What are the Adobe license options and costs under the new licensing model?

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**

* Compared to $318/year for a non-enterprise academic license
**Not including applicable taxes and processing fees if not paid by university COA

When will users lose access to current Adobe licenses, and what is the timeline for requesting a new Adobe license at the start of the new licensing period?

The university’s existing Adobe contract will end on August 30, 2025.

Existing license holders will have a two-week grace period from that date to obtain a new Adobe license through the Software Library to maintain continuity of service. 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. Individual student licenses may be purchased with a credit card only.  

Any user who does not obtain a new Adobe license during the grace period will lose access to Adobe products on September 15. The user may elect at any point thereafter to obtain a new Adobe license by visiting the Software Library.

Departments may elect to cover the cost of Adobe licensing for their community (additional information below). Users in these departments will be notified by email before August 30 and will be administratively assigned an Adobe license by ITS at the start of the new contract period.

 

Why did I receive an email that my Adobe license is expiring if the new licensing model does not take effect until the end of August?

Adobe licenses provisioned under our current contract require renewal on an annual basis from the date the individual license was first set up. If your current license expires between now and August 30, and you need to keep using Adobe software, you will need to renew your current license through the Software Library. Your renewed license will stay active for two weeks following the end of the current contract on August 30. 

 

Can departments request that Adobe licenses be bulk provisioned to users?

Departments may elect to cover the cost of Adobe licensing for faculty, staff, and/or students in their units in bulk for the new contract period. In the alternative, departments may direct users to assess their individual licensing needs and, if needed, to obtain an Adobe license for Creative Cloud or Acrobat Pro/Adobe Express by visiting the Software Library at the start of the new license period on August 31. 

If a department would like to move forward with bulk provisioning, ITS will share a list of license holders with the Lead Administrator for the specified department. The department will review the list and select the license type to be provided for each user. The cost for the individual license will auto-populate, and the aggregate cost for all licenses selected will be provided. 

Requests for bulk provisioning must be completed and returned to ITS by August 22. ITS will administratively assign Adobe licenses for the selected users to ensure continuity of service heading into the new contract period beginning on August 31. There will be no additional action required by these users to renew their license. 

If your department is interested in bulk provisioning, please submit a ticket to the Software at Yale team.

 

What products are included in Adobe Creative Cloud?

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

• Photoshop: For image editing and graphic design. 
• Illustrator: For creating vector graphics. 
• Premiere Pro: For video editing. 
• After Effects: For motion graphics and visual effects. 
• InDesign: For page layout and design. 
• Lightroom: For photo organization and editing. 
• Acrobat Pro: For creating, editing, and managing PDFs. 
• And many more: Including Audition, Animate, Dimension, and more. 

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

 

Am I required to obtain an Adobe license at the start of the new licensing period?

You are not required to obtain an Adobe license at the start of the new licensing period. However, you should plan ahead to avoid any interruption in your daily work.

• Consider what software you need for your daily work.
• Assess the risk classification of the data involved in your daily work.
• You may choose to explore the suitability of alternatives for viewing PDFs (Adobe Acrobat Free Reader, Apple Preview, Microsoft Edge Browser).

If you choose to purchase a license, you can visit the IT Software Catalog at any time after the new licensing model starts to obtain a license for your selected product(s). The IT Software Catalog will be updated in August with the new licensing options, and existing license holders will be notified.

 

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:

• Documents: .doc, .docm, .docx, .dot, .dotm, .dotx, .htm, .html, .msg, .pdf, .rtf, .txt, .wpd, .xhtml, .xps
• Images: .bmp, .gif, .heic, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, .tiff
• Presentations: .pot, .potx, .pps, .ppt, .pptm, .pptx
• Spreadsheets: .csv, .xls, .xlsm, .xlsx 

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. 

 

I use my existing Adobe Creative Cloud license for PDF only; do I need an Adobe license under the new licensing model?

Under the new licensing model, 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
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

 

Do I need an Adobe license to save and/or print files to PDF format?

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 creating 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.  

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.