The recent uptick in AI becoming a central part of company workflows has caused professionals to panic as they now fear a future where this tech will replace them.

And while it’s disheartening to hear about mass layoffs from major companies due to AI automation/implementation, it’s shocking to find out AI is the reason behind several company heads stepping down recently.

Longstanding CEOs who have been with their companies through times of great change are now being met with an uptick in AI that has convinced them to relinquish their roles to someone better suited to handle the implementation of this constantly evolving technology.

AI isn't just replacing tasks; it's replacing CEOs. From Walmart to Coca-Cola, tech’s biggest leaders are stepping down as the "AI Succession" begins.

Three companies in particular stand out among this recent trend: Walmart, Coca-Cola, and Adobe. Here is what led Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen to step away from their roles and how their decisions to do so were influenced by AI.

Riding AI’s next wave

During an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, former Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon explained the reason behind his recent departure. After holding the role since 2014, he decided to hand over the reins to John Furner, who left his position as head of Walmart U.S. to step up to the CEO role. Furner has been the CEO of Walmart since February 1.

McMillon spoke about the major transformations brought about by AI and how it was time for someone new to confront them for his company. “With what’s happening with AI, I could start this next big set of transformations with AI, but I couldn’t finish,” McMillon said to CNBC. “About a year ago, I really started feeling like this next run, you could see what agentic commerce was going to look like, the vision for AI shopping, and I started thinking about everything that needs to happen over the next few years, and it really caused me to think that now was the right time [to step down].”

Outgoing Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy also made a recent appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box and delved into his reasoning for stepping down at the end of this month and passing the torch to COO Henrique Braun.

“In a pre-AI, a pre-gen-AI mode, we made a lot of progress,” he stated. “But now there’s a huge new shift coming along.” Quincy supports his company’s foray into major technological advancements and supports putting someone in place who is well-equipped to handle those massive changes. “My job is also to think who’s the best team to put on the field to get the next wave done,” Quincey stated. “And I concluded that, actually, it was time to put someone else on the field for the next wave of growth.” Quincy has held the role of CEO of Coca-Cola since 2017.

Shaping the next era of creativity

Other companies, like Adobe, are looking ahead to a future where the company can compete with generative AI software through its own AI products, such as Firefly. In a memo to the rest of the company, former Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen recognized the rising presence of AI and how Adobe will rise to the occasion to stay in tune with its evolution.

“The next era of creativity is being written right now — shaped by AI, by new workflows and by entirely new forms of expression, “ he said. “Adobe has never waited for the future to arrive. We’ve anticipated it. We’ve built it. And we’ve led it. What gives me the greatest confidence isn’t just our technology — it’s our people. Your ingenuity, resilience and commitment to customers are what will define this moment.”

Narayen has been CEO of Adobe since 2007, but recently announced his plans to leave the position in a move that some say is due to investor uncertainty over the company’s ability to compete in a creative software sector filled with AI.

The takeaway

Walmart has already implemented AI tools to assist with real-time translation and task management, while Coca-Cola has — mostly unsuccessfully — used them to generate ads. Meanwhile, Adobe has created Firefly, a suite of generative AI models used for creating images and videos. With these three companies and surely more to come, it’s interesting to consider how AI will have a major impact on the companies we interact with on a daily basis.

AI may be a constant from here on out, but at least we’re here to guide you along the way and better prepare you for the best ways to leverage it for your own professional & personal benefit. Improving yourself in whatever field you’ve chosen and adapting to the ever-evolving AI tools that may be seeping their way into your profession may seem daunting, but thankfully, we’ll be here to call out and hopefully help you adapt to those changes as they come.

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Adobe has reached a $150 million settlement with the U.S. government over allegations that the company deliberately made its subscriptions difficult to cancel. The deal sends $75 million in civil penalties to federal coffers and directs another $75 million in free services toward affected customers.

The case dates to 2024, when the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission sued Adobe over its subscription practices.

Regulators said the company hid early termination fees and built a cancellation process designed to frustrate rather than assist — violations, they argued, of the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA), which requires clear disclosure of subscription terms and a straightforward exit for customers.

What Adobe was accused of

Adobe's "annual paid monthly" plans offer lower monthly rates tied to a year-long commitment. The problem, according to regulators, was that early termination fees, potentially hundreds of dollars, weren't clearly disclosed upfront.

Customers who tried to cancel also reported hitting multiple screens, retention pitches, and confusing prompts seemingly designed to wear down their resolve.

What changes now

Under the settlement, Adobe must disclose cancellation fees before users sign up, alert customers when free trials are about to convert to paid plans, and simplify the cancellation process. Eligible customers can expect to hear from Adobe about claiming free services once a court approves the deal, though specifics haven't been announced.

Adobe says the settlement closes the matter but maintains it didn't violate any laws, and says it remains committed to greater transparency.

The case reflects growing regulatory pressure on subscription models industrywide — and a clear signal that the "easy to join, hard to leave" approach is facing serious legal consequences.

Adobe says it will contact eligible customers once the settlement receives court approval — though what services will be offered, and how to claim them, is yet to be confirmed.

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Those who have spent any time with AI video generators, know just how frustrating it can be when what you've prompted and what you've generated are completlely different. It's frustrating when it comes time to edit those videos, especially when you've generated something impressive, but need to tweak a single thing such as removing a person or changing the lighting.

Adobe is trying to fix that.

Today, Adobe is rolling out a set of video-focused features for Firefly designed to make AI video editing feel more like real editing — iterative, controlled and integrated into a broader workflow. The updates include prompt-based video edits, camera motion references, a browser-based Firefly video editor and built-in upscaling powered by a partner model.

Here's what's new

Users can now prompt to edit their videos. Instead of regenerating an entire clip every time you want a change, Firefly now lets you edit an existing AI-generated video using text prompts. That means you can do things like:

• Remove or replace objects or people
• Change the background
• Adjust lighting, contrast or atmosphere
• Reframe or zoom without starting over

This is a big shift. Most AI video tools still treat every change as a full regeneration, which makes fine-tuning nearly impossible. Adobe’s approach is closer to how creators already think: generate first, then refine.

Camera motion reference keeps shots consistent

Firefly’s Video Model now supports camera motion reference, which solves another common AI video problem: inconsistent movement.

You can upload a start-frame image (your scene) and a reference video that shows the camera movement you want. From there, Firefly then applies that camera motion — pan, dolly, zoom, tilt — to your generated clip while keeping the subject and framing anchored.

This makes it far easier to create cinematic-looking shots that don’t feel jittery or random, especially for B-roll, transitions or short-form video.

Built-in video upscaling to 4K

Adobe is also integrating Topaz Astra, a partner AI model focused on video enhancement and upscaling. With this integration, users can now enhance low-resolution or older footage, upscale clips to 1080p or 4K and queue multiple upscales while continuing to work.

This is aimed at creators who already have footage (not just AI-generated clips) and want a quick way to improve quality without leaving Adobe’s ecosystem.

A new Firefly video editor (public beta)

Firefly is also getting a browser-based video editor, now available in public beta.

It supports two workflows, including timeline editing, with multitrack control for video and audio, and text-based editing, where you edit video by working with a transcript (ideal for interviews, explainers, or talking-head content)

The editor lets users combine their own footage with Firefly-generated video, plus music and audio.

Bottom line

Adobe’s long-term vision is clear: AI shouldn't replace human editors, it should work with them. By focusing on prompt-based edits, camera consistency and practical tools like upscaling and transcript editing, Adobe is positioning Firefly as a creative hub rather than a novelty generator.

To encourage experimentation, Adobe is also offering a limited-time unlimited generations promotion (through January 15) for certain paid Firefly plans, including Pro, Premium and high-credit tiers.

The promo covers Firefly image models, Firefly video models and select partner image models. Unfortunately, it doesn’t apply to free users, but it does lower the friction for creators who want to seriously test Firefly’s new video tools without worrying about credits.

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Google's Nano Banana may be the hottest AI image generator right now, with social feeds filled the latest trends, and Gemini surpassing ChatGPT in the app store, but it’s not the only tool worth your time.

Adobe has a free AI image generator in Firefly that's also shockingly good. I wanted to see how the two stack up against each other. To find out, I ran both Nano Banana and Adobe Firefly through seven creative prompt tests to see which one came out on top.

1. Alien Cityscape at Sunset

Prompt:"Create a futuristic alien city with glowing skyscrapers, floating vehicles, and two suns setting on the horizon. Highly detailed, cinematic lighting."

Nano Banana didn’t skimp on details with this visually appealing image of a futuristic world. From the setting suns to the floating vehicles, no request was missed.

Adobe Firefly generated a stunning image that hit nearly every aspect of the prompt. I would even go as far to say the image this AI generated was better than Nano Banana with one exception: it didn’t add two setting suns. It missed that tiny request, ultimately causing it to lose this round.

Winner: Nano Banana wins for generating a futuristic alien world that nailed every request within the prompt.

2. Fantasy feast table

Prompt: “A massive medieval banquet table covered in golden goblets, roasted meats, fruits, and desserts. Add glowing candles and a castle hall backdrop."

Nano Banana captured the spirit of a massive medieval banquet, but in what could be described as an off-putting render. The small pig on the plate, though accurate, wasn’t requested in the prompt. Though potentially accurate, it seems like something that should only be added upon request. It also went a bit overboard with the candles.

Adobe Firefly followed the prompt better by showcasing a deliciously welcoming table complete with a castle hall backdrop.

Winner: Adobe Firefly wins for a more polished and appealing image.

3. Cyberpunk street market

Prompt: “Generate a neon-lit cyberpunk street market with rain-soaked pavement, vendors selling strange gadgets, and glowing signs in multiple languages."

Nano Banana followed through on the neon-lit cyberpunk street market but the colors in the image look muted and not as vibrant as in the image generated by Adobe. Also, the people in the image look more like ghosts or statues and not as if they are actively involved in the market.

Adobe Firefly captured the spirit of a street market and delivered on the vibrant colors of the neon signs in conjunction to the rain-soaked pavement. The images of people look more engaged and real.

Winner: Adobe Firefly wins for a more realistic image.

4. Surreal everyday object mashup

Prompt: "Combine a slice of pizza with a smartphone, making it look like a real product photo advertisement."

Nano Banana did a fairly good job blending the two unrelated objects, but I was picturing something very different. However, I have to give it credit for the “TM” and the tagline.

Adobe Firefly basically did the same thing, but made the pizza almost come out of the phone, ultimately making it look like a broken product.

Winner: Nano Banana wins, if I must pick one. But, overall, I was totally disappointed by both.

5. Retro arcade poster

Prompt: "Design a 1980s retro arcade poster with bold neon typography, pixelated game characters, and a glowing grid background."

Nano Banana handled on-image text like a pro and the colors are fun and inviting as a retro arcade poster.

Adobe Firefly designed a fun poster, but the on-image text lacked accuracy, which means an automatic fail.

Winner: Nano Banana wins this round for accuracy of design.

6. Dreamlike nature scene

Prompt: "A giant whale floating through a starry night sky above a forest, glowing softly with bioluminescence."

Nano Banana generated surreal imagery blending natural and fantasy elements. But, the giant whale seems to be over water more than a forest.

Adobe Firefly also expertly blended fantasy and nature elements together, while covering each request in the prompt.

Winner: Adobe wins for a beautiful image with a soft bioluminescence glow that best captures the prompt.

7. Luxury fashion ad

Prompt: "Create a high-end fashion advertisement featuring a flowing red dress on a mannequin in a minimalist studio with dramatic lighting. Add Vogue-style typography."

Nano Banana delivered a polished image that looks like it was ripped right out of a magazine.

Adobe Firefly created an equally high-end style and incredible realism with the draping of the fabric. The dramatic lighting highlights the minimalist studio. But once again, the on-image text is the model’s downfall.

Winner: Nano Banana wins for its ability to better handle on-image text. Otherwise, this might have gone to Adobe.

Overall winner: Nano Banana (by a hair)

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For most people, the camera app that comes pre-installed on your phone is perfectly capable of producing good photos. Sure, there are third-party options with advanced features, but those are for serious pros who know their apertures from their ISO.

But having a more capable camera remains a tempting idea, or one that can offer something more unique-looking with only minimal effort on your end. It's this that I was hoping to find when I recently installed Adobe's Project Indigo, and why I took dozens of comparison shots against the native iPhone Camera app to figure out what it's all about.

What is it?

Project Indigo is a free iOS camera app available for iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max onwards, or the iPhone 14 (not Pro) onwards. There's no Adobe sign-in required yet, or entry fee or subscription to be paid, but also sadly no Android version. Adobe says that is coming though, with future updates adding features like portrait mode, video capture and panorama mode.

Yes, there's a lot missing from Project Indigo at the moment. But the main goal of the app is still there — fixing the "smartphone look" of most photos taken on phones, those which are designed to look best on smartphone screens but can look odd in other situations.

It offers more freedom beyond that too, with lots of manual Pro controls (which remain visible or hidden as you prefer) and the option to save your images as both JPEGs and raw DNG files for more potential during editing. As well as DNG being an Adobe format, the benefit to shooting like this is that these photos take up less storage space than an Apple ProRAW shot, and you can access it on any iPhone 14 or later model. ProRAW remains exclusive to Pro iPhones at the time of writing.

Photo comparisons

Project Indigo can act as a regular point-and-shoot camera app, except with "mild tone mapping, boosting of color saturation, and sharpening," making for less exaggerated-looking shots that should in theory capture the world around you more honestly.

Take this shot of the square outside Paddington Station. The paving stones on the floor, the buildings surrounding the square, even the sky look brighter, and arguably more appealing, in the iOS Camera version. But there's still something to be said for the more muted but still clear and colorful image that Project Indigo has produced.

In this ultrawide of a sculpture, the iOS Camera helps the whole scene stand out, brightening the surrounding trees and buildings. But all of that is balanced out, if not outweighed, by how well Project Indigo captures the reflection of the office block within the shiniest part of the sculpture.

With Project Indigo set to its automatic night mode settings, you still get a dark shot, as I did of this potted plant. It doesn't suddenly reveal the hidden color of a subject like a regular smartphone's night mode can, including the iPhone's. But I do like the moody vibe that the dimmer image has.

The Night mode section's pro controls menu also houses the long exposure feature, which I think is an unintuitive spot for it to live, given how long it took me to find it. But it makes sense given how long exposure shots are captured. Just like normal Night mode, it lets you pick how many frames you want to take and then combines them to create fancy-looking shots where moving objects become attractive blurs of activity.

I was hoping to capture a beautiful shot of me pouring water into a mug with this mode, and while it's not my most artistic work, you can see the water stream. The best the native iPhone camera can do is turn a Live Photo into a long exposure, which uses far fewer frames and barely shows off the water as a result.

One of Project Indigo's most unusual claims is that it helps make pinch-zoom shots more effective — as in photos taken at arbitrary magnifications rather than the native zoom of your phone's cameras - by combining multiple images. As someone who often feels hemmed in by the 3x or 5x zoom of modern phone cameras, this stood out to me a lot, so I tested it twice.

Firstly, I went for a 2x shot, which on an iPhone 16 Pro Max uses the main camera. Holding up this ice cream cone to the phone, it is easier to see the lines in the ice cream from when it was dispensed from the soft serve machine in the Project Indigo shot, thanks to better contrast. But the exaggerated highlights of the iOS Camera do pay off here, making the chocolate sauce look shiny and appetizing.

I then moved to 10x, double the zoom of the iPhone's 5x telephoto camera. Aiming the phone at this pub sign, Project Indigo's plainer style undersells the color of the paint, and of the flowers in the planters beneath. But that avoids losing detail in areas like the top of the sign under the spotlight, or generating a lot of noise in large areas of blocky color like the outside of the sign or the metal crest above, like the iOS Camera.

The last unique trick I'll cover here is Project Indigo's ability to remove reflections, something Adobe also offers in Photoshop. Sadly, iPhones can't remove reflections by themselves, even if they have the latest Apple Intelligence photo editing features. So this shot through a window at Paddington Station looks infinitely better in the Project Indigo example.

My one complaint here is that Project Indigo, like a good student, shows its working when processing reflections. It does this by leaving both the original image and the "negative" it generates of the removed reflections in your iPhone camera roll, clogging up your timeline with unnecessary pictures.

Verdict

As you can tell from the name and the blueprint-style app logo, Project Indigo is not finished yet. But I am going to keep using it, and try to further understand how the Adobe team's photo processing decisions can give more creative control and versatility to my photography.

But I can't just uninstall the iOS Camera app just yet. I still need to take videos from time to time, or portrait-effect shots to make my selfies look at least somewhat attractive. Still, I am excited to see how Project Indigo continues to develop into a fully-featured camera app. But fingers crossed that Adobe doesn't start charging for this, otherwise I'll be reassessing my enthusiastic praise going forward.

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A few months after releasing a version for iPhones, Adobe has launched Photoshop Mobile for Android, bringing its suite of photo editing tools to a much wider market. While this new app is in beta form as the company works out the kinks, it's also offering a number of premium tools and features for free.

Here's a look at Photoshop for Android (beta), and what you'll be able to do with it.

Back in February, Adobe launched a Photoshop app for iPhones that was much more expansive than the existing Photoshop Express. This newer version gave users access to more of the features you could find on the desktop app, such as layers, masking, and blending.

Crucially, like the iPhone version, the Photoshop for Android (beta) will also include Adobe's Generative Fill feature, which uses Firefly AI to fill in areas of images based on contextual data or user prompts, or to create images out of whole cloth, like the ones I made above of a cat on top of a pizza.

As with the iPhone app, the Android version is vertically oriented, with a row of icons along the bottom of the screen that let you select areas, adjust brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, etc., add text, retouch, and paint.

As with its other apps, all the edits you make are nondestructive, so you can easily undo anything you don't like.

While the app is free to download, to use all of its tools, you'll need to sign up for a subscription, which costs $7.99 per month or $70 per year. However, Adobe representatives said that, for a limited time, all features in the Android app would be free to use without a subscription.

Photoshop on Android (beta) is available in the Google Play store for devices running Android 11 or later, with a minimum of 6GB of RAM (8GB or more recommended).

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When it comes to editing photos on your iPhone, you've either had to use the built-in tools in Apple's built-in Photos app or turn to third-party tools — though one of the biggest names had been missing from the App Store.

That would be Photoshop, Adobe's much-used tool for retouching, altering and otherwise improving images. But starting today (February 25), Adobe is bringing a Photoshop app to the iPhone app.

Adobe says that app is free with a "reimagined interface optimized for phones." It should be noted that this does not replace the already existing Photoshop Express app. We were told that this new app and Express will both be offered. Our understanding is that Express will remain the basic, quick editor for casual users seeking simple adjustments. This new app is meant for more complex edits and customization, a condensed but deeper version of Photoshop.

You won't get quite the same level of editing depth on the iPhone as you do in the desktop version of Photoshop. "Photoshop on the phone is built to empower mobile-first creators who may just be getting started, want to create wherever they are whenever they want and may be new to Photoshop and its power," Adobe says in its press release.

Photoshop on iPhone: What do you get?

While the app is a condensed version of Photoshop it still offers a number of familiar features. Supported tools include:

• Combining, compositing and blending images with core Photoshop tools including layers, masks and precision selection tools
• Remove, recolor and replace parts of images
• Spot Healing brush
• Generative AI tools like Generative Fill and Generative Expand
• Save PSDs to the cloud and export to Express, Fresco and even Lightroom
• Non-destructive unlimited layers, selective adjustements and PSD format
• Full-resolution eding
• Access to the Adobe Stock library

Subscriptions with more tools

While the mobile app is free, Adobe is also launching a "Photoshop Mobile & Web" plan via the App Store. Signing up for this plan unlocks premium mobile features and access to the web browser version. You can sync between the web and mobile version of Photoshop.

The subscription expands libraries including more than 20,000 fonts. It also adds in familiar Photoshop tools like Magic Wand, Clone Stamp, Object Select and Content Aware Fill among others.

If you already subscribe to the desktop CC version, the mobile and web plan will automatically be included. Otherwise, the app subscription costs $9.99/month based on information from the App Store product page.

Update: Adobe confirmed to Tom's Guide the subscription price is $7.99 a month.

Adobe also announced that an Android version is coming. You can sign up for a waitlist here.

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Adobe today unveiled its latest innovation in generative AI within it's Firefly application, now featuring the industry's first commercially safe AI video generation model. This development aims to provide users with an all-inclusive creative tool to generate images, vectors, and videos while ensuring intellectual property (IP) safety.

The new Firefly app gives users the opportunity to ideate and create production-quality work with creative control and multi-modal workflows all within Adobe’s Creative Cloud applications.

Users can generate images, edit them, transform them into videos, and apply cinematic movements before transitioning to applications like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Adobe Express for further refinement.

Meet Firefly Video

Firefly Video Model is currently available in public beta. This AI tool lets users generate video clips from text prompts or images, control camera angles, create professional-quality images from 3D sketches, craft atmospheric elements and develop custom motion design elements.

Touted as the industry's first commercially safe AI video generation model, it powers the "Generate Video" (beta) feature within the Firefly application and the "Generative Extend" (beta) in Adobe Premiere Pro. This model ensures that the generated video content is IP-friendly and suitable for production use.

A key differentiator of Adobe's Firefly Video Model is its focus on producing high-quality, usable short clips, as opposed to longer, less usable ones. Alexandru Costin, Adobe's vice president of generative AI, emphasized the company's commitment to quality, stating, "We actually think that great motion, great structure, great definition scheme, making the actual clip look like it was film, is more important than making a longer clip that's unusable."

