Adobe has announced a cloud-based subscription version of its editing software including Photoshop and Illustrator. The latest version of its professional editing programs, called Creative Suite 6, will be available as a download for monthly subscribers to the new Creative Cloud service. It will allow users to store files online and synchronise files across machines, including tablets. Adobe has recently launched iPad and Android versions of Photoshop. A subscription to Creative Cloud will cost £38.11 a month, or £22.23 for users of current editions of Creative Suite, as long as users sign up for a year. Stand-alone packages will cost up to £2,223 depending on the range of programs. Subscribers to Creative Cloud will be able to download the software onto two computers. The move may be seen as an attempt by Adobe to combat piracy. Photoshop is one of the most-pirated programs in the world, and Adobe will hope a monthly subscription is more attractive than paying hundreds of pounds outright, following the success of subscription services such as Spotify and Netflix, as The Telegraph stated. Creative Suite, which includes graphic design software Illustrator and publishing program InDesign, will also be available as a standalone package. New features introduced in CS6 include new interfaces for many of its programs, a faster processing engine for Photoshop and easier digital publishing for InDesign. A beta release of Photoshop CS6 was downloaded more than one million times, according to Adobe. Creative Suite 6 will be available "within 30 days".
