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AMA: Adobe XD Free Starter Plan

over 5 years ago from , Design Marketing, UI/UX @ Adobe

Note: For those of you adding questions or comments after 5pm PDT, we will respond during the following workday (most of our team is based in San Francisco). Thanks and have a good day or night!

Hi everyone,

We’re excited to join you for another AMA. Last week we introduced a new free Starter Plan as well as released an update for Adobe XD that delivers improved Photoshop import, password protected design specs, and more. We will continue to release updates just about every month.

Today, we’re excited to talk about the Starter plan. This plan is available to anyone for free and includes Adobe XD for desktop (Mac / Win) as well as the companion mobile apps (iOS / Android) and up to 1 active shared prototype and 1 active share design spec. More information about the different plan options is here.

Does this plan or the other plan option make sense to you? Is there anything missing or else you want to see? Our team is here from now to 2 PM PDT to chat and answer your questions. Let us know what you think!

Cheers, Kyle

47 comments

  • Radley MarxRadley Marx, over 5 years ago

    When will XD have guides, grids, layouts, and rulers?

    User preferences?

    Since it's AMA... what's up with the 10pt #acacac text on #ddd background in the Character Styles pane? How did that make it into a production app?

    3 points
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi Radley, thank you for the feedback. XD has both layout and square grids, more details here. The team is actively working on guides. I would upvote the feature request here so you'll be notified as the team makes progress. On rulers, I would upvote this request here.

      For user preferences, the team has worked to keep options visible instead away in a menu or dialog. Are there specific preferences that you want to set?

      3 points
      • Talin WadsworthTalin Wadsworth, over 5 years ago

        Jumping in on the 10pt #acacac question: Good catch! Definitely one that's been bugging the team. You try and account for all scenarios, but one slips through the cracks every once in awhile. I'm going to have the team tweak this in an upcoming build

        4 points
      • Eric Patrick, over 5 years ago

        For user preferences, the team has worked to keep options visible instead away in a menu or dialog.

        How come? Isn't Adobe pretty much built on power users, which are going to want more options than somebody playing around on their first day?

        0 points
        • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

          Hi Eric, we've made XD approachable for everyone. This is based on discussions with the community. The team will continue to add depth and functionality to XD; however, the team has made the decision to not have preferences for now.

          0 points
        • Thomas Michael SemmlerThomas Michael Semmler, over 5 years ago

          How come? Isn't Adobe pretty much built on power users, which are going to want more options than somebody playing around on their first day?

          I think it's time to start accepting the fact that many people who use modern day design tools are not really power users like they needed to be before. That is because on many occasions new interfaces are merely a copy and paste of existing design trends with slight tweaks, also demanded by trends. It's not supposed to sound shady, but I think that this is true. You can see that all those features that we have lost from transitioning away from photoshop but it was fine because we didn't have to use them anymore. Do you know what I mean?

          1 point
  • Stephen Leung, over 5 years ago

    Why did you decide to make Adobe XD free? Is it to get Adobe XD into as many hands as possible?

    2 points
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi Stephen, thank you for note. We've heard from the community about the desire to get started quickly in XD. The Starter plan makes that even easier. We also wanted to make it available to anyone whether you are learning UX or a professional designer.

      1 point
  • Radley MarxRadley Marx, over 5 years ago

    Any plans to do floating / docking panels with an independent window like other CC apps? Or will XD be limited to Sketch's all-in-one application frame?

    2 points
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi Radley, yes, Adobe XD has a floating panel for Creative Cloud Libraries. You can see it in action here for bringing vector artwork into XD. More details on the Creative Cloud Libraries panel is here. I will check with the team if there are any future plans around additional panels.

      0 points
      • Radley MarxRadley Marx, over 5 years ago

        FWIW, I'm strongly interested in separating the application frame. I use a large monitor and prefer menu items to be in a fixed, constant position for better muscle memory.

        1 point
        • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

          Hi Radley, thank you for the feedback. Yes, that makes sense; I utilize several large monitors for work. I would add your vote to this request here.

          0 points
  • Ron Norse, over 5 years ago

    Hey Kyle—Can you recommend any online courses to learn the fundamentals of Adobe XD? I have 2 day program/sprint running next Thursday/Friday, and am hoping to learn how to prototype this weekend!! Thanks!

    1 point
  • Jovan Petrovic, over 5 years ago

    Are you planning on adding math functions to dimensions fields (e.g. object length 120/3px or 45+45px

    1 point
  • Nick Arapau, over 5 years ago

    Hi,

    The Starter plan makes pretty good sense. And what's more important to us - it should greatly increase userbase. Why it's more important for us at www.mousescript.com - we're excited about the other part of the recent announcement - XD extensibility with plugins/addons.

    Our product, visual flow-based scripting tool (in private beta now, should go public in June) supports other Adobe CC products (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, AfterEffects) and we're looking forward to support XD as well!

    Currently we don't know about how (tech) and when the XD extensibility will be supported, could you please share anything regarding that? Thanks!

    1 point
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi Nick, I am glad you are excited about the Starter plan! In terms of extensibility, there are more details here.

      0 points
      • Nick Arapau, over 5 years ago

        Thanks for the link to a fresh post, there're a lot of details!

