Adobe Licensing Transition Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)


Table of Contents

 

Adobe License Options and Costs

License Options for Faculty and Staff:

Acrobat Pro plus Adobe Express

$25.77/year

Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

(includes Acrobat Pro and Adobe Express, plus Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.)

$41.24/year*

License Options for Students:

Adobe Express

$5.15/year**

Adobe Creative Cloud Suite (includes Adobe Express plus Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.)

 

$35.05/year**

 

Request Process for Student Adobe Licenses

Links to purchase a student license to the Adobe Creative Cloud suite or Adobe Express can be found here. 

Request Process for Faculty/Staff Adobe Licenses

Faculty and Staff members can purchase Adobe licenses from the Software Library using a university COA. 

Upgrading to Creative Cloud

Staff and Faculty members with an active Acrobat Pro/Adobe Express license who require a Creative Cloud license to support their daily work can purchase a Creative Cloud license from the Software Library using a university COA.

How do I use Adobe products after I purchase a license?

To start using Adobe products after you purchase a license, you will need to download the individual Adobe product or the Creative Cloud suite onto your workstation. Users with managed workstations can download Adobe Reader, Adobe Express, and Adobe Creative Cloud onto their computers from the Company Portal. If you already have an Acrobat Pro license assigned, downloading the Adobe Reader application will give you the premium version by default.

Users with unmanaged workstations/personal devices can download the Creative Cloud suite directly from the Adobe website. 

Once the application has been installed on your workstation, you can log in using your yale.edu email address. 

Common Troubleshooting Questions when you are assigned a license

I still don't have access despite being assigned a license

  1. Log out of Adobe and log in again using your full yale.edu email address.
  2. At login, if prompted, choose Company or School Account rather than Personal Account.
  3. If you have a personal Adobe account linked to your yale.edu email, delete it or update it to a non-Yale email. Follow the instructions provided by Adobe to complete this
  4. If you use multiple yale.edu email aliases, ensure your Adobe account is connected to your primary alias. Contact Yale IT if assistance is needed.

My Adobe Stock doesn't show unlimited images?

  1. Log out of Adobe Stock.
  2. Open an incognito browser window.
  3. Log in with your Yale company account credentials. Do not use a personal account.
  4. Select your account in the top right, click “Change Profile,” and ensure the “Yale University Profile” is checked.

What products are included in Adobe Creative Cloud?

Creative Cloud provides access to a large collection of desktop applications, including: 

Information on all the products found in the Creative Cloud suite can be found on the Adobe website.

Do I need Adobe Sign or DocuSign to digitally sign PDFs?

Adobe Sign is a cloud-based service that allows users to send, track, and manage electronic signature processes and is not required to digitally sign PDF files.

Earlier this year, the university replaced Adobe Sign with Docusign. The Docusign service is intended for us when the university is requesting signatures from another party, providing enhanced security, tracking capabilities, and legal validity where needed. DocuSign does not require a specific type of PDF file generated by a particular software for electronic signing and supports the following file formats:

Please visit the Digital Signatures Service Page for more information on DocuSign. 

For Yale faculty and staff who digitally sign internal business documents (e.g., Sole Source forms) or other documents that do not require University signatory authority, there are several free products available that support viewing, annotating, form filling, printing, and converting to and from PDF, and digitally signing PDF files. 

Detailed instructions on how to sign documents with a digital certificate in the free Adobe Reader tool can be found here. 

 

If I previously used an Adobe Creative Cloud for PDF only, do I need an Adobe license?

Users have the flexibility to select a license for Acrobat Pro (plus Adobe Express) to meet their PDF needs. The table below shows functionality available in alternative PDF tools compared to Acrobat Pro. Please note, these suggested alternatives are not supported by ITS and are not approved for use with PDFs containing PHI.

As noted above, the free Adobe Reader tool can be used to digitally sign PDF documents. 

 

Adobe Acrobat Free Reader

Apple Preview

Microsoft Edge

Adobe Acrobat Pro

View PDFs

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Annotate / Highlight

✅ Basic tools

✅ Basic tools

✅ Basic tools

✅ Advanced tools (comments, stamps, etc.)

Fill Forms

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Sign Forms

✅ Yes (including digital signatures after certificate creation)

✅ Yes (limited)

✅ Yes (limited) Draw/type/ upload signature

✅ Yes (including digital signatures)

Edit Text & Images

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

✅ Yes (full editing suite)

Merge / Split PDFs

❌ No

✅ Merge only

❌ No

✅ Yes

Remediate for Accessibility

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

✅ Yes (Accessibility Checker)

OCR (Scan to Text)

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

✅ Yes

Export to Other Formats

❌ No

✅ Limited (e.g., JPG)

❌ No

✅ Extensive (Word, Excel, etc.)

Add / Remove Pages

❌ No

✅ Yes

❌ No

✅ Yes

Platform Availability

Windows, macOS, mobile

macOS only

Windows, macOS

Windows, macOS, mobile

Cost

Free

Free

Free

Subscription Fee

 

Saving and printing PDF files without Adobe

Users can save and export Microsoft Word documents to PDF directly from the desktop application. Outlook email messages can be saved or printed as a PDF file in the desktop and web applications. 

When distributing PDF files, users should consult Yale's accessibility resources. 

If I request an Adobe license in the middle of the contract year, will the cost for the license be prorated?

Under the rate-based enterprise model, annual licenses are valid for the duration of each contract year (August–August). Because enterprise licensing is purchased at the start of each contract year, annual licensing fees cannot be prorated.    

 

Can a paid Adobe license be transferred from one individual to another?

Each Adobe license is assigned to an individual named user. If a user moves within Yale from one department to another, their Adobe license will remain with them and active for the remainder of that contract year.  

Can my department receive a license for a generic account (e.g., an account that uses a shared email address) for use by multiple staff members?

Each Adobe license is assigned to an individual named user. Concurrent use of a named-user license by multiple users is not permitted under Adobe's licensing terms.

 

How can IT administrators access Adobe shared device licenses?

Shared device licenses are available to IT administrators for installation on shared computers (e.g., computers in a student lab). Please submit an inquiry to the Software at Yale team for additional information.


For shared computers, such as those used in labs and classrooms, Adobe provides the Shared Device Licensing scheme; this is currently in use on a number of shared computers around the Yale campus. Computers that currently use Shared Device Licensing can continue to do so. Any lab/classroom/etc. Administrators who want to use Shared Device Licensing on their shared devices should reach out to ITS to request access to installers that use this licensing. Please note that Shared Device Licensing should not be used on single-user computers. Users will still need to log in with their own account when using a shared device to sync any saved work to their account.

Shared Device Licensing has a different and somewhat more limited user experience compared to Adobe's standard Named User Licensing. For more details, please see the Shared Device Licensing: Overview and User Experience article.

 

What payment methods are accepted for Adobe product licenses?

Faculty and staff must provide a university COA for payment. A departmental or individual COA may be used. Users should discuss the appropriate COA with their business office.

Students at the School of Art and the School of Architecture should reach out to their school’s IT department to discuss licensing needs.  

All other individual student licenses may be purchased with a credit card only. P-Cards are not allowed.

Departments or schools that wish to cover the cost of Adobe licensing for their students may pay for licenses annually via university COA. Please submit an inquiry to the Software at Yale team for additional information.

 

Who is eligible for Adobe Products?

Any full-time Staff, Faculty, or Student.

Sponsored Identities and Consultants are not eligible under our current contract.

Comparing Adobe Express and Creative Cloud

 

Adobe Express

Creative Cloud

Create visual, audio, and video content

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Collaborate with colleagues in-app

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Use templates, design elements, and stock photos to build designs

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Incorporate your organization's branding, logo, and colors

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Remove backgrounds on photos✅ Yes✅ Yes
Animate text✅ Yes✅ Yes
Use the specialist capabilities of different apps ✅ Yes
Use Lightroom's presets and granular adjustments to edit photos ✅ Yes
Design and publish books, magazines, and interactive PDFs, incorporating elements from other Creative Cloud apps ✅ Yes
Design visual elements from scratch ✅ Yes
Create virtually signable PDFs ✅ Yes

Create motion graphics, original animations, and expressive animated characters

 ✅ Yes

Make use of industry-standard video editing tools, suitable for social media posts all the way up to feature-length films

 ✅ Yes

Create and mix sound effects for videos or podcasts

 ✅ Yes

Design websites, games, and apps

 ✅ Yes