the Rise and Fall of Adobe 

Really is a shame how hard they fell... the constant drama and controveries. The pricings and limitations on our subscriptions. Exhausting the bank every month, for a service that, is being outmatched by free alternatives.

I always hated the payment model. But I had no alternatives for a very long time. But now... its time to overthink it.

If Jazza has waded into the Adobe fiasco, then you know things are bad! When my Adobe subscription came up for renewal early last year, dropped it like hot potato and never looked back. One of the best business money saving decisions I've made in years.

im a young artist and i just simply refuse to ever use adobe, ive used it once because it came free with my school, and it was the most MISERABLE drawing process ive ever experienced

Somehow, Autodesk manages to do these thing even worse, taking the move to a subscription model as an excuse to only add miniscule feature upgrades to new versions and leave old features collecting dust unchanged as the competition soars ahead in features.

I'm just never going to purchase from Adobe ever

You can apply a lot of this to Microsoft (and countless other) digital giants. Such a depressing world where technology innovation is actively stifled by corporate interests and greed.

I stopped using them 5 years ago. Affinity, procreate, DaVinci all day. I did it mostly because the subscription model left me creatively in a slump. I felt obligated to only use Adobe even though their apps got frustrating. I was angry more than I was creating.

Good thing I use Krita, CSP, and GIMP for my art.

Adobe is like the final boss after you unlock it as a playable character, once was really powerful, now it's literal crap.

Ironic that I got an Adobe advert before this video XD

So glad I got CS5 when I did. Still using it today. Never switching to a subscription model.

How times change yet, I still find myself watching alot of your old flash content on Newgrounds like it was just yesterday. I feel though while flash is dead the worlds that artists like yourself have created with it shall always remain forever within memory RIP Larry of Karryon and thank you Jazza for everything you have given the world with it.

Got an Adobe gen ai add. The irony.

JAZZA THIS IS THE EARLIEST I HAVE EVEN BEEN AND IVE BEEN WATHCING YOU SINCE SINCE I WAS LIKE 8… I’m now nearly 18 and such a massive fan of your work and I am growing a business myself

The last adobe product i purchasrd was cs6 because that was the last time you could OWN the software.

I knew Adobe was bad, but I hadn't realized how bad they had gotten. I know the licensing has caused such problems at work that at one point it had taken up almost full-time of one person for several months just to untangle the problems, create a new tracking program to track these folks and what they were licensed for, and then administrator all of this (which then impacted all the other work he was supposed to be doing, but this had to come first). Rather than just tracking the software bought, which already had a system of tracking. It was crazy.

I was one of those people who got 'the screen' and didn't know what to do because I kinda got a weird feeling. But I got to cancel, luckily, and am happily free from Adobe for some time now. I'm so glad Jazza did this piece and always stays true to himself! I also recommend DaVinci by the way.

Keep the video essays coming!! Love this.

Very fitting that RU-vid shows the Adobe AI advertisement during the video… right when you start talking about it…. Smart…vile…evil… welp..

I’ll never go back to them.

I really think a lot of why I stuck with Adobe for so long is because it was hard to readjust my workflow and pipeline to learn new software. but between a month subscription being the cost of a yearly sub to another program, not having a pure purchase option, all the Ai stuff, and training on users data without our consent. switching programs became the easiest decision of my life and I wish I'd done it years ago.

Jazza I’m so proud of you breaking your nail biting habit!! First time I’ve seen white on your nails!!! Good job 👏

Who remembers the time when Adobe's flash player was almost the only flash player and everyone was forced to use it on some websites to make them work?

Sadly, I'm still trapped using Adobe Animate. I know I should switch to Toon Boom, but while I'm stuck on the treadmill of making RU-vid Shorts, its hard to find any spare time to learn a new program. Especially one as complex as Toon Boom. 😭😭

The only company that's capable of crushing adobe, is adobe themselves, gotta give them credit for that

Can you do a tutorial on those open source softwares

I love this new format, hope we get more of it

Adobe implementing ai is one of those things where you end up asking "how did this even happen?".

