You Can Now Rent Photoshop for $35

[Pherule]

[citation][nom]shoelessinsight[/nom]As an amateur, I can do everything I want to in GIMP, and I can do it without the guilt of pirating Photoshop.[/citation]
You'd feel guilt for that?

A true pirate feels no guilt xD

 

[bogcotton]

[citation][nom]Razor512[/nom]Wanted to add, adobe could make a lot of money if they were to reduce the price of their programs to like $20 or less each. The software when sold is 100% profit, also consider this, photoshop of just as popular as windows If it was priced low, many more people will buy it, to a point where at the end of the day, they would have net more money.Remember, software has no production cost. I can send you 5000 copies of a house that I built in maya 3d and it would not cost me anything.[/citation]

The reasoning behind pricing it like this is that companies buy this software. I'm sure the Adobe execs don't even care about amateurs pirating the software (which is pretty evident in their investing very little into anti piracy measures) , because that isn't who the suite is primarily targetted at.

Think about this, for every professional and serious amateur they sell this suite to at $2600 a piece, they would have to sell over 26 times as many at $100 a piece to make the price change a viable option. In reality, a lot of the consumers are still going to pirate it, even with the lower price, and they have lost $2500 potential revenue for every company they sold the software to at the new lower price.

If anything, it is surprising they don't charge more like $5000, because these applications are 100% essential to the people they are selling them to, because their businesses have grown around using the interface, and as others have said, $2600 is absolutely pennies to even a semi successful design house / website.

 

[ericburnby]

[citation][nom]Razor512[/nom]Wanted to add, adobe could make a lot of money if they were to reduce the price of their programs to like $20 or less each. The software when sold is 100% profit, also consider this, photoshop of just as popular as windows If it was priced low, many more people will buy it, to a point where at the end of the day, they would have net more money.

Remember, software has no production cost.

I can send you 5000 copies of a house that I built in maya 3d and it would not cost me anything.[/citation]

Wow, just Wow. Software has no production cost? Typical attitude of a thief (err pirate).

 

[warezme]

[citation][nom]TheCapulet[/nom]I really wish someone would release something reasonably priced that can actually contend with CS, to finally bring adobe down to earth.[/citation]
I have CS5 but lots of folks tell me for photography Lightroom is better and much cheaper at around $80.

 

[bill gates is your daddy]

[citation][nom]stm1185[/nom]$35 month x 24 months = $840 per version. That is not too bad really. I think I will do that.[/citation]

1 hour search and download x keygen = $0.00

I think I will stick with my way

 

[of the way]

[citation][nom]ericburnby[/nom]Wow, just Wow. Software has no production cost? Typical attitude of a thief (err pirate).[/citation]

I think he's just saying after it's done it doesn't cost much to distribute it. They don't have the expense of materials for each sale like you would for say a car. There still is some cost though, and you can't just ignore the fact that you had a bunch of developers working to create the software, and still have those developers working to update the software.

 

[daglesj]

What Adobe needs to do is release a home/small business edition like MS did with Office.

Even costing around $200 would be fine as you dont have to upgrade the software every year. My other half is still using CS2 but wants to upgrade to CS5. The cost however is just extortionate for a sole trader/ small business. She'd pay 2-3 hundred dollars no problem, just not $2000+.

 

[Guest]

You could download the trial version for free and wipe your hard drive every 30 days.

 

[Guest]

I was a big fan of Ulead (later Corel) PhotoImpact. Wasn't as feature rich as Photoshop, but it got the job done well. I agree with the person who thought Adobe should release a lite version. They do sell a Student version for university students, my wife got a copy of CS4 for $100 back in the day.

 

[dotaloc]

I'm not convinced that the learning curve for GIMP is any more steep than it is for Photoshop. I used PS (CS2) first...but, almost in parallel, started using GIMP...and while the interface isn't very enjoyable to behold, the options are findable and there are tons of tutorials available.

I have a hard time recommending Photoshop to anyone who doesn't get paid well for graphics design.

 

[fulle]

Alright... There is already a cheaper version of Photoshop for casual use. It's called Adobe Photoshop Elements, and it costs about 100 bucks. I bought a tablet recently, and it was part of the packaged software... and, honestly, it's not bad. Most of my friends couldn't tell the difference from my Photoshop CS2, since they don't use the advanced features that are missing.

Course, I would never recommend that someone buys Elements for 100 bucks, because even at that cost, its grossly overpriced. If you can live without full Photoshop, maybe something like Paint.net would be a good alternative. It's as easy to use as Elements, and it's actually a little more powerful (especially if you factor in the huge amount of free plugins to paint.net). If they were both on the department store shelf for 30 dollars, Paint.net would actually be the better place to put your money. Its that solid.

