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Participant
September 15, 2017
Answered

Upgrade — Photoshop CS3 to CS5 - is it possible?

  • September 15, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 6668 views

Hi there,

About ten years ago I purchased Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended (v.10.0) and have been using it for digital painting on my iMac desktop.

But now I would like upgrade it to Photoshop CS5.

Is this possible through Adobe or has CS3 being totally discontinued?

I don't really need anything higher than Photoshop CS5.

Thanks

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Current system:

Photoshop CS3 Extended (v.10.0)

OSX El Capitan V.10.11.1

Imac 27" late 2012, 3.4Ghz, 16Gb Memory

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer davescm

Adobe no longer sell perpetual licenses for any of the CS versions. The last (CS6) was discontinued early this year.

Photoshop is now only sold as a subscription to CC (which does allow download of every version from CS6 to CC2017.1.1 along with any future versions whilst the subscription is active).

Dave

3 replies

Participating Frequently
October 23, 2020

"If it works, why bother to change." I still using CS3 on iMac 2009. I'm on the second course of digital painting while the instructors are using CC. I don't miss anything in lessons. Like you, I attempted to buy a CS5 on eBay. But was afraid if that screwed up my CS3, I would need adobe CC and a new computer- won't work with mac 2009. A piece of advice is add more memory rams. Since I added 8GM memory Ram, the mac and photoshop have been running twice faster. Wacom is jerky and lagging behind like a guy on meth. Use XP-pen, it's like drawing with a pencil on paper. It's really good.

Jon Fritz
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 15, 2017

CS6 and earlier are no longer supported by Adobe, so there's no "upgrade price" for old Creative Suite software anymore. CS5 has been considered Legacy software for some time now and is no longer sold by Adobe either. At this point, your only "direct through Adobe" option is to purchase a subscription. Creative Cloud pricing and membership plans | Adobe Creative Cloud

The software is downloaded and installed to your machine just like previous CS versions, you just pay monthly and need internet access every once in a while when the program calls home to verify your subscription. If you let your subscription lapse, you still have all your documents, you just can't fire up the program to make edits.

endicottAuthor
Participant
September 16, 2017

Thanks so much Jon

Sounds like CC is the way to go. I have been out of the loop regarding upgrades for so long happily using CS3.

I take it that all work produced from Photoshop CC (PSD files etc) can be saved on to my hard drive and not the 'cloud"?

Thanks

John Waller
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 16, 2017

endicott  wrote

take it that all work produced from Photoshop CC (PSD files etc) can be saved on to my hard drive and not the 'cloud"?

Yes. Adobe Cloud storage is completely optional. You're limited to the amount of storage in your plan. That's only 20GB if you join the All Apps plan. Adobe does not sell storage upgrades.

I never use the Adobe Cloud storage myself. Everything is stored locally and in Dropbox,

davescm
Community Expert
davescmCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
September 15, 2017

Adobe no longer sell perpetual licenses for any of the CS versions. The last (CS6) was discontinued early this year.

Photoshop is now only sold as a subscription to CC (which does allow download of every version from CS6 to CC2017.1.1 along with any future versions whilst the subscription is active).

Dave

endicottAuthor
Participant
September 16, 2017

Thanks davescm, much appreciated