@ADOBEUK

Breaking news for all budding and pro creatives out there! Today marks the start of our countdown to the UK Creative Day, set to be staged at Kings Place in London in just over two weeks time! The event is one in a series of 14 Creative Days happening all across Europe as part of Adobe’s bumper Create Now World Tour. It’s taking place on Tuesday 4^th June and will be a celebration of creativity and expressiveness in the UK.

Hosted by tech enthusiast David McClelland, Creative Day will feature a mix of industry luminaries, influencers and our very own global evangelists, including Rufus Deuchler, Paul Trani, Jason Levine, as well as our UK experts, Richard Curtis, Iona Walters, Rupert Knowles and Niels Stevens. Each will take to the stage – together with inspirational creatives – throughout Creative Day and cover all that’s hot in Adobe Creative Cloud.

Creative Day will be packed with lively debates, exclusive demonstrations and inspirational case studies – all broadcast online at www.adobecreativedays.com/uk from 9.45am. Plus, we’re giving 400 lucky people the chance to be in the live audience – just register here to take part in person.

Liz Wilkins, senior marketing manager for Digital Media at Adobe, said: “The UK creative industry is one of the most exciting and dynamic sectors to work in. Creative Day will be a fantastic chance for creatives to come together, exchange ideas, hear from luminaries and and learn about the very latest in Creative Cloud”.

David McClelland who is hosting the event said: “I’m thrilled to be working with Adobe on the London leg of the Creative Days World Tour and am particularly excited about being able to share my Adobe Creative Cloud  experience with a live audience, as well as with tens of thousands watching online”.

Follow the conversation on Twitter – #CreativeDays.

We’ll be running a #PythonGiveaway on our Twitter feed on 15th February 2013! If you haven’t already seen A Liar’s Autobiography in cinemas, make sure to look out for our tweet at 10am. We’ll tell you how you can be in with the chance of winning a copy of the book that the film was based on, as well as a customised A Liar’s Autobiography tote bag.

Find out more about how Adobe’s Creative Suite software was used to create this brilliant tribute to Python Graham Chapman in this video.

Adobe Terms & Conditions for #PythonGiveaway Twitter competition

1. Only open to UK residents aged 18 years or over, who are following @AdobeUK on Twitter
2. To take part in the prize draw, go to www.twitter.com/AdobeUK, follow the Twitter feed and retweet the #PythonGiveaway tweet sent on Friday 15^th February 2013
3. The prize draw excludes Adobe employees, their families, agencies, or anyone professionally connected with the promotion
4. No purchase necessary. The competition will be open from 10am Friday 15^th February 2013 (GMT) and will close at 5pm Friday 15^th February 2013 (GMT) (the “Promotion Period”)
5. Any entries outside of the Promotion Period will not be counted
6. 30 prize winners will be chosen at random by an independent party during the Promotion Period
7. The Prize: Each of the winners will receive a copy of A Liar’s Autobiography book and a customised A Liar’s Autobiography tote bag
8. No entries from agents, third parties, organised groups or applications automatically generated by computers will be accepted. No incomplete or corrupted entries will be accepted. Any entries not in accordance with the entry instructions will be rejected. Any entries containing offensive or inappropriate content will be removed
9. All prize winner[s] will be contacted by 5pm (GMT) Monday 18^th February 2013
10. No cash or other alternative in part or full will be offered in lieu of the specified prizes. Prizes are not transferable
11. By entering participants will be deemed to have accepted and be bound by the rules. All entry instructions form part of these Terms and Conditions
12. In the event of unforeseen circumstances the Promoters reserve the right to offer alternative prizes of equal or greater value
13. The promoter reserves the right to amend, alter or terminate this promotion at any time due to circumstances beyond its control
14. The promoter’s decision is binding in all matters
15. Winners must respond to notification of their prize within 24 hours otherwise the right to claim the prize will be lost and the promoter reserves the right to re-award the prize(s)
16. A list of winners (name and county) will be made available on request to those enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelope to Adobe Systems Ltd, PR Team, Market St, Maidenhead, West Berkshire SL6 8AD
17. The promoter can accept no responsibility for, and reserves the right to refuse, entries which are corrupt, incomplete or fail to arrive by the closing date
18. These rules are governed by English law and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts
19. Twitter, Inc. is not a sponsor of this contest and bears no responsibility or liability for the administration, operation, judging, or conduct of the contest, or for the fulfilment of prizes associated with this promotion
20. Promoter & Data Controller: Adobe Systems Ltd, Market St, Maidenhead, West Berkshire SL6 8AD. Do not send entries to this address

Who doesn’t love the iconic John Lewis Christmas advert? If it doesn’t feel like Christmas until you’ve seen it then you’re going to love John Lewis’ Christmas Annual app, with the ad included!

Pouring over the digital catalogue on your tablet or smartphone leaves you in no doubt as to why John Lewis is the UK’s favourite retailer. Created with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite every page truly stands out.

And it doesn’t just have to be window shopping. The free digital Christmas Annual, available on iPad, iPhone, Android devices and Kindle Fire, allows you to click on the products that catch your eye and it takes you to the product page on the website; everything really is just a swipe away.