The Firefly Video Model initially supports 1080p resolution, and Adobe plans to introduce a 4K model for professional-level production work in the near future.

New subscription plans

As part of the release, Adobe has introduced two new subscription plans: Firefly Standard and Firefly Pro. Available today with early access pricing, both options give creators unlimited access to Firefly imaging and vector features as well as tiered capacity for new video and audio features.

Starting at $9.99 USD, Firefly Standard offers access to 2,000 video/audio credits per month and up to 20 five-second 1080p video generations.

Firefly Pro offers users access to 7,000 video/audio credits per month, up to 70 five-second 1080p video generations and starts at 29.99 USD.

Additionally, a new Firefly Premium plan designed for professionals looking to generate video content on a regular basis will be coming soon to provide even more audio and video capacity for high-volume creators and teams.

Safety and what's next

By focusing on IP safety and providing robust tools for content creation, Adobe aims to ensure creatives can produce high-quality, production-ready content confidently.

As the Firefly Video Model progresses through its beta phase, the creative community eagerly anticipates the innovative possibilities this technology will unlock. We will put Firefly Video to the test ourselves to see if just how good this model is.

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Black Friday deals are well underway. While laptops, coffee machines and even the latest headphones get all the attention, Adobe quietly dropped a massive discount on its annual Creative Cloud subscription.

Right now, you can get the annual Creative Cloud plan for $29 a month at Adobe, which is $30 off the normal subscription price. If you've wanted to try out Adobe Firefly, generate new backgrounds, extend an image in Photoshop or even extend a clip in Premiere Pro, now is your chance to do it for half the previous price.

Adobe has faced tough competition in the creative content space over the past few years from apps and platforms like Canva, Figma and Recraft but it has continued to innovate including with some of the best AI tools on the market.

Firefly might not have the photorealistic flare of Midjourney or the text rendering skills of Ideogram but its deep integration into Photoshop, Illustrator and a licensed training dataset make it an invaluable aid to creativity. It is also in our list of best AI image generators.

What makes Creative Cloud so useful isn't just the fact you get access to Photoshop and Illustrator but also the full suite of Adobe creative products, 1,000 AI credits per month, fonts and 100GB of cloud storage.

I recently experimented with using the new Generative Extend feature in Adobe Premiere Pro, which comes with Creative Cloud, and I couldn't believe how easy it was to simply add the missing few seconds to a shot that made it perfect.

Photoshop's generative fill has become so commonplace it's almost seen as a faux pas not to include something similar in an image generation tool. New additions arrive soon that will make it possible to take a sketch and make it art with AI inside Photoshop or Illustrator.

Now is a great time to invest in a Creative Cloud subscription as Adobe also has other models in the works built on Firefly including generative music, improved text rendering and one experiment that takes a photo of a poster and lets you recreate it with new details at the touch of a button using AI.

I grew up playing table-top role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and I've spent more hours than I'd care to admit flipping through tomes looking up rules.

This is old news to anyone familiar with the hobby, but having to stop everything while someone looks up something was one of the least fun things about playing D&D as a kid. If you've ever sat and watched your friend waste 5 minutes trying to find the page with Lich King Carl's spell list on it, you'll know what I mean.

Partly this is because nobody likes a rules lawyer. (We're all here to have fun, not pass a test.). But also it's because pausing to look up things drags everyone out of the experience and sucks the life out of the game. Evolving to use digital .pdfs instead of physical manuals helped a bit because you can use a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat to run text searches on these documents and find things (more) quickly.

But even using .pdfs on laptops and tablets at the table wasn't a complete fix because players often still have to scroll through pages and pages to find something they don't know the name of or can't remember details about. So when I saw Adobe added a new AI Assistant into Acrobat that can answer questions about documents, I was intrigued: could having an AI assistant make playing, running and designing D&D campaigns faster and easier? 

It's a beautiful dream: Imagine being able to drop a digital copy of a thick reference tome into your laptop and ask Adobe's AI whatever questions you have, with confidence that you'll get accurate, specific details in a flash. It would be a huge time-saver, not just for tabletop players but students, researchers and anyone who regularly works with big documents for work.

But after trying out the Adobe AI Assistant this week, I'm afraid the reality currently falls a bit short of the dream. While the AI tool does work as advertised (usually) and can be a huge help when trying to parse or understand .pdfs, there are some limitations that keep it from being the ultimate D&D assistant. 

Big potential, middling execution

To show you what I mean, I'll walk you through what's been great (and not so great) about using Adobe's AI tool so far. You don't just have to take my word for it, either — you can try it yourself for free on the Adobe AI Assistant website. 

However, there are some limits on the free version. For starters, you have to create an Adobe account to ask Acrobat more than brief demo questions about a given document. Once you do sign up you only get five free requests to the AI before you have to subscribe to Adobe's AI Assistant, which costs anywhere from $4.99 to $6.99 a month during the company's current "early access pricing" period (though Amazon does offer discounts for students through September 4th that can knock it as low as $1.99/month) with price hikes likely to come in the future.

Right off the bat, I ran into some limitations you should know about when using this tool. For starters, when I tested it, the AI Assistant claimed it could only work with documents up to 200 pages long or up to 65MB in size, which means you can't chat with the AI about key texts like the D&D Dungeon Master's Guide or Player's Handbook.

(When I reached out to Adobe PR to ask about this I was told it can actually only support up to 120-page documents of up to 25MB in size, but you can try using Adobe Acrobat's Split PDF function to chop big books up into AI-digestable chunks.)

But you can still get some value out of it by using the AI to parse smaller texts, like indie RPGs and shorter adventures or expansions for big games like D&D. 

However, the free version of Adobe's AI Assistant seems to be less capable than the paid version, which I also had a chance to test. When I was using the free version Adobe's AI chatbot seemed reliably incapable of answering questions like "what page is Elemental Bane on," which is a bummer since that's one of the basic things I was hoping it could help with. 

But when I upgraded to the paid version, suddenly the AI Assistant could tell me what page Elemental Bane was on — albeit wrongly, repeatedly giving me page numbers that were one off from the actual page. Worse, when I asked it for the location of the spell "Bones of the Earth," the AI Assistant gave two wrong page numbers, one of which didn't exist (page 31 in a 25-page document).

Summarization is a little hit-or-miss as well. When I tried asking Adobe's AI for a summarization of what benefits choosing to play a Genasi gives a player, for example, it got the answer about 75% right but left out some key details that an inexperienced player wouldn't know were missing. So you still need human intelligence to be able to make full use of a document, AI or no.

However, there's a lot of promise here and I think this tool could actually be a game-changer for tabletop role-playing (and lots of other reference work besides) once Adobe irons out the issues.

For example, when I asked Adobe's AI Assistant to tell me what the sixth level spells for a wizard are, it nailed the answer, returning a simple list of the six spells available in the .pdf I was referencing with links to each source next to their names. They all worked, taking me directly to the page where the spell was, replete with a blue highlight box around the spell text in question.

Unfortunately, those blue highlight boxes were always a bit inaccurate, leaving out half the text and highlighting half of the preceding entry to boot. But at least I could use the AI Assistant to quickly look up what spells were available to my wizard and click to jump immediately to the page where the details are, which could be a huge time-saver for players and Dungeon Masters alike.

Adobe AI Assistant outlook

Like all the AI assistants I've tested over the last year and change since Microsoft dropped Bing with ChatGPT, Adobe's chatbot needs some work.

In my brief testing, I found that while it can handle basic summarization and data look-ups in .pdfs as well as a chatbot like Google Gemini can on the web, Adobe's AI is also prone to error. It can be helpful, and it can help you save time if you practice using it, but the rash of errors I found in the results suggest you need to know the subject pretty well and be able to fact-check the AI to get good results.

But the promise is here, and I think it's a good one. If Adobe can improve this service to the point it's reliably accurate and capable enough to answer basic questions like "what page is this on" or "how does this subject work" in a given text, the AI Assistant could truly be a game-changer for my D&D sessions. 

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• Adobe just put generative AI into Photoshop — what you need to know
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With the first wave of laptops running Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus, Microsoft's foray into AI PCs is underway. Unfortunately, they are launching without the ability to natively run certain apps, including a number of Adobe Creative Suite programs.

Some Adobe apps are already optimized for Arm64 but the video editing tools Premiere Pro and After Effects, along with InDesign and Illustrator were not. 

As reported by our sister site, Windows Central, Aaron Woodman, VP of Windows Marketing for Microsoft, said that Illustrator and InDesign will receive native Arm version in July 2024. Video editors will have to wait longer as he said that those versions won't arrive until "later this year." 

While the new Qualcomm chipsets are producing impressive numbers in testing and improved battery life, they do have flaws for software. Apps that aren't native to Arm have to run through emulation which can introduce performance issues and occasional glitches. 

There are apps that don't take as much processing power that can run via emulation without notice but Adobe's programs are not that, especially Premiere Pro and After Effects. 

According to Windows Central, it was not possible to run Premiere Pro via emulation. Apparently, that has changed recently. In our hands on with the Asus VivoBook S 15, we didn't try any Adobe programs. However, we did test Windows Studio Effects and it worked a gem.

Windows Central did test Adobe products and said that emulated version of Premiere Pro struggled with multiple layers and effects and rendering was vastly increased over Intel devices. Though they did say editing simple 1080p 30fps videos was relatively smooth.

With the powerful processing that the Snapdragon chips bring, we imagine that making the Adobe programs run natively will vastly improve performance. DaVinci Resolve, an Adobe competitor, has an Arm64 native version that apparently performs smoothly on Snapdragon Elite X PCs. 

Outside of Illustrator and InDesign, we don't know when exactly these new laptops will get access to the native version of Premiere Pro and After Effects. 

Adobe isn't the only app that needs a native version. Popular video games like Halo Infinite and Fortnite aren't available at launch for Microsoft's Copilot + PCs. Not to mention feature like the Copilot button that is little more than a fidget key.

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TikTok has announced TikTok Symphony, a "new suite of creative solutions powered by generative AI" that's "designed to make content creation easier than ever for marketers and creators alike, simplifying the creative process while scaling it to new dimensions."

That comes via a blog post from the social media platform, noting that Creative Assistant has "evolved" into Symphony Assistant. From the included gif in the post, it'll seemingly help produce a script, find new creative ideas, and more.

Symphony will be available as part of Adobe Express and will also roll out to TikTok's Ads Manager program, with auto-diagnostics and fixing, optimization tools, and display cards that can be created from AI.

TikTok's Symphony features should make content creation easier

It can  import assets and a URL for whatever the topic of your content is and generate a video in "less than 60 seconds", including stock avatars created from footage of paid actors that are licensed for commercial use.

It's worth remembering that as iffy as this may sound for those users working hard to create their own content, TikTok automatically labels AI-generated content and is one of the first social media platforms to do so. That could help identify 'deepfake' content in the future.

Other platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube offer manual labelling of AI-generated content but it doesn't happen automatically.

Adobe Express to receive TikTok Commercial Library

Using the Symphony Assistant add-on in Adobe Express will let users of the creation app, and its underlying Firefly generative AI tools, work with TikTok's huge Commercial Music Library of assets as of June 17.

"With TikTok’s Commercial Music Library accessible from within Adobe Express, marketers and advertisers can quickly create, score and publish on-trend TikTok-first content at the speed of social," the Adobe blog post explains.

According to TikTok's own blog, users will get "support throughout the content creation process" within Express, and a focus on TikTok as a platform.

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• 5 Best AI video generators — tested and compared
• ChatGPT-4o vs Gemini Pro 1.5 — 7 prompts to find the best AI chatbot
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Adobe has just integrated its AI image generator Firefly in its 3D modelling suite, Substance 3D. This includes the creation of textures from a text prompt.

After recently expanding to Adobe Express, two new Firefly-powered features are being included in Substance 3D, and could come to other Adobe products in future.

The first is a text-to-texture feature which allows you to generate photorealistic or stylized textures and apply them to the surface of your 3D models. 

You can do this using a simple text prompt, eliminating the need to use stock photos from which to sample the desired texture.

Use AI to generate textures or backdrops

In an Adobe video illustrating how this feature works, a designer explains how he used the prompt “full dirt ground with large and small rocks” to generate a number of textures that he could apply to the ground in his scene. 

After finding one he liked, he used it as the starting point of his design and improved on it by adding water and adjusting other parameters to bring the scene to life.

Secondly, Substance 3D’s latest release includes a new generative background feature. Again using text prompts you can create detailed background images and seamlessly composite objects into scenes with intelligent perspective and lighting matching.

In another demo video, a second designer needed an abstract background to accompany a 3D model of a pair of headphones. Again, using a text prompt for an “abstract wave swirl” Substance 3D gave her four options to choose from. The perspective and lighting were again matched to the image.

Substance 3D stager can also be used to generate 3D environments in which to place your creation. Don’t have the budget to fly out your team to photograph your product on a sandy beach? Adobe Substance 3D may prove to be a good alternative.

Beta versions of Substance 3D Sampler 4.4 and Stager 3.0 featuring the new Text to Texture and Generative Background features will be accessible to all Substance 3D customers starting March 18.

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Adobe’s AI image generator Firefly has now been incorporated into the new version of Adobe Express, the all-in-one cloud-based content editing platform on both iOS and Android, bringing generative AI powers to wherever you take your phone.

Users of the new Adobe Express app can try new AI features in beta mode. This includes generating images from text and applying different styles and textures to text using prompts. 

Another function is the Photoshop feature Generative Fill, which, again using text prompts, allows users to insert, remove, or replace people and objects in photos.

With the changes it’s implementing, Adobe says it intends to build “a whole new mobile version of Adobe Express which will eventually replace the prior Adobe Express mobile app.”

Credit-based system for generative AI

If you’re a Creative Cloud member you can access and edit your creations from Photoshop and Illustrator directly within Adobe Express. 

Subscribers have full access to all premium features in Adobe Express across desktop web and mobile.  During the beta, premium features are available for free, however this does not include the generative AI tools. 

These use a credit-based system — Adobe Express beta users will get 25 credits per month if using the free plan. The number of credits increases tenfold to 250 credits for those taking out a Premium subscription priced at $9.99 a month.

Commercially safe AI

Adobe Firefly generative AI is designed to be safe for commercial use which will be useful for content creators who can also use the same app to edit their videos and even schedule content to go up on their TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook channels.

Firefly adds special tags to images created using its features to indicate that generative AI was used in an effort to improve transparency.

While the new and improved Adobe Express is available immediately to Android users in beta through the Google Play store you’ll need to join a waiting list to experience these new features on iOS due to Apple’s limitations on such beta tests. 

You can sign up here and Adobe will guide the lucky users through the rest of the process.

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• Best photo editing software in 2024
• Adobe AI image generator just went global with huge update — what you need to know
• Adobe just put generative AI into Photoshop — what you need to know

It pays to know how to copy and paste edit settings in Adobe Lightroom, especially if you use the software or plan on using it a lot.

While Adobe Lightroom is one of the best photo editing software applications out there, there isn't any way of getting around the fact that editing large numbers of photos takes time. One of the ways you can speed up your workflow and cut down on the time you spend in the editing studio is to copy edits from certain images and paste them to other images where the exposures are similar. 

Using this method, you can effectively reduce your editing down to batches of images with reasonably similar exposures, tweaking to accommodate the subtle differences.

It's also a great way to copy and paste certain edits to an entire library of images — for example, copying and pasting a specific color profile like monochrome, or copying a lens profile correction to other images shot on the same lens.

But how do you do it? Well, thankfully, it's easy, but you might not have figured out how if you didn't know where to look. Fear not, this guide is here to show you.

How to copy and paste edit settings in Adobe Lightroom

The process is slightly difference for Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Lightroom Classic. It's more or less the same, but we've broken this guide down into the two different software applications so you can get an idea of the process on the software that's familiar to you.

How to copy and paste edit settings in Adobe Lightroom

First, let's look at the standard Lightroom application, which is a little simpler than Classic, and offers a similar experience across desktop, tablet and smartphone apps.

And voila! Your new image(s) have the same edits applied to them as the original.

How to copy and paste edit settings in Adobe Lightroom Classic

Now let's look at Lightroom Classic, which is a more professional-focused software package, offering better workflow tools and giving long-term users the familiar classic interface. The process is pretty much the same as the standard Lightroom, although the wording is a little different.

That's all there is to it. Whichever version of Lightroom you use, you should now know how to copy and paste edits. We also have other handy photo editing tutorials, so why not check out our guides on how to rotate an image in Lightroom, how to resize an image in Photoshop, how to flip an image in Photoshop and how to resize a canvas in Photoshop.

Learning how to rotate an image in Lightroom is something you'll need to pick up pretty quickly when you start using Adobe's legendary photo studio application. 

Rotating images is a key transformational tool that photographers will often apply before they've made other edits. For example, you may have deliberately taken an image upside down or in the wrong orientation, or been forced to by the angle you had to shoot at. In these cases, you'll want to quickly rotate the image to set it up as you'd imagined. Then you can get to editing it properly.

As you'd expect from one of the best photo editing software applications out there, rotating an image is easy in Lightroom. But that doesn't mean it's obvious how to do it. As with any professional Adobe application, there's a learning curve involved to get familiar with Lightroom, and myriad tools in front of you that aren't initially explained.

To complicate matters further, there are even two different versions of Lightroom. There's the standard Lightroom, which looks and feels like the app versions and is better for casual photographers editing the odd image. Then there's Lightroom Classic, which offers the classic Lightroom interface that long-term users will be used to, and provides much better professional workflow features, such as the catalog organization system. I'll be using Lightroom Classic here today, but the steps will essentially be the same on non-classic Lightroom anyway.

Without further ado, here's how to rotate an image in Lightroom.

How to rotate an image in Lightroom

Firstly, we'll look at how to simply rotate an image with no crop. These steps will be the same on both Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. This rotates around a central point, 90 degrees. If you need to rotate to a specific degree to straighten a slightly wonky image, check out the section below.

How to straighten an image in Lightroom

If you need to rotate to a specific angle, you'll need to use a different method, called straightening. This method will allow you to rotate an image to whatever angle you'd like, so it's perfect for making small adjustments to slightly wonky images to straighten them up. Bear in mind, though, that this method crops the image too, so you will lose some of your original pixels.

This method is virtually the same in both Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. You'll be using the Crop and Straighten menu, denoted by the crop symbol, with an arrow above and below. In Lightroom Classic, this is located at the top of the Developer panel; in Lightroom, the menu is called Crop & Rotate, and is permanently located on the right hand side of the window.

There you have it. You now know both ways of rotating an image in Lightroom. We also have other handy photo editing tutorials, so why not check out our guides on how to resize an image in Photoshop, how to flip an image in Photoshop and how to resize a canvas in Photoshop.

Learning how to resize a canvas in Photoshop is an important step in your journey to becoming a photo editor. You can start with a certain size canvas and then suddenly realize you need more space. Similarly, if you've imported an image and want to add space around it, for a background or for transparency, you'll need to resize the canvas first.

While Photoshop is one of the best photo editing software applications around, there's no doubt that it comes with a steep learning curve. So while resizing a canvas is super easy, it's totally understandable that you might not know how to do it.

Believe me, if you're just getting into Photoshop, remember that all us other Photoshop users were in the same boat once. And that's why this guide exists.

So, without further ado, here's how to resize a canvas in Photoshop.

Note: Resizing a canvas is not the same as resizing an image. The canvas is what your image goes on. So you're effectively resizing the background. If you want to learn how to change the dimensions or resolution of an actual image, read our guide on how to resize an image in Photoshop.

How to resize an image in Photoshop

1. Press Opt + Cmd + C (Mac) or Ctrl + Alt + C (Win)
2. Or Click Image > Canvas Size
3. Enter new canvas dimensions
4. Click OK

Read on to see full illustrated instructions for each step.

Before we start, let's ensure we're all working in the same workspace, so the instructions below line up with what you see on the screen. Click Window in the top toolbar, then select Workspace > Essentials.

Something important to remember is that if you're changing a canvas around an already imported image file and you want the new background canvas to be transparent, make sure to convert it to a layer before starting. If your image is showing as "Background" your extended canvas will be a color. Converting to a layer means your extended canvas will be transparent, and you can then change it to a color later on by following our guide on how to add a background in Photoshop.

Right click the image layer on the right hand side and select Layer from Background. When a pop up appears, name your layer and click OK.

With the housekeeping out of the way, let's get on with the show!

Pretty easy, right? Now you know how to change a canvas size, you can add specific borders to your images, or you can simply have more room to add in extra elements! We can show you more ways to use Photoshop in out other tutorials. Next, check out how to add a border in Photoshop, how to add a drop shadow in Photoshop, how to remove a background in Photoshop and how to create a GIF in Photoshop.

Adobe’s Firefly AI image generation model will now support text prompts in more than 100 languages, the company has announced.

In a statement today, Wednesday, July 12, Adobe said it is enabling users around the world to generate images and text effects using their native language in the standalone Firefly web service. This service will now also be localized to 20 languages including Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Portuguese.

Firefly is the new family of creative generative AI models coming to Adobe products. You can currently use it in beta mode to generate images from text prompts, use Generative Fill to remove objects or add new ones to photos, or apply styles or textures to words and phrases.

“Today’s announcement is about making Firefly accessible to more people in their preferred languages, so they can continue to leverage our unique model to bring their imagination to life, and create the highest quality assets that are safe for commercial use,” said Adobe’s Digital Media CTO Ely Greenfield. 

The company reported over 1 billion assets have been created through Firefly’s website and in Photoshop — two of the most successful beta releases in Adobe’s history. With today’s global expansion, it expects to broaden its reach to millions of new users.

