Installing Adobe Creative Cloud for Student Personal Use

As a full-time Emerson College student (enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree program, or graduate certificate program), you have access to download and use the complete Adobe Creative Cloud Suite for FREE on up to two personal devices.

Note: For all new, returning, and transfer students that have not started classes yet - your license will be active beginning your first day of class. 

Applications that you can access for free include:

  • Photoshop
  • Premiere Pro
  • Lightroom
  • Illustrator
  • InDesign
  • Audition
  • After Effects
  • Dreamweaver
  • …and more!

Adobe Stock and Sign are not included in our campus agreement.

For a deeper look at everything you have access to through your Adobe Creative Cloud account, you can visit accounts.adobe.com and click on View Plan.

To download the software, follow the instructions below.

Installing Creative Cloud

  1. Open a web browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.) and visit Adobe.com.
  2. Click Sign In at the top right of the page. Enter your Emerson email address in the email field, then select the password field.
  3. Choose Enterprise ID (company or school account) if presented with a choice.
  4. You will redirect to the Duo authentication page to complete the sign-in process. Enter your Emerson username and password to sign in to your Adobe account.
  5. In the top right corner, click the menu icon that looks like a grid of 9 boxes.

    photo of the menu icon that looks like a grid of 9 boxes

  6. Under the Web Apps & Services section, select Creative Cloud.
  7. Click the blue-button that says Download Apps, and then click the blue Download button under Creative Cloud. 

    Blue download button under the Creative Cloud window.

  8. Find the installer that you downloaded in your Downloads folder and double-click to install.

  A Note on Personal and Enterprise Adobe IDs

If you only see a Free Trial Option when downloading and installing, this is because there are Adobe applications on your computer still signed in with your free personal Adobe ID (not your Enterprise ID). To fix this:
  1. Open an Adobe application and select Help.
  2. Sign out of your personal account.
  3. Sign back in with your Emerson email address, selecting Enterprise ID when prompted.
It is possible to have a free personal Adobe ID that uses your Emerson email address in addition to the Enterprise ID provided through this program. For more information on how this works, see Adobe's guide on ID types.

Using Creative Cloud in Labs and Classrooms

The Adobe Creative Cloud applications are installed on lab and kiosk computers all over campus. When you launch an Adobe application, you must sign in with your Emerson account. Once you do so, you will have full access to Adobe CC applications and services (Adobe fonts, cloud storage, etc.) during that computing session. Lab logins will not count against your limit of two personal devices.

Compatibility warning

Most Adobe documents are not backward-compatible. A project saved by one version of an Adobe application cannot be opened on a computer with an older version installed. To reduce headaches, we recommend you do not update your computer's Creative Cloud beyond the versions installed in the labs.

View our Lab Software List for the versions that are currently installed.

If you have any questions about software versions or compatibility issues in the computer labs or classrooms, please reach out to helpdesk@emerson.edu

You will continue to have free access to the software as long as you are enrolled full-time at Emerson. If you leave or graduate, the license will expire.

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