Yesterday kicked off Adobe MAX, Adobe’s annual conference for designers and developers to converge and learn about the latest and greatest from Adobe and our community. In yesterday’s keynote, there were lots of big announcements. If you weren’t able to catch the keynote live, it will soon be available for viewing online. In the meantime, I’ve tried to summarize some of the biggest announcements, so let’s get started…

Major Update to Creative Cloud

Basically, just about everything in the keynote is related to the major updates for Creative Cloud. This includes the vision and direction of Creative Cloud, and all of the tools and services that you are able to take advantage of with your Creative Cloud membership.

First and foremost, Adobe is shifting emphasis from packaged software releases to focusing on the Creative Cloud. From the press release:

Adobe also announced that the company will focus creative software development efforts on its Creative Cloud offering moving forward. While Adobe Creative Suite® 6 products will continue to be supported and available for purchase, the company has no plans for future releases of Creative Suite or other CS products. Focusing development on Creative Cloud will not only accelerate the rate at which Adobe can innovate but also broaden the type of innovation the company can offer the creative community.

The shift to Creative Cloud is great for more reasons than I could possibly list in one post. To start:

Creative Cloud membership gives you the latest and greatest updates from Adobe, without an upgrade cost, and without having to wait for a boxed release cycle. As soon as updates to the tools are ready, you receive them.
Creative Cloud gives you the ability to have your content everywhere. Not only do you get a shared file space in the cloud that automatically synchs across your computers (complete with private folders and versioning), but you can also have creative applications on multiple computers, you can access your files on Creative Cloud from any device (including your phones and/or tablets), and your application settings can be synched with the cloud.
Creative Cloud membership makes it easy to share your work. You can share your work with the public (either through Creative Cloud sharing, or through Behance integration).

I strongly suggest reading more about Creative Cloud update here, and learning about the vision for Creative Cloud. There is a lot of rumor and misinformation also floating around, so please, please, please read 5 Myths About Creative Cloud, and be sure to check the FAQ if you have any additional questions. Or, just watch the video below, where fellow Adobe evangelist Paul Trani debunks myths about Creative Cloud:

Contrary to FUD that is floating around the Internet, Creative Cloud is not about anti-piracy, it is not about price gouging, it is not about trying to control you. Creative Cloud is about providing you with the best tools and services to produce creative experiences, collaboration, and adding value to your workflow.

For an external (non-Adobe) viewpoint, check out what others have had to say:

I’ll cover more product specific updates in Creative Cloud tools later in this post, but check out the “new features” details to get an idea of what is now available. Or check out fellow evangelist Terry White’s videos on “What’s New In Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC and Muse CC“.

Improved Desktop Presence

In addition to product updates, the Creative Cloud update also features an improved desktop presence for managing your tools and files.

From the Creative Cloud team blog, this desktop update will allow you to:

Manage your files and sync them to the Cloud
Install and update your desktop software
Install and manage your Typekit desktop fonts
Keep track of everything in your creative work, from Behance notifications, to collaboration invitations, and even updates to your CC apps — all in a single activity stream.

Behance Integration

It’s now easier than ever to showcase your work and gather feedback. You can now publish to Behance directly from within Creative Cloud. You can learn more about Creative Cloud and Behance community integration on adobe.com, but here’s a sampling:

Share a work in progress from your Creative Cloud files or within Adobe® Photoshop® and get immediate feedback from the creative community.
As you perfect your work, upload new versions to Behance. The community can follow the evolution of your project and post comments along the way.
Broadcast your work on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook from within your Creative Cloud tools, all powered by Behance. All in just a few clicks.
Creative Cloud keeps track of who’s following you, who appreciates your work, what’s happening with the creatives you’re following, and more — all in a single activity stream.

Creative Cloud membership also comes with the pro features of Behance, including ProSite:

ProSite — a fully customizable professional portfolio with your own unique URL. And with Creative Cloud integration, keeping your portfolio up to date simply becomes part of your usual workflow.

TypeKit Fonts on the Desktop

As part of your Creative Cloud membership, you get access to 175 TypeKit fonts, which can be easily installed through the Creative Cloud desktop application, and are available to your entire desktop. If you were to license each of these fonts individually, it would cost you roughly $25,000. With Creative Cloud membership, you get these with no additional cost. You can read more about TypeKit and desktop font synching on the typekit blog, and see a preview of it in action in the video below:

Product Updates

There are hundreds of new or updated features to Adobe’s desktop applications and services with the latest Creative Cloud update. Here are just a few highlights from the Creative Cloud Team Blog:

Camera Shake Reduction in Photoshop CC “deblurs” an image by restoring sharpness to images blurred by camera shake
ACR8 is now available as a filter in Photoshop CC; you can apply Adobe Camera Raw processing to any of the layers in your document
Touch Type tool in Illustrator CC allows you to design with type in a powerful new way by manipulating characters like individual objects. You can also use multitouch devices as well as a mouse or stylus
CSS Designer in Dreamweaver CC provides the most up-to-date CSS and properties available via an intuitive visual editing tool
Editing Finesse in Premiere Pro CC focuses on sleek design and customization capabilities, combined with new editing features and keyboard-driven editing improvements
Live 3D Pipeline with Cinema4D in After Effects CC lets you add 3D objects to scenes and eliminate intermediate rendering between applications
Parallax Scrolling in Muse CC allows you to create stunning effects with just a few mouse clicks—images and elements move in different directions at different speeds when scrolling
Motion Paths in Edge Animate allows you to animate elements along totally customizable paths
A completely modernized architecture in InDesign and Flash Pro has been rebuilt from the ground up to be faster and more reliable, with a streamlined UI
InDesign has a great new QR code creator
Flash Pro has real-time drawing and live preview

Check out the links below to see all of the new features for each one of the Creative Cloud tools that will be available in June (there are too many for me to list individually on this post):

In addition to Creative Cloud tools, there have also been updates to the Edge Tools and Services. Adobe Edge Web Fonts has an updated interface on online presence available now, and other Edge Tools have updates that will arrive in June. You can read more about these tools below:

And there have been updates to Adobe’s touch apps:

Adobe Ideas
Adobe Kuler (coming soon)

Creative Cloud

You can always stay on top of the latest updates to Creative Cloud on the Creative Cloud Team blog. If you’re not already a member of Creative Cloud, you really should check it out at creative.adobe.com

Adobe’s MAX Announcements – A Major Update To Creative Cloud