Firefly’s supported languages will include Hindi, Turkish, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic.

Responsible AI

Adobe says it wants to build responsible AI. Rather than training on artwork from artists indiscriminately, the first Firefly model was trained on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content and public domain content, where copyright has expired. 

Adobe is also working toward a universal “Do Not Train” tag that will remain associated with a piece of content wherever it’s used, published, or stored. Making Firefly more inclusive is another step in the ethical AI direction.

English continues to dominate the publicly available generative AI field. A common language for scientific and technological advances has its upsides. However, at the same time, this could act as a barrier for some people that want to access this technology since they have to become proficient in another language to be able to use it. 

In other words, people who could potentially benefit the most from generative AI have a harder time accessing it. Adobe’s latest move did to this barrier what Photoshop has been doing to blemishes in our photos for years: it dumped them. 

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Adobe has announced it is putting generative AI to work in Photoshop in order to give users a “magical new way to work” when it comes to photo editing. The company has integrated Firefly, its family of creative AI models, into Photoshop, with the rest of its Creative Cloud portfolio to follow.

The new feature Adobe is keen to stress is Generative Fill, which allows users to extend or remove content in images non-destructively using AI. That means, the newly-created content appears as additional layers without impacting the original image. As with other generative AI tools, Generative Fill only requires text prompts and works in seconds to make changes.

In the image above, the tool was used to overlay the car and the cloud onto the existing image with little more than a simple text prompt.

As well as integrating into Photoshop, Generative Fill is also available as a module in the Firefly beta for other users who want to test it out directly on the web. Like other AI tools, it could become incredibly useful as a means of quick visual idea generation based on nothing more than a few text prompts. Furthermore, as users become familiar with the system, they will be able to collaborate with the AI to refine and improve the images they’re working on.

Of course, Adobe’s suite of photo and video editing software is no stranger to AI assistance. The company has employed its Sensei AI system for features like Photoshop’s Neural Filters for years. But in all likelihood the emergence of Firefly will supercharge the software for beginners and intermediate users.

Firefly is a multimodal family of models so it’s capable of much more than just static images; audio, video and 3D modelling are all included.

“By integrating Firefly directly into workflows as a creative co-pilot, Adobe is accelerating ideation, exploration and production for all of our customers,” said Ashley Still, senior vice president of Digital Media at Adobe. “Generative Fill combines the speed and ease of generative AI with the power and precision of Photoshop, empowering customers to bring their visions to life at the speed of their imaginations.”

Photoshop isn’t the only AI-infused image generator making waves at the moment. Earlier this week, researchers from Google and the Max Planck Institute revealed a white paper on a new image editing tool called DragGAN. The tool uses AI to help users resize and redraw images with little-to-no photo editing experience and offers a tantalising glimpse of the future of image manipulation. 

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Once you know how to blur a background in Photoshop, friends photobombing and strangers walking into shot will never be a problem again. Blurring a background is the perfect technique to make sure that everyone who sees your pictures focuses on exactly what you want them to.

When you blur a background in Photoshop, all eyes fall to the foreground and the contrast in definition can make your main subject really "pop" and stand out. This is an especially useful tool for shots in crowds, such as at concerts or sporting events, where you can blur out strangers' faces and just focus on the memories of having fun with friends.

Although the backgrounds may be blurry, our instructions are clear, so keep reading to learn how to blur a background in Photoshop. 

How to blur a background in Photoshop

1. Create a duplicate of your background layer.
2. Use the Select a Subject tool to highlight the main subject in your image.
3. Click on Select -> Modify-> Expand and then expand the selection by 5 or so pixels.
4. On the Edit tab select Content-Aware Fill. 
5. Disable the two background layers and then add a Layer Mask to your subject layer.
6.  With the Layer Mask selected, choose Filter -> Other -> Minimum and contract the mask by one pixel more than you expanded by.
7. Convert the copy of your background layer into a smart object. Enable the subject layer.
8. Select Filter -> Blur Gallery-> Tilt shift.
9. Adjust the blur’s thickness and position as you see fit.  

 1. First create a duplicate of your background layer. Simply select the layer and press CTRL J (or CMD J on Mac). 

 2. On the Properties menu of the newly created copy, scroll down and click Select a Subject. 

3.  To avoid cutting off the edges of your image, click on Select, then modify and then expand. Expand your image by five pixels or so and click OK. 

4. On the Edit tab, select Content-Aware Fill. The subject of your image should now be bordered by a dotted line. 

5. Make sure that the Output Settings are set to output to a Duplicate Layer, then click OK. 

6.  Disable the two background layers by selecting the eye icon next to each. On your subject layer, add a Layer Mask. 

7.  With the Layer Mask selected, click the Filter tab, then select Other and then Minimum and contract the mask by one pixel more than you expanded by. The edges of the image should now be clean. 

8. Right-click the copy of the background layer and convert it into a Smart Object. Enable the Subject Layer by selecting the eye again. 

 9. Select the Filter tab, then Blur Gallery and then select Tilt-shift. 

 10. Adjust the blur’s thickness with the slider and adjust the position by dragging the lines on the image. 

And you’re all done! It's not a complicated process, but it's a very useful one, right? If something still doesn't look right after blurring the background you could even delete it and insert a whole new one if you learn how to add a background in Photoshop. If you're planning on doing a lot of Photoshop editing, check out the best monitors available. For those who are more au fait with their iPhone, learn how to edit photos on iPhone  

Once you know how to remove a background in Photoshop, there are all sorts of possibilities open to you. This is a really useful skill that can help you stitch pictures together seamlessly, or create graphics and logos that aren’t stuck to a blank square canvas.

Photoshop can seem pretty impenetrable to those who aren’t familiar with it, and with so many functions it’s easy to forget even if you're a regular user. But it is some of the best photo editing software available, so it pays to know your way around it and to master some of its most useful functions. Luckily it’s quick and easy to remove a background in Photoshop, provided you know where to look.

Once you have learnt how to remove a background then you can play with adding a new one. You could insert family members into vacation pictures, change that city picture into one on the beach, or maybe have a friend tightrope walking across the Grand Canyon. Just make sure to use your new powers for good!

Note: There are numerous ways to remove a background in Photoshop. This is the one we like, as it's the simplest, quickest way and works on many images. However, it won't work in all situations and you may need to seek extra help from adobe.com if that's the case.

How to remove a background in Photoshop 

Before we begin, ensure you are using the same workspace as we are, so your screen will look like ours! To do this, open Photoshop and click Window in the top toolbar. Then hover over Workspace and select Essentials (Default).

1. Drag an image into Photoshop to load it, then look in the layers panel, bottom right. If you see "Layer [x]", continue to step 2. If you see "Background", click Layer in the top toolbar, select New, then select Layer from Background.

Why? You need to make sure you're working on a layer and not the background. Many images like JPEGs will be loaded in as a Background layer, which is not technically a layer and cannot be worked on with as much freedom as a layer.

2. In the layers panel, bottom right make sure you've selected the layer which you wish to remove the background. Here we only have one layer, but you may have more than one layer if dealing with multiple image files or you've added a background photo already.

 3. Click Properties in the right hand panel, then click Quick Actions and select Remove Background. 

4. Use the Brush and Eraser tools to tidy up what remains of the image. Erase stray pixels or use the Healing Brush to remove unwanted elements or blend the image. 

 5. If you want to add in a background, drag another image onto the canvas. You may notice it appears on top of the original image in the layers panel.

6. Drag the original image layer above the new image layer.

Now flatten and save the image, or keep on editing and making your image more interesting.

And that’s all it takes! It’s definitely one of the simpler tasks on Photoshop but still not easy if you didn't already know how to do it. You might want to follow our guide on how to add a background in Photoshop to the image we have just created or perhaps if you’re looking to expand your knowledge try how to blur a background in Photoshop or how to create a GIF in Photoshop or even how to add a drop shadow in Photoshop. Of course, you don’t need to use Photoshop to edit images, and if you prefer to use your phone, try our guide on how to edit photos on iPhone. But those who prefer to work on a big screen should check out the best monitors. Want to brush up on your photographic knowledge? Make a start by reading about optical zoom vs. digital zoom.

Learning how to add a border in Photoshop is a necessity if you're regularly printing images. Very often, you'll need to add a border due to the tolerances of professional printers, but they're equally as commonly used to help your image better fit a frame or just look nice.

However, while Adobe Photoshop is certainly one of the best image editing software applications out there, it can be quite daunting to a newcomer, so you may be left scratching your head as to how exactly you're going to give your image its much-needed outline.

Thankfully, adding a border in Photoshop is super easy to do, and this guide will take you through it. While this guide covers similar ground to our other editing tutorial on how to add a background in Photoshop, the process for adding a border is slightly different, so keep reading to make sure you get it right first time.

How to add a border in Photoshop

1. In Adobe Photoshop CC, open the image you'd like to add a border to. Check the layer's box in the bottom right hand corner. If you see "Background" proceed to step 2. Otherwise, if you see "Layer [X]", skip to step 4. 

2. You need to convert your Background layer to a normal layer in order to work on it. Select Layer in the top toolbar, then hover over New. Select Layer from Background.

3. Rename your new layer if you like, then click OK.

4. Press Ctrl + Alt + C (Windows), or Option + Cmd + C (Mac) to open the Canvas Size pane. The easiest way to add a consistent border is to leave Relative checked. This way you are simply adding a specified amount of extra canvas to the existing image. Without relative checked, you will be adding canvas up to a specified canvas size, which is great for backgrounds where you know the resolution you want but a bit fiddly for small borders. Ensure Relative is checked and set the anchor point to the middle square (this ensures canvas is added equally on each side). Then add your desired border size in width and height and click OK.

Note: using this method, border will be added equally on each side of the image, so whatever you type in you should divide in half to work out the border size per side. For example, here we've opted for a border of 100 pixels for both width and height, meaning a 50 pixel border each of the four sides. 

5. You'll notice your image now has a transparent border around it. This needs filling with a color. Select Layer from the top toolbar, then hover over New Fill Layer and click Solid Color.

6. Name your new Color Layer if you like, then click OK.

7. Choose the color you want your border to be. Then click OK.

8. Your entire canvas will now fill with that colour, but you needn't fear. In the Layer box, bottom right, drag your image layer above the Color Fill layer. Fixed.

9. Now you have your border, click Layer in the top toolbar, then select Flatten Image. You can now export your image as you please.

Not too tricky! Now that you're well on your way with image editing, you might want to read our other Photoshop tutorials, including how to add a drop shadow in Photoshop and how to blur a background in Photoshop. Adobe's editing suite isn't the only way to work on photos though, so why not also check out our guides on how to edit images on iPhone, how to blur a photo's background on iPhone and how to edit videos on iPhone. Want to brush up on your photographic knowledge? Make a start by reading about optical zoom vs. digital zoom.

If you're wondering how to add a drop shadow in Photoshop, you're certainly not the first. Adobe Photoshop is undoubtedly one of the best photo editing software applications out there, but to new users its huge array of features and buttons can be a bit daunting. Don't worry, though, because we're here to help you learn your way around. 

Adding a drop shadow in Photoshop is a simple, but very effective way to highlight an element on screen, setting it apart from background elements and creating the appearance of three dimensionality. It works great on both text and images, and once you've mastered how to add one, you'll be using drop shadows constantly.

Without further ado, here's how to add a drop shadow in Adobe Photoshop. 

How to add a drop shadow in Photoshop

• Select the layer to which you want to add a shadow
• Click the fx button, bottom right
• Select Drop Shadow
• Set the shadow parameters
• Click OK

Read on to see more detailed instructions for each step.

Before we start, it's worth noting that you won't see a drop shadow on an element unless there is space around it, such as a background or a border. If you're not sure how to do that, check out how to add a background in Photoshop first.

1. In the bottom right layer box, select the layer you'd like to add a drop shadow to. Look for the fx button just below, in the bottom right corner.

2. Click the fx button and select Drop Shadow.

3. Adjust the drop shadow's parameters, including the lighting angle, opacity and size of the shadow. You can move the Layer Style pop up out of the way to check how the shadow looks on your image. Click OK when you're happy. To go back and edit again, simply double click on the Drop Shadow tab underneath your layer, inside the layer box on the bottom right.

Pretty simple, right? Now that you're well on your way with using Photoshop, you might want to read our other image editing tutorials like how to blur a background in Photoshop. Why not get started by checking out our guides on how to edit images on iPhone, how to blur a photo's background on iPhone and how to edit videos on iPhone. You can also read our guide on how to remove a background in Photoshop.

Want to brush up on your photographic knowledge? Make a start by reading about optical zoom vs. digital zoom.

Knowing how to add a background in Photoshop is one of those skills that's required all the time when using the software. Perhaps you need to set a product photo against a clear white background, or maybe you want to frame a screenshot against a wider image to fit into specific sizing or image ratio requirements. 

Whatever the reason, if you're a regular Photoshop user, you'll probably need to do this a lot. As a daily Photoshopper myself, I'd say it's probably my most-used basic skill and it's super easy to do for yourself. The issue is, however, that although Adobe Photoshop is one of the best photo editing software applications out there, even simple tasks like this one are often buried within its overwhelming mass of buttons and options. But don't worry, we're here to cut through all that and show you how it's done.

Here's how to add a background in Adobe Photoshop.

How to add a background in Photoshop

1. Open Photoshop and load an image
2. Convert the image to a layer (Layer > New Layer from Background)
3. Resize the canvas to fit the background (Ctrl + Alt + C / Option + Cmd + C)
4. Drag and drop an image as a background or create a new fill layer
5. Resize your background to fit your canvas
6. Move your image layer on top of your background layer

Read on to see detailed instructions for each step.

1. Open Adobe Photoshop, then click File, Open in the top toolbar and use your file explorer to select and load an image.

2. Check the layers box, which is bottom right by default. If your image loads as a layer, skip to step 3. If you see "Background" then we will need to convert the image to a layer. Click Layer in the top toolbar, select New, then click New layer from Background.

3. Rename your layer if you like, then hit OK.

4. We now need to adjust the canvas size so there is room for a background. Press Ctrl + Alt + C (Windows) or Option + Cmd + C (Mac) to open the resize canvas window. Leave the Relative box unchecked if you know the size of canvas you want (i.e 4500 x 3000 pixels), and enter your canvas size in the width and height boxes. 

Alternatively, check Relative to expand the canvas from its current size from a set point. Then enter the desired amounts in the width and height boxes. For example: if you wanted to extend the canvas 100 pixels vertically and 50 pixels horizontally, enter 100 in Width and 50 in Height. Leave the anchor point set in the middle square to ensure all additions are applied in an equal split on each side of the image.

Tap the dropdown arrow next to Pixels to select a different measurement, such as centimeters. 

5. You'll now see that the canvas has expanded, with transparent space denoted by grey and white squares. To fill that space with a background image, drag and drop an image into the space. 

If you simply want a solid colour as your background, select Layer in the top tool bar, click New Fill Layer, then select Solid Color. If you want to, name your new fill layer and click OK. Then choose a color and click OK again. You can now skip to step 7.

6. If you're using an image as a background, it may not be the exact size to fit your canvas. Drag the anchor points to fit the image. So that the image's correct ratio is maintained (which stops the image being stretched), ensure the ratio lock symbol is depressed, middle left of the image toolbar. Alternatively, hold shift as you resize the image using anchor points to ensure it is resized in ratio.

Once you're happy with the fitment, click the tick button on the right of the image toolbar.

7. Your background layer will be stacked above your original image. To move your image back to the top, click and hold its layer in the layer box, bottom right. Drag the image layer above the background layer.

There you have it — you've now added a background to an image in Photoshop. From here, you can go on to add further elements to your image, or you can flatten and export it if you're done. 

Now that you're finding your feet with Photoshop, you might want to read our other image editing tutorials. We have other Photoshop tutorials, so take the next step by learning how to remove a background in Photoshop, how to create a GIF in Photoshop, how to add a drop shadow in Photoshop and how to add a border in Photoshop. Adobe's editing suite isn't the only way to edit images though, so broaden your horizons by checking out our guides on how to edit images on iPhone, how to blur a photo's background on iPhone and how to edit videos on iPhone. Want to brush up on your photographic knowledge? Make a start by reading about optical zoom vs. digital zoom.

Adobe is working to change the way users can access Photoshop. According to The Verge, the popular photo editing software is rolling out as a free-to-use version starting with select Canadian users.

Adobe currently offers a web version of the photo editing software in other regions, but that version is designed for collaboration and only offers very basic features. The goal of the new “freemium” version is to offer users access to what Abobe calls Photoshop’s “core functions,” including the ability to refine edges, curves and convert Smart Objects.

Like with the current version of Photoshop on Web this “freemium” version will operate via web browser and require an Adobe account. We expect the new “freemium” version to run on Chrome and Edge browsers only, as those are the browsers that Photoshop on Web currently supports. 

Photoshop Freemium: advantages and disadvantages 

There are likely two major advantages to this new “freemium” version of Photoshop. First, it’s (partially) free. Given that current versions all require a subscription or are incredibly limited, this should be a major boost to any users that want to really dive into the software but are not sure they want to pay a subscription fee.

The second advantage is that because this runs on Chrome, it brings Photoshop to the Chromebook in a more powerful way than ever before. Once this rolls out, Chrome OS users will no longer be reliant on Photoshop Express to edit photos. This also opens up the software to users on budget devices with less power than is needed to run the desktop version of the app, including students. 

Of course, there is a catch. This is being billed as “freemium” by Adobe — not free. That means certain features are still going to be paywalled so that Adobe can eventually get users to subscribe to Photoshop CC. Additionally, while the new version of Photoshop on Web will run on Chrome browsers, it is not expected to run on mobile devices. 

What are the versions of Photoshop currently available? 

Free Photoshop options

As previously mentioned, there are technically a couple of free versions of Photoshop available, but none with the full suite of features. Photoshop on Web is currently a collaborative tool but is being expanded to run Photoshop’s “core functions, and Photoshop Express allows mobile users on Android and iOS to enhance, crop, and share photos. As far as mobile apps go it is a good option, but it is nowhere near as powerful as Photoshop CC. 

Photoshop Elements 

Photoshop Elements is Adobe’s consumer-facing version of Photoshop. While Photoshop CC is not limited to professionals, sometimes it offers more than the average user needs. Photoshop Elements still allows users to have a powerful photo editing tool without paying for features they may not need. Plus unlike Photoshop CC, Photoshop Elements is a one-time purchase — and it’s currently on sale. 

Photoshop CC 

To get access to the full desktop Photoshop CC app, you will need to subscribe through Adobe. There is currently a “Photography” plan with Photoshop and Lightroom for $9.99 a month and 20 GB of storage, as well as a $19.99 a month version that increases the cloud storage to 1 TB. There is also a Photoshop-only version for $20.99 a month, or for $54.99 a month users can access every app that Adobe’s Creative Cloud has to offer.

If you are not ready to commit to a subscription but want to experience the full power of Photoshop CC, there is a free trial for both Photoshop CC and the entire Creative Cloud suite of apps.

If you are still not sure about committing to Adobe’s photo editor, there are some great alternatives to Photoshop. However, with this shift to a “freemium” model, Photoshop is about to get much more accessible for everyone. 

Jenny Slate can add Marie Claire cover star to her already blooming list of professions, which include artist, comedian, actor and author, as she’ll be featuring in the publication’s first-ever Creators Issue in partnership with Adobe. 

You might wonder why Tom’s Guide is flagging this. Well, not only is Marie Claire part of the Future Publishing family alongside us, but the Creators Issue is being powered by Adobe, the company behind some of the best photo editing software and best video editing software (plus a lot more). And Adobe’s suite of creative tools have been used to create the cover of the magazine that will be focused heavily on a broad range of content creators, not least of all Jenny Slate. 

“We are so excited to have Jenny Slate cover our first ever The Creators Issue,” said Sally Holmes, editor in chief of Marie Claire. “She is a creator in every sense of the word — artist, comedian, author and actress. Jenny’s story mixed with the other inspirational female creators featured in this issue harmoniously combine Marie Claire’s commitment to empowering women and telling impactful stories with Adobe’s dedication to inspiring and enabling creativity for all to create a powerful issue aimed to educate, inspire and celebrate diverse voices.”

For the full interview with Slate and to get a taste of her creative process, check out Marie Claire’s exploration into the weird wonderful world of Jenny Slate. 

But there's more to this Creators Issue. In it you’ll find articles covering interviews with artists on upcoming projects, and how creators are harnessing social media platforms, from YouTube to Snapchat and TikTok; check out the Tom’s Guide TikTok channel starring our very own influencer-in-the-making Kate Kozuch. 

Furthermore, The Marie Claire Creators To Watch List is Marie Claire’s inaugural list, supported by Adobe, featuring a diverse list of creators that are on the rise, ranging from artists to animators, producers and social activists.

Then, once you feel a burst of inspiration, you’ll want to check out the 10 Easy Ways to Express Yourself article that will give you key design and storytelling tactics to elevate your creative works from good to great, especially with the help of Adobe Creative Cloud Express tools.

So, whether you want a deeper insight into the creative life of Jenny Slate, are keen to get inspired to pursue a life of creativity, or are simply curious about Adobe creative tools, then Marie Claire’s Creators Issue in partnership with Adobe is not to be missed.

Video editing can be complex thing, but Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 does its best to simplify the process. 

While professionals can spend years mastering the nuances and intricacies of powerful software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, many of us just want to create and share fun and meaningful videos of our life and loved ones. Adobe Premiere Elements excels in this regard, thanks to an accessible interface, comparatively easy-to-use tools, and some cool creative styling. 

