Adobe customers worried what will happen to their Lightroom photos once their Creative Cloud subscription ends can rest easy, the vendor has said.
When Adobe axed its perpetual Creative Suite product in favour of a cloud-based subscription model, Creative Cloud, users of the the company's photo editing and management software were concerned they would be shut out of their work if they decided to let their membership lapse.
However, Adobe has claimed it has now addressed this "lingering concern in the community".
Lightroom 5.5, the latest update to the software, will allow users to access their images even if they decide not to renew their subscription to Creative Cloud or Creative Cloud Photography - a package that includes Lightroom and Photoshop.
Tom Hogarty, principal product manager of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, said that "the desktop application will continue to launch and provide access to the photographs managed within Lightroom as well as the Slideshow, Web, Book or Print creations that we know many photographers painstakingly create".
However, the Develop and Map modules of Lightroom will cease to function in the updated version once membership runs out, as will access to mobile workflows, "in order to signal the end of the membership and the need to renew".
"We hope this meets the expectations of our customers," Hogarty concluded.
Unlike most of the tools that make up Creative Cloud, Lightroom 5.5 is still available to buy as a standalone, perpetual license, although you will need one of its predecessors already installed. The new arrangement will not affect these customers, Adobe said.
This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk
