Main Menu

Adobe Creative Cloud (or: Monopolies in Action)

Started by Jim_Campbell, 14 May, 2013, 05:32:47 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Jim_Campbell

#60
Just a quick heads-up for the CS6 hold-outs: if you were thinking of buying new Apple hardware, do it now, while it still ships with Yosemite (OSX 10.10). As it presently stands, CS6 requires Java 6 to run, which El Capitan (10.11) unequivocally does not allow. Photoshop CS6 can be coaxed into sort-of running OK, but Illustrator CS6 is basically borked.

There is, by all accounts, a command-line hack that gets things running with Java SE 8 (don't ask me, I don't know what the difference is) but I'm certainly not about to rely on fucking about in Terminal to get my work-critical software to run.

Obviously, 10.11 is still in beta, so it's possible that this may be fixed by the time the OS gets an official release, but I really can't see Adobe spending much in the way of resources to fix an issue whose only downside is that it forces CS6 customers to move to Creative Cloud.

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Jim_Campbell

Update on the 10.11 situation: getting Java 6 to work with 10.11 is (apparently) on the development schedule and it should be working by the time of the official release. Note that this is either being done on the Apple side, or the Java side and is not being worked on by Adobe.

However,* 10.11 will definitely be the last version of OSX that supports Java 6, meaning that CS6 will effectively by dead when 10.12 ships some time next year. CS5 reportedly runs fine on 10.11 already, being less reliant on Java for its internal workings and may be a better bet as a CC alternative under 10.12.

Cheers

Jim

*Fuck you, Michael Gove.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Jim_Campbell

Affinity Photo is out of beta and available in the App Store (Mac only, 10.7 or higher) for the bargain price of £29.99. I'm not convinced the brush engine is good enough (yet) to displace MangaStudio as a drawing/painting application, but for general purpose photo processing/re-touching/manipulation it's going to easily replace Photoshop for the majority of users.

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.


Jim_Campbell

Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

IndigoPrime

"Use Typekit for everything. Love and hugs, Adobe."

Not the smartest decision. Minimise the install, perhaps, but install a better core.

Jim_Campbell

Affinity Designer is now in free Beta for Windows.

AD is a credible replacement for Illustrator, offering the vast majority of the AI feature set, plus the decent type controls and a colour-managed CMYK workflow, which are lacking in the vast majority of other Illustrator wannabes.

No Windows schedule for Affinity Photo yet, but it's an equally credible Photoshop alternative.

Release of their InDesign challenger has slipped to late '16/ early '17, unfortunately, but I'd sooner they got it right than ship a half-finished release.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Banners

Ooooo. Interesting. Thanks for the heads up!

mightybren

I've been looking for an Illustrator alternative since I upgraded Mac OS and CS5 stopped behaving properly. I'd been holding out for a while, and when I saw Creative Cloud I just thought "No". Especially since I replaced Photoshop with more specialised web design tools a long time ago.

How does Affinity Designer compare? It looks awesome from the website, but would appreciate a second opinion from a professional :)

I've mostly use Illustrator for graphic design work, and some web design, as well as illustration. Decent typography is VERY important to me. I'm the kinda person who gets annoyed when I see badly kerned signage in public spaces.

I've got everything illustration covered with a copy of Manga Studio and a whole suite of wonderful tools on my iPad, so not a huge concern for me.

So what do you think? Does it replace Illustrator, or are there any gotchas?

Jim_Campbell

I'm broadly confident that, if I had to, I could move my entire lettering workflow from Illustrator to Designer.

Obviously, my work is almost entirely centred around handling type, and Designer's (current) lack of an equivalent to Illustrator's Glyphs palette would be a notable inconvenience, but practically every other feature I considered a deal-breaker has been implemented since the original Mac beta.

Some of its interface choices seem counter-intuitive, and fighting against twenty years of Illustrator muscle memory is frustrating, but I can't think of any major features that are missing. And it's cheap, so may be worth a punt.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Jim_Campbell

To late to edit my original post: Designer also makes a decent fist of opening .ai files. It doesn't always interpret text boxes exactly right, but every file I've tried it on is definitely useable once open in Designer.

Also, it's from Serif, whose previous offerings haven't impressed me much but who've been around for years, so aren't likely to disappear overnight.

They're also promising fully-featured versions of both Designer and (the equally impressive) Photo for iPad Pro, with Apple Pencil support.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

mightybren

Thanks Jim :) The price is definitely attractive, along with the backwards compatibility! If Serif can deliver it definitely makes me wonder what Adobe are trying to achieve with their price points.
Lack of Glyphs would be a small inconvenience but presumably I can copy and paste these from elsewhere :)

I'll give the free trial a go and see how I get on. Other than a learning curve it sounds like a winner. Appreciate the recommendation! Loosing Illustrator CS5 felt like loosing a limb! :lol:
Cheers!

pauljholden

HO BOY!

I wanted to cancel my adobe creative cloud (that I signed up for just to try, little did I know what would happen next...)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/15386255

Dandontdare

Bit of a necro-post but saw this in the news - Adobe are just taking the piss now: $291 Adobe Cancelation Fee Sees Twitter Users Argue it's 'Morally Correct' to Pirate Software

I've got a 10 year old pirated copy of Photoshop 6 that does more than enough for my needs!


Art

Maybe not so hot take: Photoshop 6, or maybe 7 at a stretch, was essentially feature complete and everything that's been added since detracts from it.

Also check out Affinity.