Adobe has made it clear this year that going forward, only users of the immediate prior version of Photoshop (and the rest of the Creative Suite) will be eligible for upgrade pricing on future versions. Therefore, when CS7 comes out in 2013, only CS6 owners will be eligible for upgrade pricing  — CS5 and prior owners will have to pay full price. (Pricing is currently $199 for the upgrade, $699 for the full version.)

Therefore, if you wish to preserve your option to purchase CS7 with upgrade pricing, you will have to purchase CS6 first.

CS5 owners: you can purchase CS6 at any point before CS7 comes out — but if you know you are going to want to upgrade to CS7, why wait — upgrade now and enjoy its new features.

CS3 and CS4 owners: you have only until December 31 of this year (2012) to get upgrade pricing on CS6.

Interestingly, if you go to the Adobe Photoshop product page for Photoshop, the only purchase options immediately evident (at least to me) are for the Creative Cloud subscription service — giving you access to the latest version of the product as long as you subscribe, but leaving you with nothing when you end your subscription. Prices are as low as $19.99/month for Photoshop, and $29.99 for the Suite plus Lightroom and other applications.  While this can be a great value proposition for those who always want to be up-to-date, be sure to understand your options. I discuss the Creative Cloud in the posts below. To purchase the traditional product, that you can use as long as your computer supports it, click here to purchase from Adobe.

Related Posts:

Which to Buy – the Stand-Alone Photoshop CS6 or the Creative Cloud Subscription Service?

Photoshop CS6 is Announced (contains links to more articles and videos on what’s new in CS6).

[sc:signup]