FAQ

To learn about the new features in each edition, click the links for top new features on each of the suite edition product overview pages.

If you've been using an earlier version of Creative Suite, you may be eligible for an upgrade price for Creative Suite 6. Check the upgrade eligibility table on the buying guide for your suite edition to determine the most cost-effective way for you to upgrade.

Adobe worked closely with customers on all versions of Creative Suite, including CS3 and CS4 customers, in developing our plans around CS6, and our customers have noted that the innovations in CS6 will help them far more efficiently create and deliver content and applications across many devices, thus saving significant money on rework and deploying multiple teams. Customers have indicated an eagerness to upgrade at the proposed prices, given the increased efficiency, productivity, and reach they'll achieve using CS6.

If your creative workflow requires multiple Adobe components, you can save money when you purchase a Creative Suite 6 edition instead of individual CS components. Depending on the edition you purchase, you can save up to 60% compared to buying the individual components that make up that edition.

Check the product comparison chart in the buying guide of each edition to see what's included.

With Creative Suite editions for design, web, and video, Adobe has a solution tailored to meet your needs no matter what you are trying to create. Each edition has been designed around next-generation workflows that give you the creative freedom to express your ideas as completely and quickly as possible. So even if you don't use all of the tools today, purchasing a suite edition gives you the flexibility to adapt your workflow as your creative needs change.

As of the launch of Creative Suite 6, Adobe has combined Design Premium and Web Premium into one suite edition, CS6 Design & Web Premium. This new edition for designers and web developers includes all of the tools needed to deliver innovative ideas in print, on the web, and for tablet devices and smartphones. Learn more about Design & Web Premium and the included components.

Adobe does not plan to make any changes to the existing complimentary and paid support programs that are enjoyed by our customers. For details on these programs, visit the Adobe support page.

Yes, you can upgrade from CS5 or CS5.5 versions of Design Premium or Web Premium to CS6 Design & Web Premium. For more specifics on upgrade pricing, as well as options to upgrade from earlier versions of Design Premium or Web Premium to CS6, see the Design & Web Premium buying guide.

The software license agreement accompanying your product may entitle you to install and activate the software on two systems with certain restrictions. The product license agreement for Creative Suite 6 does not allow you to install the components of a single suite edition across multiple computers. Please see the software license agreement for more information.

Adobe CS Review and SiteCatalyst® NetAverages™ were discontinued as of April 12, 2012; however, Adobe BrowserLab, Adobe Story, and Acrobat.com continue to remain available. Learn more about the discontinuation of CS Live.

You will still have access to BrowserLab, Story, and Acrobat.com using your Adobe ID.

To use the services, your Adobe ID must be a valid email address. If your ID does not contain a verified email address, you will need to update it. Follow these instructions to update your Adobe ID or password:

· Go to the Adobe website and sign in with your current Adobe ID.
· Click Edit Your Account Information and select the Adobe ID tab.
· Click Change to enter your current email address. You can also change your password in this tab. Click Update to apply the changes to your account.
 
After you change your Adobe ID to match your email address, you can set up access to the desired services.

With the CS6 update, joining Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop as native 64-bit Mac applications are Adobe Encore, Adobe SpeedGrade, and Adobe Illustrator. On Windows, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, SpeedGrade, and Encore are native 64 bit and run only on 64-bit operating systems. Photoshop and Illustrator are native 64-bit Windows applications, but also run on 32-bit operating systems.

By optimizing code for 64-bit operating systems, Adobe is able to deliver the performance gains video professionals require. Creative Suite customers benefit from working on the latest hardware and operating systems, and the majority of video professionals have already transitioned to 64-bit capable systems, such as Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion, or 64-bit versions of Windows 7. Because 64-bit operating systems offer superior performance, CS6 and future releases of Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Encore, and SpeedGrade will not support 32-bit operating systems. For an up-to-date list of 64-bit third-party plug-ins for After Effects, visit the After Effects plug-ins page.

On Windows, Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and Adobe After Effects CS6 require a 64-bit edition of Microsoft® Windows 7. If you are using the following operating systems, you will not be able to install or run Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 or After Effects CS6:

• 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP Home or Professional
• 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise

If you are using one of the listed incompatible operating systems, Adobe recommends that you upgrade to a 64-bit edition of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate.

