Adobe Shows Off Photoshop for iPad With Layer Support

[ctdonath]

You can't seriously think that professionals are going to depend on Photoshop for iPad and throw away their computer can you?

Of course not.

Flip side: You can't seriously think that professionals are going to haul around a 27" monitor, full keyboard, stylus & tablet, quadcore i7, multi-terabyte desktop computer can you?

iPad naysayers keep missing the point: it's not a "computer replacement", it's an anytime/anywhere device to augment a serious computer. If you need [some of] Photoshop right now, just get out the easy-carry tablet and do a reasonable approximation of what you can do perfectly with that office/home behemoth, and either be content with "good enough" or do the refinements when you get back.

 

[lilo777]

Soon we will only have one OS called iOSX

OSX 10.7 has iOS features that were sent "Back to the Mac"
iOS is getting OSX apps (Photoshop, Garage Band, iMovie, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Photo Booth.......)
OSX is getting apps originally designed for iOS

If you imagine iOS and OSX on a line

iOS......................|.....................OSX

They are moving in opposite directions toward each other.

......iOS................|..............OSX.......

Eventually, they will meet in the middle and we will have either 2 similar operating systems or simply a mix of the two.

I think Apple thinks that by taking the best of the two worlds they are creating a "better" user experience. I don't know if this is the case but I think that this is clearly the inevitable long-term outcome. Time will tell.

Yes, I want to have the same OS on my phone and my desktop.

 

[bigpics]

As a professional photographer this thing is (and always will be) an "App Store" toy - nothing more.

The iPad will never have the horse power to do what pros need.

A number of the comments here ("toy," "will never do X") are more than a bit reminiscent of what many reviewers were saying in 1984 - about the Mac.

9" 512x342 monochrome pixel display. 128 KB RAM. 8 MHZ Moto CPU. 16 bit. (Note that's "KB" - not MB, let alone GB - and "MHZ" not GHZ.) No HDD or on-board storage of any kind other than its 64K of ROM. The OS, apps and files shared the use of a single 400 K mini-floppy disk. Two non-standard serial ports. The original keyboard lacked arrow and function keys, and had no numeric keypad, enraging some potential users. And it went to market with fewer native apps than the Xoom.

And if you go back and look at MacWrite and MacPaint and compare them to where that "toy computer" and its apps are today (along with all the Windows computers which, uhhh, adopted its basic interface and input metaphor), and what it does.......

...i.e., all the types of tasks people here are saying can only be done on its current iterations, and "never" on the new toy...

...all the while (albeit with a hiatus in its middle years) remaining under the firm control of the same visionary leader someone here has labeled a "charlatan" and "aesthete"....

...and I've enjoyed watching it all happen while the naysayers have foamed at the mouth and gnashed their teeth at each and every new Apple release - even as Macs now hold an amazing 90% share of the premium (i.e., money-making part of) the PC market. Some toy.

And lest some of you have forgotten, some program called... ...what was it, oh yeah, "Photoshop"... ...was originally released on this "hopeless" platform. (As were Pagemaker, Illustrator and QuarkExpress, e.g.)

We're four years into iDevices and only ONE year into the iPad era. The New Yorker had a cover created on an original iPhone within months of its release. A somewhat major artist released a video on YouTube produced on an iPad 2 with iMovie and GarageBand within a day or two of its release.

What will these device classes (and their successor innovations) be capable of in 3 years? 5? 10? 30?

Perspective, people. Vision, hope, creativity, engineering, a willingness to jump off (calculated) new cliffs - and perspective.

Some'a y'all oughta' go develop some.

 

[skellener]

I agree with most of what you're saying... but I think it's adobe's goal to push the most creative software on whatever they can. It's Apple's goal to provide the best experience for most people. Way more people are interested in using an iPad without a stylus - why sacrifice all those people for the minority of artists.

You want to draw, grab a wacom and mac.

But if you want to go draw at the zoo or something, the iPad would make sense. Right now, pencil and paper are more convenient than a wacom and a mac for being mobile. I'd still like to see the iPad get to the point where a stylus makes sense for drawing on the go with it.

 

[RebootD]

I will admit being a designer this would be a 'fun' distraction but it's like going from a sketchboard and pencil (mac + wacom tablet) to finger painting.

Nothing wrong with finger painting but for what I do the precision of the tablet isn't something I can give up.

 

[ctdonath]

So buy a capacitive stylus already and quit whining about "finger painting".