The three tabs of the interface — Quick, Guided and Expert — offer novices an opportunity to quickly fix their videos and/or learn more sophisticated workflows, while providing more experienced users with plenty of sophisticated and even powerful tools.

The new version, Premiere Elements 2022, has added a handful of new and improved features, and a couple of them are so useful that they alone will make family and hobby videographers sit up and pay attention. It's an easy choice for the top of our best video editing software list.

Note: This Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 review covers only the newest features for version 2022. Check out our Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 review for a bigger overview.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 review: Price

Adobe Premiere Elements’ pricing remains the same for 2022, and unlike Adobe’s Creative Cloud products such as Photoshop CC, you’re buying a perpetual license. For a new purchase, it’s $99.99. An upgrade from a previous version costs $79.99. Or you can buy it in a bundle with Photoshop Elements 2022 for $149.99, or $119.99 for an upgrade.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 review: System requirements

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 runs on both Windows and Mac systems, with Intel 6th generation or newer processors or AMD equivalent (7th generation preferred).

You'll also need at least 8GB RAM (16GB RAM for HD media, 32GB for 4K media); 4GB of GPU VRAM; 1280x800 display resolution (at 100% scale factor);  fast internal SSD for app installation and cache; additional high-speed drive(s) for media, and an internet connection. Premiere Elements 2022 cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash storage devices.

For Windows, you’ll need Windows 10 version 2004 or newer (version 21H1 recommended),  64-bit version only, HEIF/HEVC import supported only on Windows 10 version 1903 or later; 6.7GB of hard-disk space for installation and 13GB additional for optional content; DirectX 12 compatible sound and display driver; Windows Media Player; and a compatible DVD burner required to burn DVDs.

For Apple systems, you’ll need macOS 10.15 or macOS 11, 8GB hard-disk space for installation and 11GB additional for optional content.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 review: New features

Social-media-ready videos

Most videos created by consumers end up on social networks. And each network has a preferred aspect ratio for optimum viewing. Taking a page from Photoshop Elements (and other consumer photo-editing programs), Premiere Elements 2022 now gives you the ability to choose the aspect ratio of your video project based on where you will be uploading it. 

Your video’s aspect ratio can be defined when setting up your project, and the process is as easy as you'd expect.

Alternatively, you can export your video based on social media preset sizes, as well as presets for different devices such as a TV or a tablet.

For anyone who posts videos to social media — as most of us do — this is a great addition to Premiere Elements. Unfortunately, the one network that isn’t among the setup or export options is Twitter. For Twitter, choose 1280x720 (landscape or portrait) or 720x720.

Reframing your video

When you choose to create or export a video in an aspect ratio other than the original, black borders will be automatically added to your video. Those borders are necessary to avoid cropping any of the action. But you can choose to use the Adobe Sensei AI reframing tool to fill the frame with the central action of your video. The excess will then be cropped away.

For instance, say I want to create a vertical project, but I want to use a horizontal clip. Sensei will analyze the horizontal clip and do its best to keep what it decides is the central action within the vertical crop. 

In my experience, it sometimes cuts off the important detail, because not every central action frame will fit into the chosen aspect ratio. But that aside, Sensei AI reframing makes it easier to create smooth, attractive video projects that combine clips that have different aspect ratios. Just bear in mind that it will work best if you shoot wide, leaving lots of empty space around the central action of your videos.

Better support for vertical videos

When you open a vertical video in a new project, the project will now automatically set its aspect ratio to match the clip. In addition, in any vertical project,  all assets — titles, mattes or backgrounds — will automatically resize when placed in the project. Given how many people hold their phones the long way when shooting videos, this new functionality is destined to be quite popular.

Two new guided edits

The Guided Edits feature in Premiere Elements 2022 helps users learn how to use key video editing workflows. It's a simple setup, that sees you work on your own videos in the Expert tab, with pop-ups guiding you. However, while generally great for helping you master what might initially seem complex processes, the Guided Edits often skimp on explanations. I suspect the idea is to have you learn with as little interference as possible.

For instance, who doesn’t have a video that captures that one perfect moment, but that is either too dark or not sparkling enough? The new Adjust Shadows and Highlights Guided Edit gives step-by-step instructions to correct or improve a clip’s exposure. It takes you from opening and placing the clip into the timeline, through using the Shadows and Highlights tool, then playing the video to check the effect and finally exporting it. However, it doesn’t give any guidance on how to edit your settings after you’ve applied them. 

That aide, the Adjust Shadows and Highlights Guided Edit is a valuable addition to Premiere Elements 2022, and one that encourages users to explore and learn about these essential controls and sliders.

The other new Guided Edit — Animated Overlays — is far less serious: It teaches you how to apply animated butterflies, bokeh lights, snowflakes, clouds, and such to your video. Options include Blend Modes, opacity, uniform or non-uniform scaling, rotation, and an anti-flicker filter.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 review: Verdict

Premiere Elements continues to be a great consumer video editing program that's suitable for both novices and more experienced users. 

In the newest version, we were impressed enough with the value of the various new aspect ratio options, the reframing tool and the new Shadows & Highlights Guided Edits to recommend upgrading to Premiere Elements 2022 on the strength of what they offer the typical consumer videographer. And they make this year a good one for new users to download the trial version and see if it’s time to finally take the plunge and buy Premiere Elements.

As you probably know, Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) offers a powerful set of products to help creators design, build, and edit their work. With over 20 apps specially made for photographers, film editors, designers, and web and UX developers, it’s well worth grabbing the Creative Cloud suite, or its individual apps, at a discount.

In this article, we’ve put together the best Adobe Creative Cloud discounts available today. The CC suite boasts visual design apps such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom Classic, top-notch video editing software Premiere Pro , and motion graphics editors After Effects and Animate. For web design and prototyping, you’ve got Dreamweaver, InDesign, and Adobe XD.

Every CC subscription includes 100GB of file storage, thousands of exclusive fonts, free portfolio website hosting, and collaboration tools such as sharing and commenting.

Whether you’re new to creative products, or a professional looking for a good deal, this round-up won’t disappoint. Bear in mind that some of these offers might be available to students and first-subscribers only, and may depend on where you are in the world, so read the terms and conditions before signing up.

The best Adobe Creative Cloud discounts available now

Student and teacher plan: Get Adobe CC All Apps plan for just $19.99 a month

For those who study or work in education, the Creative Cloud suite comes at a reduced price. If you grab the Student and Teacher All Apps deal, you save over 60% on the normal subscription fee.

Adobe Stock: Get 10 free Adobe Stock images

US: Free 30-day trial

UK: Free 30-day trial

AU: Free 30-day trial

Adobe offers its Stock service free of charge during a 30-day trial. If you sign up to Adobe Stock for one year, at $29.99 a month, your first month—or 10 images—will be free. But if you don’t want to pay after the trial, you can cancel your subscription, no strings attached.

Adobe Creative Cloud discounts: Download a free trial of your favorite apps

Download a free Photoshop trial for PC, Mac or iPad now

If you want to see what the hype is with this popular graphics editor, you’re in luck, because Adobe is offering Photoshop on a seven-day free trial. Then, if you’re ready to invest, choose one of the subscription options—otherwise, cancel before your trial ends. Our guide on how to download Photoshop provides you with more details on all of your options.

Download a free trial of Illustrator for PC, Mac or iPad now

Another top design program, Adobe Illustrator can be trialled for free for seven days before you embark on a paid subscription. If you decide to pay for it, you can buy it as a standalone or as part of the CC suite. Read our guide on how to download Illustrator to learn more.

Download a free trial of Premiere Pro for PC or Mac now

Adobe Premiere Pro is our top pick for the best video editing software. It may not come cheap, but its comprehensive toolkit helps video makers create outstanding professional content. You can try it for free for seven days, then cancel or continue with a CC subscription. See our guide to how to download Premiere Pro to find out more. 

You can also view our guides on how to download InDesign, how to download Acrobat, and on how to download After Effects.

How to get the best Adobe Creative Cloud discount

We’re updating this page with new Adobe Creative Cloud discounts, so you’re always up to speed with the latest deals. Keep checking in by bookmarking this page—if there’s a new discount, you’ll find it here.

You can also check for discounts on the Adobe website.

More of today's best Adobe CC deals

Our price tracking software is always searching for the best Adobe deals. Scroll down to see today's best Adobe Creative Cloud deals and discounts.

• How to get a Best Buy student discount — and save big
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Want to download Premiere Pro but unsure where to start? We’ve got you covered. 

Choosing between the best video editing software platforms can be difficult, but if you’ve decided Premiere Pro ticks all your boxes, this guide will talk you through how to download Premiere Pro with a free trial or with a subscription. Plus, we’ll offer some beginner-friendly Premiere Pro tips to help you get started with the software.

Can I download free Premiere Pro?

Premiere Pro is subscription-based video editing software, but you can try the program before purchasing by utilizing Adobe’s free seven-day trial. After this, you will be required to buy the software via a Creative Cloud membership—downloading Premiere Pro for free in any other way is illegal, and you could end up downloading harmful viruses or malware onto your system.

To try Premiere Pro, you can head to the Adobe website to set up your account and download the app onto your system.

How do I buy Premiere Pro?

If you decide you’d like to continue using Premiere Pro post-trial, you can head over to the Adobe website and choose from a variety of payment plans and subscriptions.

Premiere Pro is only available as part of a Creative Cloud membership—once you’ve created an account, you can choose between a single app plan offering just Premiere Pro or a multiple app plan. A rolling monthly subscription to Premiere Pro alone sets you back $31.49 a month, or the “all apps” plan with over 20 apps costs $79.49 a month, so it depends on how many apps you’ll be using as to which is the most cost-effective for you.

Creative Cloud offers memberships tailored to individuals, students, teachers, businesses, and enterprises, so it’s worth looking through all the plans to decide which best suits your needs.

What’s the price of Premiere Pro? 

For individuals, Premiere Pro as a standalone app will cost $31.49 a month on a rolling monthly subscription. You can reduce the price of this by paying for an annual plan monthly — bringing it down to $20.99 a month — or by paying for an annual plan upfront, which costs $239.88 each year. All of these payment options include access to the latest features and Premiere Pro updates, 100GB of cloud storage, Premiere Rush, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark.

Creatives that use a variety of Creative Cloud apps may find the multiple app plans more cost-effective — the “all apps'' plan gives access to over 20 Adobe creative apps, including Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and InDesign. For arguably better value, you can get all the apps for $52.99 a month on an annual plan; $79.49 a month on a rolling monthly plan, or $599.88 for an annual plan paid upfront. Alongside the apps, users will have access to the latest features and updates, 100GB of cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark.

The prices quoted here don’t include tax, but full price lists for students and teachers or businesses can be found on the Adobe website. It’s also worth keeping an eye on the Adobe special offers page for the latest discounts.

Premiere Pro discounts for teachers and students

As a student or teacher, you’re eligible to save over 60% on the usual cost of the “all apps” plan, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. 

Signing up for this plan will set you back just $19.99 a month on an annual plan for the first year, rising to $29.99 each month thereafter. Paying for an annual plan upfront will cost you $239.88. 

There is currently no option to get a discount directly on the single Premiere Pro app. However, opting for the “all apps” discounted plan actually works out cheaper than paying for Premiere Pro individually. 

How can I get started with Premiere Pro?

If you’re new to Premiere Pro, you’re in good hands — there are a range of tutorials to help you get started. After downloading the software, you can head over to the Adobe Help Center to access guides covering topics such as understanding the editing panels, working with graphics and titles, and adding effects. 

The Adobe Help Center also offers a variety of guides and useful resources for a number of general inquiries. If you’re unsure of anything, you have the option to chat with others in the community forum, or speak to a team member instantly via the webchat on the page.

Premiere Pro: Key info you need to know

Adobe Premiere Pro is an industry-leading video editing software application suitable for handling complex video projects. With a variety of innovative tools on offer alongside the artificial intelligence of Adobe Sensei, transforming raw footage into a professional project has never felt simpler. 

Premiere Pro offers seamless integration with other apps like Photoshop and Audition, and you can edit footage in any format, from 8K to virtual reality. Available on both macOS and Windows, Premiere is highly accessible, and the variety of tutorials available make it relatively beginner-friendly — likely the reason the software is a favorite with professional video editors and hobbyists alike.

Premiere Pro: Android and iOS apps 

While Premiere Pro isn’t available directly as a mobile app, you can edit on the go with Adobe's free editing mobile app, Premiere Rush. If you’re looking to create videos specifically for social media, the simple user interface will get you editing and exporting smaller projects much faster.

Premiere Rush works on iPhone, iPad, Android, and desktop, with your projects automatically syncing to the cloud whenever you make edits. This means you can switch between devices easily without losing any changes.

Alternatively, there are plenty of other Android and iOS apps to aid your editing experience, including Adobe Spark, which enables you to easily create graphics, web pages, and video stories. The full range of available apps can be explored and downloaded by heading to the Adobe website.

Premiere Pro alternatives

Finally, if you’re unsure of whether to download Premiere Pro, there are alternatives available, including the cheaper, but slightly less full-featured, Adobe Premiere Elements 2021. Check out our guide to the best video editing software, where you can find out more details on programs like Final Cut Pro X and Filmora9.

There are many tools out there for those who want to build web pages for themselves without the need for technical expertise, with many of the best website builders offering drag-and-drop functionality that allow even the least experienced individuals to create a site in next to no time.

Spark is the website builder Adobe brings to the table, and it helps you to create not only web pages, but also graphics and video that can be used in your social media posts and other marketing material. And all this can be done for free! 

Adobe Spark is a suite of three apps used for creating graphics, videos, and web pages. Spark Page is the website builder app, which features a user-friendly interface that will have you producing great-looking pages in no time.

Not many other website builders offer the same level of functionality for free, though there are downsides: you can only create single-page websites, and your page will be hosted on the spark.adobe.com subdomain. 

There are unofficial ways to get around the domain issue so that it seems like your page is coming from your own domain, but if you want to create a complete website with multiple pages, then you’ll need to look elsewhere.

But if you’re looking to create great-looking single-page websites quickly, Spark is a great choice, and in this article, we’ll tell you how to make a website with the platform.

How to make a website with Adobe Spark: Preparation

The first step towards using Spark will be in deciding how you want to work. Spark comes as either a web app that can be loaded in a web browser on any device, or as mobile apps for iOS and Android (only Spark Post has an Android version currently).

You’ll first need to create an account. You can either choose to create a free Adobe account, or you can login with Facebook or Google.

Those are the only preparation steps required. Once you’ve done either of those, you’ll be all ready to create your first web page. The following steps are based on working from the web app.

Step 1: Create your first page

After you’ve logged in, you’ll have a few different ways to get started with your first Spark web project. You can click on the + button at the top of the menu to the left of the window and choose "Web page", or, if you’re on the Spark home page, click on the button labeled "Presentation".

Once you’ve done either of those, you’ll be presented with a blank canvas. Before diving right into creating, let’s walk through the user interface. Along the top are buttons for "Settings", "Preview", "Present", "Share", and "Invite". 

Under "Settings", you have options for showing a header and footer on your page (more on that below); you can enter your Google Analytics tracking ID; and can specify whether to enable a cookie banner for those regions where you need to gain visitors’ consent to use cookies.

"Preview" and "Present" are essentially the same thing, except that "Present" will make your page fullscreen, while "Preview" will show the page within your browser window.

From "Share", you can publish and create a shareable link; you can print the page, send it to Google Drive, or invite people to collaborate on it, giving them editing capability. There is also an "Invite" button next to "Share" in the main menu.

On the far right of the window there are buttons to undo and redo changes, and "Themes". The "Themes" menu is a list of pre-defined font combinations and colors that you can choose from. At the very top of the list is a link to "Add your brand", and that’s what we’re going to do first.

Step 2: Add your brand

If your page is for your company, group or organization, you can create your own branding. You can upload a logo, choose a color and font. If you upload your logo first, Spark will pick out colors from the logo for you to choose from, or you can use the color picker and select a different color. 

You can only choose one color at this point - but when the brand is saved, Spark creates a color palette of four different colors based on the one you chose. You can also only choose one font initially, but can add more after saving the brand. You can choose from a predefined selection, or you can upload your own. 

The font you choose will be used for headings, and Spark will automatically add a suggested font for the body text. You can edit both, and you can also add additional fonts. 

Once you’ve made your selections, save your brand by giving it a name. You’re not restricted to creating just one brand: you can create as many as you like. Once the brand is saved, you can also add more logos, as well as colors and fonts.

When you return to editing your project, you’ll find under the "Themes" menu that Spark has created three different color schemes based on the colors you chose: light, medium and dark.

Step 3: Add content to your page

Now that you’ve chosen the theme for your page based on the brand you created, you’re ready to start adding content.

The first section that you’ll work on is what’s known as the 'hero' section: a large image with a title and subtitle overlaid on top. To edit the pieces of text, click on them, and a cursor will appear. 

To add a background image, there is a button at the bottom of the section. Spark gives you a choice of a variety of image sources: you can upload your own, search for free photos, or search through Adobe Stock, Creative Cloud, or Lightroom. You can also link to your own Dropbox, Google Photos, or Google Drive accounts. 

Once you’ve finished with the 'hero' section, you can then start adding more sections or blocks of content below it. For blocks that involve images, you can search for images in the same way you did for the hero section. After choosing your images, you’ll then be able to add captions.

You can choose from photo, text, button, video, photo grid, glideshow, or split layout blocks. Glideshow is a series of images the full width of the page that follow after each other, and can have text, video, buttons, or other images laid on top.

Split layouts enable you to create a block split into two halves, with an image on one side and your choice of text, image, video or button on the other.

Step 4: Publish your project

Once you’ve finished adding content to your page, click on the "Share" button from the main menu, then "Publish and share link". 

You’ll be able to edit a few options, like the title of the page; whether the author (you) should be displayed; a list of photo credits if you found your images by using the search for free photos option; and whether your page is allowed to be featured on the Spark website.

When you save, you’ll then be given a link to the page, which will look similar to this: https://spark.adobe.com/page/xxxxxxx/

How to make a website with Adobe Spark: Summary

While it has limitations compared to the offerings from other website builders, Adobe Spark allows you to quickly and simply create a user-friendly interface that will have you producing great-looking pages in no time, giving you a web presence.

Further reading on website builders

Read our guides on how to build a website with Shopify; with Wix; with Squarespace; and with the HostGator website builder. You might also opt for WordPress via the best website builders for WordPress, and the best WordPress hosting from the best web hosting services: if so, make sure to learn how to build a website with WordPress.

Update: Adobe has begun rolling out a "freemium" web-based version of Photoshop.

Photo editors can count on regular updates to Adobe Photoshop CC, the company’s subscription-based photo editing program, but there is still a yearly major update of the program that’s designed to make a splash. This year, the company rolled out an immense upgrade for Photoshop 22, also known as Adobe Photoshop CC 2021.

This latest version of Photoshop increasingly relies on Sensei, Adobe’s highly touted artificial intelligence engine, to facilitate a host of impressive features. The most high-profile of these include Sky Replacement, new Refine Edge selections, Neural Filters with an eye toward simplifying complex workflows, and new searchable options for help and other features.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021: Price and availability

Photoshop CC 2021 is available only via subscription as part of three possible options. However, they have begun rolling out a "freemium" model that can be used in either Chrome or Edge web browsers. This "freemium" version is currently available to select Canadian users, and will give free access to what Abobe calls Photoshop’s “core functions.” 

For $53 per month, you get Photoshop as part of an entire Creative Cloud package that also includes 20 CC desktop and mobile apps like Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premier Pro, InDesign, After Effects, plus fonts and 100GB of cloud storage. For $10 per month, you get the Photography plan, which offers Photoshop, Lightroom and Lightroom CC for the desktop and 20GB of online storage. For $21 per month you get the same Photography Plan with 1TB of online storage.

Here is a more detailed list of Adobe’s pricing for Photoshop CC.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021: System requirements

Photoshop can span multiple systems without a loss in functionality, though users with older systems may have to wait longer for some operations to complete. Photoshop is available both on the desktop for Mac and Windows and also on the iPad.

Windows users need to run Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) with at least 8GB of RAM and preferably 16GB. A GPU with DirectX 12 support and 2GB of GPU memory is the bare minimum. You also need 4GB of available hard-disk space with additional space for installation.

Macs need a multicore 64-bit Intel processor running macOS Mojave (version 10.14) or later. The app requires at least 8GB, and preferably 16GB, of RAM and 4GB of available hard-disk space with more needed for installation.

Adobe has beta versions available for new ARM-based computers for both Mac and Windows, but warns that these versions are not officially supported and are not fully featured as yet.

Photoshop CC 2021 is loaded with new features; we’ve highlighted the highest-profile ones below. 

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021: Sky Replacement

It’s impossible to calculate how many hours photographers spend trying to make a dull sky look presentable – but it’s astronomical. Sure, you could surgically swap out a background, but that’s detailed work involving painstaking selections, replacements, and blending. With Photoshop 2021, you can simply replace the sky with a command, an easy operation that takes less than a minute. It’s so easy, you might feel guilty. You can use the presets built into Photoshop, which come in three categories: Blue Skies, Spectacular, and Sunset.

You won’t want to just stop at presets because a sky both represents and affects the lighting for the rest of the photo, which the replacement feature handles automatically. Adobe has also added foreground adjustments like Flip to change the direction of the light, Lighting Adjustment, and Color adjustment, to further harmonize the new sky with your intentions for the photo.

