As a result of significant changes in Adobe's licensing programs, especially their pricing models, Drew has had to make changes to our Adobe offerings.
In the past we were able to pay a flat fee for multiple concurrent licenses of various Adobe packages. While we still technically own those licenses, the software is not upgradable from the Creative Suite 6 (CS6) versions, and while it currently works on Windows 7 may no longer work on future versions of Windows. Customers who have Adobe software currently on their computers under this license can continue to run it.
Current licensing options:
While site licenses for Adobe software are available to institutions, the cost is prohibitive for the University at this time. The licensing program available to us is the VIP license program, which allows us to receive Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions at a competitive academic price, as well as allowing for device licenses (for labs and shared computers) which are not otherwise available.
Per-User licenses:
Pricing for the Adobe Suite starts at $420 per user per year. This gives a single named user access to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud suite of software, which can be installed on up to two computers (a work desktop and a work/personal laptop, for instance). Creative Cloud also comes with dedicated cloud storage and ability to synchronize preferences. Single Creative Cloud applications can be licensed for 50% of the cost of the entire suite (for instance, if you wanted just Photoshop it would cost $210 a year). Any purchase of any Creative Cloud subscription also includes Acrobat Pro for free. Pricing for the Creative Cloud Complete suite goes down as more people at Drew purchase subscriptions for the software, with price breaks at 50 and 250 users. If users or departments choose to purchase per-user licenses of Creative Cloud, they will work with University Technology who will administer the program and coordinate payment.
Per-Device licenses:
Device licenses can be used for computer labs or other shared computers. They allow anyone who uses the computer to use the licensed software, but none of the Adobe Creative Cloud features such as storage, preferences synchronization, etc. Pricing for device licenses starts at $300/device/year, with additional discounts at 50 and 250 devices as well. Per-device licenses are designed for computer labs, shared computers, and any situation where a given machine needs access as opposed to a given user.
For more information, please consult the Adobe VIP Academic Licensing Guide.
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro Licenses
University Technology supports PDF-XChange Pro as the standard PDF editor for the campus. Also note that Microsoft Office (2007 and later) and Google Docs can export to PDF with no additional software needed. Some offices require or prefer the use of Adobe Acrobat Pro for document production as it has specific features that are not available in PDF-XChange Pro. In these situations we can install and configure our existing licensed copies of Acrobat Pro. This will only be done upon request and consultation with the user, and may not be available in the future as described above. Users can also purchase a retail copy of Acrobat XI Pro for approximately $120. University Technology will assist with the purchase of the software, however the actual purchase will be made and paid for by the department.
Alternatives:
| Task | Alternative |
|---|---|
| PDF creation/editing | We have a site license for PDFXChange-Pro for creating an manipulating PDFs. Microsoft Office and Google Docs can export files as PDFs. |
| Photo editing | University Technology now supports the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) for basic image editing. Users preparing images for the Web might also be satisfied by any one of a number of free image editing websites (Google search). Smartphone or tablet apps for image editing, many free, may also be used. |
| Video editing | Macs come with iMovie. Most smartphones come with video editing tools. Again, there are free video editing tools. Users who are seriously editing video would be candidates for buying Premiere or Final Cut Pro. |
| Web page editing | Most University web pages no longer need an external editor such as Dreamweaver. WordPress will use the standard University template. Moodle and other tools also automatically format their webpages. Faculty/staff users who wish to have personal pages can now use Google Sites for their web pages. Blogging sites have their own templates and don't require the use of Web editing tools. |
Procedures:
Customers who have a need to purchase Adobe software, whether a Creative Cloud user or device license, or an Acrobat XI Pro license, or who need to install our existing license of Acrobat Pro for specific purposes, should contact the University Technology Service Center and open a support request. They will then be contacted about the relevant options, and to arrange payment if necessary.