Adobe Launches A Free XD CC Starter Plan
On May 15th Adobe introduced its new, free Starter Plan for Adobe XD, which includes the ongoing access to the desktop version of XD on both Mac and Windows 10 (including all the design and prototyping capabilities) along with the mobile preview apps on iOS and Android, to help accelerate experience design growth.
“The new Starter plan for Adobe XD supports Adobe’s vision to give everyone—from emerging artists to enterprise brands—everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences and explore the rapidly expanding field of UX design with no financial commitment,” said Scott Belsky, chief product officer and executive vice president, Creative Cloud at Adobe.
1. Adobe XD Starter Plan:
Adobe XD is an all-in-one UX/UI design software and part of Adobe Creative Cloud. It allows designers to create and share prototypes of website, apps, and other user interfaces. Now the whole kit, including Adobe XD for Mac and Windows, mobile apps for iOS and Android and services, are available to everyone for free.
If you are in an active trial of Adobe XD, you will need to update the version from the Creative Cloud desktop app or from xd.adobe.com to activate the free plan.
There is no limit to use the Adobe XD software in the free Starter plan. You can create an unlimited number of XD documents, but note that a free account can only share one active prototype and one active design specification. Users can choose to upgrade the plan for unlimited sharing. And the unlimited sharing is included if you already have an XD Single App plan ($9.99) or a Creative Cloud All Apps plan.
2. Changes in Adobe XD:
Along with the announcement of Adobe XD CC Starter plan, Adobe also pushes out a handful of new features and enhancements in the May update of Adobe XD, including the abilities to directly open Sketch and Photoshop CC documents in Adobe XD and to publish and share Design Specs (Beta), and the added integration with third-party tools such as Dropbox, Zeplin, Avocode and Sympli. Additionally, the company teamed up with some prominent designers to offer free UI templates and resources.
Here are the highlights across XD apps in the May release:
> Sketch and Photoshop CC integration improvements
> Password-protected Design Specs (Beta)
> Simple drag-and-drop options to swap symbols
> Paste to multiple artboards
3. $10 Million Fund
Apart from the free Starter plan and updates for Adobe XD software, the company also announced the Adobe Fund for Design, a $10 million fund, distributed in the form of grants and equity investments. The aim is to “help designers and developers innovate in the world of experience design and leverage Adobe XD as a platform supporting tooling plug-ins and integrations with third-party tools and services”.
All these measures are the part of Adobe’s plan to build out the Adobe XD ecosystem. It definitely hopes to get a bigger slice of the burgeoning UX/UI design specialization field by promoting its software. By attracting more design team to the XD platform which ties with other software like Photoshop and service like Typekit, the free Starter plan could work as the gateway for potential users to use Adobe’s paid products.
Having problems? You can get more information about Adobe XD in this page.