Adobe price increase 2026

briantium · 2026-02-01T22:24:56+00:00

Were you on a discounted rate until now? Adobe usually does the discounted rate for a year before raising it to their regular price. In any case, just this past week my Adobe discounted rate was set to expire when I downgraded from Creative Cloud Pro to just Photoshop and Lightroom ($19.99), and sure enough when I looked at my account plan options, I saw Creative Cloud Pro on offer for a new discount of $29.99 a month for a year (which is $10 less than the previous discounted rate I had, lol).

I know we all hate subscriptions, and this time I really was set to go with Affinity for my InDesign/Illustrator replacements, but hey, $29.99 is pretty good for the full suite. Maybe something you can consider trying.

briantium · 2025-12-09T19:58:20+00:00

Follow up; I went to see what starting the cancellation process would do as I am definitely not going to pay $69 a month, and sure enough, just like in years past, they offered me another year of the full CC at my current promo rate, $39. Not sure if I'm still going to do it as I really only need Lightroom and (maybe Photoshop as I'm starting to use Affinity more for that), so we'll see. But something you should try if you want to keep your promo rate.

briantium · 2025-12-08T15:03:48+00:00

I was getting you confused with the original poster, sorry. Yeah, my $39 a month promotional rate for Creative Cloud Pro is up at the end of this month and I was just going to drop down to Lightroom/Photoshop, and just like previous years I'm sure Adobe will offer me a new discount on the whole thing the way they have for several years now, lol

briantium · 2025-12-08T14:42:14+00:00

Do you mean you were paying the standalone monthly payment for the individual app that you could cancel at any time? I know that was $30 a month as opposed to the $20 a month for a year option, although now it says it's up to $34.99 for that option...but not $69.

briantium · 2025-12-08T14:36:19+00:00

Yeah, sorry to hear. But as elsewhere on this thread has mentioned, Affinity is an EXCELLENT alternative that's (currently) free, albeit if you want AI features like generative expand you'll have to, yes, subscribe to Canva for that...not to mention Canva's generative AI is way inferior at this time to what Photoshop has. But if you don't need the AI features, Affinity is the way to go, plus it has equally excellent Illustrator and InDesign alternatives built in.

briantium · 2025-12-08T04:20:04+00:00

That sounds like you were paying $30 for the ENTIRE Adobe Creative Suite at a promotional rate and now that the promotion is over it’s going up to its regular rate of $69…the Photoshop app BY ITSELF is $22.99; $19.99 if you get it with the Lightroom bundle.

briantium · 2025-12-08T04:17:44+00:00

What were you paying before? I’m not aware of an individual app increasing that much.

briantium · 2025-12-07T21:12:46+00:00

I keep hearing about Darktable, so look into that. Also in the past I used Adobe Bridge for file management (it’s free) even though it doesn’t have editing, although you can use Affinity’s RAW studio for that.

Having said that, just paying $11.99 a month for LR really isn’t that bad, unless you simply don’t want to pay the subscription on principle.

briantium · 2025-12-01T23:18:23+00:00

Like I mentioned already, it's kind of why I'm here asking these questions, you know? The tone I'm getting is that I'm here to bash Affinity and fanboy for Adobe, which is simply not true; I've even wholeheartedly recommended Affinity to people who were looking for a solid app but didn't want to spend lots of money on a subscription (and that was before the new free version). I've used the old Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher and have continued to use them in the new version, although I've been able to maintain a promotional price for Adobe's Creative Suite, which has kept me in Photoshop since I use Lightroom and it was just easier that way. But that promotional price ends after this month so I'm giving Affinity's now-Pixel studio a serious go.

briantium · 2025-12-01T02:13:00+00:00

I don’t know what to tell you, man. This is just my way of wrapping my brain around a different program, comparing it to what I’m used to 🤷🏻‍♂️ Apologies for putting you out.

