This is an opportunity to learn with the world of Adobe Creative Cloud tutorials! When you are new, you may get overwhelmed with all the tools and features available to you. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered. We have compiled a guide to help you get some of the most popular Adobe Apps started.

Read on for some free tutorials for Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and more. Additionally, we’ll look into enhancing your creative projects with useful resources such as Adobe Fonts and Stock. If you’re into graphic design, animation, or UI/UX design you’re gonna love it. OK, so let’s get in, and start to unlock the potential of the Adobe Creative Cloud!

Adobe Creative Cloud [Photoshop Express] Tutorials

As with most things, I’ve found that Adobe Photoshop Express has been very handy in allowing me to quickly and easily edit photos on the go. It’s ideal for beginners aiming to improve their images while steering clear of the complex software. So let’s take a look at some basic techniques and cool features that will get you going with this great quick and easy app.

Basic photo editing techniques

I also found that when I first opened Photoshop Express, it was very easy to use. We’re talking fast filters and easy-to-use adjustment tools here. First, I imported the image, then straightened out my horizons. I next cropped the photo to get it into a better composition. I like that Photoshop Express is non-destructive, so I can always change my mind and undo changes if needed.

Creating collages in Photoshop Express

The collage tool is one of my favorites. The interface is super easy and includes all the usual layouts. I then chose nine photos I had on my camera roll and dragged them into a single cell. The app floated the texts like magic and placed them in a grid. Then I could adjust each image in its frame and resize each section. To give it something personal I experimented with different border styles and backgrounds. It is endless.

Mobile photography tips

You have some great things in Photoshop Express if you’re a mobile photographer. Something that I have found useful for quick photo enhancement is the Look filters. With over 100 looks with various categories like charm, white balance, and black and white to choose from.

I can even save my custom looks I can also create. The other cool feature is that there’s a tool for adding effects to the Lights. However, I’ve got over 85 different light options, which means I can make some cool, creative, and arresting photos.

Adobe Illustrator Beginner Guides

It is fine and when you have the right guidance, Adobe Illustrator can be an incredibly powerful tool for creating vector graphics, but getting started in Adobe Illustrator can be an awful lot to tackle. So let’s go with some key parts of the Illustrator interface and basic techniques that all new users should know.

Learning about new features in Illustrator

The first time I opened Illustrator, I was confronted with a complex version of a workspace that once you get the hang of it, is quite intuitive. All of the essential tools for creating and manipulating artwork are placed on the left toolbar. I noticed that if any of the tools had a small triangle in the corner, underneath was a hidden feature that allowed me to quickly get to related tools.

I can adjust my workspace on the right side of the screen with the panels, rotating so the panels line up and fulfill my requirements. I’m a big fan of the Properties panel because it changes dynamically based on what I’m selecting, giving me only the options and controls needed for my current task.

Working with vector shapes

Aiding in that former process was teaching me how to create and manipulate vector shapes. The Shape tools make it easy to draw rectangles, ellipses, or polygons. Vector shapes are what you love about them because they can always be scaled to an infinite size without losing quality, which is great for creating a logo or any image that you might want to use in multiple media.

The Shape Builder tool was also a must-have for me, for combining just a few simple shapes to form more complex designs. I can quickly and intuitively create unique abstractions by dragging a line across selected shapes merging them or by removing the overlapping areas.

Creating logos in Illustrator

The deeper I got into Illustrator the more I learned the industry standard for logo design. It’s a great tool to work with shapes and typography to create logos that look good at any size, and the ability to do both makes it a great application. When designing my logos, I sketch them out on paper and then bring them to Illustrator where I refine and polish them.

Although it takes some practice to get it down, it has become one of my favorite tools for creating the most precise of curves and shapes. Because combined with the type tools and color options, I can create a professional result out of my logo concepts.

Adobe InDesign for Newcomers

Adobe InDesign is a very powerful tool to create impressive layouts and designs. It had so many features I felt overwhelmed when I was new, but I’ve gotten into using it so I’ve learned how user-friendly it is. By the way, let’s look at some important features of InDesign every beginner should know.

InDesign setting up documents

When I launched InDesign, I saw the first welcome dialog box, the New Document dialog box. I found out that selecting the right preset for your work is important, whether it is print, web, or mobile. For my first project, I chose a custom size for my flyer and selected the print preset. The document units for easier measurement turned out to be helpful, as well. I discovered one tip, that you can change these settings later in the Properties panel, which still gave me the flexibility to experiment.

