Adobe Cuts Perpetual License for Elements Down to Just Three Years
Adobe announced the latest version of its “Elements” creative software, Photoshop Elements 2025 and Premiere Elements 2025. The newest annual releases continue to add new artificial intelligence-powered features and more Guided Edits to enable users of all experience levels to edit their photos and videos.
In Photoshop Elements 2025, a new AI-powered Remove Tool makes it easy to erase and replace distracting objects in photos, including unwanted people and distracting objects. This new feature also includes an accompanying “Object Removal” Guided Edit to walk new users through the process.
The tool uses AI to identify a painted-over object and generate new pixels to seamlessly replace it in the scene, much like users can do in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
Another new AI-powered tool is a Depth Blur filter. This tool automatically adds blur where it’s needed most, and users can adjust details like blur strength, focal distance, and focal range to dial in a natural-looking result similar to what could have been achieved with a professional-grade fast lens.
A widespread user request inside photo editing software is to change the color of something, whether it’s an object, a piece of clothing, or natural foliage. Photoshop Elements 2025 adds a simple color-changing tool, allowing users to select what they want to change and pick a new color.
Photoshop Elements has long included a range of collage tools, enabling users to combine multiple photos. With AI-powered subject detection tools, it’s now easier to blend the subject from one shot with the background of another. Editors can learn the ropes of this type of photo compositing with a new “Combine Photos” Guided Edit.
Rounding out the Photoshop Elements 2025 updates are four new Quick Actions to add motion to still photos, new textured photo backgrounds, new Guided Edits bringing the total to 59, and full Apple M3 support to deliver improved performance.
On the Premiere Elements 2025 side of things, the video editing software features new dynamic title templates with fine-tuned control over text, alignment, direction, color, and more.
To help video footage look better, the software includes a new White Balance tool to make specific color and brightness adjustments to selected parts of the scene or the entire frame. Premiere Elements 2025 also adds support for LUTs, which video editors can use to dial in a precise look or mood for their footage.
This year’s version of Premiere Elements aims to make video editing more straightforward and more accessible. To that end, the software has a simplified Timeline that groups certain file types to make the user interface more navigable. It also integrates Adobe Stock title templates in the software, making it easier to go from ingest to export. Further, the app includes a variety of new Guided Edits.
As part of Adobe’s continued push into web- and mobile-based editing, Photoshop and Premiere Elements 2025 work alongside web and mobile companion apps. While these apps are currently in beta, they allow users to view their edited Elements photos and videos from any browser or compatible mobile device for additional edits and streamlined sharing. The apps also sync with Elements Organizer, making it easy to access edited files across all devices.
So Long, Lifetime Licenses
Among the most significant changes with this year’s Elements releases has little to do with new features but instead concerns the ways users purchase and own the software. While prior versions of Photoshop and Premiere Elements have been lifetime licenses — the user buys the software and then owns it indefinitely — this year’s release has moved to a three-year license term.
While Adobe is quick to say that there are no monthly or annual recurring subscription fees like there are with Creative Cloud software, Elements 2025 is still, at its core, now a subscription service. Customers pay a fee; the precise amount depends on if it’s a new purchase or an upgrade, and then they have access to the software for three years (36 months).
Once that period is up, users will no longer have access to the software’s editing functions, although they will still have access to Elements Organizer to view and manage their files. There is no automatic renewal, and presumably, users will be expected to purchase the most recent version of Elements once this period has expired, assuming Adobe continues its typical annual release schedule.
Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025 and Premiere Elements 2025 are $99.99 each for a three-year license term, or $79.99 when upgrading from a prior version of the software. The apps can also be bought in a bundle for $149.99, or $119.99 as an upgrade.
Image credits: Adobe