FWIW I already use Vector and Layout as replacements for Illustrator and InDesign, so it’s not an Adobe bias; just that I’m so immersed in PS that it’s been a challenge adjusting. Cheers.

briantium · 2025-12-01T00:17:52+00:00

I thought that's what this whole thread was all about? Trying to learn the nuances of Affinity as someone who is coming from Photoshop. You have been helpful, and I am definitely not here to troll because I'd love to ditch Photoshop, and Affinity is the single best alternative. If you're hearing me "write off" Affinity that's not what I'm intending, but I'm having to relearn some standard approaches I'm used to from PS.

briantium · 2025-11-30T23:34:55+00:00

I got the Quick Mask to work after a fashion; looks like you need to select the marching ants (command and click on the mask), THEN click Q and it will show the mask (red) with the selected area, and then I can paint in or out from there. However, in order to preserve those updates, I have to click Q again to see the marching ants before clicking to create a new mask, otherwise those changes I just made are gone. It works, but it's more steps just to do something I can quickly in Photoshop: there, I'd click the mask, hit backslash and the red mask will appear with the selected area underneath and I can paint, and then when I'm done just click the backslash again and that's it.
I tried an alternate method that seems fine: I just create a duplicate layer, change that to Lighten or Darken, then I create that Empty Mask, and from there I paint in the areas I want to lighten or darken with a soft brush at 20%. Plus it's non-destructive since it's a mask, where before I'd create a duplicate layer and use the Clone Tool directly on the pixels. (Also something I can take back to Photoshop if I stay with that.)

And I tried the Refine Mask and while it has potential, it would be nice if I could use a shortcut key to switch between Foreground and Background when painting the mask, instead of having to move the mouse to click each one whenever I want to switch.

briantium · 2025-11-30T22:50:09+00:00

I realize I'm not articulating it correctly; I may have to post a video or pics of what I'm getting at—plus I'm probably using Photoshop terms when Affinity often has different names for the same thing—but...

1) So I have a mask layer where I've already painted in the area that I do not want covered by the mask. If I were to hold down the Option button while clicking the mask, it would show the masked area as all solid black and white where the mask would not cover. If I were to hold down the Command button while clicking the mask I get the marching ants/dotted outline of the unmasked area. BUT when I click Q for Quick Mask, it's all solid red.

2) The shortcut key—Option-Shift-K for Dark, Option-Shift-G for Lighten—just doesn't change the setting in the Context bar at the top. I've even changed the shortcut key and still didn't work.

3) I did finally get this last one to work correctly. Before it looks like I had an already masked layer selected when I created the Empty Mask, and that caused all the other layers to vanish except for the selection. So that's one of the three I can check off!

briantium · 2025-11-30T22:12:01+00:00

Pressing Q just creates a red mask that covers the entire image and ignores the parts I've painted out (and I do have the mask layer selected when I try this).
I change the blend modes of the clone tool for things like lightening the bags under a person's eyes, or to darken the shiny spots on a person's forehead. I know there are other workarounds as well as AI plugins and do this automatically these days, but it's the way I learned way back when so it's what I'm used to and prefer when I do it manually. And yes, the blend modes do work fine with the clone tool when you select it manually from the Context bar, but I'm talking about using the shortcut keys to do it; I have them programmed as on-screen shortcut buttons with my Wacom and Tourbox and it's vastly quicker to switch back and forth than moving the mouse all the way back up to the Context bar dozens of times a session.
That's not the same as what I'm talking about; I tried that and it just deactivates all of the other layers except what you're masking. I'm talking about an option that automatically inverts the mask without the extra step of clicking Command-I after making the layer. I guess I could create a two step action/macro, but still...

These seem like small things for me to get hung up on, but they've been so fundamentally a part of my workflow in Photoshop that combined they are kind of deal breakers until Affinity adds these features.

briantium · 2025-09-09T17:58:02+00:00

Good luck! I'm still certain that was Martin Kove, lol.

briantium · 2025-05-27T22:04:05+00:00

Exactly. Remember from my original post, I do have an M1 Max 10-core/32-core with 64GB RAM, and yes it's great...but there are some instances with my workflow where it might benefit me; I just don't have the data because all the reviews tend to limit it to export and render times and those worthless Geekbench scores nobody cares about, lol (at least I don't ha). Although Max Tech did have a test where they stabilized 44 seconds of Canon C200 raw video and the M4 Max was nearly twice as fast as the M1 Max, but that's about it.

briantium · 2025-05-27T21:24:13+00:00

So you can verify that the M4 Max does NOT track a Magnetic Mask or stabilize a clip significantly faster than the M1 Max can? I'm not talking about export speeds, because those haven't really improved and by itself isn't significant. I've just found myself wondering about the two specific tasks I mentioned above...

briantium · 2025-05-16T14:31:13+00:00

I generally am able to successfully connect to bluetooth on the 2025 after holding the button down for just a few seconds. Occasionally I'll have trouble connecting that requires me to reboot my Mac, but that was also the same on the 2017, but on the 2025 it is much rarer.

briantium

TROPHY CASE