Okay, so the new laptop arrived on Friday. I spent the rest of the day and part of yesterday transferring data from the old MacBook Pro to the new one.
Problem is, I had to upgrade the system. I don’t have a choice; there’s a Magic Keyboard that I don’t think will work with the older software. However, I must say, the thing is wicked cool. The functions you have change depending on which application you’re using. In Facebook, you get predictive text like on the iPhone. Listening to music on iTunes, you have the play, pause and skip functions. And in photo apps, you get controls for whatever you’re doing.
Also, no need for passwords; there’s a Touch ID button so you can log into everything with your index finger.
However…I am absolutely bereft without Photoshop. I did everything I could find to work around it…to no avail. I have been using Photoshop since…1997, I think. I can do everything so reflexively…Why, Adobe, why?!
Well, I absolutely do NOT want to pay $20.99 a month for a subscription. So I’ve been investigating other apps that have very high ratings. I’ve downloaded a couple of trial apps. The first one I tried was Acorn. It is highly rated, especially for Macs, and it’s only $29.99. It’s pretty nice…but I couldn’t figure out how to do simple tone, colour and contrast corrections (the things that are so easy to do in Photoshop). I’ll go back later and play with it. The other one I am trying is Affinity Photo, which is a LOT easier to figure out. It’s much more similar to Photoshop, and it can open .psd files. I can also import all my special brushes into both Acorn and Affinity, which is awesome. It’s $49.99…but it seems worth it (and, okay, it’s a lot less expensive than Photoshop was).
As a bonus, in learning about these two apps (and another one, Affinity Designer, which looks interesting), I discovered I can also import my brushes into Procreate. That means no more having to finish drawings in Photoshop…I may just be able to do everything on the iPad now.
Still, I really want Photoshop back. I have a lot of work and research to do in the next ten days.
The Daily Abyssinian...and Singapura 
The Adobe “Photography Plan” gets just Photoshop, Lightroom, and Spark for $9.99 per month.
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I did not find that in my searches…I will look for it tomorrow. Thanks!
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Here’s a link to the Photography plans
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/compare-plans.html?promoid=9DJJ4N49&mv=other
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Thanks! It just irks me to have to pay for something I already own…
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Okay, that’s wicked strange. For JUST Photoshop, it’s $20.99 a month…but Photoshop with Lightroom is only $9.99. Just…why?
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This Photography package has been around for at least four years that I know of. Adobe promoted it years ago offering 15% off for the first year ($8.49 per month). I didn’t bite as my CS6 was running fine… and still is on Win10!
I googled “Creative Cloud Lightroom pricing” and got this:https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom/pricing-info.html
Lightroom alone and no cloud storage: $119.88 ($9.99 per month) or their recommended plan of Lightroom, Photoshop, and 20Gb of cloud storage.for just $119.88 a year. It pays to shop Adobe’s plans.
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Yep. I just finished ordering it. I don’t trust Cloud storage because Mac used to have a cloud-like storage called iDisk. They cancelled it, and now I have a bunch of dead links. LOL
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A friend of mine teaches Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Acrobat (she’s an Adobe Certified Instructor and a former Adobe sales manager). There are so many new or improved Photoshop functions that CS6 never thought of! She keeps suggesting I need to upgrade. Instead of versions, Photoshop will get new, fixed, or upgraded functions on the fly.
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Well, I just did the subscription and already, the brushes are easier to organise and find. Now I don’t have to go hunting for my fur brushes!
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Hey, Coco, with Bill (bf), read him this blog. He said to let you know he didn’t update himself for the express reason that he didn’t want to lose PhotoShop! “Great minds”, etc… Molly
Sent from my iPhone
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Yeah I wasn’t about to upgrade until I absolutely had to. I lost Office, too
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Truly, I have been avoiding upgrading for MONTHS for just that reason. I will still look for a workaround…I have the original installation discs, so…
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I hope the Adobe photographer deal works for you. Since we use Indesign and Premier Rush (Premier Pro once we upgrade), my human gets the whole Creative Cloud. It’s her business so it’s tax deductible… and my blog pays for it!
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Affinity is actually pretty good…it’s just hard to find everything
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How about Photoshop Elements? You might be able to get a hold of an old license key and download for a standalone version of Photoshop as well, maybe Amazon or eBay, but I’ll leave this one here:
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I’ll look into that. I have my PS CS6 disc…but I’ll have a look
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May I ask a serious but stupid-sounding question? What is it about the Mac OS that is so much better than Windows 10? Giving up owned Photoshop and Office sounds like a huge price to pay! On the other hand, I lust after a Mac machine–and I can’t really express why!
I just looked at Affinity Designer and I might just give it a try! It has seemed to me that technology should exist now to combine raster and vector editing better than Adobe does.
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Mac lust = that’s what all the cool kids use.
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Well…having used both (Macs at home, Windows at work), the Mac OS is just…smoother. My Windows machines were always breaking down. And with the Mac OS, my iPhone and iPad are connected to my MacBook. If my phone rings, I see it on my screen.
Also, it’s partly the fault of Adobe and Microsoft…instead of updating the software I purchased, they went the subscription route.
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