You don’t have to rely on Adobe’s built-in presets at all. Instead, you can easily import your own sky images to work into your photo. What makes this feature really shine is the ability to adjust the parameters after the fact. Each adjustment comes with its own mask so that you can tweak it the same way as any other adjustment. I found the combination of controls easy to work with for dramatic improvements to landscapes accomplished in a few clicks – which is the point.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021: Neural Filters

Nowhere does Photoshop’s reliance on artificial intelligence reach as far as in Adobe’s new Neural Filters, which are based on machine learning algorithms. Skin Smoothing and Style Transfer are the two officially released filters, with the former the most useful in smoothing facial and skin imperfections. You want the visage to look natural, only better. The Neural Filter – which you toggle on or off when it recognizes a face – mostly does a nice, subtle job, giving you the option to blur and smooth even more.

Skin Smoothing

I found the blurring tweak a bit much, and turned it down on some faces in order to preserve the look of natural skin texture. Mostly the smoothness at 50 percent was enough, but you can crank it up just a tad, and still have a natural looking face.

My only complaint about this feature is that it sometimes doesn’t blend well with necks, so there may be an obvious contrast with the neck, though on the bright side, it prevents you from going too far. You can still tweak the generated mask, adjust exposure, tone, brightness, and other parameters just like any other photo, and the results are non-destructive.

Style Transfer

Style Transfer, the other officially released Neural Filter, imparts the style of an image to your current photo, kind of like the Prisma app on the iPhone. While it’s fun and creative, it may have less practical use.

Smart Portraits

Adobe has a bunch of other cloud-based Neural Filters still in beta — and some are kind of way out. The most interesting of the lot is Smart Portraits, which lets you adjust critical aspects of a subject’s features. You can make your subject look happy, sad, or angry. You can change their age, the direction of their gaze, thicken hair, and alter head or light direction. These filters don’t always give you the results you’re expecting but they’re fun to play with, and even a little scary sometimes.

In addition to the two released filters, and several beta filters such as Colorize, Super Zoom, Photo Restoration, and more, Adobe is also gauging interest from users for developing a slate of additional proposed neural filters.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021: Refine Hair and Object Aware

Hair and fur are the bane of existence for photographers who seek to select and isolate subjects from their background. Photoshop has a long history of improving selection tech with its Photoshop upgrades and now, the new Refine Hair button can be a truly one- or two-click operation. It’s super easy to use and stunningly accurate, even on hair wisps blowing in the wind.

One reason we are able to mask the fur so quickly and easily is that the Select and Mask workspace now offers an improved Select Subject button and a new refine-edge option called Object Aware, in addition to the older Color Aware. Color Aware is best for simpler backgrounds where it’s easier to differentiate between the subject and the background, while the new option is better at handling busier backgrounds.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021: Pattern Preview

Photoshop isn’t just about photography. This upgrade offers a huge convenience for designers in the Pattern Preview function, which lets you create a tile that you can use as part of a seamless background pattern for any kind of design.

Just identify your pattern, enable Pattern Preview, add any elements you want to one part of the canvas, rotate or transform the objects anywhere on the canvas, and the result repeats endlessly and precisely throughout the canvas. Once you’re done, you can turn off the preview and you are left with the exact tile you can use to create the pattern.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021: Discover panel

The Help menu now launches a new Discover panel that lets you search for specific help directly in the program rather than having to sign into Adobe’s web-based forum or other third-party help. Discover is designed to help users with specific problems based on your queries and content you’ve already worked with. It also brings up tools and tutorials, and even offers immediate menu-based pointers -- a wee bit like Photoshop Elements’ Guided Edits -- which can be a huge help to both new and experienced users.

One aspect of Discover is Quick Actions, droplet type commands that perform a series of actions in one go. Right now, Adobe includes four actions in the new Discover Panel: Remove background, Blur background, Make B/W background, and Enhance image, but more are promised.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021: Many more new features

Photoshop CC 2021 has tons of other improvements, and overall they are well thought out and helpful. For example, this version adds Brush Tool search alongside various specific preset searches, quick access to the popular Content Aware Fill feature, one-click reset of smart objects (layers containing editable raster and vector data) from any number of transform operations, permanent offline availability of online stored documents, precise versioning for cloud documents, and a new plug-in menu to discover and install plugins from Adobe’s marketplace.

Adobe updated and revamped its live shape tools, providing new ways to work with lines, rectangles, polygons, and triangles, with new controls that make resizing and adjusting shapes easier and faster. All of these significant features work as advertised.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021: Bottom line

Adobe Photoshop CC 2021 is not fooling around. It delivers a ton of AI-based improvements to your workflow that offer simple, one-click handling that save time and effort for operations that you perform all the time, whether it’s improving portraits, selecting and masking, editing landscapes, accessing content aware fill, or creating backgrounds for print or web.

While the Sky Replacement, Refine Hair, and Skin Smoothing Neural Filter are worth the price of admission, this new version of Photoshop is loaded with enhancements big and small that appeal to a wide range of users from photographers to graphic designers to painters. More casual photo editors may find that Adobe Photoshop Elements ($99) is a more cost-effective option, but for those who need more powerful tools and can benefit from more frequent updates, you can’t beat Photoshop CC. There’s literally something that will benefit every user, regardless of specialty.

• More: Corel PaintShop Pro 2020 Review

Update: Adobe has begun rolling out a "freemium" web browser-based version of Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is the ultimate consumer app for editing photos. It established its stellar reputation over decades of program advances, which puts complex photographic editing techniques into the hands of amateurs for a range of family and social media presentations. Adobe Photoshop Elements, which gets an upgrade every year, strives to add sophisticated new features to the app while maintaining its consumer-level ease of use. As in the past, the 2021 version succeeds in that goal with an accelerated concentration on Adobe Sensei, its signature artificial intelligence engine.

With Sensei, Adobe introduces features such as Face Tilt, adding 3D motion to static images, moving and scaling objects, replacing dull skies, and adding special effects like duotones. This helps amateurs, hobbyists, and mom or dad memory keepers to spice up their photo collections for friends and family – whether for the digital photo frame or Facebook. 

Note: This Adobe Photoshop Elements review covers only the newest features for version 2021.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021: Price

Photoshop Elements 2021 is the same price as it’s always been for a new perpetual license or an upgrade to an existing version. Its main retail price is $99.99, with upgrades priced at $79.99. Bundle Photoshop Elements with the companion video app Premiere Elements, and you’ll pay $149.99 or $119.99 for the bundled upgrade. Note that Adobe and other vendors frequently put Adobe Elements on sale, so prices may vary. 

• Check out the competition: Corel PaintShop Pro 2020 Review

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021: System requirements

Adobe Photoshop Elements works on both Mac and Windows running the latest operating systems on a 6th generation Intel processor and 8GB of RAM. On the Mac, you’ll need MacOS 10.14 through 10.15 or MacOS 11. For Windows, you’ll need Windows 10 (version 1903 or later).

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021: New features

Improved Organizer

Adobe Elements Organizer is a separate helper app that ships with both the photo and video editors or with the bundle. It acts as a clearinghouse for all assets, letting you perform a number of search, share, classification, and compositional operations between the two programs. With this update, Adobe can now automatically back up your catalog structure, curated albums, keyword tags, people, places, and events. This operation requires no user input and offers no interface changes, though there is an alert notifying you that this feature is available, giving you the choice to enable or skip it. Either way, note that it does not back up your photos or videos.

Face Tilt

After you’ve used this useful, menu-driven feature once, it’s amazing to discover how many duo or group portraits benefit from this seemingly tiny tweak. Many group or couples photos are marred by people facing or looking in different directions.

The new Face Tilt feature lets you coordinate portraits so people are more or less facing each other or the same way, while the Adjust Facial features command gives you additional options to adjust the angle of the eyes and other facial features. Because these are modest adjustments and not wholesale compositional changes, the edits tend to look natural. This great feature is buried under the Enhance > Adjust Facial Features menu.

Perfect Landscape Guided Edit

This guided edit — step-by-step instructions that walk you through the effect — offers several levels from removing haze to completely replacing the sky, but it’s not the magic bullet that’s guaranteed to salvage every single dull landscape shot. When it works, it works very well, and there are various opportunities to tweak the results, such as altering the opacity and brightness of the effect or using the Refine Edge feature if the effect is not as precise as you’d like. A spot healing brush removes pesky objects or people from your shot. 

The trick is to strike a balance between a small correction like haze, which is often all that’s needed, as opposed to replacing the sky with an effect that could overpower the original photo. A smart fix and haze removal may just do enough to salvage a so-so shot, but don’t depend on Perfect Landscape to fix bad lighting and poor composition.

Duotone Guided Edit

Duotones — rendering a color or black & white photo to just two contrasting colors representing dark and light parts of the image — are a cool effect if used properly. But that’s surprisingly hard to accomplish, as many photos do not easily lend themselves to duotone treatment. The Normal duotone Preset effect is easy to use and infinitely adjustable. You get a basic color combination, which you can adjust in both intensity and opacity – and even change color.

You can also superimpose a shape instead of applying the effect to an entire photo. A gradient duotone lets you set both a gradient style and an angle, and these can look especially pleasing and creative. Both variations afford infinite variety, so it’s up to you to pick a nicely exposed photo with good contrast that will give the effect some punch. 

Move and Scale Object Guided Edit

This advanced feature lets you recompose a photo by moving certain objects within an image — such as people, animals, and other items — closer together or farther apart for a more pleasing image. This is analogous to Photoshop’s Content Aware Fill feature, in that when you move the object, the program automatically fills in the void with background content that would otherwise be there. 

Adobe continually improves its content aware functionality, and this feature works very well, even on busy backgrounds. Various tools like the Spot Healing Brush and the Clone Stamp tool are also on hand to fix minor glitches.

Moving Photos 

This bare bones menu driven effect is a one-stop GIF-maker with an assortment of limited zoom, pan, rotate, and tilt effects. Pick a photo with a strong subject and then use the Moving Photos command under the Enhance menu, for a selection of pan and zoom effects for your social media postings.

This tool worked as advertised, and the smooth 3D effect will make it popular for Facebook posts, but it offers a limited range of motion.

Quote Graphic

Photoshop Elements already has several text based and meme-style effects, and Quote Graphic is similar in its social media-messaging mission. Originating in the Create drop down menu, the feature lets you use pre-set templates, with numerous type, background, customization, and animation options to add quotes or original messages to your images. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021: Verdict

Adobe updates Photoshop Elements every year to keep the app features fresh, and the company clearly revels in the capabilities that its Sensei smart features can accomplish to help amateur family photographers improve their photos. The 2021 version of the app has a couple of standout features that may be worth the price of admission – Head Tilt and the Move and Scale Object features. Other additions like Quote Graphic and Moving Photos were less impressive. 

Unless you can't live without the new edits, users with more recent versions will miss little in skipping this update. However, new buyers, or those with older versions (say, three years or more), would greatly benefit from Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021.

Three years ago Adobe announced that Flash Player, a once cornerstone of interactive content online, will be ending. Well, that day has finally come, and Adobe is strongly recommending that users uninstall Flash from their computers immediately. 

On January 1st, Adobe dropped support for Flash. That means no more annoying update prompts, the ones that also nudged you to install McAfee Security Scan Plus. According to Adobe's Flash end of life page, "Adobe does not intend to issue Flash Player updates or security patches after the EOL Date. Adobe strongly recommends that all users uninstall Flash Player immediately."

The reason Adobe is being so forceful in asking users uninstall Flash is because it has always been a security nightmare. 

Per a piece by Adam Palmer at Infosecurity Magazine, the National Vulnerability Database returns 1,122 records for Flash Player, both the FBI and CIA put it in the top-10 routinely exploited vulnerabilities, and that criminals still try and trick people into installing fake versions of Flash on their computers.

Research shows that 99% of internet users don't have Flash installed on their computers. Actually, Apple dropped support of Flash from its computers in 2010, switching to HTML and WebGL standards. The iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch have never supported Flash. It's likely that you don't have Flash installed on your computer. But just in case, it's good to follow these steps.

How to uninstall Flash on Windows 10

• Download the uninstaller for Flash Player
• Exit all browsers and programs that use Flash
• Run the uninstaller

How to uninstall Flash on MacOS

• Open a Finder window and select Applications
• Open Utilities (or search for Adobe Flash Player Install Manager)
• Open Adobe Flash Player Install Manager and click Uninstall
• You will get a confirmation when it is fully installed

If you don't want to go through the above steps, Adobe also has an uninstaller program for Mac that can be found here.

As for sites like Homestar Runner, it will continue to work using an emulated version of Flash thanks to the Ruffle Project. Emulation isn't perfect, and some games might not play the way you remember. But the Ruffle Project aims to fix emulation issues. New episodes of Homestar Runner also go live on YouTube.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 — an update of an already mature program — offers relatively few new capabilities and those are based on advanced automation, such as a new mask selection tool that combines with motion tracking. The update also features GPU accelerated editing, 21 new background music tracks, and two new Guided Edits – Double Exposure and Animated Mattes – that add to its growing roster of automated features.

Under the hood, though, is Adobe’s ever-smarter Sensei artificial intelligence, which intervenes to tackle the learning curve whenever amateur videographers want to do something complicated — something more advanced than trimming, splicing, and adding music to their videos.

We have consistently chosen Adobe Premiere Elements as the best video editing software available, and version 2021 does not alter that view. Though it does not offer all of the whiz-bang features of some of its paid Windows-only competitors, it does include the overwhelming majority of features that appeal to most users on both platforms. This Adobe Premiere Elements review covers only the new features introduced since our review of Adobe Premiere Elements 2020.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 review: Price and system requirements

Premiere Elements runs on 64-bit Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 systems and macOS versions 10.12 through 10.14. The video program comes bundled with Photoshop Elements for $150, or you can purchase it solo for $100. Upgrades from previous versions cost $120 for the bundle and $80 for the standalone video app. These consumer apps are non-subscription perpetual licenses that do not require a subscription. A 30-day free trial is available, though with watermarked output. 

Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 review: Interface

Adobe knows when it has a good thing, and with consumer audiences, it’s best not to shake up the interface too much or too often. With Premiere Elements 2021, users encounter an almost identical interface from the previous version with the timeline running across the bottom and preview and content panels splitting the top half of a self-contained application frame. The editing interface offers three tabs specifying Quick, Guided, and Expert modes. 

One small change is in the Effects workspace, where there is now a Draw button with choices for Pen, Circle, or Rectangle. The Pen lets you create masks for people, faces, or oddly shaped objects and you can refine selections with feather, opacity, and expansion sliders or by punching in numbers. You can use motion tracking on these selections without having to apply another tool. That facilitates the new object selection feature.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 review: Select Object feature

Adobe Sensei steps in with a new way to let you select major objects in your videos and then apply any number of special effects either to the object or person or to the surrounding area. These do not have to be splashy effects; they can be as subtle as applying better lighting to or obscuring a face.

This feature can be a bit awkward. You want to be careful setting up your selection, if you are using the Pen tool to define it -- though easier circle and square tools are also available. Watch closely as you apply the pen points, as when you move your mouse over the object, the cursor can sometimes change from the pen to the rotation icon, which will move your mask rather than helping to select the object, and that gets frustrating. Once you have your object selected, you can keep the mask directly on it or invert it to place the mask on all other areas in the scene. 

I found that the Select Object feature worked best with short videos where the subject’s position stayed fairly static in the frame. If the video shows, say, a kid running all around the frame, he is going to exit that selected area in short order and destroy the effect. If that happens, you can opt to reposition the mask mid-video to keep it on point and then re-track from there, which works well.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 review: New guided edits

Adobe Elements relies on its signature feature – guided edits – to give you step-by-step directions on how to achieve complex edits, special effects, memes, and enhancements to your videos.

Animated matte overlays, a transition-like effect, lets you add various moving pattern overlays to give your videos an artistic flair. You can apply the mask to full videos, individual scenes, or as transitions. This effect should be used sparingly, as certain patterns can obscure your video, but they work well to liven up fairly static or boring footage.

The Double Exposure guided edit lets you play a video inside a photo or built-in graphic that’s included in the program to get the best of both worlds. 

As video editing becomes more sophisticated, there is more attention devoted to the audio accompanying the images. The version of Premiere Elements includes 21 new audio tracks that have their own sub-menu in the audio effects icon under categories such as jazz, folk, acoustic and more. 


Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 review: Organizer helper app

Last year, Adobe left the Organizer — the link between the photo and video app that ships free with the program — on its own without a substantial update. This year, Adobe has added a significant under-the- hood feature for auto backup of your catalog structure. With the new version, all information is automatically backed up for easy recovery. This feature works without user input, and did what it was supposed to do.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 review: What’s missing

Adobe has its own ideas about what consumers want and need – or don’t. Premiere Elements is likely not going to add popular features like 3D or 360-degree VR capabilities because the company considers them part of the professional portfolio. Similarly, there's no multicam editing feature, which lets you sync up a single scene that’s shot with different cameras at different angles.

Windows users have some excellent choices for these particular features in Corel VideoStudio or CyberLink PowerDirector, which are also consumer level programs. On the Mac side, users who crave such capabilities should check out our favorite free HitFilm Express, a more flexible, feature-rich, pro-level, cross-platform app.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 review: Bottom Line

Every year, Adobe enhances Premiere Elements in subtle ways. Usually, there is no single headlining feature that compels you to upgrade but rather incremental improvements over time. 

Adobe stratifies its audience between pro and consumer products; Premiere Elements stays on the family level that its target audience of “memory keepers” are interested in. Nothing gets too esoteric. Because of cumulative enhancements rather than flashy new features, Adobe has remained the best in its class among video editors for its target consumer audience. 

If you have a recent Elements version, you can stick with it without having to upgrade to the 2021 edition. However, if you’re rocking a 3- to 5-year-old version, consider upgrading for the many new features.

If you use Adobe Acrobat Reader to read PDFs, or Adobe Acrobat to create them, then it's time to update. Adobe yesterday (Nov. 3) released new versions of both, for Mac and PC alike, to fix several severe security flaws.

There are 14 vulnerabilities in all, Adobe wrote in its security bulletin, ranging in severity from "Critical" to "Important." The three in the former category all permit arbitrary code execution — i.e. a rogue PDF can use the flaws to hack your PC or Mac. 

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Other flaws permit information disclosure (access to private data such as passwords) and local privilege escalation (the PDF gets administrative powers on the machine). 

The affected programs are the Mac and Windows versions of Acrobat DC, Acrobat 2020, Acrobat 2017, Acrobat Reader DC, Acrobat Reader 2020 and Acrobat Reader 2017. ("DC" stands for "Document Cloud"; it's the 2015 version but gets new features the others don't.)

How to update Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader

To manually update any one of these programs, open the program, click Help in the upper left corner and scroll to and select Check for Updates. An updater window will pop open, check for updates and prompt you to download and install whatever is available. You'll have to close your Reader program while the updater works.

You can also just leave the program open and it should eventually notice that an update is ready for download and installation. Or you can start all over again with a new copy of Reader DC from https://get2.adobe.com/reader/. (Just be sure to uncheck the unwanted-program options before you start the download.)

The vulnerable version numbers are 2020.012.20048 and earlier for Acrobat and Reader DC; 2020.001.30005 and earlier for Acrobat and Reader 2020; and 2017.011.30175 and earlier for Acrobat and Reader 2017.

We ran the update for Acrobat Reader DC for Windows and ended up with version 20.012.20064.

To be honest, you don't need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDFs. Any modern desktop web browser will do. 

Nor do you need the paid Adobe Acrobat to create or edit PDFs. Because Adobe released the Portable Document Format to the public domain in 2008, the format is now an open standard. We've got a list of the best PDF editors as well as the best free PDF editors.

If you're using Adobe Photoshop on Windows, it's time to patch. Adobe yesterday (July 21) released Photoshop CC 2019 version 20.0.10 and Photoshop CC 2020 version 21.2.1 to fix five "critical" security flaws that could let attackers run software on your machine. 

Adobe also released patches to fix seven critical flaws in the Adobe Bridge data-asset-management software and the Adobe Prelude media-ingest tool, bringing those to versions 10.1.1 and 9.0.1, respectively. 

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These are all "out of bounds" updates separate from the monthly scheduled Adobe "Patch Tuesday" updates, which underlines the urgency of yesterday's patches. 

Mac users are urged to update to the latest versions of these programs as well, although there don't seem to be any documented flaws in the Mac software. There's also an update to version 20.3 for Adobe Reader Mobile for Android to fix one "important" issue.

Instructions for updating these Adobe programs, or to set them to automatically update, are on the Adobe customer-assistance subdomain.

The saving grace with these Adobe Windows flaws is that they're limited to the privileges of the logged-in Windows user. So if you're using an Adobe product with a limited-user account, the flaws can't be exploited to install, modify or delete software. 

But if you're using an administrator account, these Adobe flaws can be exploited to do much more damage, such as being able to install malicious software. 

This is a common occurrence with software flaws and malware infections, and it's the main reason Tom's Guide urges Windows users to use limited accounts for their daily computing needs and to use administrator accounts only when making software or system changes. 

When you need a simple and effective way to process, touch up, and catalog dozens or hundreds of photos, Adobe Lightroom is some of the best photo editing software around. A high-powered but comparatively easy-to-learn photo production and editing tool, pro and serious photographers use Lightroom the way traditional film photographers used darkrooms. 

Better yet, Lightroom automatically saves your pictures to the cloud, and lets you edit them using the same or similar Lightroom interface, whether you're using your phone, a tablet, or a computer. 

As you’ll see in our Adobe Lightroom review, those who take a lot of photos and need to edit them anywhere, Lightroom is well worth the $9.99 monthly subscription. And recent updates make it even more creative and usable. 