On 64-bit operating systems you have access to essentially unlimited RAM, because they offer a wider address system and data path. On 32-bit systems, each application is limited to 4GB of RAM (and in practice this number is actually smaller). More RAM means applications can manipulate larger chunks of data, cache more information, and handle a wide range of tasks more efficiently.

Mac OS Snow Leopard and OS X Lion are already 64-bit capable.  64 bit enables leveraging of more than 4GB of RAM. All you need to do is add more RAM to start seeing the benefits of native 64-bit OS support.

When you install Windows 7, choose the 64-bit version.

With the CS6 update, joining Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop as native 64-bit Mac applications are Adobe Encore, SpeedGrade, and Illustrator. On Windows, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, SpeedGrade, and Encore are native 64-bit and run only on 64-bit operating systems. Photoshop and Illustrator are native 64-bit Windows applications, but also run on 32-bit operating systems.

The CS5.5 and CS6 versions of Master Collection and Production Premium will be supported on a complimentary basis.  Other products will require a fee.

Adobe has a number of upgrade paths available to current Creative Suite customers. Refer to the buying guide pages for your products to get full details on your upgrade options.

Adobe plans to continue offering support according to the existing complimentary and paid support programs. For details on these programs, visit the support page.

With native 64-bit applications, more RAM means better performance when working with multiple applications on high-resolution projects. For that reason, we recommend you use at least 8GB of RAM, and 16GB, 32GB, or even more for high-performance configurations.

Visit the performance page for more information.

Adobe and Apple have worked closely together to test Adobe® Creative Suite® 5, 5.5 and CS6 editions and individual products for reliability, performance and user experience when installed on Intel® based systems running Mac OS X Mountain Lion (v10.8). Adobe Flash Professional CS5, 5.5 and CS6 are not compatible with Mac OS x Mountain Lion (v10.8). Earlier versions of Adobe Photoshop® (CS3 and CS4) software were also tested with Mountain Lion and there are currently no known issues.

As with any new release of an operating system, there may be unexpected issues that arise that were not discovered during testing.  If you encounter any issues, please report them on our bug reporting form.

At this time, none of the CS5, 5.5 or CS6 applications require updates to be compatible with Mountain Lion.  However, we do recommend that all users download the latest version of the Adobe Flash® Player runtime. 

In our testing we have found no significant issues with running CS5, 5.5, CS6 or Acrobat products with Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, other than Adobe Flash Professional.

Apple created a new security feature called Gatekeeper™ which is intended to help make applications downloaded from the Internet safer. Learn more at http://www.apple.com/osx/what-is/security.html

Adobe has added the Gatekeeper signing requirements to our currently shipping applications. However, our legacy products created before Mountain Lion's Gatekeeper feature was available are not signed. If you download one of those legacy (unsigned) applications, the Gatekeeper security feature may pop-up a security dialog that warns users against downloading non-signed applications from the Internet. You can still install the un-signed applications by following these directions.

If updates for Mountain Lion compatibility with Creative Suite products are required in the future, the updates will be made available through the Adobe Updater, a utility that is installed with Adobe products to manage downloading and installing updates for you. As long as the automated notification feature in Adobe Updater is turned on, you will be alerted automatically when the updates become available. You can then follow the onscreen instructions to download and install the updates. Alternatively, you can open a CS5, CS5.5 or CS6 product that requires an update, choose Help > Updates to open the Adobe Updater, check all of the updates you want, and then click Download and Install Updates. Lastly, you can also visit the downloads page on Adobe.com to monitor when updates are posted, and then download and install the updates for each relevant product. 

Starting with Mac OS X Lion (v10.7), Apple no longer includes support for Rosetta, which is required to run PPC code on Macs with Intel® processors. Creative Suite 2 software was created to run on PowerPC hardware on Macs and will not be able to run on Lion and Mountain Lion. Additionally, older plug-ins as well as drivers for printers, scanners, and other hardware peripherals that require PPC support will no longer work with even the most current Creative Suite products without Rosetta. 

Customers are encouraged to check plug-in compatibility by contacting the plug-in vendor before upgrading to Lion. For third-party products, contact the manufacturer for guidance.

Adobe offers support to Creative Suite customers running Mac OS X Mountain Lion in accordance with our standard customer support policies. Visit the support page for additional information about our complimentary and paid support programs.