You introduced me to bothe resolve and krita and I havent looked back since. These free programns really are professional grade and are perfect avenues for aspiring and professional artists alike.

I enjoy how you're dabbling into the video essay format! I'll be looking forward if you ever choose to dive into it! ❤ (And if not, it's still okay!)

Man Jazza this is such a flashback, I remember discovering your channel at 2016 back when I was learning how to animate, since all my school ever uses is the adobe suite yuck. I dove all into your tutorials back then to help me pass the class which I thankful for at the time and still am. You got me way more out of many jams with your adobe tutorials in your tutorial era then any other RU-vidrs at the time. Since there weren't many tutorials to watch for animation back then. at least for me. Thanks Jazza for being such a great relaiaable source at that time for me. Now I've been using clip studio paint for a long time now and recently learning procreate on my iPad for my alternative as well as opentoonz.

There's something I would say about Adobe saying their AI only used public domain and licensed content: they can abide by this while also training on user data as they want, because they can claim that hitting "Accept" to the terms and conditions means that you are giving them license to use your content. It's a scummy thing to do, and a way to sound more above board than they are, and so I fully expect this to be their thought process.

I bet it gotten so bad that great studios have to shut down due to high costs and had to start over by scratch with alternatives

This is the earliest I’ve ever been to a Jazza video…so I just wanted to say I’m happy to be here and I can’t wait to see what the video is about. It’s been a while since Jazza did a deep dive video like this (I think the last time I can remember was the ZHC video) and I’m excited for the content. 😆

I used to use Photoshop a lot when I used to work at a multimedia center @ my university. The moment Adobe turned Creative Cloud into a subscription model instead of a perpetual license, I dropped it so quickly because I had a feeling this was where they were going. The way Adobe handled the Billie Eilish t-shirt contest confirmed everything I suspected.

ADOBE ""Thank you to all the creative people for getting us into business, now we are putting you out of business."

This is the era of Adobe's downfall. With the recent statements from Procreate's CEO shitting on AI images, pricing changes from Clip Studio and free options popping up every other week, there's quite literally no way adobe can weasel their way out of this one

Adobe can really be compared to an abusive relationship. "You let me cross these boundaries because you have nowhere else to go and everyone else trusts me."

We need Blackmagic to create a new alternative for Photoshop! Photoshop is my last anchor in Adobe's ecosystem. And I want to get out.

You introduced me to Krita years ago, and I can't express how grateful I am for it

No way! I literally just found out about their cancellation fees while trying to cancel my photoshop plan. Simply outrageous. Luckily I managed to find a way around it.

I was taught Photoshop 2.0 in highschool once i saw the price i was like NO WAY and i am so glad I never relied on them companies that scalp like that will ALWAYS SCALP HARDER!!!

From someone who was taught through college and uni to use adobe and not being able to afford it I stumbled across affinity and never looked back a one off fee and its a great software to use :) no affiliation haha :)

I went through the pain of dropping them, for me the worst part was needing to download 2 different bits of software to fully remove every thing it installs including several programs that do not show up in your programs lists.

I've used krita from the start of my digital drawing because I couldn't afford adobe. Best case of blessed limitations ever!

Good ol' paying for exposure which artists love so much.

So happy to see you do this. You have so much louder of a voice than we do. Shareholders and the mega rich are ruining art, games, movies, etc (all of which can be considered art)

I was warning people about Adobe in 2011 and nobody listened. Y'all deserve what you get

I never used adobe. I only used it in college for a single class and quit. Procreate is my go to.

I have 26 years invested in After Effects at this point. I've yet to find a suitable alternative.

Forcing online activation is destroying them since there are so many isolated environments.

I always support the concept of trying before buying

LOVE this video essay style from you! I’m a big fan of commentary channels and this has definitely been missing in the art niche.

Subscription system should only be limited to everyday essentials like water and electricity, and not softwares and apps, since they've been complacent and lazy with updates knowing that they'll earn profit without lifting a finger.

Thank you Jazza. As a lifetime Adobe user, I have always wondered when I would need to make the switch. Illustrator is my day to day use, but since I taught myself that, I can teach myself another. I'll be going through all your recommendations!