Typography basics in InDesign

InDesign is where typography shines. The degree of control I had over text formatting blew my mind. From the Character Formatting Controls panel, I could quickly change fonts, sizes, and styles. I used the Paragraph Formatting Controls panel a lot for paragraphs. I could adjust alignment, indents, and yes even hyphenation.

The takeaway I took from this was that consistently creating good typography within your document was important to giving it a professional look.

Creating layouts for print and digital

I was impressed with how versatile InDesign is when it comes to creating layouts not just for print, but also for digital formats. The simplest version I started with was a flyer layout, placing images using the rectangle frame tool and the type tool for text. When I started working with multi-page docs, I was excited to learn that you can create master pages to have consistent elements on multiple pages.

Interactivity, in the form of hyperlinks and buttons to open doors and windows, opened a whole new world of content creation possibilities for digital layouts.

Adobe Premiere Rush Video Editing

Adobe Premiere Rush is an incredible little tool for quick video editing on the go. It’s glorious for designing social media content. Some key features that stand out for it will be explored next.

Premiere Rush beginner guide

I was impressed with Premiere Rush when I first tried it because of the easy-to-use interface. First also, a new project was to be created, and my media was to be imported. One nice thing about it is that I can sync with Creative Cloud to work on my projects from different devices.

Basic video editing practices

Basic video editing techniques can help you define the most important moments in a film. Editing in Premiere Rush is easy. I can trim clips with handles easily and also split them just by using a scissors tool. I expand the audio waveform to get more precise edits; I can see where pauses are. It’s especially nice when editing interviews or voice-over content.

Exporting and sharing videos

So when I am done editing, I export, and that’s a snap. Now I hit the “Share” button, select the quality settings I want and then export. The good thing is that I can upload my video to any social media platform immediately from Premiere Rush itself. Even that, it allows me to make different versions when they are required (names like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram), in one go.

Adobe XD UI/UX Design Tutorials

I have found that Adobe XD is incredibly powerful for creating interactive prototypes. That allows me to quickly validate my design concepts before I sink too far into the engineering phase. We take a look at some of the key features that make XD shine for UI/UX design.

Prototyping in Adobe XD

Xd prototyping is one of the most exciting aspects of xd. I figured out how to wire up my screen in the order I wanted, with multiple flows per click. This game-changer feature has shown me how users will experience my app or website. I take you beyond just slide animation to automate interactions between artboards, auto-animate your transitions for smooth micro-interactions, and even do voice commands for prototyping voice-activated devices.

Designing responsive layouts

So, from the perspective of responsive design, XD has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. Although I can’t make everything responsive in XD, I can lay out a set of artboards that illustrate the design at different phases. It allows me to communicate my vision to clients and also to developers effectively. My focus is on managing columns and content, things that adapt nicely to different screen sizes.

Collaboration features in XD

One of the things I love about the XD is the robust collaboration features. Now I can invite other designers to work on my documents in real time, which has greatly improved the way I work. Collaboration has never been this easy due to Live Cursors and the ability to see a live edit and the position of collaborators. On top of that, I can also easily track document versions, and gather feedback from stakeholders through the same platform.

Adobe Fonts and Typekit

Accessing thousands of high-quality typefaces through Adobe Fonts has been an incredible resource for me. These fonts are my Creative Cloud subscription so I can use them on both personal and commercial projects. We’ll look at how you can get the most out of this powerful tool.

Accessing Adobe Fonts library

It is simple to browse the Adobe Fonts library. All I do is open the Creative Cloud desktop app, and click the fonts icon on the very top right. Now head to the fonts.adobe.com and select “Browse Fonts”. The search functionality itself is impressive (you can filter by language support, or by such things as classification or mood). This is quick and easy for me to find just the right font for my projects.

Working with fonts in the Creative Cloud apps

Once I find a font I like, they’re super easy to add to my Creative Cloud apps. The font is immediately available on all my desktop apps, I just click the “Add Family” button. I like that I can activate individual weights and styles, but this keeps my font menu slim and my performance. I even can „activate“ fonts directly from the character palette in InDesign and Illustrator apps.

Managing Fonts collections

I like having the Creative Cloud desktop app to tell me what font I currently have as well as my font collections. I can get rid of fonts I don’t need anymore to keep my library tidy. From the “Previously Added” tab, I can easily re-download a previously added font I’ll never use again. That gives me the flexibility to keep the workflow smooth while having access to a very rich selection of typefaces for my design projects.

