The downside of Adobe’s new business model

photoshop cs6 (1).png

Adobe has changed from a business model that relies on software purchase for Photoshop and other products to one that requires a monthly subscription. I like Photoshop and have used it personally and professionally for the last fifteen years; however, I hate this change and have no intention of committing myself to a monthly fee to use Adobe products.

As of January 27, 2017, Adobe has discontinued support for most of their desktop applications and it is clearly only a matter of time before these products fail completely. So, what are my options? I can come up with a the following no monthly fee options:

Adobe Photoshop Elements, which is still available without a monthly charge.
Corel Photo-Paint, which is included in the CorelDRAW Graphic Suite
GIMP, which is a free image editor available online

For the time being I am planning to continue to use my still-working copy of Adobe Photoshop CS6. Eventually. I will switch to Option 2 or 3, since I have little desire to continue supporting Adobe.

Does anyone else dislike Adobe’s move to subscription-based services as much as I do?

For more on Adobe’s change see After a record-breaking year, Adobe officially axes the old Creative Suite and CC or Bust: Adobe Officially Pulls the Plug on Creative Suite.

Note: Adobe Photoshop is a professional product with extensive editing capabilities that targets a different market than consumer photo products. It is a complicated program and is not generally considered user friendly.

About Mark Mizen

I have over twenty years professional experience in all aspects of photography and digital imaging. I am Chair of the ISO WG5 TG2 committee responsible for physical properties and durability of imaging material and am currently with HID Global working on systems for security printing for IDs, licenses, and credit cards. Previously, I was Director of Digital Development at Creative Memories from 2009 to 2012 and was responsible for the Creative Memories digital products and services. I also established and directed the Creative Memories Technology Center, which evaluated new products prior to product introduction, assisted with production difficulties, and provided technical information to support product sales.

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6 Responses to The downside of Adobe’s new business model

Dorothy Huey says:

February 2, 2017 at 1:22 pm

Do you use Historian and Artisan as well?

- Mark Mizen says:
  
  February 2, 2017 at 1:29 pm
  
  I use Artisan extensively for creating photo books and other projects. I manually back-up my photos using Windows Explorer, Adobe Photoshop is a professional product with extensive editing capabilities that targets a different market. It is a complicated program that is not user friendly.\
  
Mich says:

February 2, 2017 at 2:04 pm

Why not use Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop?

Jan Vomacka says:

February 2, 2017 at 8:07 pm

I hate all subscription software. Will NOT use Office 365, and now will no longer be buying new Adobe products. 😦 Bad move on their part. By the way, had Corel many years ago and really disliked that program a LOT!! It ended up being a dustcatcher on the shelf before I eventually threw it out.

Carolyn says:

February 3, 2017 at 12:54 am

I have used Adobe CC for two years, for PhotoShop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I could not have afforded purchasing these three programs outright, so though it’s expensive, the subscription model is better for me. (And I subscribe to Office 365 primarily for the free included 1-terabyte cloud storage, which is kept secure with 2-Factor Verification.)

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