I'm was just talking about casual, and amateur users though... I think Adobe's pricing makes sense from a professional standpoint, because of lack of competition. Take someone like an amateur photographer doing a little bit of side work, like HS graduation pictures... what's that person going to do? NOT purchase Lightroom? Seriously, even going with Aperture over Lightroom 3 is pretty much hurting your business. Badly.

It's pretty sad nobody can compete with Adobe... I don't get it.

 

[dark_lord69]

Warning: General software piracy is one thing. But if you pirate (steal) something worth over $250 that can be considered grand theft (depending on your state laws) which is a felony that can put you in the state prison for several years.

It's one thing to pay a fine... But to got to prision for years!? No Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Why can't most posters understand that CS5 is a tool for professionals and not your average Joe? What's next, complaints that CAD software at $5K/seat (as much as $20K/seat) costs too much? You should all go back to paper and pencil.

 

[jgutz2006]

people griping about the cost of a powerful software title like this need to realize that its intended for graphic designers or people serious about graphics/image editing and typically do this for their job which is why they are willing to pay what "normal individuals" consider obnoxious because its simply the best software out there. So go ahead and complain about it and talk about the freebie alternatives out there, you get what you pay for.

 

[nhat11]

[citation][nom]rmmil978[/nom]$2600...and people wonder why these get pirated?[/citation]

It's cause these software are not made for the general public, lol. And even if a person does use it, they probably only use a fraction of the worth of the software.

 

[ithurtswhenipee]

[citation][nom]ericburnby[/nom]$2,600 is cheap. If I have a graphic design company or an ad agency, I'd probably be paying my designer that much every week. The amount of time saved (and therefore money) over even one year using PS vs some other package like GP more than makes up for the price. Many, many times over.[/citation]
Wrong. The average salary of a Graphic designer is $45K per year. That is about $865 per week.

 

[Guest]

You can also buy CorelDraw, which has most of the features of the Adobe Suite (and a few nice ones of its own, including a much more friendly user interface) for about $350, or about $200 for an upgrade price.

Corel Draw / Corel PhotoPaint is actually the standard tool in businesses such as Sign making, vinyl / metal cutting. It also comes with a really good font bundle.

 

[razor512]

[citation][nom]ericburnby[/nom]Wow, just Wow. Software has no production cost? Typical attitude of a thief (err pirate).[/citation]

you are confusing development cost with production cost.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]daglesj[/nom]What Adobe needs to do is release a home/small business edition like MS did with Office.Even costing around $200 would be fine as you dont have to upgrade the software every year. My other half is still using CS2 but wants to upgrade to CS5. The cost however is just extortionate for a sole trader/ small business. She'd pay 2-3 hundred dollars no problem, just not $2000+.[/citation]

If shes a pro, making a living - then she can afford to buy it or her company will buy it. Since its a BUSINESS expense, it can be a tax write-off. Overall, the $1900 price isn't bad. Before the suites, Photoshop was always a $300+ product. Heck, I started with PS3 - when it fit on a few floppies. PS4 added a HISTORY! (badly needed). Of course she can't do a $500 upgrade - but hey, when we skip a few versions - we save money. I'm using still using PS7.x which works fine under Win7 (not perfect) - but it still does everything I need.

For $1900 - a person gets: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver (Wow, I still have my $200 version) Flash Pro, Fireworks and a few dinky toys. Thats 6 major tools, most of them are NOT for joe-public. They are for artist / business.

This is how much they are by themselves.
Photoshop 5.x = $1000
InDesign 5.5 = $700 ($200 upgrade)
Acrobat XPro = $450
Dreamweaver = $400
llustrator CS5 = $600
Flashworks 5 = $300

These are about 30% higher in price than about 6 years ago before the suite.
Total = $3450!!

$1900 is a much better deal. Its almost paying $300 per package.

Adobe needs to do is release a home/small business edition like MS

For regular people... $80 buys Photoshop Elements. XnView is a free image manager with basic image tools (Like ACDSee - but Free). But yeah, the $125~150 Office2010 is a good deal for home users... OpenOffice is free, of course. 😉

GIMP is free, but its not a pro-level product that can compete with photoshop on Enterprise level.

For students, there is the Education price version, which brings the $1900 price down to about $700 or so (I'm guessing - based on the last time I checked).

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]ithurtswhenipee[/nom]Wrong. The average salary of a Graphic designer is $45K per year. That is about $865 per week.[/citation]

Wrong! The Graphic Designer who WORKS for a company is NOT BUYING the $1000~2000 software(s). If all that is needed is Photoshop, then its $1000... but adding InDesign, which is used by a lot of pros, brings the price up to a suite level.

A Graphics Designer who has his own studio, maybe making more money and its a business expense.