Free Adobe CS2 Software

Adobe is dropping support for its old CS2 software and making it available for free, with serial number for registration. You can also download the individual products, including Photoshop, GoLive, InDesign, PremierPro, Acrobat (full, not reader), etc. Old, but excellent software if you don't already have newer or equivalent. More info from the Gizmodo website, here: http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/grab-photoshop-and-cs2-for-absolutely-free-right-now/#.UOs15IYXDKI.facebook

Note that the server has been swamped with people downloading, so you may get a message that the download page is unavailable. If so, try back later. Also, be sure to print the download page, which has the necessary serial numbers for registration.

Heather

Cool. CS2 was a watershed in PhotoShop development, and a darned-site easier to use than CS6 for many things. Thanks.

Heather,

Do you happen to know if they are releasing the Mac versions as well or is this strictly for the PC?

It's up there for Mac, too.

Axixic, Mac versions available for most, but not all. No Mac version of Acrobat 3D, Audition, or Premier Pro. I assume Mac had its own video/audio software, making the last two unnecessary. Maybe Acrobat 3D was a bust on PC, so they decided not to release on Mac?

I've got CS3, but some of the specific products weren't in the package I got, so I'm downloading them separately. Some other items I'm getting to put on our secondary machine. Definitely useful, and can't beat the price!

Heather

Thanks Heather!

Thank you, Heather.

This is incredible software for free however alot of it is very hard to use for
example photoshop. But if you want to do it all this is a great deal but you
will need to study it to use it properly but you can just about do anything
with this stuff.

Z

There are a lot of tutorials on the web - this product has a huge learning curve - but if you want to take the time to learn it, can be a lot of fun.

Also ask yourself, why do you want to use it. Just to manipulate photos once in awhile? If that is the reason, there is probably inexpensive software that is much much easier to use and what is going to happen in a year or two as far as product usability. For example, I am guessing that Windows 8 will not support it - and when I checked, it indicated that Windows 7 had problems.

So you want to spend the time to learn a product that you will not be able to use when you decide to upgrade windows?

A companion product that I really like is Adobe lightroom - lets me easily view all of my pictures so I can decide which ones i want to import into Photoshop - but I checked, and that is not for sale, but you might be able to find on ebay etc

One of the free products offered is Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. It's a scaled down version of Photoshop, and more user-friendly.

An excellent resource for learning the Adobe CS2 products is Lynda, which has online, self-paced tutorials, including 10 courses on Photoshop CS2. They offer a free trial period during which you can learn quite a bit, and see if you want to pay for more time. Info here: http://www.lynda.com/

Heather

The coolest way to learn the power of PhotoShop is to type a question into Google; you will be swamped with explanations, photos, and videos. For example, "blend photos" brings this: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/photo-blend/

Each time you complete one of these ideas, you will have learned some powerful stuff for your next project.

LOL, talk about irony. I bought a copy of this from my computer guy in states several years ago. I recently tried to install it, but the serial number wouldn't work. Spent a couple hours online looking for a serial number, hacks, keygens, etc. Nothing worked. Called my guy in the states yesterday and he tried a few things. Nothing worked. Finally gave up, deleted it, and went to a torrent site and grabbed CS6. Now you tell me I could have gotten it by waiting one more day :) Oh well, I'm sure CS6 will have a few more bells and whistles, even if there's a bit of a learning curve.

A couple things I've learned from working in IT over the years... 90% of the people use just 10% of most software's features, and sometimes older is better since all those unused features just bloat a computer and slow things down.

However, for people who need (or want) to keep up with the latest O/S, or need compatibility with files created by other users, older version software might not be good. For low-end users just doing projects for themselves, getting this stuff for free is fantastic and will probably serve their needs for quite awhile. Muchos kudos to Adobe for making it available!

HelperGuy is right... with the huge base of existing users, it's easy to find training and help for any of these packages. Another suggestion - since it's old software, you can get books for CS2 for little more than the cost of shipping. Check Amazon, discount book sellers, or local used book stores.

Heather

hkrause wrote:One of the free products offered is Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. It's a scaled down version of Photoshop, and more user-friendly.



Heather

Agreed for most people Elements will do the job with much less frustration but if you want to learn how to
do anything try the full version of Photoshop.

You know, just the ability to get Acrobat Pro 8 for free is a huge boon to anyone who needs to make or manipulate PDF files. The full version would cost at least $200, and more like $400 when it was current.

Go back to the Quasimodo site and read the updates - Adobe didn't really mean it.

No, they didn't, but they aren't taking the page down, either, and that is pretty much tacit approval.

Hmmm... Interesting. Thanks for pointing out the updates. Gee, guess I'm supposed to dump all the software and serial numbers I took days to download with my slow Internet connection? (Nah!)

Nice touch that they posted a list of alternative free software as kind of an In-Your-Face, Adobe move.

Heather