Adobe Stock for free Assets

One resource I haven’t mentioned in detail here yet, which I’ve used a lot, is Adobe Stock; I’ve been finding it to be an incredible resource for getting my hands on good quality assets to use in my Creative Projects. I’ll show you how to benefit from this incredible tool even down to their free offerings.

Free Adobe Stock Assets to explore

Free assets are available for download from Adobe Stock, including photos, vectors, illustrations, videos, design templates, motion graphics templates, and 3D assets, all hand-chosen.

To access these I just click ‘Free’ in the stock.adobe.com navigation bar. When you’re logged in, I can hit the blue button and download some free assets.

Incorporating Stock Assets in Projects

I’ve used free Adobe Stock assets in various projects. For example, I can use photos, vectors & illustrations in marketing collateral printed up to 500,000 times or distributed to a production audience of fewer than 500,000 viewers. With more flexibility, videos, templates, and 3D assets come included as well as videos that you can reproduce past the 500,000 copy viewer limit. Free collection asset downloads yield a royalty-free commercial use license.

Licensing and usage rights

When I download a free collection asset, I receive a royalty-free commercial-use license. Perpetual license as in, I can use the assets as many times as I need, even if I cancel my account. Bear in mind: new songs, remixes, or mashups based on audio tracks aren’t allowed but are allowed for minimal modifications.

Adobe Fresco Digital Painting

Adobe Fresco is an amazing tool for digital painting. And it’s part of Adobe Creative Cloud suite which means you can seamlessly work with other Adobe apps. In this post, we’ll dive into some key features that make Fresco stand out.

Getting Started with Adobe Fresco

Fresco, I opened Fresco, and I was greeted with the user-friendly interface. It has custom sizes for new projects on the home screen as well. I find it useful that I can preserve favorite configurations for use later.

One tip: for the best quality, if you’re printing out your work, set your PPI to 300.

Fresco with brushes and tools

Fresco offers three types of brushes: pixel, live, and vector. The live brushes are especially cool; they do make you feel like you’re wet painting. This is great for infinitely scalable graphics, using vector brushes. A lot of the time I resort to pixel brushes as they lend themselves to a natural painting experience, from ways to paint a canvas flat to watercolor to splatters to tracing mode.

Fresco – Creating Digital Artwork

What I love about Fresco’s layer system is that it’s exactly what I want in my workspace. Arrange by layer, change opacity, and play with blend modes — I can do that easily. The touch shortcut is a great thing – it gives me the ability to jump from brush to eraser quickly. I use the ruler and shape tools all the time to make perfect circles and lines or stroke widths for precise work.

Conclusion

There are many opportunities in the world of Adobe Creative Cloud to learn and grow your creative skills. There is something for everyone from quick photo edits with Photoshop Express to creating detailed designs using Illustrator. We’ve touched on the tutorials we’ve covered, it’s a starting point that will allow you to jump into digital painting, video editing, UI/UX design, and more.

While you improve at these skills, make sure you remember that when you’re learning, there is no substitute for practice and learning by experience. Don’t fear to get out of your comfort zone and experiment with new techniques. The Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem is built with a massive library of fonts and stock assets in mind — from start to finish. Unleash your creativity, and these tools will show you what you can do with them so go ahead.

FAQs

1. Does Adobe offer free learning resources?

Adobe has a collection of free learning resources through the Adobe Education Exchange. And at no cost to you, teaching materials, professional development courses, community discussions, and more.

2. Are there Adobe tutorials in Adobe Creative Cloud?

If you’re just getting started with Adobe Creative Cloud or a long-term user, Adobe Creative Cloud offers definitive tutorials for its most popular applications, from basic to advanced solutions. All of these tutorials come with step-by-step guidance along with sample files to help you learn hands-on.

3. Should we go with Adobe Creative Cloud because it is great for beginners?

Adobe has a Creative Cloud for beginners. With it, you get access to a variety of desktop and mobile applications, and comprehensive tutorials to groom you into a master of the space very quickly.

4. Is it to learn Adobe software on your own?

And yes, you can self-learn Adobe software and existing Adobe on-demand courses! These courses are live viewing experiences and you can access these courses anytime and anywhere. Adobe also offers a requestable learning sandbox for hands-on practice with products.