Get the most from your membership by looking beyond Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign to their lesser-known siblings
Adobe’s Creative Cloud service offers designers ongoing access to the full range of Creative Suite 6 products for a monthly subscription, with the added bonus of continual updates and up to 20GB of cloud storage for backing up and sharing work.
Although the UK pricing – currently £46.88 per month for a 12-month contract or £70.32 per month for a more flexible rolling plan, with a 12-month 40 per cent discount for existing CS customers – is less favourable than that offered in the USA, for many designers it’s still a cost-effective way to get hold of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Individual Creative Cloud elements are also priced at £17.58 per month, but if you’ve signed up to the full package, take time to explore some of the other software now at your fingertips...
Muse
This lets you design websites without having to get to grips with HTML, using sitemaps, master pages and drag-and-drop workspaces. It doesn’t currently support the integration of CMS systems, but Muse offers familiar Adobe design tools, 400 web fonts and a host of extras, such as built-in contact form support, to help your site make an impact.
SpeedGrade
Promising to bring both power and precision to the task of colour grading your video footage, SpeedGrade uses the Lumetri Deep Color Engine with 32-bit floating point image processing capability. Capable of handling RAW and HDR content, it offers real-time adjustment across multiple layers and can colour match footage shot on different cameras.
Prelude
Prelude aims to make post-production easier with a simple interface designed for efficient ingestion and logging of footage, plus a host of tags, markers and metadata at your disposal, and the option of transcoding to a wide range of formats. As you’d expect, it complements Premiere Pro: rough cuts can be sent there and metadata syncs seamlessly between the two.
Edge
A collection of tools and services for web development using HTML, CSS and JavaScript: create interactive and animated content with Edge Animate; design responsive layouts with Edge Reflow; access free web fonts served by Typekit with Edge Web Fonts; or delve deep into coding with Edge Code.
Proto
One of the Adobe Touch tablet apps (currently Android-only and priced at £6.99 each) that integrate with your Creative Cloud package, Proto enables you to create interactive wireframe mock-ups of websites and apps – ideal for getting your client’s ideas down in meetings. Of course, you can then upload your files to the cloud for sharing.
Kuler
Spotted the perfect colour scheme while on the morning coffee run? Snap it with your Android device and use Adobe Kuler to work it into a theme for your next project. This Touch app includes a range of colour spaces and features to help you find the best combinations, which you can then share with others in Kuler’s online ‘colour community’.
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Collage
Prepare for when inspiration strikes with this Touch app devoted to creating moodboards. Import images from Google and Flickr, add PDFs, PSDs and AI files and embellish the results with your own text and sketches. It’s worth noting that annual Creative Cloud members qualify for a free month’s membership if they buy three of the Adobe Touch apps.
