Adobe Lightroom is now on the Mac App Store
The first major Adobe app has arrived on the Mac App Store.
The first major Adobe app to be available on the Mac App Store has finally arrived. Adobe Lightroom, one of the apps in its Creative Cloud suite, is now available for download. It was one of the applications Apple promised would be available through its platform when it introduced the newly redesigned Mac App Store, along with Office 365 and Live Studio from Snap Inc. Microsoft’s office application suite made its way to the store earlier this year, marking the first time Apple has offered a bundle of software on Mac’s application marketplace.
To be clear, Adobe already offers other products on the platform, but they’re lighter versions of its major applications — like Photoshop Elements instead of the full-feature Photoshop…Read more
Adobe brings Lightroom to the Mac App Store
Adobe has brought Lightroom, its flagship photo editing and management app, to the Mac App Store a year after Apple announced its big revamp coinciding with the release of macOS Mojave. The move is Adobe’s first major app to make the leap.
Adobe’s Lightroom joins Microsoft’s Office 365, Panic’s Transmit, and Bare Bones Software’s BBEdit as major Mac apps now available from the largest catalog of Mac apps in the world.
While major developers were quick to embrace the iOS App Store, many Mac developers hesitated to put their work on the Mac App Store because they already had other options for selling their work. Additionally, Apple imposed some restrictions for apps sold on its official App Store that were similar to iOS, but entirely new to the more openly permissive software model that has long existed for Macs.
Apple has made some adjustments to accommodate Mac developers’ needs, and last year also gave its Mac App Store the same overhaul that it brought to iOS 11 two years ago. The revamped App Store in macOS Mojave, just like iOS 11’s a year earlier, focuses on editorially curated content, with regular “App of the Day” and “Game of the Day” sections as well as lists, how-tos, developer interviews and feature pieces highlighting third-party developer’s work.
Apple opens the aperture for Lightroom
Another enticement for Adobe bringing Lightroom to the Mac App Store: Apple’s own Aperture is now going away, with last year’s Mojave being the last version of macOS capable of running the aging app. Apple first launched Aperture back in 2005 as a professional version of iPhoto.
Aperture was initially viewed as Apple taking on Photoshop, but the new title was really aimed at managing photographic workflows rather than comprehensive photo editing. Adobe was quick to react, however, launching its own beta of Lightroom just weeks after its launch.
After competing for several years, Apple essentially put Aperture into maintenance mode in 2014 and last version of macOS capable of running its aging, 32-bit Aperture software. The title hasn’t been listed on the Mac App Store since 2015.
Lightroom for pros in the Mac App Store
Emphasizing its professional audience, Adobe commonly refers to the title as “Photoshop Lightroom.” The app is a free download from the Mac App Store and comes with a free one-week trial…Read more
Adobe endorses Apple Mac App Store with Lightroom release
The photo editing software is the first Adobe product to arrive in Apple’s online store.
The Mac App Store has received significant criticism, but Apple’s efforts to improve it apparently have paid off, as Adobe started using the store to sell its Lightroom software for the first time on Thursday. The photo-editing and cataloging software, geared for photo enthusiasts and pros who want something richer than Google Photos or Apple Photos, costs the same as outside the Mac App Store: $10 per month, including the software and 1TB of online storage.
“With the redesign of the Mac App Store, it was the perfect time to set this in motion and make Lightroom the first Adobe app to be available on the MAS,” Sharad Mangalick, Lightroom principal product manager, said in a statement. “We’ve been working closely with Apple to bring Lightroom to leverage the new MAS.”
On iPhones and iPads, the App Store is the only way you can download software, and plenty of Adobe apps are available there. But on Macs, you can also download apps directly from the software maker. By bypassing the Mac App Store, developers can sidestep some security-minded restrictions, Apple approval processes and the 30% fee Apple charges.
Plenty of software is available through the Mac App Store, though, which can be familiar to iPhone users, bring buyers some assurances that software can be trusted, and offer sellers benefits when it comes to software discovery, distribution and payments. Apple scored one notable victory when Microsoft released Office 365 on the Mac App Store in January.
Adobe offers Lightroom in the Mac App Store with a seven-day free trial. “Once your free trial ends, the recurring monthly payment is automatically charged to your iTunes account,” Adobe says on the Lightroom Mac App Store listing. If you want to cancel, you have to do so at least 24 hours before the beginning of a new monthly billing cycle. It’s a 603MB download.
One app that isn’t available through the Mac App Store, though, is Adobe’s Lightroom Classic, a version with a longer lineage and a richer feature set. For now at least, the newer Lightroom, until recently called Lightroom CC, is the only option.
“Lightroom is better suited architecturally to operate within the structure of the Mac App Store,” Mangalick said of Lightroom Classic’s absence. “We can’t go into specifics, but it is related to sandboxing and how Lightroom and Lightroom Classic differ in approaching photo organization.” Sandboxing is a security precaution that reins in potentially badly behaving apps, but it also limits the power of legitimate apps…Read more
Adobe Lightroom returns to the Mac App Store
The first pro Adobe app in Apple’s redesigned store.
Adobe has made Lightroom, its pro photo editing and management tool, available on the Mac App Store. It’s the first pro Adobe app to make it to the App Store since Apple redesigned it with Mojave, last year’s version of macOS.
The Mac App Store version of Lightroom is the “new” Lightroom formerly known as Lightroom CC, which syncs with complementary mobile and tablet apps and has a different UI to what is now called Lightroom Classic. It’s free to download and use for a week, then it’ll require…Read more