Ohio State students no longer have free access to Adobe Creative Cloud on personal computers due to an Aug. 1 transition to free Adobe Express Premium and discounted Creative Cloud as a replacement. Credit: Sandra Fu | Photo Editor
Ohio State students no longer have free access to the Adobe Creative Cloud on personal computers due to an Aug. 1 transition to free Adobe Express Premium as a replacement.
The university’s new contract with Adobe permits it to offer free Adobe Express access to students, faculty and staff, while also providing the Adobe Creative Cloud at the “significantly reduced cost” of $35 per license with a $1 credit card processing fee, Katharine Keune, chief communication officer for the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation — or OTDI — said in an email.
The Adobe Creative Cloud is a suite of apps with popular software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Illustrator. Alternatively, Adobe Express Premium allows users to design Instagram posts, videos, presentations, webpages and more through the software’s templates. According to the OTDI website, Adobe Express “includes the functionalities of Photoshop Express, Premiere Rush, Firefly, Adobe Stock, Spark Page, Spark Video, Portfolio and Fonts.”
The website states these products are only available when working on an Adobe Express project; for instance, “with Express access, stock images are available for Express projects but not for individual download on Adobe’s Stock website.”
Access to Adobe products has never been free, Keune said.
“Under our previous contract, the university covered the full cost of Adobe Creative Cloud licenses, with the expenses distributed equally across colleges and administrative units, regardless of actual usage,” Keune said. “Each time we renew our contract with Adobe, we carefully review usage data to ensure that we are providing valuable resources in a fiscally responsible manner. Our recent analysis revealed that a significant portion of the licenses went unused, prompting us to optimize our approach.”
The discounted licenses are valid from July to June, Keune said. A typical Adobe Creative Cloud subscription is around $660 for a full year, according to the Adobe website.
For staff and faculty, the free availability of the Adobe Creative Cloud for work-use will vary by department, the OTDI website states. However, Adobe Acrobat Pro — a PDF software for file conversion and editing — can be used by all faculty and staff without a Creative Cloud license.
Keune said she highly recommends that people check out the features of Adobe Express Premium before purchasing a Creative Cloud license.
“Adobe Express Premium has undergone substantial enhancements, now offering many of the same features found in the full Creative Cloud suite,” Keune said.
The full Adobe Creative Cloud suite is still available for free use in digital unions and public computer labs on campus, according to the OTDI website.
