Update: We go hands on with new Adobe Touch Apps!
Adobe Photoshop Touch and five other new iPad apps from Adobe will land on the App Store soon, coming to Android devices in November.
Adobe today made a series of announcements at their MAX conference which runs October 1-5. The company doubled down on its tablet and cloud initiatives with the announcements of six new tablets apps for iPad and Android tablets – Adobe Collage, Adobe Debut, Adobe Ideas, Adobe Kuler and Adobe Proto – in addition to the Adobe Creative Cloud online service. Eagle-eyed readers will remember Adobe’s Eazel, Nav and Color Lava apps that hit the App Store in May, optimized for the updated version of Photoshop.
The official release bills Adobe Creative Cloud as “a major new initiative from the company that radically redefines the content creation process”. Adobe’s cloud is conceived as a backbone of their desktop and tablet software, allowing users to store, share and view their creative work across devices, using 20GB of online storage, as well as transfer the files into Adobe Creative Suite for further refinement.
As for the new tablet apps, Adobe says they enable “professional-level creativity”, spawning image editing, ideation, sketching, mood boards, website and mobile app prototyping, as well as presenting finished work. They also build upon Adobe Carousel, the recently released software which keeps your photos in sync across desktop and mobile worlds, via the cloud (we described it as “the Lightroom for iPad” with element of the Photo Streaming feature of iOS 5)
The most important of the bunch, of course, is Adobe Photoshop Touch, described as “a groundbreaking app that brings the legendary creative and image-editing power of Photoshop to tablet devices for the first time”. Think core Photoshop features on your iPad, including layers and pro effects – all optimized for finger-friendly interaction. So far so good. Go past the fold for the full scoop.
Adobe Creative Cloud, a new wordlwide hub providing a central cloud-based storage and sharing features for Adobe’s software.
Adobe Photoshop Touch lets users transform images with core Photoshop features in an app custom-built for tablets. With simple finger gestures, users can combine multiple photos into layered images, make popular edits and apply professional effects. The tablet-exclusive Scribble Selection Tool allows users to easily extract objects in an image by simply scribbling on what to keep and then what to remove. With Refine Edge technology from Adobe Photoshop, even hard-to-select areas with soft edges, such as hair, are easily captured when making selections. Additionally, the app helps users quickly find images, share creations, and view comments through integration with Facebook and Google Search. Using the syncing capabilities that are a component of Adobe Creative Cloud, files can be opened in Adobe Photoshop.
Adobe Collage helps creatives capture and refine ideas and concepts by allowing them to combine inspirational images, drawings, text and Creative Suite files into modern, conceptual mood boards. Features include importing of images, four customizable pen types for drawing, adding text, and applying color themes. A virtually unconstrained canvas grows as needed to accommodate more assets. Files can be shared or transferred for access in Adobe Photoshop.
Adobe Debut allows users to present designs to clients and stakeholders virtually anywhere. Adobe Debut quickly opens tablet-compatible versions of Creative Suite files for convenient and beautiful viewing on the tablet, including Photoshop layers and Illustrator® art boards. Feedback is gathered using a markup pen tool to add notes and drawings on top of the work.
Adobe Ideas is an easy-to-master, vector-based tool for drawing. By using a stylus or finger, strokes appear smooth at any zoom level. Starting with a blank canvas, users can choose color themes, and pull in tablet-compatible image files that can be controlled as separate layers. Finished results are easily accessed in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.
Adobe Kuler makes it easy to generate color themes that can inspire any design project. Color can be explored and discovered, with hundreds of thousands of Kuler themes already available via the creative community. Social engagement in the community is enhanced by rating and commenting on themes, which can be exported as color swatches for Adobe Creative Suite projects.
Adobe Proto enables the development of interactive wireframes and prototypes for websites and mobile apps on a tablet. Ideas are communicated and shared with teams and clients using a touch-based interface. Gestures quickly express a design concept, explain website structure or demonstrate interactivity. The wireframe or prototype then can be exported as industry standard HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and shared in popular browsers for immediate review and approval.