Adobe recommends following your company’s internal guidelines to manage updates. You may want to contact the IT person who manages your Adobe licenses for information about your corporate policies on updating software. For volume licensing customers, information is available for IT managers on how to do a silent install  of CS5, 5.5 and CS6 updates Individual users should use the Adobe Updater within their products (choose Help > Updates) to download and install individual system updates.

As a Creative Suite application subscriber or member of Creative Cloud, you are eligible to receive updates and upgrades as long as your membership remains active. Adobe will notify you via email as they become available with instructions on how to access them.

Yes. If a full version of a CS5, CS5.5 or CS6 product is compatible with Mountain Lion, then the trial version of that product is compatible as well. The known issues described in this document also apply to the trial versions. 

If you know what products you currently own, refer to the buying guide for each product on Adobe.com and check the upgrade chart to find out which upgrades you are eligible for.

If you're buying Creative Suite products for the first time, refer to the CS6 family buying guide to determine which suite edition is right for you.

Owners of a CS5 or CS5.5 suite edition qualify for upgrade pricing to a CS6 suite edition. Owners of an individual CS5 or CS5.5 product qualify for upgrade pricing to the same product but not to a suite edition. Any version earlier than CS5 will not be eligible for upgrade pricing.

From within any of your individual Adobe products, select the menu item "About [product name]," which will open a dialog box that displays which version you own. Then check the upgrade eligibility chart on the buying guide for that product to determine which upgrades you are eligible for. Buying guide links are at the top right of the product pages.

No, Adobe does not offer a discount if you want to move from an individual Creative Suite product to a suite edition.

No, Adobe no longer offers "upsells" for the following products: FreeHand® to Illustrator; Photoshop Elements to Photoshop or Photoshop Extended.

There are several options to determine which edition of Creative Suite is installed on your computer:

If you've registered your software, your product registration details will show your suite edition and serial number. Check your registration details by logging in to your account on Adobe.com and clicking "My products and services."

For CS4 and CS3, you can determine the suite edition by doing the following:

• In Windows, go to Start > All Programs and check the Creative Suite edition.
• In Mac OS, you can identify which suite edition is installed via the uninstaller (go to Applications\Utilities\Adobe Installers). For example, the uninstaller will say "Design Premium," "Web Premium," or whichever other suite edition was installed.

There are two main ways to purchase Adobe software:

Buy from Adobe: Buy and download Adobe software to start using it immediately, or choose to have the product shipped to you.

Buy from a reseller: Whether you're looking for a local retail store or a value-added reseller, Adobe has an extensive network of partners.

To locate Adobe Authorized Resellers in your area, visit the find a reseller page.

No. Adobe does not offer upgrade pricing for customers wishing to move from a suite edition to an individual CS component. For complete upgrade information for the product you are interested in, consult the upgrade eligibility chart on that product's buying guide page.

Before you open your upgrade of CS6 software, read the upgrade information page to ensure you are a licensed user of eligible Adobe software.

Yes. Qualifying full-time or part-time students, faculty, and staff of accredited educational institutions can purchase Adobe products at a reduced price. Learn more about Creative Suite 6 for education and eligibility requirements. Note that there are no reduced-price subscriptions available for education customers.

Yes. You may qualify for a discount on software through Adobe Volume Licensing (AVL). Learn more about volume licensing, or have a licensing specialist contact you.

The Creative Suite 6 editions address the needs of various creative roles within a multidiscipline team. As you learn about the CS6 products and review your purchasing options, consider the requirements of each of the roles and individuals on your team. To learn more about CS6 for teams, refer to the "For companies" section of each suite edition's product pages (accessible under Resources). You can also have a licensing specialist contact you.

As Adobe continues to focus on delivering world-class innovation through Creative Cloud and digital fulfillment, we will be phasing out shrink-wrapped, boxed versions of Creative Suite. Electronic downloads for Creative Suite products will continue to be available – as they are today – from both Adobe.com, as well as reseller and retail partners.

No. You cannot upgrade from a Creative Suite edition to an individual CS component. To confirm your options and learn about the requirements for upgrades, check the upgrade eligibility chart on the buying guide page of the product you wish to purchase. Among other requirements, you must be able to provide the serial number for the product you wish to upgrade during installation.