• More: Corel PaintShop Pro 2020 Review

Adobe Lightroom: Pricing

Lightroom is available only on a subscription basis. For $9.99/month, you get Lightroom on desktop and mobile, Adobe Spark (for creating social graphics, videos and web pages), Adobe Portfolio (a website builder) and 1TB of cloud storage (about 20,000 RAW DSLR images or 200,000 JPEGs).

Or, you can buy the Photography Plan, which includes Lightroom on desktop and mobile, Lightroom Classic, Photoshop on desktop and iPad, Spark and Portfolio. For $9.99/month, the plan includes 20GB of storage (about 4,000 JPEGs), or for $19.99/month, 1TB of storage.

Adobe Lightroom: Minimum system requirements

PCs: Windows 10 (64-bit), 2-GHz processor, 4GB of RAM (8 GB recommended), 2GB hard disk space

Macs: MacOS v.10.13, 4GB of RAM (8GB recommended), 2GB of available hard-disk space.

Android: Android 5.x (Lollipop), 1.5GHz Quad Core CPU, 1 GB RAM, (4 GB or more recommended), 8GB hard disk space

iOS: Any iPhone or iPad that runs iOS 12.3 or later. This includes: iPhone 5S (2013) and later, iPad Mini 2 (2013) and later, iPad Air 1 (2013) and later, and iPod Touch 6th Generation (2015).

Adobe Lightroom vs. Lightroom Classic vs. Photoshop

Adobe has created considerable confusion regarding the name Lightroom. The original Lightroom, a high-powered desktop application long popular with professional photographers and enthusiasts, is called Lightroom Classic. The newer, cloud-based product is referred to as Lightroom. Both are currently available (for the same price: $9.99/month), and Adobe has confirmed that it plans to support and improve both. (This review focuses on Lightroom rather than Classic.) 

However, you won't find the same features on Lightroom and Classic. I particularly missed the speed at which I can rate and sort a large number of photos quickly, enabled by Classic's side-by-side view. Lightroom's sorting view (the Square Grid) allowed me to quickly click on star ratings for each image. However, though I could switch to large zoomable views of individual pictures, I couldn't compare the fine details of two pictures in a side by side zoomable view as I can in Lightroom Classic. When I asked Adobe about that, they said that capability isn’t “yet in Lightroom.” 

The other Adobe muddle is whether to choose Lightroom or one of the Photoshop products for your photo editing. Generally speaking, Lightroom is best for quick processing of batches of pictures, while Photoshop is for working on individual images and doing more creative work. For instance, like most of my fellow pro photographers, I use Lightroom to swiftly rate and select photos, convert RAW images, correct or edit exposure and color, and handle other similar photographic or composition issues. I then take individually selected images from Lightroom into Photoshop where I do creative editing, compositing and designing, as well as preparing my images for printing and using in documents or on the web.  

For a more comprehensive comparison of all of Adobe’s photo-editing programs, please see our guide to Which Adobe photo editing software is right for me?

Adobe Lightroom: What’s new

As with all Adobe Creative Cloud software, Lightroom is updated on a regular basis – at least three times a year. 

One recent addition to the Edit module that’s going to get a big workout is the Local Hue tool. Local Hue is an expansion of the local adjustment brushes, which allows you to essentially paint on select areas of your picture with edits (such as exposure or contrast or color). In other words, if a face is too dark, but the rest of the picture is perfectly exposed, you can use a local adjustment brush to select areas of the face that you want to brighten. Then, when you adjust the exposure slider, the edit is applied only to the face. Now you can change the hue of selected areas of the picture in the same way.

Another new tool belongs in the “why didn’t we have this before?” category. When you export your images, you can have your personal watermark automatically applied, while still maintaining full control over its look (font, size, color, opacity) and placement. 

Other noteworthy additions include the ability to save and compare different versions of your edited image, and being able to customize default settings for your import of RAW images.

Adobe Lightroom: Interface

Lightroom’s streamlined interface makes sense once you understand it. Regardless of whether you’re on a desktop or mobile device, icons tend to be small. And those for pages or views other than the currently selected one are dark grey against darker charcoal grey, which doesn’t make for great legibility. 

The interface is divided into four sections: Home, My Photos, Learn and Discover. Double-click an image in My Photos to open it in the Edit module. 

The vast majority of edits that you will do are controlled with powerful yet easy to use sliders. These include adjusting a picture's exposure, color, focus, optics, geometry and to add effects. 

Lightroom also has tools for editing precise sections of your photo. This includes Adobe's great healing brush for painting out imperfections or unwanted objects (such as electric wires) in your picture. Similarly, it includes Linear Gradient and Spot Gradient masks for limiting your edits to specific areas of your picture, such as making the sky bluer while not changing the color of the rest of your picture.  

Adobe Lightroom: Device support and file management 

The biggest difference between Lightroom and Lightroom Classic is that with the former, all your photos are saved in the cloud, while Classic saves only to your local system. 

In other words, Lightroom gives you access to the same full-resolution files – of both your originals and edited versions – wherever you are and regardless of what device you are using: your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone (it’s compatible with Mac, PC, Android and iOS devices). 

What's more, as you work on them, images are automatically saved to your cloud account and securely backed up. You can also selectively download files to your local hard drive (using an Export command), so you can work on them even if you're offline. However, you can't rename a photo when you save it, which is a major inconvenience for those of us who use filenames descriptively to help in quickly identifying images. 

When your photos are uploaded, Adobe Sensei uses artificial intelligence to automatically analyze the images and tag them with appropriate keywords, which saves a lot of time. True, the tags are generic words such as bridge, sailboat or dog. But when I tested it by searching for "dog," Lightroom quickly displayed all my uploaded dog pictures. What's more, unlike other autotagging features I've tested, it didn't confuse uploaded pictures of alpacas or cats with those of dogs. It's also very easy to manually add more specific or personal tags, such as the dog's names or to identify an event. 

Adobe Lightroom: Mobile app

The typical mobile Lightroom workflow (iOS and Android) starts with taking photographs on a camera phone or tablet, or with a camera that syncs with your mobile device. In addition, your entire cloud-based library of photos — regardless of what device you used to create them — is available to you through the mobile app. 

Adobe attempts to maintain a parity of features, tools and functions between the mobile app and the computer-based application, though one may lag behind the other in development. Still, each has its advantages. Given a phone’s small screen, I don’t recommend the mobile app for edits that would impact fine details, such as sharpening or adjusting highlights. But it’s great for quick edits and global corrections, plus sharing your pictures via email, text message or to your social networks.

Every photo processed using the mobile version of Lightroom is automatically synced from the app to the cloud. 

Adobe Lightroom: Guided tutorials

Lightroom may be initially intimidating to the uninitiated. But it has great learning tools integrated into the interface that go far beyond the expected tool tips that pop up when you hover over the name of a control. 

The libraries of dynamic guided tutorials, presets and interactive tutorials continue to grow, making it much easier to master and be creative with Lightroom. 

In the Learn section of the interface, you use Guided Tutorials to work on supplied pictures to achieve the effect or edit being illustrated. As you’re guided through making adjustments to sliders and other controls, the tutorial provides advice about why you might want to do this edit or that, and/or how the tool works. 

Another rather useful learning tool that's been expanded are artistic styles (called Presets, in the Edit module), such as Warm Shadows, Soft Mist or B&W High Contrast. Presets not only apply filters that change the look of your picture but also automatically adjust the various editing sliders accordingly. That, in turn, helps you figure out what each of the editing tools actually does. As you use the tools' sliders to adjust the filters, you can create and save new Presets. 

Taking presets further, Interactive Edits (in the Discover section) are step-by-step animations that allow you to follow along with professional artists and photographers, so you can see how they created an image. In addition, you can apply their series of edits from the sample image as a preset onto your own photos. While the basic library of Interactive Edits contain works by known influencers and artists, you can now contribute your own images to the Interactive Edits library. 

Adobe Lightroom review: Verdict

For those who need to edit their photos no matter where they are or what device they’re using, there’s no better option than Adobe Lightroom. With rich and powerful technology that includes some of the best photo editing tools anywhere, Lightroom lets you work on all your full-resolution images on all your devices, helps you become a better photographer with great learning tools, and produces top-quality final images. 

If you’re planning to do more creative or fine detail edits such as creating layered fusions of various images and other elements, using type in your image, or otherwise making very individualized designs or works of art, Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements will be better suited to your needs. But If you are primarily interested in sorting and organizing your photos, doing quick corrections to exposure, color and composition, and having access to your entire library from any of your devices, Lightroom is a winning combination of accessibility, creativity and quality.

Putting the final nail in the coffin of Flash Player, Adobe will recommend and prompt users to remove the Flash multimedia plug-in from their web browsers, and to uninstall any stand-alone Flash Player desktop applications, before the year ends. 

Writing in an update posted earlier this month on the Flash Player end-of-life page, Adobe confirmed that it will be reminding users to uninstall Flash by Dec. 31 this year. 

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“Adobe will not issue Flash Player updates or security patches after the EOL Date. We recommend that all users uninstall Flash Player before the EOL date,” the blog reads.

“Users will be prompted by Adobe to uninstall Flash Player on their machines later this year and Flash-based content will be blocked from running in Adobe Flash Player after the EOL Date.”

To uninstall Flash, Adobe has released how-to guides for Windows and Mac users.

End of an era

Adobe not only plans to stop issuing updates for Flash Player by the end of the year, but it will also delete installation links and stop content from utilising the application once it reaches the EOL date. 

“Adobe will be removing Flash Player download pages from its site and Flash-based content will be blocked from running in Adobe Flash Player after the EOL Date,” it explained.

“Adobe always recommends using the latest, supported and up-to-date software. Customers should not use Flash Player after the EOL Date since it will not be supported by Adobe.”

Malware warning

Adobe also urged users not to download Flash Player applications from third-parties, as these are likely to be malicious and put users at risk. 

“Customers should not use unauthorized versions of Flash Player.  Unauthorized downloads are a common source of malware and viruses," the firm warned. " Adobe has no responsibility for unauthorized versions of Flash Player and customers’ use of such versions is entirely at their own risk. “

However, before the EOL date, Adobe will keep supporting Flash. The company said it will “continue issuing regular Flash Player security patches, maintain OS and browser compatibility, and add features and capabilities as determined by Adobe through the end of 2020”.

Since announcing plans to phase out Flash in 2017, Adobe has been working with the likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Mozilla to prepare for its eventual end-of-life.

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Tom's Guide has consistently judged Adobe Premiere Elements to be the best video-editing app under $100, and we continue to favor it for the same reasons as in years past. One of its major features is that it's cross platform, so Elements works on both Macs and PCs. Premiere Elements 2020 also takes greater advantage of Adobe Sensei, the company's artificial intelligence engine, to make more sophisticated edits easier for novices. 

There is a trade-off, as Adobe reserves advanced features like 360-degree and multicam editing to its pro-level Premiere video suite; competing Windows-only apps, CyberLink PowerDirector and Corel VideoStudio, offer these features for the same price as Premiere Elements. 

However, Adobe focuses Elements strictly on consumer features that the vast majority of its users value, and makes them very easy to accomplish, all for less than $100.

Editor's note: We have now tested Adobe Premiere Elements 2021, the new version of this software package. 

Adobe Premiere Elements 2020: What's new

Because of its aggressive annual upgrade schedule, Adobe adds a limited number of new features and capabilities to Premiere Elements each year.  This review will focus on the new capabilities of Premiere Elements 2020.  

One improvement that Windows users will welcome is that the program now supports the highly efficient compressed HEVC and HEIC codecs on Windows, which catches up to last year's support of those formats on the Mac platform.

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One thing that hasn't changed is the Organizer, the connective tissue between Adobe's photo-editing and video-editing app. The Organizer offers a handy, visual way to sort, find, search and share your photos and videos. It also performs auto curation and tagging, and offers built-in creative capabilities, like creating slideshows, and making quick editing fixes without having to launch the main program. 

Reduce Noise effect

Shooting video at night is a challenge, and much of it turns out grainy, noisy with colored artifacts and often unwatchable. The new Reduce Noise Effect is designed to mitigate this pesky byproduct of low light. Reduce Noise, like all of Adobe's special effects, is a cinch to use. Just drop the effect directly on the timeline to apply the filter; you can choose from three levels of intensity. It definitely works well: video shot at a nighttime street fair was a lot more pleasing to look at than the original. 

Vertical video

Even as people learn more about how to shoot smartphone video, there is a steady cohort of users who insist on recording vertical video. A new Guided Edit shows you how to create a widescreen version of those vertical smartphone movies, using the colors from the existing video and adding a blur effect. This is hardly a revolutionary update, as many video apps include this feature. So it's good that Adobe has decided to join the ranks of consumer-editing packages to accommodate vertical video. In no way does vertical video ever look great because it always cuts off two-thirds of the actual scene, but at least  it gets rid of the hideous black bars.

Auto-Tagging

AI-based auto-tagging has been part of the Adobe Premiere Elements photo-editing app in past versions, and now also works with videos. Premiere Elements can detect objects (cats, trees, mountains and more) in video content and apply tags so you can easily find them in the Organizer. A related feature, called Find By Faces, automatically recognizes people during import, and stacks the videos according to person, so it's easy to tag them for future reference. That's progress, but Premiere Elements still does not auto-curate video in the Organizer as it does in helping to select the best photos.

Guided edits

Guided edits are the heart and soul of Premiere Elements and each upgrade adds new ones that aim to simplify what is often an extremely complex special effect. Version 2020 offers an easy way to create time-lapse video as well as a special effects hybrid photo sky replacement.

Time lapse

Starting from either still photos or video clips, you can create a speedy video from a series of several clips. Time lapse is another common feature that many video editors offer – Apple's Camera app even features it as an original shooting option.

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Animated sky

This sequence shows you how to replace a drab sky with a dramatic one. This is more of a hybrid guided edit, because you must start with a photo and replace the sky with video rather than starting with a video. There are plenty of videos where I would love to see this effect, but even though you can give it a shot, the edit does not work as well when you begin with a video. Instead, it creates a new video from your still image.

Bottom line

Adobe Premiere Elements is still our top choice for the best video editors under $100. It works on Macs and PCs, is easy to use, and provides compelling advanced special effects and features in a guided format that anyone can follow. 

Some yearly upgrades are flush with new features, but this is not one of those years. Given the paucity of new guided edits in the 2020 version, if you were satisfied with last year's version –- or even the one before that – you don't need to upgrade to 2020. But if your program is several years old, the new guided edits over time will be worth the price.

If you're on the Windows platform and you seek additional creative opportunities like 360-degree and multicam editing – along with a bit of a learning curve – consider the excellent Corel VideoStudio or CyberLink PowerDirector as alternatives. 

Photoshop Elements is powered by the same code as Adobe Photoshop (the industry standard for professional image editing). However, PS Elements is more accessible and far easier to learn. It offers more consumer-style tools than Photoshop, while still providing novice and even many serious photographers with the creative functionality they want and need. 

While the 2020 version of PS Elements has only a handful of new features and improvements, it remains the best photo editing software overall because of its ease of use and because, unlike most of its competitors, it works with both Macs and PCs. However, those who have purchased PS Elements in the past year won't find enough here to merit an upgrade. 

A fit-all interface

PS Elements has a compartmentalized interface that is designed to accommodate the needs and skills of a wide range of photographers, from novices to serious creatives.

The Welcome Screen is all business. The search bar at top asks, "What would you like to do today?" and will provide links to specific guided edit processes as well as help topics. Below the search bar is a ribbon of thumbnails linking to edit ideas, guidance and inspiration. 

In the lower left are links to Auto Creations; the software uses Adobe Sensei AI to automatically apply effects to your pictures as well as create collages. While interesting, the Auto Creations sometimes feels like an invasion of privacy, in that it manipulates the user's personal photos with no permission or input from the user. What's more, this feature can be a resource hog. There should be an easy way to turn it off.

MORE: Photoshop Elements vs. Lightroom vs. Photoshop CC: Which Is Best for You?

To the right are links to the Organizer, PS Elements photo editor and Premiere Elements. (If you don't have the video editor installed, clicking on the icon will take you to a 30-day trial download.)

The Organizer is a data asset manager (DAM) that helps you keep control over your volume of photos and videos. Integrated with both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, the DAM helps you sort and find your files by keyword and tags (people, places and events), as well as rate them 1 to 5 stars. 

You can do an Instant Fix within the Organizer workspace, which lets you quickly adjust things such as the one-click auto Smart Fix or choose among thumbnail variations for a quick crop, redeye, effects, color or clarity edit. It's handy if all that your photos need is just a quick touch-up.

Or do all your edits in PS Elements' photo editor, which is a tabbed interface with three modes: Quick, Guided and Expert. 

Quick Editor

The Quick Editor is a simplified workspace that is meant to provide a user with a fast workflow and practically no learning curve. It has only the most commonly used tools and features. For instance, the toolbox has a minimum of icons, such as those for zoom, move, selection tools, redeye, whiten teeth, straighten photo, text, spot healing brush and crop. On the other hand, its drop-down menu has many of the program's image-editing commands (though none of those related to layers, which aren't available in the Quick Editor). 

MORE: Which Adobe Photo Editing Software Is Right for Me?

The most used portions of the Quick Editor are the nested panels to the right: Adjustments, Effects, Textures and Frames. The Adjustments panel (Smart Fix, exposure, lighting, color, balance and sharpen) uses variation thumbnails similar to (though smaller than) those in the Organizer's Instant Fix. The Textures and Frames panel have only a few styles.

Guided Edits

The Guided mode is the heart of PS Elements' role as an imaging teaching platform. Here, you can easily learn photo-editing techniques that might be confusing or complex. Each of the 55 Guided Edits provides step-by-step instructions as you use your new skill on your own photo.

The final step in all the Guided Edits makes it easy to immediately Save (or Save As) the file, continue to edit it in Quick or Expert Mode or share the image on Flickr or Twitter.

The two new Guided Edits in PS Elements 2020 are Object Removal and Pattern Brush.

The new Remove Object Guided Edit works best when the photo's background is somewhat uniform (such as the sky in this picture). In fact, this modes worked so quickly and so effectively that I didn't have time to test it beyond just using the lasso selection tool to very roughly outline the umbrella, then click on Remove Object. If the small pieces of the object had remained or the pasted-in background had needed some adjustments, I could have continued to follow the instructions to use the Spot Healing Brush or Clone Stamp tool.

I found one thing particularly impressive about the new Pattern Brush Guided Edit: When I was painting hearts, stars, flowers and such onto my photo, PS Elements used Adobe Sensei AI's analysis of the image to automatically restrict the patterns to the background of the picture. In other words, it didn't obscure the kids (or my cat or any other clearly defined subject in my photos). This was true even where the kids' hair was almost as dark as the background.

Expert Mode

Many serious photographers save money by using PS Elements' Expert mode instead of the full-blown Photoshop. The Expert mode has a wide range of complex and creative tools that would be familiar to Photoshop users. What PS Elements is missing compared to Photoshop (and to Corel PaintShop Pro) is mostly support for CMYK and other professional-level file formats, color management and specialty functions, such as 3D modeling. 

On the other hand, as novices learn from the Quick or Guided modes how a certain tool or a specific workflow functions, they will often feel more comfortable venturing into the Expert mode to try to take that one edit a bit further than they ever would in Photoshop. This ease of transition is boosted by the slight differences in the interface (compared to Photoshop), such as the right-hand panels that are similar to but more numerous and deeper than those in the Quick editor.

A few useful additions

The following handful of new interesting or useful tools are available in both the Quick Editor and Expert Mode.

Subject Selection tool.
The most important of Elements' new features, Subject selection uses Adobe Sensei AI to analyze your photo and then automatically select what it perceives as the subjects. It's not perfect, and I had to refine the mask using other selection tools. Still, it's a big timesaver, and my refinements took very little time compared to having to create the entire selection myself. 

However, I was disappointed that the mask created by the Subject Select and other selection tools doesn't work with all edits. For instance, while I could use the mask to limit the edits of various adjustments, including those in the right-hand panel, and for the filters in the drop-down menu, the effects and textures in the right-hand panel still ignored any selection and, instead, applied to the entire picture. 

Colorize tool
I expect that the new Colorize tool will become popular, especially for old black-and-white photos, like this one of my dad. In Auto mode, you choose from among four possible color variations. I would have liked a slider to control the strength of the color applied in the variations that are far too vivid for my taste. While the Manual mode provided a bit more customization, it was confusing and limited in color options.

Smooth Skin tool
The Smooth Skin tool, introduced earlier this year in Adobe Lightroom does a nice job of minimizing wrinkles and other imperfections, while not significantly affecting other facial features, such as eyes. The slider control helps you avoid overdoing the effect so that the skin doesn't look artificial.

In addition, PS Elements now supports importing and editing HEIF photo files.

Prices and packages
Photoshop Elements costs $99.99 (upgrade, $79.99), or for $149.99 (upgrade, $119.99), you can get both PS Elements and Premiere Elements.

MORE: Adobe Premiere Elements - Full Review

When you buy either package, you will own the software and the license cannot be rescinded. That is in contrast to the Photoshop Creative Cloud license, which is terminated as soon as you fail to pay the monthly subscription 

Bottom line 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 has some nice additions, but the upgrade isn't compelling for those who purchased Elements in the last few years. On the other hand, if you're looking to buy a new photo-editing program, PS Elements is great for novice photographers who want to learn imaging, anyone who wants to quickly edit and share their photos, and many serious photographers seeking powerful creative tools. Windows users might be better off with Corel PaintShop Pro, which offers more functionality for serious photographers and therefore more growth potential for novices. However, PaintShop Pro is Windows-only, whereas PS Elements works on both Macs and PCs, making it accessible for a larger group. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements is the go-to app for busy amateur shooters determined to make family memories come alive in a unique and artistic way. Increasingly, Adobe relies on Sensei, its artificial-intelligence engine, for updates to features already present in previous versions of the photo-editing app as well as brand-new innovations.

