Adobe XD Gets a Free Starter Plan, $10 Million Fund, Updates, and More

Adobe has launched Adobe XD or Adobe Experience Design - the software giant's all-in-one UX/ UI solution for websites and apps - bringing it out of beta. "Adobe XD will be as big as Photoshop, if not bigger," said Andrew Shorten, Senior Director, Product Management at Adobe XD's recent global press conference. The software is getting a few new features to help new developers and firms get on board. The updates include a new free plan to get users started with Adobe XD, a $10 million (roughly Rs. 6.73 crores) fund aimed at empowering creators all across the globe, and several software updates. Users can download Adobe XD on macOS, Windows, and its mobile apps on Android and iOS.

Adobe XD Starter Plan

One of the biggest highlights of Adobe's announcement was the release of the new free Adobe XD Starter Plan. It provides designers with complete access to all relevant tools for designing and creating. Differences between this plan and the paid one are that you get to share only one (at a time) active design specification and prototype, compared to unlimited prototypes on Adobe XD CC. Also, cloud storage is capped at 2GB for the free plan, while the paid plans get 100GB. Additionally, there is a limited font set for Typekit. There is still no Linux variant of Adobe XD, it is compatible with the latest hardware and software on Mac and Windows. Adobe XD Starter Plan will remain free for the foreseeable future, says the company.

Adobe Fund for Design

At Adobe's global press conference last week, the company's Principal Designer, Khoi Vinh announced $10 million would be set aside as a fund to help designers avail professional developer tools and Adobe XD extensions. The fund is open to organisations of all sizes, whether small or big, and the focus will be on assigning funds where there is potential of seeing the community build interesting products for users.

Adobe XD May Updates
The software is getting several new updates that will start rolling out in the next couple of months. These include improvements to Photoshop CC and Sketch integration on Adobe XD, password protected design specifications (in beta), simple drag and drop options to swap symbols, file auto-recovery, and the ability to paste content on multiple artboards.

Having gone out of beta in October last year, Adobe XD is a simplified approach to the world of web and app development. It is claimed to have more than a million users, and Adobe has promised monthly releases with updates apart from third party integration and support. "The aim of Adobe XD wasn't to create another UX tool. We need to create for the future, not just a UX tool but a platform that allows developers to create products across platforms," said Adobe at the press conference.

The demo showed off at the conference revealed how efficient the UI of Adobe XD is in helping designers create in-app elements like menus, toolbars, and categories. Adobe XD can be used to create websites and apps, which are significantly interactive, in a few minutes.