your home setup (6 monitors) sounds amazing. What do you use it for?

 

[eyoungren]

To be honest, so do I. My third monitor is a Wacom Cintiq that I only turn on when doing illustration or photo retouching work. I didn't mention it because it doesn't come into play with most of my Adobe apps.

Your home setup (6 monitors) sounds amazing. What do you use it for?

A mixture of stuff. Design, web browsing, email, word processing, games, video watching, disk burning, etc, etc.

I tend to put folders and apps I don't close very much on individual monitors. I had this setup when I had a G4. When I upgraded to the G5 I just transferred it using newer video cards that work in the G5. Of course, I am limited to the latest version of apps that run on PowerPC Macs, which in the case of design apps is Adobe CS4, QuarkXPress 8, Acrobat 9 and Suitcase Fusion 3.

I usually get asked why I need six displays and my reply is that I don't. However, I tend to do what I want and I do not usually factor need into that. What I wanted was to have twice the displays of the Mac Pro I use at work. Of course the MP at work is driving three displays on ONE video card but that's usually a fact I gloss over.

If you want to see the setup, there's a link in the first line of my signature that says "6 Displays". Just click on that.

 

[lucidmedia]

I usually get asked why I need six displays and my reply is that I don't.

six monitors is not all that unusual... what I find amazing is that you are running them off a 12 year old PowerPC-based computer!

 

[eyoungren]

six monitors is not all that unusual... what I find amazing is that you are running them off a 12 year old PowerPC-based computer!

Well, it's fairly easy with my Quad. It's just a Radeon X1900XT in the first slot and two GeForce 6600s in two of the other slots. I have a 2.3 Dual Core G5 that has the same setup execpt the Radeon is switched for a Quadro FX 4500. Unfortunately I don't have four additional displays and the space to connect those to that Mac.

But this all came from the G4 Quicksilver I had. By the time I was done it had a 1.8Ghz Dual Processor upgrade, three video cards, Bluetooth 2.0, SATA (including the optical drive, which was a DLSD) and USB 2.0. That's what we do in the PowerPC forums here on MacRumors, is stretch the capabilities of these old Macs.

Here's an early pic of the same space since re-arranged.

 

[MacGizmo]

I use two monitors, and I've grown accustomed to having all my palettes active on the second monitor. They are in the same place, and I can almost find them without looking. I also like to maximize the art board as much as possible and keep it free from clutter.

What can I say? I guess I'm just old and set in my ways.

I completely get it. I'm fairly stubborn when it comes to my setup. I also use multiple monitors at the office, placing all the panels on the second screen in the same spot so I can find them. I still like that new "contextual" panel for convenience.

I used to have a 30" LCD for a second screen at home with my iMac, but it took a dump after nearly 10 years. I was going to replace it with a smaller 17" screen, but it's so old that it causes issues with some audio devices and Netflix won't work because it "detects some kind of unauthorized AV device" or some such nonsense. In any case, I've gotten used to only having one screen for now... but I do miss the second screen a lot.

 

[organicCPU]

Hope I'm not going to break the conversation path about multiple display setups, I know my response is coming late and might be a little off topic.

I used to use FontExplorer Pro, but switched back to Suitcase a few years ago when FontExplorer was slow to update their plugins.

Years back I was using Adobe Type Manager Deluxe and Adobe Type Reunion. Then in Mac OS X those weren't available anymore. At the time I made the switch to Mac OS X, I've bought some fonts from Linotype and they sent me a newsletter announcing version 1 of FontExplorer. It was free until version 1.2.3, that is still running fine on my G4. Well, I got used to it, got addicted to it and bought the first paid upgrade to version 2. Even the plugins were functioning fine at that time.
Then there was a version jump I can't remember exactly and the plugins were nagging me all the times with some nonsense activation calls. Since that version I kicked the plugins and used it vanilla. Well, I didn't mind, as I don't need to load plenty of documents with deactivated fonts every day. I still like it, using the latest release version 6. I don't know if they finally managed to fix the plugin bugs, but they don't get into the way as they're not there and I don't miss them.
I had a look at Suitcase, but never installed it. I always kept Suitcase in my mind as a serious alternative to FontExplorer in case I would ever need it. Until now I don't.