In this version of Elements, a new Home Screen, which hosts the new Auto Creations feature, accompanies simplified new templates for photo and video collages. The app also adds support for the HEIF (High Efficiency Image File) for the highly compressed mobile- image format Apple now uses in more recent iPhones and iPads. And, for the first time in recent memory, there are no identifiable new features for the Organizer, Elements' companion-asset-management app. 

Price

Photoshop Elements 2019 costs $99.99; you can upgrade from a previous version for $79.99 (£86.56 for full version; £70.91 for upgrade). Buy Photoshop Elements along with Adobe Premiere Elements, which has also been updated, and you’ll pay $149.99 or $119.99 for the bundled upgrade (£130.36; £107.41).

Home Screen

Photoshop Elements 2019 presents a radically revised home screen — light in hue with no top tabs. If you park at least one folder of images in the Elements Organizer helper app, which ships free with both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, the Home Screen will scan it to automatically generate and launch one-of-a-kind photo and video collages or slideshows.

Though Elements is a consumer app with a perpetual license, you must still create and sign into an Adobe account to start using the software.

You can also create collages manually or edit the automatically generated ones, but with Elements 2019, Adobe chooses which photos and videos to use via its Sensei artificial- intelligence engine. Artificial intelligence is, by definition, artificial, and I'm almost never satisfied with Adobe Sensei's pick of favorite photos to include. Still, the feature is helpful in getting you started, and the results are easy to tweak by swapping alternate photos in and out of the collage or by changing the number of images. The best-case scenario is for users to love Auto Creations and use them as is.

The Home Screen also showcases all the new features in Photoshop Elements and lets you navigate directly to more information about them while a search box lets you find the feature you’re looking for.

MORE: Which Adobe Photo Editing Software Is Right for Me?

Though Elements is a consumer app with a perpetual license, you must still create and sign into an Adobe account to start using the software.

Guided edits

At the heart of Photoshop Elements is the program's Guided Edits, an interactive signature tutorial feature, which lets you work directly on your chosen photo via a step-by-step guide. Photoshop Elements now has dozens of guided edits, including four new ones with this release.

Multi-Photo Text: This is an easy way to stuff photos inside display type. Earlier versions of Elements allowed a single image to inhabit ornamental lettering, but in this version, instead of transforming an image into letters, you position type over a blank or colored backdrop or a background image and fill each letter with different pictures. You can change the background color or make it transparent, or you can enlarge and move individual letters or use a different photo as a backdrop.

Meme Maker: This new guided edit is incredibly easy, unlike some other meme-based guided edits from the last few years that involved numerous steps. Here, you just choose an image, select a background and type in your phrase. There are a few fancy background choices, though nowhere near enough, and you can also add a solid color frame of any hue if you choose. And there are some restrictions on the special effects you can add: You can convert the original image to black-and-white or sepia or convert part of the photo into a drawing, but that's about it. The meme maker is a quick and dirty way to get your post up quickly, and that suits me just fine. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements' meme maker is a quick and dirty way to get your post up quickly, and that suits me just fine.

Partial Sketch: This operation allows you to produce mixed-media creations from your photos by converting parts of the image into line drawings while leaving the rest as a photographic image. You get four choices: pencil sketch, colored pencil sketch, old photo and old paper. A quick selector lets you choose where to apply the effect. You can choose only one effect at a time, so there's no mixing or layering of effects. But you can experiment with which ones look best with your image or invert the effect before saving. It would be very cool to be able to mix more than one effect in a picture.

Text and Border Overlay: This is an attractive feature you can use to annotate a single shot. It somewhat resembles previous overlay-style guided edits in that it facilitates ornamentation — in this case several border options and text — without obscuring the photo. Although you can resize the border and text and make them a different color, the border cannot be moved to any place in the image you want — it stays aligned to the border.

You can use any font in your system to add text to the design, choose from a number of built-in styles, and make both the border and text any color you want. You have to take care in how you select the default text — Elements won't let you group-select and replace the default lettering, but rather you must remove or replace at least one letter before being able to group-replace the text. You can then position the text block at four corners or the middle of the image.

Adding text is a one-shot deal. If you change your mind about the text after you saved it, you have to start all over again. It would be nice if the undo functioned in this context, but it's not that big a deal.

AI Collages and Slideshows

When you launch Elements, the app sorts through all images and videos in the Organizer to automatically generate slideshows and collages. From there, you can launch the collage maker to view an assortment of fresh templates from which to  choose. The collage feature was quite easy to use in the previous version of Elements, but it has been even more streamlined in the 2019 edition, aided by a boost in automation.

You can add or remove images from the collage, with the template maker automatically adjusting the number of cells you want in your creation. In addition to portrait and landscape templates, specific styles for Facebook and Instagram are also included. 

The collage feature was quite easy to use in the previous version of Elements, but it has been even more streamlined in the 2019 edition, aided by a boost in automation.

The Home Page also features several different automatically generated slideshows. Instead of opening in the Elements interface, the slideshow switches to the Organizer interface, where you can edit, swap out images, add captions and change the musical score from Adobe's built-in music samples. 

Bottom Line

Adobe maintains an aggressive upgrade schedule for Photoshop Elements that succeeds in keeping the app fresh. While the 2019 version is a rather thin update regarding new features — the Organizer has no obvious new features at all — both existing and new users will find something that grabs them. Auto collages and slideshows will help busy working folks decide what to place on social media, while maintaining the ability to tweak at will.

Unless you can't live without the new guided edits or the easy collage feature, users with more recent versions will miss little in skipping this update. New buyers, or those with older versions, would greatly benefit.

Credit: Jackie Dove/Tom's Guide

Premiere Elements, Adobe's consumer video-editing app, has been a favorite of ours for several years. It's creative, friendly, easy to use and cross-platform, allowing video novices to edit with panache and quickly share smartphone videos with family and friends.

This year's update, Premiere Elements 2019, has all the stellar attributes of previous versions but with a couple of significant artificial intelligence upgrades.

Adobe's consumer photo and video apps have remained the same price for many years. Premiere Elements alone costs $99.99, with an upgrade price of $79.99 (£86.56; £70.91). If you buy both the video editor and Photoshop Elements as a bundle, the purchase will set you back $149.99, with an upgrade price of $119 for both apps (£130.36; £107.41).

What's new

For 2019, Adobe has revamped the all-important Quick Edit mode with a simplified interface. Quick Edit now directs users to either the updated Smart Trim feature or the new Sceneline, a storyboard-style editing interface you can use to organize and edit multiple clips and photos. The new version of Quick Edit is short on new guided edits — there are only two in this version — but they are imaginative and unique, offering new opportunities to enhance run-of-the-mill footage.

Premiere Elements now supports VFR (variable frame rate) footage and HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), also known as H.265, a high-compression video codec. Space-saving HEIF and HEVC formats debuted alongside iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra. While the app supports H.265 on the Mac, support has yet to arrive for Windows. Adobe still does not consider 360-degree VR video or multicam editing to be consumer features, reserving support for such features to the company's pro-level Creative Cloud Premiere Pro CC.

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For the first time in recent memory, there are no feature additions to the Elements companion Organizer app, which already does much of the heavy lifting for search, slideshow production and collage creation. Any functionality improvements built in to the Organizer reside under the hood. And for the first time, using Premiere Elements generates two instances of dock icons: one for the Home Screen and the other for the program work space.

Auto Creations

As you launch Premiere Elements, the star of the new Home Screen is Auto Creations: complete collages and slideshows automatically generated via Adobe Sensei, the company's artificial intelligence engine. If you have imported photos and videos into the Organizer, the app will generate several polished creations.

Sensei scans your content and pulls together numerous videos, photos and stills extracted from video to create slideshows and collages that you can use as is or tweak by swapping out content and backgrounds. Busy users will appreciate how presentable these montages look for quickly preparing social media postings.

Intelligent trimming

Adobe's revamped Quick Edit mode now funnels edits into two main channels — Smart Trim and Sceneline — each accessible with a separate button. These allow you to either trim a single clip or combine photos and videos to create a longer, more complex movie.

Smart Trim uses Sensei tech to automatically scan and trim the fat off your videos so you can focus on only the most dynamic and compelling parts. You can manually modify clips in any way you want, as you may not always agree with what the Premiere Elements algorithm identifies as interesting, but it's a start to an inherently tedious task.

I found Smart Trim a little counterintuitive at first, because the auto-trim feature always automatically selects the first few seconds of a movie. Activating and moving the Preset slider in the Smart Trim tool lets the program select and reject various parts of your movie based on the action or people present. Adobe says the marking of the first few seconds of all videos is designed to familiarize novice editors with how to use the feature. You can always cut the movie manually or use the preset as a starting point for additional manual edits, but if you choose the preset after you have manually carved out your cuts, the tool will wipe out that original work.

Premiere Elements' new Sceneline interface brings all the needed tools into closer proximity with each other in an elegant workflow.

Sensei doesn't work well with all footage. Certain videos, like one of my foray at the duck pond, are apparently so boring that the app refused to judge the action at all. Adobe has confirmed that extremely short videos or those that lack faces or medium- to high-level activity or action may produce error messages. For editing my little ducklings, I was on my own.

The new Sceneline interface brings all the needed tools into closer proximity with each other on the timeline in an elegant workflow. With it, you assemble multiple clips and photos to create a longer and more complex movie. This is basically a storyboard layout, a classic video-editing view that shows you each clip and image as a separate entity on the timeline. Storyboarding works well as an organizational tool, because it gives a macro view of how the movie is organized before you get too deep into the edit.

Guided edits

Most Premiere Elements versions introduce several new guided edits. These friendly, step-by-step instructional recipes are videographer show-and-tells that instruct you on how to achieve special effects that most novices would have no clue how to accomplish. This year, Premiere Elements has only two new guides, but they are distinctive and artistic if properly used. Not all videos will benefit from the guides, but the ones that do look outstanding.

Luma Fade transition: First and foremost, Luma Fade is a transition connecting two different clips together. While Premiere Elements has a variety of built-in transitions, this effect is unique and dramatic, because it fades in colors from darkest to lightest in a still image derived from your video. Luma Fade is an inspiring and easy-to-use effect, but it works well with only certain kinds of videos. For example, it works for videos in which the second clip in the sequence features a close-up of a clearly defined face or object as opposed to a busy scene.

This year, Premiere Elements has only two new guides, but they are distinctive and artistic if properly used.

The transition is ideally derived from a still of the movie you're editing, but I often found myself experimenting with different still shots from the same shoot to try and get the transition to look more distinctive. When the transition is finished, you can reposition it slightly on the timeline for maximum effect. When this effect works, it's really nice. When it doesn't, your transition won't look like anything special. 

Glass Pane effect: This effect makes your scene look like the action is seen through glass. Glass Pane is easy to use and makes your footage look more dynamic as it moves a special effect through the length of your video. There are four built-in glass effects, and you can layer as many as you want. This effect is an acquired taste, but it's something you don't see every day.

Performance

I tested Premiere Elements 2019 on an HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 running Windows 10 Pro. This machine's 64-bit Intel Core i7 processor with a 7600U CPU runs at 2.80 GHz on an Intel HD Graphics 620 system with 16GB of RAM. I combined five clips into a 2.5-minute video shot at 60 frames per second and rendered the projects to MPEG 4 at 720p, timing rendering at both 60 fps and 30 fps.

Rendering speeds are nothing to write home about on Premiere Elements 2019.

Rendering speeds are nothing to write home about on Premiere Elements 2019. The app's universal Quick Export proved the fastest option for rendering: 2:46 at 30 fps. The 720 HD Computer setting, rendering at 60 fps, took 4:37 to get the job done.

Bottom Line

Adobe is always judicious about what and how much to add to its consumer video app — careful not to break Elements while adhering to a fairly aggressive upgrade schedule with a new version appearing every year. Adobe Premiere Elements 2019 augments some existing features, revamps a critical workflow and tops it off by adding some intriguing guided edits into the mix.

As in years past, if you are happy with your Elements from the previous year or two and are not pining for the specific new features in this upgrade, you'll be fine sticking with the version you already have. Family memoirists just getting into video, as well as users of older versions, will find much creative freedom and inspiration with the new additions in Premiere Elements 2019.  

Credit: Jackie Dove/Tom's Guide

The newest  version of Adobe's consumer-friendly image-editing software comes with both a new name and a host of new features. Not only did Photoshop Elements 2018 get a performance boost, but the new program can also now automatically scan your photos and pick the best ones (in the organizer or for a slideshow) and can open closed eyes. Plus, four new guided edits can help you master tricky techniques.

Like its predecessor, Elements 2018 is designed to help you grow your image-editing skills, while providing enough manual controls for more-experienced users. Best of all, the program still costs less than $100.

System Requirements

Windows

1.6GHz or faster processor with SSE2 support
Microsoft Windows 7 with Service Pack 1, Windows 8 or Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
4GB of RAM
5GB of available hard-disk space to install applications; additional 2GB to download all optional content
1280 x 800 display resolution (at 100 percent scale factor)
Microsoft DirectX 9- or 10-compatible display driver
DVD-ROM drive (for installation from DVD)
Internet connection required for product activation and content download

Mac OS

64-bit multicore Intel processor
Mac OS X v10.11 through macOS v10.13
4GB of RAM
5GB of available hard-disk space to install applications; additional 2GB to download all optional content
1280 x 800 display resolution (at 100 percent scale factor)
DVD-ROM drive (for installation from DVD)
Internet connection required for product activation and content download

Auto Curate: Finding (most of) your best pics

Designed to speed the process of identifying your best pictures, Auto Curate — located in the Organizer component of the software — automatically analyzes your images based on a number of criteria, including quality, composition and focus. The software also takes into account facial recognition, Smart Tags (a feature that automatically or manually labels subject matter, such as dog, automobile) and other parameters. The latter attempts to intelligently include people who are important to you, adding an emotional component to the curated collection of photos.

A slider allows you to choose how many photos are selected, with a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 20,000. By default, images are analyzed when they are imported into the Organizer. You have to wait until the initial analysis is completed in the background before you can run the Auto Curate and see the results. If you click Auto Curate too soon, you get a message saying, "Auto curation is in progress. Try again later." Only when this analysis is complete can you click Auto Curate to see the culled results.

You just click a button and decide whether you want to use Auto Curate, and Elements will select a theme, an opening slide and a music track and put it all together.

It took about 3.5 minutes for Elements to analyze 917 JPEG and Raw photos on my year-old MacBook Air that has 8GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the software does not indicate when the initial analysis has been completed, so you need to keep clicking the Auto Curate check box until the message no longer appears. It would be helpful to have an alert to let you know when the auto curation is complete. The good news, however, is that once the initial analysis is completed, narrowing down the group to the "best" images is almost instantaneous.

Auto Curate can be used on a folder or other collection of images. Importantly, though, you can also use various filters (for automobiles, specific people or people in general, star ratings, etc.) to narrow the group of photos that is analyzed.

Like any process driven by machine intelligence, Auto Curate produced some hits and some misses. For example, Elements selected an overexposed image of a person for its top 10 (see below) while ignoring a second, almost identical image that was properly exposed. Other times, Auto Curate selected underexposed images  when properly exposed ones were available. At one point, the software asked if I was happy with the curated selections; I clicked No, and I hope that it will make better choices as more Auto Curate sessions are performed.

One-Click Slideshow: Basic but effective

The automatic image selection also works with the enhanced, one-click Slideshow feature. Creating a slideshow with this new, one-click method is super simple; just click a button and decide whether you want to use Auto Curate, and Elements will select a theme, an opening slide and a music track and put it all together.

Of course, you can change the various components: Choose a different theme, change the title slide (see screenshot below), add additional slides and captions, or replace the soundtrack with another supplied by Elements or from MP3 files on your computer. Although you may want to change a few (or more) aspects of the slideshow segments selected by the software, the automated process gives you a good head start.

Unfortunately, the Slideshow feature is pretty basic, so if you want to have more control over transitions or fading the soundtrack, it's best to look elsewhere. (Photodex ProShow Gold is a great slideshow/multimedia program, although the desktop version is available only for Windows. The web version is cross-platform, though.)

Here's a sample slideshow that I made using Auto Curate; I changed the title slide and the music to better fit the images.

Open Closed Eyes: Picasso-like

Building on tools for facial-feature adjustment tools such as "Turn frowns upside down" (which allows you to transform frowns into smiles), Elements 2018 is now equipped to substitute opened eyes for closed ones. It's a problem we've all experienced — when a subject blinks at the exact time you click the shutter.

Elements suggests pictures from which to grab a substitute pair of eyes, but the results are generally at little bizarre, as seen in the screenshot below.

It's best to find the same subject in a similar pose. That shouldn't be too difficult if you've taken a couple of consecutive snaps of the same person, because the lighting, pose and other parameters should be the same. I took several pictures for this purpose, asking the subject to keep her eyes closed in one shot and opened in the other. This produced much better results, as seen below. It would be nice to have additional tools, including one to adjust the eye placement, because they don't always align perfectly.

Auto Selection: Helpful, but needs refinement

As with previous versions, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 is equipped with various selection tools, including the Magic Wand, Lasso Tool and Selection Brush Tool, each with its own level of difficulty and accuracy. The new Auto Selection feature is the easiest of them all. Basically, you just have to draw a box around the object you want to select, and Elements does the rest. You can even select multiple objects or subjects in the same image.

Guided Edits are very handy for those who are new to photo editing or want to learn a new technique.

Auto Selection is not perfect, though, and requires extra attention when you have more-complex subjects, such as a person with flyaway hair or a building with foliage adjacent to the structure's straight edge. When the subject is not well-delineated against its background, you may have to tweak the selection by adding or subtracting parts of the image, which isn't all that difficult but may be time-consuming.

Auto Selection worked fairly well in selecting the barn in the picture below. But you can see that it also selected some of the stones in front of the building, as well as some foliage along the right edge of the structure. The Add tool allowed me to ultimately add the rest of the stones to the selection; the Remove tool was used later to eliminate the foliage on the right edge from the selection.

Guided Edits: Handy

Guided Edits are integrated, step-by-step guides that take you through various tasks. They're very handy for people who are new to photo editing or want to learn a new technique. For the 2018 version of Elements, four options have been added: Replace Background, Double Exposure, Artistic/Shape Overlays and Watercolor.

Replace Background

Of the four new Guided Edits, the most useful one is Replace Background. Using one of the selection tools (including the new Auto Select), this guide walks you through the process of selecting a subject and replacing the background. It's a good learning tool, as are many of the other Guided Edits, so you can perform the same task without help in the future.

To test Replace Background, I chose a photo of a dancer against a white background and a sunrise shot.

I used Auto Select to select the dancer; while the selection was extremely accurate (in large part thanks to the contrasting, plain background), I had to adjust two very small areas around his hands. But the touch-up was quick and simple. Adding the new background was one-click easy, as was adjusting the position of the dancer using the move tool.

Double Exposure

This Guided Edit, which places two images (one over the other) in a single frame, is easy to use and a quick way to add a bit of creativity to your images.

You choose a base photo, select your main subject (or leave the full image intact) and then add another image — either one of your own photos or a sample photo from Elements — atop the first. From there, you can adjust the intensity and position of the second image.

I chose an image with three dancers and used Auto Select to select all three of them. Then I added one of Elements' cityscapes as the second photo to make this somewhat interesting composition.

Artistic/Shape Overlay

This isn't one of the most interesting Guided Edits, but the Overlay option will be useful for scrapbookers or those who like to print unusually shaped images. You don't have to crop the image to the shape (you can have a semitransparent overlay and add an effect to the rest of the image). Still, I had fun cutting out a portion of a landscape and applying a sepia-like effect.

Watercolor

This new feature applies a painterly watercolor effect to images. I wasn't thrilled with the results, because they didn't look like what I think of as watercolor paintings.  Although you have a few options to choose from (three color or black-and-white filter effects, six watercolor paper overlays, and a trio of canvas textures), I think there should be more choices. But it's quick and easy, and you can add text if you'd like.

Bottom Line

Among photo-editing programs selling for less than $100,  Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 remains at the top of our list. This program does a great job balancing ease of use, educational components and advanced editing tools. If you're in the market for your first, or a new, image-editing program, then Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 may be right for you. However, if you already own Elements 15, you may want to think twice about upgrading until the automated features have been perfected.

Credit: Tom's Guide

Now in its 15th iteration, Adobe Photoshop Elements remains a solid option for consumers who want easy to use, but powerful photo-editing tools. The latest updates and additions aren’t huge in number, but offer some useful new and enhanced features. These include a better tagging system, as well as a way to adjust facial features, and some handy guided edits. Available for both Mac and PC users, Adobe also made Elements more touch-friendly for Windows 10, making this a good update to its entry-level photo editor.

Editor’s Note: This review was updated to include comparisons to Corel PaintShop Pro.

Elements Organizer

Adobe Photoshop Elements is comprised of two separate components: the Organizer, which is similar to Photoshop’s Bridge or Corel PaintShop Pro’s Modify tab and is used for digital asset management (organizing, tagging, searching), and the Editor. The latter, as its name implies, is where you’ll do the bulk of your editing and image adjustments. Unlike Corel PaintShop Pro’s Manage module, which is a tab within the full program, Photoshop Elements Organizer and Editor are two separate applications that aren’t fully integrated to each other.