Adobe allows upgrades to CS6 individual products and suite editions from one version back (which in this case is CS5 and CS5.5, due to the interim CS5.5 release). For example, if you have a validly licensed copy of Photoshop CS5, you can upgrade to Photoshop CS6 at the upgrade price. Owners of individual products are not eligible to upgrade to suite editions. 

Yes. If you are upgrading from an earlier qualifying version of an Adobe product to the newest version, you can upgrade across languages. To move from one language to another in the current version, you will have to call Customer Service in your region for eligibility and fulfillment. There may be a cost. Restrictions apply. See the service note.

You  may be eligible. Call Customer Service in your region for more information.

No. Adobe does not permit individual end users to upgrade volume license products to individual shrinkwrapped software.

Yes, provided you meet the upgrade eligibility requirements. For customers who want to move from shrinkwrapped software to a volume license, we also offer a credit against past qualifying purchases. For details and requirements, visit the Adobe Volume Licensing page.

Yes. To help you evaluate Adobe's creative software for upgrade or new purchase, we offer "try and buy" versions of the premium editions of Creative Suite 6 as well as most individual CS6 products, such as Photoshop CS6 Extended and Flash Professional CS6, in many of the languages in which we ship. These trial versions offer almost every feature and function of the product for you to test-drive. In most cases, the trials can easily be converted to purchased versions without needing to reinstall the software. The trial period begins on the first day you launch the software and continues for 30 days. When the trial expires, you must purchase the software to continue using it.

Note that Adobe Encore CS6 and Adobe Prelude CS6 are not available for trial. Encore and Prelude will be installed as part of the trial for CS6 Production Premium and Master Collection but will not be available for use until you purchase. The trial versions of Adobe After Effects CS6 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 do not include some features that depend on software licensed from parties other than Adobe. For example, some codecs for encoding MPEG formats are available only with the full version of these products.

There are two options. You can try individual products or suite editions by downloading trial versions of CS6 products directly from the Adobe.com download pages.

Trial DVDs are no longer available. Trials are available for download on Adobe.com.

You can download trial software by navigating to the Downloads section of Adobe.com and selecting the product you would like to try. In order to improve your download stability and speed, Adobe offers Adobe Download Assistant software.

On Windows, Adobe Download Assistant downloads two files, an executable (EXE) file and a 7z file. The 7z file is a highly compressed archive that is used with the EXE file to install a downloaded product. The EXE and 7z files must both be completely downloaded and located in the same folder in order for the product to install successfully.

On Mac OS, Adobe Download Assistant downloads a single .dmg file.

Visit Adobe Download Assistant Help for more information.

By default, some product installers will automatically start when your download completes. If the installation doesn't start automatically, see Start the installer after downloading.

You do not need a serial number to try out your software. To start the trial, launch your software and click the Start Trial button on the first screen that loads.  

If you already purchased a product on the online Adobe Store, your serial number will be emailed to you. Alternately, you can sign in to your Adobe account to find your serial number. For additional information, see Find a serial number.

No. Each edition of Creative Suite 6 is a complete integrated product that is bound by the 30-day trial period. For example, Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium integrates these components: Photoshop CS6 Extended, Illustrator CS6, InDesign CS6, Dreamweaver CS6, Flash Professional CS6, Fireworks CS6, Acrobat X Pro, and Adobe Bridge CS6. Launching any one of these initiates the 30-day trial period. You must then evaluate these components within the 30-day window.

Yes. If you have tried an individual product such as Photoshop CS6 Extended, you can either convert that directly to the same product or convert it to one of the Creative Suite 6 editions that contains Photoshop CS6 Extended. Alternately, if you tried an edition of Creative Suite 6 but decide to buy an individual component that is part of that edition, you can simply enter the serial number for the purchased product to convert your trial to the individual component you purchased.

Acrobat X Pro is available as a trial for Windows only. However, the full version of Acrobat X Pro is included with both Mac OS and Windows versions of Master Collection, Design & Web Premium, and Design Standard. Full versions are available for sale individually on Adobe.com.

Yes. If you have opted to receive email communications from Adobe, you may receive a series of communications with helpful resources and tips to get the most from your trial. There are also additional free resources available:

• Visit Adobe TV, your online source for expert insight and inspiration. Discover insider tips, innovative techniques, and behind-the-scenes tours delivered on video, on demand, helping you make the most of your Creative Suite 6 software trial.
  
