Acquiring Adobe Creative Cloud & Adobe Acrobat Pro Licenses at UMass Amherst
Why is justification and supervisor approval required when requesting licenses for Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Acrobat Pro?
The University of Massachusetts’ new systemwide agreement with Adobe provides for a limited number of Adobe licenses for the entire UMass Amherst campus. In order to ensure access for employees who require specific capabilities of Adobe products for their work, all requests for Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Acrobat Pro now require a detailed justification and supervisor approval.
Are retired faculty eligible to request Adobe product licenses?
Retired faculty on post-retirement assignments who are working for the University can request funding for specialized software through the RFA grant fund.
How do I request an Adobe Creative Cloud or Adobe Acrobat Pro license?
Please note: If you're already requesting Creative Cloud, you will have access to Adobe Acrobat Pro as part of the suite.
A valid university business or instructional use case and supervisor approval are required when requesting licenses for Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Acrobat Pro.
How can students access Adobe Creative Cloud?
Students can access Adobe products at no cost by visiting the Learning Commons in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library or the Science and Engineering Library in the Lederle Graduate Research Center in-person during normal hours of operation.
Adobe products are available for students taking courses utilizing Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). Access to Adobe apps will be granted only if it is required for coursework.
Is there a limit to the number of Adobe licenses per Department/College?
There is no reserved allotment departments or units. Each request for Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Acrobat Pro must be carefully considered based on the justification provided and the necessity of Adobe products for the individual's work responsibilities.
Can departments/units purchase their own licenses directly from Adobe or from a third-party vendor?
No. Departments/units cannot use University funds (grant, GOF, etc.) to purchase licenses. The University has negotiated legal terms & conditions under our current contract which allow our employees to utilize Adobe products. Direct purchases through Adobe or a third-party vendor would revert to Adobe standard terms and conditions which would put our institution at risk.
Will there be a reminder for users to re-request Adobe product usage?
Yes. A reminder will be sent each year when it is time to renew your license. You will need to request a renewal for Adobe Creative Cloud annually at the start of each fiscal year to maintain access.
Alternatives to Adobe Creative Cloud products (Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere, etc.)
Canva is a graphic design platform that allows you to create visual content for social media graphics, presentations, posters, flyers, infographics, email banners, videos, reports, and more. UMass Amherst’s instance of Canva features a UMass-branded templates designed by University Relations and a brand kit with UMass wordmarks, colors, fonts, and images.
Who is eligible to request a Canva license?
Canva is available to UMass Amherst students, faculty, and staff at no additional cost.
If you have a free/non-UMass Canva account or team, you may need to switch accounts with the dropdown menu in the upper right of the screen in the Canva web app.
What are some features of Canva?
Customizable templates for presentations, flyers, newsletters, infographics, social posts, and more
Access to stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics
A curved text generator
An online video recorder
A video trimmer
The ability to convert videos to MP4
Built-in accessibility features
Canva is available on the web, mobile, and as a downloadable desktop version for Windows and MacOS.
Adobe Express is a content creation tool developed by Adobe. It is a cloud-based design platform for editing PDFs as well as creating videos, web pages, graphics, and other digital assets.
Who is eligible to request an Adobe Express license?
Students, faculty, and staff can request a license at no cost through the University’s Adobe agreement.
What are some features of Adobe Express?
Templates for Social Media: Access thousands of customizable templates for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and more.
Drag-and-Drop Design Tools: Easily create graphics, flyers, logos, and videos with intuitive tools—no design experience needed.
Video and Animation Tools: Create short videos and animated posts directly within the platform.
Collaborative Editing: Share and co-edit projects with teams in real time.
Foxit PDF Editor is UMass Amherst's official PDF editing application. UMass Amherst faculty, staff, and students can request a Foxit license to create, edit, and organize PDFs. Foxit works with existing PDFs, has similar functionality to Adobe Acrobat, and offers seamless integration with Microsoft and Azure services, ensuring that user data remains safe and secure.
Students must be actively enrolled in a course to have access to Foxit. Students will need to request a new Foxit license each semester/session. Departments that need a maintained Foxit account for a student worker should request Foxit through a work subsidiary account which will not be cleared each semester.
What are some features and options of Foxit?
Accessibility full check and report
Fill and design
Scan and OCR
Robust PDF editing
Adobe License Approval Process
Will IT vet the Adobe requests to ensure the correct information (supervisor, reason, etc.) is included?
Yes. IT is vetting responses and checking for valid supervisor information to the best of our ability.
If the software request form includes a head of the department, but it is not routing directly to the head of the department, can I approve the record?
The Adobe Software License Request form does not route to Department Heads. If a Supervisor does not receive the e-mail to approve a request, they can go to the Service Portal to see their approvals on the right side of the screen.
Will department heads or IT staff ultimately approve the requests?
Both supervisors and IT will approve the request. Supervisors are being encouraged to use discretion in vetting and approving requests. IT will also vet requests to ensure the person requesting the license has a campus need before one of the limited licenses is distributed. This is being done to prevent a situation where licenses need to be reclaimed from someone due to a critical campus need.