Stylus-focused tablets failed in no small part because of the easily-lost one-more-thing-to-fiddle-with can't-function-without-it stylus requirement. So, Apple built a tablet that didn't need it. Insofar as a few people do need a stylus for limited applications, third parties make them. Buy one if you need it; nobody is stopping you but you.

 

[RebootD]

So buy a capacitive stylus already and quit whining about "finger painting".

Stylus-focused tablets failed in no small part because of the easily-lost one-more-thing-to-fiddle-with can't-function-without-it stylus requirement. So, Apple built a tablet that didn't need it. Insofar as a few people do need a stylus for limited applications, third parties make them. Buy one if you need it; nobody is stopping you but you.

Yeah except Photoshop is for people like me so it is relevant. Also work on your anger management classes.

 

[dicklacara]

That.

Tablets have their use, but advanced programs are not suitable .

Personal (micro) computers have their use, but advanced programs are not suitable.

.

 

[Rustus Maximus]

What will these device classes (and their successor innovations) be capable of in 3 years? 5? 10? 30?

The same thing we're doing on Mac desktops/laptops...right now. I'm no naysayer, the iDevices are what they are. I think the iPad/iPhone/iToy whatever name everyone attaches to them are innovative consumer devices. I think some of the backlash you are seeing is because the professional "Truck Drivin' " Apple users are wanting a bit more focus and attention on the devices that actually create the vast majority of content the iDevices were created to enjoy.

Let's face it...at the moment you're not going to be using an iThing to create the latest amazing 3D CG animation or mind blowing game and by the time those devices can do that...well, we'll be able to shout about it to each other's holograms at that point.

As someone said earlier, these devices are a great supplement to a more powerful Mac.

 

[inkswamp]

Wow! Impressive work from Adobe.

You know, I was around in the mid-80s when the mouse and GUI first hit the market, and I recall the bickering amongst my fellow computer geeks about whether one could do real work with these new "toy" computers (which didn't phase me as I was also interested in desktop publishing and could sense where it was going.) Back then, there were merits to both sides of that debate, but over time, it's become clear that the mouse+GUI was far more powerful and flexible than at first perceived by the geek crowd.

I'm starting to see a lot of parallels between the touch interface devices and those days in the 80s. Every time I see/hear some geek declare the iPad a toy and useless for real work, I just think back to those days when my geek friends sneered at the Macs with the silly mouse and pretty GUI and wonder if history is repeating itself.

And then I see things like what Adobe is doing and I know it for a fact. We're seeing another revolution in computing happen, but most people won't acknowledge it for many years, until it's beyond obvious.

 

[PatrickCocoa]

You're All Right! [pause] but wait . . .

It may be fun for play, but I cant see anything real being done on that. Most high end photo editors wont even use a trackpad/laptop...

And from a user standpoint, having all menus buried and no keyboard shortcuts, you're expanding the time to edit drastically.

That.

Tablets have their use, but advanced programs are not suitable .

It is a toy. You can't seriously think that professionals are going to depend on Photoshop for iPad and throw away their computer can you? That's like throwing away your computer because GarageBand is also available on the iPad, and attempting to produce an album on an iPad. Impossible.

No matter what Steve says, it is a toy! I think it is brilliant you can do these things on such a simple product for the average user, but they are nothing more than for... the average user.

That's nice, but…

- Although the colour rendition of images on the iPad screen is to me preferable to that of My calibrated MacBook Pro (ColorMunki), it most likely won't show accurate colours. And one can't calibrate it.

- You can't properly edit pictures by finger input.

- How many PSD, TIFF, uncompressed PDF, RAW files will iPad's measly storage contain, along with music, a plethora of apps and so forth??? One, two? Ridiculous!

- iPad's screen may have the same resolution per inch as my 17" MacBook Pro, but it shows even more - quite a bit more - pixelation than the latter (because it's generally held at shorter distances from the eyes).

iPad is perfect. For grannies and teenagers. For professionals it's perfectly useless (well, not entirely: one can manage meetings with clients, etc. But certainly not edit pictures or draw!)

As a professional photographer this thing is (and always will be) an "App Store" toy - nothing more.

The iPad will never have the horse power to do what pros need.

Although this is pretty cool, being a Web Designer, I'll never see myself using this, manipulating with a finger is difficult, especially when it comes to creating web interfaces & getting accuracy, because you have to remember we are working with pixels, there is no way u can get the accuracy of a mouse through any tablet..