• You can also browse the Design Center or Developer Connection for additional training information. 
• Join the worldwide Adobe user group community to network and build connections, master new skills, and learn from your peers. Adobe Groups provide a forum for business and creative professionals at all levels.
  

Adobe Technical Support will help you install or troubleshoot an installation issue with a trial version of Adobe creative products. Additional phone and web support is available only for registered users of purchased software. For additional help, we recommend the following free options: Search Adobe Community Help to find the focused answers you need — fast. Searchable content includes the in-depth product-specific Help that Adobe has always delivered, plus additional Adobe and third-party content chosen by experts at Adobe and in the design and production communities. Use the search bar within most Creative Suite 6 component software, or simply choose Help > Product name.  Search the online Adobe Knowledgebase in the support area.

Converting your trial is simple:  Purchase the software through the online Adobe Store (as an electronic download or as a shipped product) or from your preferred authorized reseller, store, or catalog. If you want to purchase through the Adobe Store, simply click the Buy button on the trial screen — the screen that loads when you launch your trial software. After you make your purchase, click the License This Software button on the trial screen to enter your serial number.

Optional: If you purchased an electronic download from the Adobe Store, log in to your account and download any additional available content or applications for the product you purchased. You can use your Adobe ID and password to access this content for up to three years after the product is released. If you purchased through a channel other than the Adobe Store and are converting from an individual CS6 product to a suite edition or to a different individual product, you may need to install the additional applications on your computer.

Creative Suite 6 trials allow you to evaluate individual products or editions of Creative Suite 6 and then convert the installed trial to a full version. For instance, if you tried a CS6 suite edition but decide to buy an individual component that is part of that edition, you can simply enter the serial number for the purchased product to convert your trial to the component you want.

Alternatively, if you have tried an individual product such as Photoshop CS6 Extended, you can either convert the trial directly to the same product or convert it to one of the Creative Suite 6 editions that contains Photoshop CS6 Extended.

If you tried multiple products and purchased a suite edition that contains all of them, you can enter the suite edition serial number in one of the components and the other ones will automatically pick up the serial number. You will need to install the additional components contained in the suite edition. If you tried individual CS6 products and bought them as single products, you can simply enter the serial numbers in the respective products.

Yes, Adobe Volume Licensing customers can also convert trials by simply entering a valid license serial number. Contact your reseller or authorized Adobe License Center to place a volume licensing order. Note: To convert Acrobat X Pro, you must download and install a different version for volume licenses.

When you are converting your trial, the serial number you enter must match your trial software language set. If the language set does not match, you may need to uninstall your trial and reinstall a version that supports the desired language set.

The following is a list of the languages included in each language set: 

Americas : English, French Canadian, International English, Spanish

Japan: International English, Japanese

Continental Europe: Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, French, German, International English, Italian, Spanish

Asia: Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, International English, Korean

Nordics: Danish, Finnish, International English, Norwegian, Swedish

Eastern Europe: Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian

To uninstall your trial version, close any open Adobe software on your computer and do the following: In Windows, open the Windows Control Panel and double-click Add or Remove Programs. Select the product you want to uninstall, click Change/Remove, and then follow the onscreen instructions.

In Mac OS, double-click the product installer in Applications > Utilities > Adobe Installers. Authenticate as an administrator, select Uninstall Components, and then follow the onscreen instructions.

Yes, provided you have a qualifying earlier version of Adobe software. In this case, you may purchase an upgrade to convert your trial to a purchased version. To verify that you have an earlier version that qualifies, navigate to the product area you're interested in and click the buying guide link, and then check the upgrade eligibility chart. When you enter the purchased serial number to activate your trial for ongoing use, the installer will search your hard drive for the qualifying software. If it doesn't find it, it will prompt you for the serial number of your earlier version. If that serial number does not work, contact Adobe Customer Service in your region for further assistance.

Yes, if you choose the download option when converting a trial to a purchased version, we highly recommend making a backup copy and keeping it together with the serial number. That way, if you get a new computer or have to rebuild an existing machine, you have everything you need to efficiently reinstall your Adobe software. Alternatively, follow the instructions in the email receipt to log in and download your software for up to three years after you purchase. If you had the software shipped from Adobe or a reseller at purchase, that media serves as your backup version.

The software license agreement accompanying your product may entitle you to install and activate the software on two systems with certain restrictions. Refer to the software license agreement for more information.