I've never liked the Adobe Cloud, but as a graphic design student, I had to learn how to use it for classwork and projects. To this day, I refuse to use Photoshop for anything other than photo adjustments, because I hate how it draws, and I use a different program for animations as well. Adobe has a chokehold on the industry I want to enter, but you bet your ass I'm going to find every workaround I can to use it as little as possible.

its great seeing artist's with a large following speaking out against Adobe and their awful business practices. They don't realize we have a choice.

I genuinely believe I didn't know I was signing up to a year when I signed up. But the worst thing they ever did to me was encourage me to convert all my photos to DNG, telling me that it was an opensource format. DNG is an opensource format, but not Adobe DNG - that's proprietary, and non-Adobe software can't open it.

I use Flash 8, a version so old it's before it was even owned by Adobe. Don't regret it one bit.

I've been using Photoshop since I was in middle school, thanks to an uncle with access to the software. It's really a shame that they're letting greed destroy themselves. Tech companies love becoming the industry standard and then nuking their reputation because they know everyone is too dependent to leave. I'm hoping the companies who are reliant on Adobe are able to slowly switch to the alternatives. Lastly, I love these style videos and hearing your opinions!

I mean, adobe software and Autodesk software are the only ones I will be "buying from the green store" all my life

Saw where they were going with monopolizing and creating the subscription model. They are trying to outdo HP in hostile end user contracts.

I mean they are basically a monopoly, so it was bound to happen eventually. No reason not to degrade into stealing money. Even if you have a CEO that doesn't, who's stopping the next CEO from doing that? You're only delaying the inevitable

This is beginning to happen with autodesk too. Even the company i'm working at has already hybridized it's pipeline with blender. Probably to eventually kick maya out.

The US government should break adobe up.

I totally agree with your feeling. Although since the start of Creative it has really been ups and down, and in the graphic industry Adobe is really rooted and outside of them the tool available (which would provide the same level of professionalism or better (usually they are more focus toward the specific industry you aim at so they would be better)) are not affordable. They are B2B softwares so the scale of price for individual is scary. So in my case we still rely on Adobe because of the versality of use it can offer for the whole company and thus even if we know that they are better and more fitted option for specific work branch of the company we will "survive" with what we have. Seeing the video though I will start investigating onto other solution for myself and see if I can even implement them into my workspace. Woah my comment is pretty messy, sorry ....

You finished telling your story about getting an agent (fair representation) and never hearing from Adobe again. I spoke out load to my computer and said, "Pride comes before the fall." Then you cut to the net segment and text faded in saying "The Fall" I felt felt proud of myself in that moment and got up to get a drink. Then tripped over my dog.

Jazza you are an inspiration! Keep doing what you're doing and know we support you!

Adobe spent so many years building their brand and convincing people it was the best, then when it was THE name, squandered that while hoping people would not notice other software had been developed by non-Adobe that did the same or better. When they realised the flag waving of "we are the best' wasn't enough, they started scare-tactics about other products. They had also set themselves as a "corporate' standard enough to not care about non-corp customers.

I use Procreate/ Procreate dreams, Affinity Designer version 2, Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo. Adobe is hard to learn, and expensive. The apps I listed here are a one time purchase. When I’m not doing traditional art, I work digitally on iPad Pro. I hope Glaze will be available for iPad one day. Thank you Jazza for this video. 😊

when i got my Wacom tablet a little bit ago, it came with a voucher for a subscription to a software... so now i have 3 years clip studio for free, and i am in LOVE. even using it to practice animation to see if its something i want to do, it's just ***chefs kiss*** so glad i never touched photoshop. spouse wanted to get me a sub to adobe and i am so glad i put my foot down on "heck no, not a chance". also gonna send him this video to explain why not use adobe, phrased better than i ever could.

This is a slight diversion from the topic, but I REALLY liked the presentation of this video, it was perfect to watch while having lunch. I would love a deep dives with jazza series!

Thank you for this! I have wanted some quality alt programs for adobe. Because they just keep going up in price but aren't fully giving anything new. They really are the Apple of the creative world now sadly...

