There probably isn’t a User Experience Designer out there today that doesn’t touch at least one of the Adobe tools on a daily basis. Adobe officially released Adobe CS6 and the “Creative Cloud” today. The software will be available in approximately 30 days and is ready for pre-order. Adobe Photoshop received several key updates, including a new graphics engine called “Mercury”, a new “Dark” UI and the ability to edit video.  Illustrator also received “Dark UI” update and few key additions in functionality that allow you to easily create patterns and apply gradients to strokes. My personal favorite Adobe application, Fireworks, also received a few updates, but I will be covering these in a future post.

One of the biggest changes this year for Adobe is the “Creative Cloud” subscription service. This service provides the option to pay for the Adobe Suite monthly, rather than the traditional pricing model. Prices for a one year commitment start at $49 a month, while month-to-month subscriptions will cost $79 a month. It will be interesting to see how users react to this new pricing model.

You can catch the official launch at today 10 am Pacific Time.