Adobe has just announced a bunch of new features for Creative Cloud…but I suspect some of you are still using CC. I think you should consider it again, and here’re a couple of reasons.

$10/Month for Everyone

First of all, the Creative Cloud Photography bundle, which includes the full Photoshop and Lightroom, is now permanently $10/month, and there are no exceptions (previously, it was listed as limited time, and you had to be upgrading). Yep, for just $10/month you get the best tools in the universe for realizing your photographic and artistic visions. This is what I use, and I pay for it–I’m not sponsored by Adobe–and I highly recommend you get it, too, especially if you’re getting into photography for the first time. Why wouldn’t you want to get the latest updates, like a significantly faster Photoshop, right away?

Text Preview

This isn’t ground breaking, but it’s one of the new features in Photoshop CC (won’t be in CS6), and it’s really going to make it easier for a guy like me to use text in my images. I’m often asked to make graduation announcements, albums, and even my own business cards and promo pieces, which all require some kind of text with the image. There are hundreds of fonts available in Photoshop, and choosing one after another has required a lot of mouse clicking just to see that I don’t like this one or that.

Now, you can highlight the text you’re working on, and scroll through the different fonts from the drop down menu and see a live preview of each on your document. (Hint: this also works with the font size–highlight and then scroll on the font size field and the text will shrink and grow right before your eyes.)

It’s a little thing, but since I’m not a graphic designer with a list of favorite fonts, this will help me see what I’m doing with a lot more ease. I may even use something besides Myriad Pro in my next promo….

Adobe Sketch and Behance

I have shown before that I like to use drawing apps to draw what I’m planning to photograph–it helps me to make more good pictures quickly when I arrive to shoot. Well, there’s a new app for drawing, and it connects with Behance to help you get feedback. Sketch has some really cool features, and feels natural to draw with. Behance is included with your CC subscription, and, among other things, it includes 20GB of cloud storage and a portfolio website. I’m excited to give this a try and I’ll keep you posted as I learn to use it all together.

There’s a lot more new stuff, and we’ll demonstrate how to use it in posts to come. Once again, I use CC, and I love it. I’m excited to get these new features–not least of all the performance improvements.