The Adobe software list is long, as the Creative Cloud suite covers pretty much every creative need. Whether you're a graphic designer, web designer, photographer, illustrator, marketing professional or are working in TV and movies, it has most of the tools your profession considers industry standard.
But most Adobe software requires a subscription. Potential subscribers have the choice of signing up to just a single app, the Photography Plan or the whole Creative Cloud suite It's a big decision to make, so it's vital you're aware of exactly what you're buying. Though there are over 50, yes 50, apps altogether, there are 12 main ones you definitely need to know about.
If you want to edit images, Photoshop is the industry standard; so much so, that the word ‘Photoshop’ has even become a verb. But tweaking photos isn’t all that Photoshop does: it’s also a fully fledged graphics editor.
Photoshop can be used, for example, to edit and compose raster images, graphics and text in multiple layers; edit and render text and vector graphics; and create and edit 3D graphics and video. This wide range of capabilities means that Photoshop is not just used by photographers and photo retouchers, but also by digital artists, graphic designers and art directors, and even, increasingly, by 3D designers and VFX artists.
It’s important to note that Photoshop works with raster graphics, in contrast to Illustrator (below), which works with vector graphics. To understand the difference between these, read our guide to common file formats. Also check out our best alternatives to Photoshop.
02. Adobe Illustrator
Create gorgeous vector graphics and illustrations
Used for: Illustration, designing vector graphics | Platforms: Mac, Windows, iPad
While Photoshop has wide and ever-expanding capabilities, Illustrator is much more focused on a specific tasks. It’s essentially a drawing programme based on vector graphics (which contain less detail than raster graphics and are infinitely scalable). As the name might suggest, Illustrator is most commonly used by artists, illustrators and graphic designers, to create everything from simple graphics, such as logos, icons and infographics, to complex illustrations, and everything in-between. Illustrator for the iPad has also recently been released. You can read our review of Illustrator CC here.
03. Adobe After Effects
Used for visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing
Used for: VFX, motion graphics, compositing | Platforms: Mac, Windows
After Effects is a popular tool for visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing. Although you wouldn’t use it to create an entire movie, it might be used by a creative studio to create the kind of simple animations you’d feature on a website, in an explainer video, or on a credit sequence, for example.
After Effects is also used in the post-production process of film making and television, for tasks such as keying, tracking and compositing, and creating visual effects such as explosions and lightning strikes. As well as being smoothly integrated with other Adobe apps, it also plays nicely with Maxon’s 3D application Cinema 4D. See our After Effects tutorials for help on getting to grips with After Effects.
04. Adobe XD
Adobe's software for web and mobile prototyping
Used for: Web and app prototyping | Platforms: MacWindows, with iOS and Android app for testing
Launched a few years back as Adobe's rival to Sketch, Adobe XD is a vector-based UX tool for prototyping web and mobile apps. In other words, you don’t create the whole app in XD, but use it for visualising the interface and defining how all the different parts function and relate to each other. This makes it easier to get everything working correctly, before you embark on the final coding. Note that XD's starter plan is free, and you don’t need a Creative Cloud subscription to use it.
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