Perhaps one of the most important updates to Elements 15 is the Organizer’s Smart Tags. You can enable or disable the feature in the Elements Preferences under Image Analysis. Importing images will, as expected, take longer if you have enabled Smart Tags, since the program has to assess each image.

At the same time, facial recognition can be enabled to automatically scan images for faces and sort them under the People tab in the Organizer. From there, you can add names and group people into categories such as friends or colleagues. People can also be manually tagged.

The upside to enabling Smart Tags is that the application analyzes your images upon import and tags them into various categories with the appropriate keyword. When it works — which it does most of the time — Smart Tags helps streamline the process of keywording and tagging images so you can find them more easily by searching or simply clicking on the group of images that Elements has automatically sorted for you.

Elements will often add multiple tags to a single image. For example, a photograph of the front of an old car was tagged “car,” “automobile” and “grille” (since the front grille of the car filled most of the frame). A squirrel was tagged as squirrel, wildlife, animal but also pet and, oddly, cat. (I have a feeling the squirrel’s bushy tail led the software to slot it into the cat category.)

There were a few other odd selections but you can remove the tag of images that simply don’t fit. And you can further refine image tags by manually adding keywords and ratings. Search parameters can include the tags, keywords and ratings, so you can easily hone in on the types of images you want to find.

While Smart Tags certainly minimizes the time it takes to get organized, it’s not 100 percent accurate, so you’ll likely want to go through and add your own keywords and maybe delete some of the Smart Tags along the way.

Like its big brother Photoshop CC, Photoshop Elements’ Organizer can import RAW files, and it uses the excellent Adobe Camera RAW utility to convert the files when you open them in the editing modules.

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Elements Editor

The Editor has three sections: Quick, Guided and Expert. The Quick tab offers fast workflow for pictures you want to touch-up slightly before sharing them or using them in a project. Its toolbox contains only a handful of popular tools, such as Redeye, crop and text. In the right sidebar, you’ll find single-click settings for the most common edits, such as Smart Fix, Exposure, Lighting, Color and such. For instance, Sharpen displays nine thumbnail variations — small copies of your picture each representing a different level of sharpness. Click on the thumbnail you want applied to your picture.

Guided Edits

Like Corel PaintShop Pro’s Learning Tools, Photoshop Elements’ Guided Edits offer outstanding step-by-step instructions for doing common edits to your picture, such as Rotate and Straighten, Remove a Color Cast or blend two faces from different photos. However, we prefer the way PaintShop Pro integrates its Learning sidebar into the Edit window as opposed to Elements’ separation of the Guided Edits into a separate tab. 

Of Photoshop Elements’ five new Guided Edits, Photo Text, Effects Collage and Frame Creator are our favorites.

Photo Text is a fun way to turn your image into text that you can use for slideshow titles, scrapbooking, greeting cards, stickers, banners and other creative projects. Basically, text is filled with portions of an image.

Effects Collage is a quick and simple method of creating a collage of multiple special effects out of a single image. It’s really easy to make one of these collages, so if you’re feeling creative but don’t have a lot of time, this Guided Edit may fit the bill.

In the Frame Creator Guided Edit, you can use Photoshop Elements’ selection of premade frames or make and save frames from your photos. (Essentially, you are working with layers but really don’t have to know or understand layers to make it work.) Scrapbookers will make good use of the Frame Creator; it’s also good if you want to make a greeting or holiday card and want to add a custom frame to an image. If you’re friends with other Elements users, you can exchange frames with each other, too.

The new Guided Edits may or may not be relevant to what you want to accomplish, but it offers a few fun effects.  

When you’re finished with the Guided Edit, you can save the image, continue editing it in Quick (easy) or Expert (manual) mode and/or share it to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter or a SmugMug Gallery.

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Expert Mode

Like Corel PaintShop Pro, Photoshop Elements has entry-level features, but the program won’t limit users once they grow in skill. Elements’ Expert Mode provides top-notch pro-like tools that offer almost everything a serious hobbyist might want or need to enable  creativity. For those novice users who might be a bit confused by the Expert interface, Adobe provides excellent online tutorials for helping users get up to speed.

While not much has changed in the Expert Mode with the newest version, Adobe has added an Adjust Facial Features option that’s the best of the handful of changes, especially if you like taking portraits. Essentially, you can use simple sliders to make adjustments to several facial features, including lips, eyes, nose and face. As with any adjustment, and especially those on portraits, less is more. Keep it subtle and  simple for a natural, more realistic look.

Projects & Sharing

In all of Photoshop Elements’ tabs and components (including the Organizer), you can opt to Create Projects or Share selected pictures.

The projects include fun, useful templates for calendars, photo books, greeting cards, slide shows and Facebook covers, as well as less popular items such as a DVD Jacket. Guidance on doing the projects aren’t integrated into the interface, but the learning curve for understanding how to use them isn’t steep.

Sharing your photos to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Smugmug is simple once you set up your account for the online service within Photoshop Elements. However, Elements has no provision for adding other online services such as Instagram, Pinterest or Google+.

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Bottom Line

Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 remains a solid choice for photographers who want to edit images quickly and easily (and relatively affordably). Its Guided Edits are a great learning tool to help move beginners into more advanced editing, while more experienced users will find plenty of options in the software’s Expert editing mode. If you’ve let the hundreds and thousands of digital images in your collection get out of hand, the new Smart Tags will help you manage those photos with very little effort.

If you want to go with an application that is robust, easy to learn and use, and is available in both Mac and Windows versions, then Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 may be the best program for you.

Another Patch Tuesday has come and gone, and not only Microsoft released patches this time. Adobe and Apple got in on the action as well, and it looks like all three companies want to start the new year with as few bugs as possible. Each company fixed dozens of vulnerabilities, a good many of which could result in the compromise of a computer without any user input — and some of the exploits for those vulnerabilities are already out in the wild.

Microsoft's December Patch Tuesday addressed more than 70 flaws, the majority of which the company deemed "Critical" and involved remote code execution. That means that an hacker could exploit the flaw to install and run malware from afar, with no input from a legitimate user whatsoever. These issues affected Microsoft Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer primarily, as well as the company's Silverlight protocol. Attackers have already taken advantage of at least one vulnerability in Windows and another one in Office, so patch your systems if you haven't already, even though doing so may take a long time.

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On the Adobe front, the Flash Player browser plugin is still a mess of vulnerabilities, and Tom's Guide recommends that you uninstall it, disable it, or at least set it to "click to run." The latest patch covers more than 70 separate issues across 10 different Flash products, including Flash Player for Google Chrome, Flash Player for Linux and AIR for Android. Adobe has rated the bugs as Critical, which, like Microsoft's ratings, means that the vulnerabilities could result in the compromise of a user's system without his or her knowledge or permission.

Apple rounds out the December patch list, with almost 40 vulnerabilities fixed in its OS X operating system. Most issues affect the El Capitan build, although some target Yosemite and Mavericks users as well. The issues run the gamut from Bluetooth to iBooks to the OS X kernel (a potentially devastating place for a security issue), and vary in severity as well. The worst could allow a remote user to compromise a Mac, whereas the milder ones might simply allow installation of malware from suspicious websites.

The stylish electronics manufacturer also released a plethora of patches for iOS, the Apple TV (tvOS), Safari and the Apple Watch (watchOS). There are dozens and dozens of fixes for the Apple peripherals, which cover everything from remote code execution in Safari to manipulating Siri to read private information on an iPhone or iPad. While there are too many fixes to detail individual cases, the bugs range from the annoying to the potentially system-compromising, and you should probably head them off at the pass before someone attempts to leverage them in the wild. Most of these devices update automatically, but if yours doesn't, you can force an update in the Settings menu.

Check the company websites if you want precise details on each flaw, but the best advice is to update your programs ASAP. Windows users can run Windows Update, which will patch all Microsoft programs. Those with Adobe software can make use of the Adobe updater program that was  probably installed along with whichever of the company's products you use, although Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 10 and 11 will update Flash by themselves. Otherwise, browse to http://get.abode.com/flashplayer. Apple users should check the App Store and Updates under the Apple log in the upper-left corner.

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It was coming sooner or later. Adobe's popular photo sorting and editing program Lightroom is being grouped into the Creative Cloud suite of apps, meaning you'll now have to pay a monthly fee to use the latest version, instead of purchasing it outright. Announced today (April 21), Lightroom CC will be available for $9.99 a month as part of the Creative Cloud Photography plan, which also includes Photoshop CC.

Those who don't want to keep shelling out each month for Lightroom can opt for Lightroom 6, which Adobe is still selling as a "perpetual" (non-subscription) version for $150. But it will not get all the updates that the company rolls out year after year.

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The new Lightroom offers several new features, including HDR Merge, Panorama Merge, Facial Recognition (for sorting) and GPU performance enhancements.

HDR Merge lets photographers combine two or more pictures taken at different exposures into one for a more even exposure with wider dynamic range.

Panorama Merge stitches different shots of the same area into one seamless image, and you can merge the pictures regardless of direction: side by side or above and below. (Though this is a built-in feature on many cellphones, adding the capability to Lightroom allows photographers to create panoramas shot with very high-end cameras such as pro DSLRs.)

Previous versions of Lightroom already sorted photos by date, location and albums, but with Facial Recognition sorting, Lightroom CC makes it easier for you to find specific pictures of your friends or yourself. 

The program will automatically identify faces, and allow you to tag or name them as you would in Facebook. Over time, as the system learns your naming habits, it will start suggesting names for people it identifies.

Lightroom is the last of the major Adobe products to join the cloud-based subscription model. While it might seem like a ridiculous idea at first to have to continually pay to lease your program to keep using it, the low $10/month price might lure a larger audience into trying the software out. Plus, that allows people to pay for the program only when they need to use it. The software giant also announced in March a new Document Cloud offering, taking PDFs and document editing into the cloud.

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Staff writer Cherlynn Low edits pictures on Photoshop. Follow her @cherlynnlow. Follow Tom's Guide at @tomsguide on Facebook.

Adobe Flash Player, also known by its former name Shockwave Flash Player, is a multimedia plug-in that powers YouTube, simple online games and zillions of ads on most Web browsers. However, it's also a huge security risk, especially when it's set to automatically start playing compatible content.

To maximize your Web security and defeat the seemingly endless supply of malware that exploits the innumerable flaws in Flash Player, you should change your browser settings so that Flash Player plays only the content that you select by clicking on it.

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This way, you'll still be able to watch YouTube videos in older browsers (newer ones use HTML5), but you won't be bothered by annoying animated ads or infected by malicious websites and ads.

How to set Flash to click-to-run in Mozilla Firefox

1. Click the three stacked lines in the upper right of the Firefox browser window.

2. Click Add-ons in the resulting drop-down menu.

3. Set Adobe Flash, Adobe Flash Player and/or Shockwave Flash to Ask to Activate.

How to set Flash to click-to-run in Google Chrome

1. Click the three stacked lines in the upper right of the Chrome browser window.

2. Click Settings.

3. Scroll down and click Show advanced settings.

4. Scroll down to the Privacy section and click Content settings.

5. In the resulting pop-up, scroll down to Plug-ins and select Click to play.

How to set Flash to click-to-run in Microsoft Internet Explorer

1. Click the gear icon in the top right corner of the Internet Explorer browser window (the one just below the red X, not the one on the Internet Explorer homepage).

2. Select Manage add-ons.

3. Select Toolbars and Extensions in the left navigation window of the resulting pop-up.

4. Find Shockwave Flash Object in the right results window. If you don't see it right away, make sure the drop-down box labeled Show is set to " All add-ons."

5. Right-click Shockwave Flash Object and click More Information.

6. Click Remove all sites in the resulting pop-up window. It's underneath the large form field labeled "You have approved this add-on to run on the following websites." The field may display an asterisk; you want that asterisk gone.

How to set Flash to click-to-run in Apple Safari

1. Click the Safari menu in the top left of the computer screen.

2. Select Preferences.

3. Click the Security tab in the pop-up window. 

4. Click Manage Website Settings.

5. Select Adobe Flash Player in the left-hand navigation window.

6. Clear the field labeled "Allow websites to use this plug-in with the settings below" in the right-hand results window by closing out the browser window behind the pop-up (by pressing the red button in the upper left-hand corner).

7. Set the drop-down selection next to "When visiting other websites" to "Ask."

Jill Scharr is a staff writer for Tom's Guide, where she regularly covers security, 3D printing and video games. You can follow Jill on Twitter @JillScharr and on Google+. Follow us @tomsguide, on Facebook and on Google+.

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It's a perfect storm of Internet iniquity: A three-month-old malvertising campaign is exploiting two recently discovered Adobe Flash Player flaws to infect people's computers with ransomware. If you're counting, that's three cybercrime buzzwords in one — and the result is a dire threat that may have affected popular websites such as the Huffington Post and Answers.com.

The malvertising campaign, dubbed Fessleak after an email address used to register malicious domain names associated with the campaign, began in mid-October and initially used a Windows flaw to infect PCs with what Fairfax, Virginia-based security company Invincea called "advanced ransomware."

But after Microsoft patched that flaw Jan. 13, Fessleak switched to running ads that exploited first one, then another, Adobe Flash Player zero-day flaws — so called because attackers discovered and used them first, giving Adobe zero days to patch its software. (Both flaws have since been patched.)

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Invincea, which chronicled the malvertising campaign in a blog post Wednesday (Feb. 4), the same day Adobe patched the second flaw, said that Fessleak can even detect when its malware dropper attempts to run in a virtual container, an isolated environment that security researchers use to study malware.

If Fessleak detects a virtual container, its dropper will shut down, which may be why Invincea didn't name the specific kind of ransomware involved. Similar malvertising campaigns have infected users with the Reveton strain of "police" ransomware, which tells victims they face prosecution for harboring pirated files or pornography unless they pay "fines" immediately.

Malvertising refers to when online criminals slip malicious advertisements into legitimate ad networks that feed ads to widely viewed websites. These malicious ads then appear in the browsers of people who visit these sites, which can trigger malware infections. 

Because it spreads via ad networks, Fessleak has affected many high-profile websites, including the Huffington Post and the New York Daily News. Sites hit since the Adobe flaws were introduced include Answers.com and Thesaurus.com.

Malvertising campaigns such as Fessleak can be difficult to curb.

"It is important to note that the sites from which the malvertising were delivered are by and large unaware that their sites were used for delivering malware, and largely unable to do anything about it," Invincea notes.

Although these two latest Flash zero-days have been fixed, they won't be the last of their kind. To protect yourself against future attacks, you may want to disable Flash in your browser, or at least set Flash to Click to Play. This way, you can activate only the ads or videos using Flash that you wish to see, and the others will remain disabled.

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Jill Scharr is a staff writer for Tom's Guide, where she regularly covers security, 3D printing and video games. You can follow Jill on Twitter @JillScharr and on Google+. Follow us @tomsguide, on Facebook and on Google+.

Apple dominated the news yesterday (Sept. 10) with announcements of its new iPhones and the Apple Watch. But yesterday was also the first Tuesday of the month, or Patch Tuesday, when Microsoft releases security patches and updates for its computer software.

If that isn't exciting enough, software maker Adobe, which joined Microsoft's patch schedule last year, also released a slew of updates yesterday, including a critical patch for Adobe Flash Player. If you have automatic updates set up in Windows you shouldn't have to worry about the Microsoft updates, and some Web browsers automatically update Flash as well. If not, you'll want to install and run the updates from both companies. 

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Let's start with Microsoft. The company's updates this month are grouped into four bulletins: one rated "critical" (Microsoft's highest security rating) and three rated "important." The critical bulletin contains 37 patches for all supported versions of Internet Explorer on all supported versions of Windows, i.e. IE 6 through 11 on Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, RT and RT 8.1 and on Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012.

The most critical vulnerability would have let attackers seize control of an affected computer. The attackers would have to create a malicious Web page with code designed to exploit this specific flaw. If affected users visited this Web page with an unpatched version of Internet Explorer, the code would have exploited the vulnerability, giving attackers a foothold in the affected computer. Installing this bulletin will require users to restart their computers.

The second bulletin addresses a denial-of-service vulnerability in Microsoft's .NET Framework, a platform for developers to build Windows applications.

The third patches a flaw in the Windows Task Scheduler in Windows 8 and 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2. Taken alone, the patched threat wasn't too serious; if criminals had access to a computer they could use this flaw to increase their privileges on that computer. Combined with a flaw like the one addressed by Bulletin 1, however, a criminal could use these two flaws to get total control over a Windows computer.

Finally, Bulletin 4 patches a flaw in Microsoft's Lync messaging service. It's a server-side update, however, so regular Windows PC owners won't have to worry about it.

A full breakdown of Microsoft's Patch Tuesday offerings is available form the company's Technet blog.

Now on to Adobe. The multimedia-software maker has patched its Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR software for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. If you're on a Windows or Mac, the version number should be 15.0.0.152. On Linux, it's 11.2.202.406. On a desktop, Adobe AIR should update to 15.0.0.249, and on Android to 15.0.0.252. The updates patch 12 different vulnerabilities in the software.

Adobe recommends that Windows and Mac users update Flash by going to the Adobe Flash Player Download Center. A lot of malware likes to disguise itself as fraudulent Adobe Flash Player updates in order to trick you into installing it, so it's always best to get your updates from a certified source.

Adobe Flash Player for Chrome and for Internet Explorer 10 and 11 should update automatically. If you use any other browsers, you may have to separately install the Flash Player update for that browser. 

A full breakdown of Adobe's update specs is available from its website.

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Jill Scharr is a staff writer for Tom's Guide, where she regularly covers security, 3D printing and video games. You can follow Jill on Twitter @JillScharr and on Google+. Follow us @tomsguide, on Facebook and on Google+.

Windows users, you may have noticed that your devices have some new updates available. What's that about? Microsoft released several security patches yesterday (July 8) as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday round of updates. Most require a computer restart, but they fix dozens of bugs and flaws in Microsoft software. 

Adobe Systems also yesterday issued a number of security patches for Windows, Mac and Linux users, including the much-publicized "Rosetta Flash" attack. Read on for a full breakdown of the Windows and Adobe updates and what they mean for you.

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Adobe patches

The newly released Adobe Flash Player version 14.0.0.145 (or 11.2.202.394 on Linux) contains a patch for a vulnerability that could let attackers steal authentication tokens from many websites, including Google, Twitter, eBay, Tumblr and Instagram. Google security engineer Michele Spagnuolo found the flaw and created a proof-of-concept exploit he called Rosetta Flash to demonstrate it. 

Over the weekend, Google and Twitter patched their own sites (and Tumblr did yesterday), but individuals who upgrade to the newest Adobe software should be secure on their end. Adobe says it is not aware of any criminals exploiting this flaw in the wild.

The other two patches in the Flash Player update fix minor issues first discovered in December 2013, but which weren't publicly disclosed until yesterday.

If you're using Google Chrome or Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 or 11, your Flash Player browser plugin will auto-update. Otherwise, you can find the updates on Adobe's website. Heads up, though: Adobe bundles McAfee Security Scan with the update downloaded directly from the website. This piece of software simply does a malware scan, but if you don't want it, uncheck McAfee Security Scan during the installation process. 

One more complication: If you're running an older version of Internet Explorer alongside one or more non-Chrome browsers, you'll need to download and install two separate patches: one for IE, the other for the other browsers.

Microsoft patches

As promised in its pre-Patch Tuesday announcement, Microsoft has released security updates for all active versions of the Windows operating system as well as the Internet Explorer browser. Before each Patch Tuesday, Microsoft issues advisory bulletins that vaguely describe each category of upcoming patches, and this month two bulletins were rated "critical," Microsoft's highest level of security threat.

Bulletin 1 turned out to contain several patches for remote-code-execution (RCE) bugs in all versions of IE (6 through 11) on all supported versions of Windows (Vista through 8.1/R 8.1 and Windows Server 2003 through 2012). RCE flaws let attackers seize control of individuals' computers without user interaction.

Only one of the IE bugs had previously been disclosed to the public, so it's highly unlikely criminals were able to exploit the others. The disclosed bug, an extended-validation SSL certificate flaw, doesn't appear to have been exploited either. Nevertheless, users shouldn't delay in applying Microsoft's Bulletin 1. 

Bulletin 2, also rated "critical," contained one RCE patch for all supported Windows operating systems except Windows Server 2003 and Server Core. The patch fixes a flaw that could be exploited by using a .JNT file used by Windows Journal, note-taking software that, despite its relative obscurity, comes pre-loaded on all Windows computers.

Bulletins 3, 4 and 5 each turned out to fix a single "elevation-of-privilege" flaw, which lets attackers give themselves administrator-level user privileges on a compromised computer. Used in combination with RCE flaws, elevation-of-privilege flaws can be particularly nasty. But because attackers need physical access to a computer to exploit these flaws, these three bulletins were rated only "important."

The elevation-of-privilege flaws were privately reported, so there's not much chance an attacker has exploited them. One requires attackers to upload a specially crafted program to the targeted computer. Another requires attackers to have login credentials, while the third exists in Microsoft's DirectShow API and requires would-be attackers to first exploit a different flaw. 

The flaw addressed in Bulletin 6, rated "moderate," permits a denial-of-service attack on Microsoft Service Bus, an optional piece of software for Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 and 2012 R2. Specially crafted networking requests could be used to make the software stop working. 

The full rundown of the bulletins and the flaws they address is available on Microsoft's website.

Email jscharr@tomsguide.com or follow her @JillScharr and Google+.  Follow us @TomsGuide, on Facebook and on Google+.

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