Apart from that, even for professional photographers or those who do illustration I don't think they could make any real use out of this, at least not at this stage, we are use to using either keyboard (shortcuts) + mouse, or a wacom..

We can see the professional opinion is that Adobe Photoshop for the iPad is useless. The reasoning seems to be that there are more powerful, more capable alternatives (those alternatives being the professionals' current desktop / mouse setup).

But as ctdonath noted in #76, those quoted above are missing the point. Or at least missing a legitimate use for Adobe Photoshop on the iPad. That use is:

--> When you're not at your desktop setup.

But surely there are at least some professionals (let's say 20% of those who belong to the elite group quoted above) that have at least some uses for a portable photo manipulation device (let's say 5% of their time). Thus math tells use that Photoshop on the iPad would be used about 1% of the time.

That seems reasonable to me. Photoshop is so huge and widespread that 1% of its use is a big number, big enough to encourage Adobe to develop an iPad app.

 

[karichristensen]

Oh wow! Oh wait. I have four apps that already did all that when the iPad was first released. How about masks, brushes, stamp tools, and decent selection tools? Do they not know how far behind they are with this?

And all this debate over usefulness of the iPad. Forget it. If you are a creative professional and you have an iPad, and you haven't figured out to use it to make your work faster and better. I say you are lacking some creativity. I've been using the first iPad from day one for sketching, figure studies, portfolio reviews, etc. See for yourself on my website. It is no toy- if you know what you are doing.

 

[ctdonath]

Yeah except Photoshop is for people like me so it is relevant.

Missed half the post, eh?

So buy a capacitive stylus already ... Insofar as a few people do need a stylus for limited applications, third parties make them. Buy one if you need it

 

[bigpics]

The same thing we're doing on Mac desktops/laptops...right now. I'm no naysayer, the iDevices are what they are. I think the iPad/iPhone/iToy whatever name everyone attaches to them are innovative consumer devices. I think some of the backlash you are seeing is because the professional "Truck Drivin' " Apple users are wanting a bit more focus and attention on the devices that actually create the vast majority of content the iDevices were created to enjoy.

Let's face it...at the moment you're not going to be using an iThing to create the latest amazing 3D CG animation or mind blowing game and by the time those devices can do that...well, we'll be able to shout about it to each other's holograms at that point.

As someone said earlier, these devices are a great supplement to a more powerful Mac.

No fundamental disagreement with what you ARE saying here - these are, yes, marvelous devices for consumers - and, no, I'm by no means ready to give up driving my "truck," but it doesn't state all the facts in play.

Ubiquitous, roaming, fluid computing in both phone-sized and less than 1.5 pound touch tab machines with useful battery lives are capabilities PC's don't even have, and the advantages of these are hardly limited to consumers. Which along with other factors is why something like 80%+ of Fortune 1000 companies are actively evaluating multiple iStuff for innovative business use. The applications and advantages in the medical and retail fields alone already seem limitless.

The storage will grow. The speed will increase. The screens will get better. The touch capacities more refined. The OS more capable. The UI more extensible. The SDK more robust. The peripherals more diverse. The form factors more innovative. The apps more capable. The "ecosystems" more evolved and intertwined. The number of things iDevices uniquely do will increase. The cloud (the big OS in the Sky of which all our devices are becoming clients) will become more, well, I'm running out of adjectives, but you get the idea.

It is also true that PCs and Servers and Mainframes and Routers and printing and wireless networking (and image capture and editing and distribution, etc.) will also continue to improve and evolve apace - Moore's law lives after all - and iDevices will become even better consumer appliances - but that in no way discounts the fact that these new gadgets will become, and in fact are already becoming, increasingly important to more and more "serious people doing serious things."

Some NY-based company back in the early 20th Century adopted the famous motto "Think." Some later upstart CA-based company in the late 20th amended that to "Think Different." Both are still around, doing great, and both still rely on those nostrums which lay at their roots.

The only problem I foresee is that you'll have to be careful to leave your 2020 iWhatever's phaser capabilities set to "stun."

Cheers!

 

[Al Coholic]

Pros are already using them...

They're idiots. Caught up in the "coolness" hype. Nothing more. And I don't consider weekend wedding photogs to be pros. I guarantee that any full time pro who needs to put food on the table does not depend on, much less condone the iPad to earn his/her keep.

Yeah, right. Like I'm going to be processing 30MB RAW files on a freaking 64gb Web browser.

LOL!