        What we would very much like to also see is an ability to run JS in XD from outside, like from AppleScript on Mac and via COM on Windows.

        1 point
        • Ari Fuchs, over 5 years ago

          Interesting! Would love to hear more about your particular usecase. You can DM me on Twitter if you like.

          1 point
  • Amazing RandoAmazing Rando, over 5 years ago

    When will be we able to scale symbols in XD?

    1 point
    • Talin WadsworthTalin Wadsworth, over 5 years ago

      The team is hard at work on this feature right now! Along with other upgrades to the Asset panel workflows. Question for you: are you looking for standard scaling behaviors, or something a little more responsive? Thanks!

      1 point
      • Amazing RandoAmazing Rando, over 5 years ago

        Standard scaling is the baseline. Without it, using XD has been a novelty only.

        Dynamic scaling ... that would be an excellent bonus.

        1 point
        • Talin WadsworthTalin Wadsworth, over 5 years ago

          Thanks for the feedback Amazing Rando! Basic scaling and dynamic scaling are in active development. You'll probably see one before the other, but both are on the roadmap for this year. Thanks!

          2 points
    • Thomas Michael SemmlerThomas Michael Semmler, over 5 years ago

      ... you can't scale symbols in XD?

      xD

      1 point
  • Max LindMax Lind, over 5 years ago

    Regardless of individual preferences on design tools, this is pretty awesome news for the greater design community!

    • Will this Starter Plan always be free?... or is it a limited time only?
    • When "export assets for production" are there any stipulations or limitations there? (i.e. if I'm remembering right, in the past "educational discounts" on other products couldn't be used for projects where the designer was charging a client)
    • On that same note... can design teams / agencies use this Starter Plan to build projects for clients? (of course, knowing the shared prototype features are gone)

    Thanks as always for doing these AMAs! :)

    1 point
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi Max, thank you for the comment. The Starter plan is free and is not a time-based offer. On the export and building projects for clients, yes if you have the Starter plan you can use it do client work. The only stipulations are Adobe's general terms of use here.

      0 points
  • Amazing RandoAmazing Rando, over 5 years ago

    When will we have paragraph spacing in XD?

    1 point
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi Rando, thank you for the note. The team is actively working on this feature and hope to have it available by the end of the summer. This is an estimate so it is subject to change. If you haven't already, I would upvote the feature request here. This will also allow you to be notified as the team makes progress.

      0 points
  • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, over 5 years ago

    I just miss the days where I didn't have to pay a monthly fee to use the applications taking up space on my own hard disk.

    Oh well... Continues to use entire Adobe CC suite anyway as it's paid for by the company account

    0 points
  • J. Terrell, over 5 years ago

    When will XD have autosave? Main reason why I stopped using it.

    0 points
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi J, thank you for the comment. In the latest release, there is auto-recovery in case of a crash. There are more details here. The team is also looking into ways of making file management easier.

      0 points
  • Jamie MartinJamie Martin, over 5 years ago

    When will using my Wacom tablet in XD feel as nice as it does in Photoshop or Illustrator?

    0 points
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi Jamie, thank you for the feedback. Would you be able to provide more details about what you want to do XD while using a Wacom?

      0 points
  • Thiago Duarte, over 5 years ago

    I know is not straight about XD, but do you guys know if there are any plans for changing the way Adobe products subscription works?

    I always think about subscribing (to do a personal portfolio, side project or keep exploring the tools at home), then I realize that I'll have to subscribe for a full year and I'll make no profit. Then I'll have to contact the support to cancel my subscription and pay a cancellation fee... Just a nightmare.

    I love what you guys are doing with XD, but I wish Adobe had better pricing and no annual commitment for people that just want to explore their creativity or learn other Adobe products.

    Thank you for your time.

    0 points
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi Thiago, thank you for the feedback. There aren't any changes to the current subscription offerings. If you don't mind sharing, which subscription are you trying to sign up for (All Apps, Photography plan, etc.)?

      0 points
      • Thiago Duarte, over 5 years ago

        I wanted to have the All Apps (because there's no "3~4 apps of your choice" so I can start learning Premiere, After Effects and Lightroom (I had sometime to start playing with it at work). Also you always need Photoshop for something.

        I think a simple change like having the trial by hours of usage instead of days would be helpful, because side projects are always left for later and when I had time to continue, my trial was expired and I couldn't continue learning the software.

        0 points
        • Radley MarxRadley Marx, over 5 years ago

          If you're doing Premiere / After Effects, most likely you'll end up using Illustrator (for titles, graphics) and Audition (for the sound mix). That's essentially the bulk of the CC platform.

          1 point
        • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

          Hi Thiago, thank you for sharing; makes sense. I will share with the teams that work on trials.

          1 point
  • Amazing RandoAmazing Rando, over 5 years ago

    How do you determine issues to add to the application's work queue? (Votes are surely a component of this, but not the only factor.)

    0 points
    • Kyle Galle, over 5 years ago

      Hi Rando, thank you for the feedback. The team bases the roadmap on feature requests from Uservoice as well as other channels for feedback. We also share the status of these requests on Uservoice and highlight where we are headed in AMAs here.

      0 points