Great video! I get stuck in the world of needing photoshop, lightroom and InDesign and it makes it so hard to leave! It is so painful because I have been using these programs for over 10 years now. Though for drawing these days I lean heavy on procreate and much less on photoshop!

As a digital artist, I have 3 different alternatives to Photoshop that I use for various things depending on what I want to do and where I'm at. I use Photopea for anything that isn't drawing, and then either Krita or IbisPaint X to draw depending on if I'm home or on the go. There's also DaVinci Resolve for video editing, which is honestly amazing. Don't get me wrong, Adobe products work REALLY well, but having to pay to essentially BORROW the software, and pay out the nose at that, it's just not feasible for anyone who isn't already making more using the program than they're spending on it, and even then it's hard to justify when the alternatives are basically just as good.

Pirate gang 👇

Hope to see you use Clip Studio more in the videos, I would really love seeing a professional using it in action

This was an amazing video. I am one of those who have been using various Adobe products, even before Adobe owned them. I had to drop my full CC sub, because the “deal” I got ran out I guess, so had to cut back to just Photoshop. Since then I have been looking for alternatives so I can get away from them completely. It’s not easy…when you are comfortable with the product, to learn something else…but, I am no longer comfortable with the company, and as soon as I can get out of the sub contract, I will finally bite the bullet, and be done with them!

Appreciate you for putting this video out. Went through a very similar phase with you, James Lee and others. We're done with Ado-mination

I have been using Resolve for about 2 years because of you and love it!

4:43 So that's why Flash got abandoned instead of fixing the security issues! Always wondered that!

Thanks to you, jazza, i can do my job. I have to make videos for work and I've been provided Canva....i feel like I'm being given crayons and asked to create a Michael Bay movie. I definitely got davinci because it's free and so much better

Would love to see some tutorials on the alternatives!

Thank you so much for these links!!!! I hate hate hate being so reliant on Adobe for work. I need to see if I can do what I need to with these programs!

Seeing software production from outside and as a creative keeps giving me the same impression. they are desperate to ad a 5th wheel to a car. they are stubborn into adding unecessary stuff, instead of fine tunning the software.

It's clear that their customers are not the priority. Not paying professionals for their work and stealing artwork is a new low

I’m still currently using adobe right now for school, editing my video and using photoshop for my art. However, after this video, I’ll be looking into those alternatives program for future art/video.

Incredibly ironic I had an adobe add on this video💀

I’m a private hobbyist into many different artistic styles, techniques, and mediums. I had started with the pay-to-use model of adobe with moderate opinion and success. When adobe switched to a subscription model, I was forced to quit using their products. I could afford $600 on purchase but not as a yearly cost. I have switched to a largely free model for my hobbies

Such a good video Jazza. Loved this. Just surprised there was no mention of Affinity

Actually, what Adobe says doesn´t include an exclusion of user content. Note the "licensed content" part. Because depending on how you interpret it, the agreement/contract you "sign" when getting a subscription may very well also include such a license. Same really for how Google carefully words every press release to imply they are not using unser created videos from RU-vid to train their AI, but never actually truly deny it because they totally are and just want to avoid the shitstorm. It classic corporate doublespeak implying to say something without ever actually saying it.

CSP is also kind of testing the patience of its userbase as well, though. They keep trying to implement controversial changes and then walking them back when they get pushback on social media. Still better than Adobe, but it just seems like they're always trying to get away with something

The fact you [read: Jazza] is bringing up Adobe's fall make me wonder if moving to Affinity Photo and Designer was probably a good choice. Adobe have to do some serious step ups before i even consider going back, if ever.

Hmm... Got multiple Adobe product ads

What a cool little documentary and overview of alternatives

I was a flash developer for 12 years. I was really sad of the acquisition of Macromedia.

I kid you not, I was watching this video when suddenly an Adobe AD popped up promoting their generative AI

I knew they were problematic when they said they were leaving having a software on CDs out and I still use my extremely old version to this day if needed. I have refused to buy or pay for a subscription.

Great video Mr Jazza