But surely there are at least some professionals (let's say 20% of those who belong to the elite group quoted above) that have at least some uses for a portable photo manipulation device

That seems reasonable to me. Photoshop is so huge and widespread that 1% of its use is a big number, big enough to encourage Adobe to develop an iPad app.

No. Proofing and this so called "manipulation" belongs in a lab where meticulous care can be devoted to delivering perfectly color balanced prints…. Not a silly-assed iPad out in the field. And if said lab is out of reach then bring the lab with you in the form of something with more computing muscle….

in other words… get the right tool for the job at hand and the iPad ain't it.

The iPad does nothing for me "in the field" that can't be achieved with a $99 portable DVD player used to show clients an enlarged preview. And photo journalists aren't allowed to use photoshop anyway.

 

[masterkoga]

They're idiots. Caught up in the "coolness" hype. Nothing more. And I don't consider weekend wedding photogs to be pros. I guarantee that any full time pro who needs to put food on the table does not depend on, much less condone the iPad to earn his/her keep.

Yeah, right. Like I'm going to be processing 30MB RAW files on a freaking 64gb Web browser.

LOL!




No. Proofing and this so called "manipulation" belongs in a lab where meticulous care can be devoted to delivering perfectly color balanced prints…. Not a silly-assed iPad out in the field. And if said lab is out of reach then bring the lab with you in the form of something with more computing muscle….

in other words… get the right tool for the job at hand and the iPad ain't it.

The iPad does nothing for me "in the field" that can't be achieved with a $99 portable DVD player used to show clients an enlarged preview. And photo journalists aren't allowed to use photoshop anyway.

No joke.

Look I'm all for new additions to the line of productivity apps for iOS products, but if someone walked into my studio touting their iPad with Photoshop or any other drawing, painting, video or audio app as a production station, I would laugh them right out the door. Do people seriously have any idea how big some of these files get? Not to mention the horse power that is needed to maintain a reasonable working interface? "Oh I can zoom in and do this, zoom out and do that..." Then they have no idea what timely productivity and deadlines are all about.

In the current form this does not cut it on a professional level. It may get there, but not anytime soon.

 

[GoKyu]

Considering what kind of device the iPad is, Photoshop already exists on the iPad - it's called Photogene

 

[*LTD*]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8G4)

There's a remarkable amount of shortsightedness in this thread. But that's typical of the entire generic Wintel/PC world. No imagination. No ability to see possibilities as development of Post-PC era hardware continues. Or rather, iPad development.

 

[rhett7660]

Does anyone else think this is a desperate attempt by Adobe to stay in the tablet game?

They're making software for a device produced by a company that wants nothing to do with them.

Does the software use Adobe's AIR?

Since when did Apple say they wanted nothing to do with Adobe. They didn't want support one piece of software on a mobile devices. I hardly think that qualifies as wanting nothing to do with them.

I think this is great and I am glad Adobe is doing more for the iPad and iPhone.

 

[tekboi]

why couldn't they spend the same amount of time making a portable ios version of flash?

 

[Tonewheel]

Sport coat with jeans. Is he wearing penny loafers as well?

 

[hayesk]

Wow, all the tablet haters here continue to live in the past and nothing will change?

All of these complaints can be rectified:

- A company has already demoed a pressure sensitive iPad stylus, but can't release it due to it using hidden APIs. In other words, it's possible.

- Colour correction is trivial to add. I wouldn't be surprised to see it in a future version of iOS

- No you can't process 30MB RAW files on an iPad 2, but why not an iPad 5?

You haters sound awfully threatened that someone's going to take your Mac away. You also seem to think the APIs and specs of iPads are locked now forever.

For people stuck in the past, I would think you'd have notice that the current iPad has specs exceeding Macs of just ten years ago. Funny how there have been people doing professional work with Macs more than ten years ago. Did amnesia set in since then? Are you all too old and your memory is going?

There's nothing described in this thread that I can't see happening with a tablet. Combine this with the fact that lots of people want to work in various places where even a laptop is cumbersome, and it's pretty easy to see that pros will embrace the iPad. It's coming people; accept it or get left behind.

 

[Rustus Maximus]

...It's coming people; accept it or get left behind...

 

[powers74]

here it comes.

Which is kind of hard on such a restricted and limited platform. There would be more useful software for the iPad if it ran a 'real' operating system like Mac OS X -- meaning full file system access and not being tied into ONE App Store with arbitrary rules for what a program is allowed to do.

Computing is changing.

 

[xraytech]

Get this guy an HDMI Adaptor XD