Adobe introduces low-cost month-by-month rental of Photoshop, Creative Suite

Can't stomach the thousands of dollars it costs to purchase your own copy of Adobe's Creative Suite? Now you don’t have to.

With the April 11 launch of Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 (CS 5.5), Adobe has introduced flexible, easy-to-swallow subscription-based pricing.

Since the release of Adobe Creative Suite in 2003, Adobe’s selection of professional graphic design, photo editing, web design and video editing software has remained the software suite of choice for most in the creative industry.

However, the high price of the software is restrictive for many individuals and small businesses.

To compete with the growing list of relatively inexpensive (or free) Creative Suite alternatives like Aviary, GIMP, Inkscape, Scribus, Rapidweaver, Pixelmator, SketchBook Pro and Blender, Adobe has had to re-think its pricing structure.

Adobe’s new Subscription Editions provide casual or new users with a much cheaper entry point ($129 per month verses $2,599 outright for CS 5.5) and provide freelancers and non-frequent users with an economical way to stay up-to-date with the latest version of the software.

"Subscription editions of Creative Suite software are just like regular Creative Suite products — they are installed on your computer and provide all the same features and functionality," explains Adobe.

The monthly subscriptions also provide ongoing access to the latest version of the software at no extra cost, provided the subscription remains active.

Starting from just $19 per month on a one-year plan, users can rent software applications like Dreamweaver, Illustrator ($29), Photoshop ($35) and InDesign ($35), or the entire Creative Suite Master Collection ($129) from Adobe.

Infrequent users can also opt for month-to-month subscriptions which range from $29 per month for Dreamweaver to $195 per month for the Creative Suite Master Collection.

The full list of pricing options can be found here: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/cssubscription.html