Adobe Creative Campus

A number of courses at NIU have already been using Adobe Creative Cloud. Students in those courses will receive a license to Adobe Creative Cloud when they first try to access any application that is part of Creative Cloud, such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere, etc. 

The great news is that they will continue to have access to Adobe Creative Cloud throughout their academic career, including semesters when they aren't taking a course that uses Creative Cloud. This gives them the opportunity to continue practicing the skills they learned by applying them in other courses or in their co-curricular activities.

First, make sure that you are signed into to Adobe Express with your NIU account ID. Click your icon in the upper right and verify that your NIU email address appears there. If you click the Manage Account link, you should see that you are a member of NIU's Adobe for Enterprise license. If you are not signed in with your NIU account, sign out of the browser and the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop manager and sign back in using your NIU Account ID (AID@mail.niu.edu or ZID@students.niu.edu).

If you are signed in with your NIU account, the error indicates that you have a free trial to Adobe Express instead of a full license. To request access to Adobe Express, click the Try Premium button at the top. In the pop-up, click the Send Request button, which should process in a matter of seconds. DO NOT proceed if you are being asked to pay for the license; in that case, log out of the website and the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop manager and sign in again using your NIU Account ID.

There are several great reasons to consider switching to an Adobe Creative Cloud application instead of using a free tool or a free trial:

• Students will use their existing NIU credentials to access Adobe Creative Cloud, so they do not need to create a new account.
• NIU's license for Adobe Creative Cloud includes powerful premium features that are often excluded from free trials of other tools, including larger storage quotas, advanced AI-powered features, and premium media resources (e.g., stock photography, video assets, background music).
• Expertise with Adobe's industry-standard tools looks great on a resumé.