Can't afford Photoshop? Rent it

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For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCBP leaders cut out of Trump ad buy decision

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation pushes embattled New York prosecutor into national spotlight

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

Adobe software can be expensive. Photoshop costs $699, Illustrator's $599, the Premium version of Creative Suite is $1,899, and so on. So what do you do if you can't afford to pay that much, but need the software? You rent it.

Adobe has just begun offering subscription editions of its software. Those editions are exactly like the regular versions of each program — except you pay for them on a month-by-month basis. The programs that you'll be able to subscribe to are:

Why would you want to rent a program instead of buying it? Maybe you've got an older version of the software and need something newer for the short term, maybe you're strapped for cash, maybe you just occasionally need particular programs and don't see a need to pay for more than you'll use. There are plenty of good reasons to rent a program like this instead of making do without it — or without dealing with a potentially buggy or shady pirated version.

The whole thing's not a terribly bad deal either: Photoshop CS 5, for example, costs $699. You can subscribe to it for $49/month (or $35 if you're willing to agree to a one-year plan.) Other prices appear to range based on the regular program and can be found on Adobe's site.

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• New app automatically shares photos with everyone near you

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's a bit obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook.