Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books. InDesign can also publish content suitable for tablet devices in conjunction with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Graphic designers and production artists are the principal users, creating and laying out periodical publications, posters, and print media. It also supports export to EPUB and SWF formats to create e-books and digital publications, including digital magazines, and content suitable for consumption on tablet computers. In addition, InDesign supports XML, style sheets and other coding markup, making it suitable for exporting tagged text content for use in other digital and online formats.

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems.  Vector graphics is a technology that allows objects to be infinitely scalable to either very large or very tiny sizes without degradation in quality.  Often when an image is expanded to a large size the image distorts with rough squares and sharp edges, known as pixels.  This is a raster image which is based with a particular size in mind.  Vector images are based on geometry and relative location and angles, so its proportions can be scaled in any direction without pixelation or distortion.  Illustrator also includes 3-dimensional capabilities allowing users to extrude or revolve shapes to create simple 3D objects.

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems for Windows and OS X.

Photoshop has become the de facto industry standard in raster graphics editing, such that the terms “photoshopping” and “photoshop contest” were born. It can edit and compose raster images in multiple layers and supports masks, alpha compositing and several color models including RGB, CMYK, Lab color space (with capital L), spot color and duotone. Photoshop has vast support for graphic file formats but also uses its own PSD and PSB file formats which support all the aforementioned features. In addition to raster graphics, it has limited abilities to edit or render text, vector graphics (especially through clipping path), 3D graphics and video. Photoshop’s featureset can be expanded by Photoshop plug-ins, programs developed and distributed independently of Photoshop that can run inside it and offer new or enhanced features.

Availability: Faculty/Staff

Adobe Animate CC is an animation tool within Adobe Creative Cloud that replaces Adobe Flash Professional. Users can create advertisements, multimedia content, vector animations, and games in a timeline-based authoring environment. Animate incorporates native HTML5 Canvas and WebGL support. Projects published in HTML5 canvas support HiDPI and Retina displays.

Availability: Faculty/Staff

Adobe Muse is a website builder that allows user to create websites without writing any code. Websites created in Muse dynamically scale to any screen size, browser, or device. Designers can choose breakpoints that control how the website appears on different size browsers. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files from Illustrator can be placed directly into Adobe Muse layouts.

Adobe Creative Cloud is a collection of software for graphic design, photography, web development, video editing, and cloud services. Software is downloaded and installed on the local machine and can be used as long as the subscription remains valid. Software upgrades are available immediately and includes saving to the cloud.

A list of software included in the university license of Creative Cloud can be viewed here. Mobile apps are available from the App Store. The university has an agreement with Adobe that allows Adobe Creative Cloud to be installed on university owned computers and on faculty and staff personal computers.