Ahead of its annual MAX Conference kicking off today, Adobe has launched an entirely new suite of apps that are now available on the iPhone and iPad App Store. This year, Adobe is focusing on simplifying its mobile software lineup into four categories that sync with desktop counterparts: Illustration, Imaging, Video, and a new platform called Creative Cloud Capture Apps. Each of the apps within the four categories are either brand new or have been enhanced.

Imaging:

  • Photoshop Sketch: This app, partly a re-branded form of the existing Adobe Sketch app on the App Store, integrates with the existing Photoshop and Illustrator apps on the desktop as a form of a drawing tablet. You can use Sketch to draw items with your fingers or a stylus and have those drawings, through the cloud, integrate into your existing desktop workflow.
  • Photoshop Mix: Adobe first launched Photoshop Mix for iPad earlier this year (pictured above), and it is a highly sophisticated editing tool complete with layer management and advanced manipulation of assets. We praised the application in our review earlier this year, saying that “it brings desktop quality editing to iOS.” Today, Adobe is bringing Mix to the iPhone’s screen and (unsurprisingly) giving both versions enhanced compatibility with the new Photoshop updates for the desktop.
  • Lightroom Mobile (iPhone, iPad): Adobe’s Lightroom app for iPad and iPhone is gaining a couple of important new features today: a social element that allows people to more easily comment on and share photos plus the ability to synchronize GPS metadata for photos between the mobile and desktop apps.

Illustration:

  • Illustrator Line:  Illustrator Line “gives users access to their favorite vector drawing tools and features in a modern, streamlined interface, high-fidelity integration with Illustrator CC and enhanced support for Adobe Ink and Slide.”
  • Illustrator Draw: Complementing the new Line app, Draw now “gives creatives new features for perfectly distributing shapes as they draw, plus the ability to send sketches to Illustrator CC, where they have full access to their original vector paths for editing.”

Video:

  • Premiere Clip: With Premiere Clip, Adobe, for the first time, is entering the video editing space on iOS. The new Clip app is a very watered down version of the famous Premiere app on the desktop, and it allows for simple editing (audio, text, transitions, a few effects) on both the iPhone and iPad with easy synchronization to the complete desktop Premiere app.

Capture Apps:

  • Brush: Brush for iOS is a dedicated application for creating brushes, based on your existing images, for use in the desktop Adobe Creative Cloud apps. The iPad version is pictured above.
  • Shape: Shape lets you create shapes for use in the Desktop apps. “A high-contrast photo of anything – a chair, a pet, or a hand-drawn font – is converted into vector art that can be used immediately in Illustrator CC and Adobe Illustrator Line via Creative Cloud Libraries,” says Adobe.
  • Color: Rebranded from “Kuler,” the new Color app “allows creatives to capture colors and save them as themes that are immediately available in other Adobe applications, including Illustrator CC and Photoshop CC.”

The new applications are all available today, and they are free additions for everyone with a Creative Cloud subscription.