Of course, it doesn’t stop there. Included in the special Christmas Edition are a host of other interactive experiences, which are perfectly brought to life with Adobe’s digital publishing capabilities.

As well as seeing the very best of John Lewis products you’ll also discover 3D teddy bears that you can view from every angle, gift ideas from top newspaper writers and features on festive style, all illustrated with stunning photography that was made to be viewed on your tablet or smartphone.

With 5-star reviews and thousands of downloads resulting in the John Lewis digital Christmas Annual shooting up the charts, make sure you get some festive inspiration at your fingertips and access the app for your devices now.

To download the iPad and iPhone app click here, Android here and for Kindle Fire users search for John Lewis in the Kindle Newsstand.

Happy Christmas!

BBC Worldwide today launched its interactive digital edition of Top Gear Magazine, the UK’s best-selling car magazine, to help expand its reach to an increasingly tech-savvy audience. Using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Enterprise Edition, BBC Worldwide was able to leverage its existing print workflow based on Adobe InDesign to create an engaging, fully interactive digital edition for iPad.

As part of the new digital edition, readers will have even more intriguing views and advice from the legendary Clarkson, Hammond and May. BBC Worldwide also took advantage of a number of the key capabilities within Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to set the digital edition apart from the print edition and offer readers:

- HD videos – stunning videos of world-exclusive features
- HD galleries – ability to experience their favourite supercar from every angle, with extra images
- Interactive content wheel – navigate to the latest news, hottest car reviews and the Top Gear Garage
- Facebook and Twitter – ability to join live-populating feeds to interact with other readers
- Entertainment – fire up the engines of the cover stars by tapping them on-screen
- Hidden content – tap to reveal additional content within features
- Buyers’ guide – read all the essentials for every new car available

The first interactive digital edition is Top Gear’s Awards issue in which the exceptional new cars of 2012 are recognised and receive a Top Gear Magazine Car of the Year Award.  It is available now for download from the iTunes Store.

Digital technology has disrupted every industry and geography, revolutionising how office workers today create, produce and manage their work. As more and more employees work remotely and teams span the globe it can often lead to a feeling that all of their time is spent searching, editing and collaborating on documents, rather than their actual day jobs. At the same time IT departments are having to integrate and manage the many different platforms, devices and services workers are demanding, all while protecting sensitive corporate IP and personal information.

While these struggles are well-recognised, we wanted to try and actually quantify their impact on organisations.  It was with this in mind that we partnered with IDC to build a better understanding of office and IT workers’ needs and challenges in the modern day workplace and the financial impact this has on organisations in terms of bottom line. 

The results were surprising: we all know time is being wasted, but the cost of that wasted time reaches an eye-watering, €11,700 per information worker annually! This was calculated by looking at things like the challenges related to personal productivity – such as searching for, but not finding, documents; inefficiencies in collaboration between individuals and companies, and barriers to working on new platforms such as mobile and tablet.

For businesses, the key to closing the gap is to recognise that it is a set of compounding issues: lots of little things that add up to a big impact on employee productivity, and ultimately, the bottom line. The features that we’ve introduced in Acrobat XI – shipping today – equip office workers and IT departments with document collaboration tools that not only increase efficiency through the document creation, management and distribution process, and protect sensitive information, even when documents travel outside of the document management system and corporate firewall. 

Our infographic below highlights some of the other findings from IDC’s whitepaper, and below that you can check out an overview of the all the new features of Acrobat XI to see how it’ll allow you to work smarter, not harder.  

Adobe Acrobat XI, new and improved features include:

• Edit PDF files, modify paragraphs, images, and objects by simply clicking and dragging using the new, intuitive Edit Text and Images tool. Arrange and visually merge select content and multiple documents into one organised PDF file, while retaining source file integrity.
• Improved protection of all PDF files created from Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, and Excel to help prevent copying, editing, or printing without permission.
• Speed up document and web contract approvals (from weeks to hours) with electronic signatures using the integrated Adobe EchoSign electronic signature service. Simplify forms creation, distribution and results analysis using the included Adobe FormsCentral desktop app.
• Work with PDF files across tablets and smartphones in touch-friendly Adobe Reader to annotate and add comments, as well as fill in, sign and save forms.
• Save PDF documents as PowerPoint, Word or Excel files or reuse parts of or entire PDF files as Microsoft Office documents and web pages without retyping or need to reformat.

The new and improved IT features and functionality now enable IT professionals to:

• Standardise on an easy to use, full-featured, consistent and trusted PDF Reader now with full support for iPads and Android tablets.
• Integrate Adobe Acrobat XI seamlessly with Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint, enabling users to do more with PDF in an Office or SharePoint environment.
• Streamline deployment and maintenance with free Adobe tools to aid configuration and installation, as well as enhanced support for Microsoft SCCM/SCUP and Apple Remote Desktop.
• Help mitigate risk and protect systems and data with industry-leading security technology, in addition to the Adobe PDF Whitelist Framework, allowing selective enablement of JavaScript for both Windows and Mac OS.
• Easily deliver multi-step PDF file preparation and security measures using the Action Wizard to help ensure organisational consistency.