Adobe Licensing Overview

Purchase Adobe Products

New licenses for Adobe products can now be purchased individually through our existing Value Incentive Program (VIP). To purchase or renew Adobe products, please send your request via email to one of our sales representatives at JourneyEd:

Please include the following in your email:

  • Name
  • Department
  • Shipping Address
  • Product Name (e.g., Adobe Acrobat Pro or Adobe Creative Cloud)
  • License Type: Named-User or Shared Device (Creative Cloud only)
  • Quantity (if ordering for multiple users, include a list of names)
  • VIP# B480B4C79B27BB877E2A

You will receive a quote that can be used to submit a Purchase Order, or you may pay using your University Procurement Card. Please retain your order confirmation email as your proof of license.

Once your license has been procured, please submit a request to be granted access and have the software installed.

Licensing Overview

License Types

Adobe Individual License Assignment

Adobe products can be assigned to active University employees, including student employees, who have a University business need for the software. Adobe products are licensed on an individual (Named-User) basis. These licenses remain valid for as long as the license holder remains an employee or until a department request that the license be canceled.

Shared Device Licensing

Shared Device Licensing (SDL) is another licensing option for Adobe Creative Cloud (only) that can be used in classrooms and student instructional labs. SDL licensing assigns the license to a specific, UL Lafayette-owned computer on the University network and is physically present on University property. Other restrictions apply. Adobe products activated with SDL are only authorized for use in instructional or educational purposes and may NOT be used for academic research or University administrative or business purposes. 

If your use-case meets Adobe’s requirements, a local SDL product profile can be provisioned on the Adobe Admin Console for you and assign local administrators to manage it.

Please see our Adobe Licensing FAQ page.

Adobe Creative Cloud and Acrobat Pro: Licensing Available

University staff and faculty with a university business need can request a license for either Acrobat Pro or the full Creative Cloud All Apps Plan. The cost of these licenses is the responsibility of the department purchasing them. When determining if you need either Acrobat Pro or the full Creative Cloud All Apps Plan, please consult our decision chart.

If you want to... Software needed Who can use? Do you need a license? Cost
Convert a document to PDF Many apps (like Word and Excel) can do this during printing or saving Everyone No No cost
Read a PDF Free reader Everyone No No cost
Electronically sign a document Free reader Everyone No No cost
Edit PDFs, or combine several PDFs into one document Adobe Acrobat Pro Faculty & Staff Classrooms & Labs Yes Yes
Modify a PDF so that it meets web accessibility guidelines Adobe Acrobat Pro Faculty & Staff Classrooms & Labs Yes Yes
Create multi-page digital documents, vector graphics, high-end graphics, edit video content, etc. Adobe Creative Cloud Faculty & Staff Classrooms & Labs Yes Yes

See also our Working with PDFs Comparison Table

Creative Cloud Licensing

Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps Plan individual (Named-User) licensing is available on a yearly subscription basis for active University employees, including student employees, who have a University business need for the software. More information can be found on our Creative Cloud Enterprise Licensing page.

You can find a list of all the apps included with the Creative Cloud All Apps Plan on Adobe's website.

Acrobat Pro Licensing

Adobe Acrobat Pro individual (Named-User) licensing is available on a yearly subscription basis for active University employees, including student employees, who have a University business need for the software. For more information, please see our Acrobat Pro Standalone Licensing article.

Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate is an authoring tool that is used for creating e-learning content such as software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and randomized quizzes in HTML5 format.

Previously Purchased Creative Suite Licensing

University personnel who purchased an Adobe Creative Suite or Acrobat Professional perpetual license in 2014 or earlier should transition to Creative Cloud or Acrobat Pro, under our current licensing agreement. Adobe no longer provides support or security updates to any Creative software from that period. Consequently, such software is considered insecure and should no longer be used in the UL Lafayette environment.

Download Adobe Software

Adobe Creative Cloud and Acrobat Pro DC

University-owned computers: Please work with IT Support to install Creative Cloud software onto your university-provided computer. Most personnel do not have sufficient access rights to install the software without the assistance of IT support.

Personally-owned computers: Your Named-User license does permit you to install the software onto your personally-owned devices.

Print Article