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Adobe Thinking About Options for Viewing Photoshop Files on iPad

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Apr 12, 2001
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In a blog post, Adobe's John Nack is soliciting feedback from Photoshop users about whether they would like to have the ability to view native Photoshop (.psd) files on the iPad. Through the solicitation, Nack hopes to hear about such details as how users might be using those files, whether they require full manipulation of layers or if a flatten representation would suffice, and whether users would be willing to pay for the service.
This is obviously a capability that Adobe could build. The question of course is whether we should build it (as opposed, say, to building something else).
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Nack, formerly a project manager on Adobe's Photoshop team, has recently transitioned to a leadership role in a new team devoted to ground-up development of applications for tablet devices such as the iPad. As a result, Nack has been thinking about and receiving feedback on what users would like to see on the iPad platform. While the iPad obviously offers some significant constraints when it comes to performance in comparison to larger computers, users have been pushing for such possibilities as a version of Lightroom or even a "Photoshop Lite" application for the iPad.

Article Link: Adobe Thinking About Options for Viewing Photoshop Files on iPad
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/28/adobe-thinking-about-options-for-viewing-photoshop-files-on-ipad/
A Photoshop lite on iPad would be awesome! There are a few apps already that try to do this but I don't think any currently come close.

I would be willing to pay for this too... can't expect a great tool to be free.
 
I'm having trouble seeing how Photoshop, with its complex UI, would be implemented on an iPad. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it seems nearly so to do well.
 
I'm sure simple brushes, layers, and layer masks would have no trouble running on the iPad. They could implement many features Photoshop has.

Photoshop was great even 6 years ago, when having a 1 GHz computer with 256 MB of RAM was completely normal. My 9 year old Dell still can run Photoshop CS3 without problems and the iPad is probably more powerful than that, so it could run many features of Photoshop. The only thing that has to be done is making it touch-friendly and stripping features that wouldn't make sense.

I can easily imagine a version of Photoshop for the iPad that has some cool brushes, selections, layers, masks, liquify and a more automatic background extraction tool. None of these conflict with the touch platform, there just has to be a way to enhance precision, or use an optional capacitive pen.

Obviously it would require a lot of development from Adobe's part and they may not want to do such a full-featured Photoshop, but I would definitely imagine something much more robust then that ridiculous Photoshop Mobile that only lets you apply 3 automatic filters, crop, and that's it.
 
better plan ...

Why don't you put all your resources into a tool that converts flash files to HTML5 , your customers would be happy , things would run on the iphone , and the world would be a better place ....
 
I've been begging for an Aperture/Lightroom version for the iPad that would allow tethered shooting so that you could view everything as you shoot and store them in their native RAW formats.
 
Having the ability to open AND edit Photoshop files, including Layers etc would be a big thumbs-up for me.
I'm for this..
Obviously, I wouldn't expect it to be as complicated as the desktop version, but A LOT more extensive than say, the current Photoshop App on the iPhone/iPad. I'd like to add layers, curves and text and some more filters.

:)
 
emulator said:
You are the perfect example how clueless apple fans (in general) are about flash, html5 and producing for the web.
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A better reply would have been to point out how a large company such as Adobe has different departments/groups that deal with different things. The Flash group might have nothing to do with the Tablet group, and as such the tablet group would have no real direct connection to anything Flash related.

While lately it seems Adobe does nothing but Flash, people should remember that there are a lot of other (fine) products that Adobe puts out, and they don't just have a single group or team working on all of them.
 
Seems logical

Why don't they think about a simplified version of Photoshop for the iPad, since obviously it is possible considering the other apps that already do quite a bit. Step it up a notch and be a leader in imaging on the go... Hello?
 
I'm sure if Adobe made an iPad version of Photoshop, Jobs would say it's too processor-hungry and would drain the battery too fast (oh, wait--he'd be skimming money of that app. so he'd say it was a fantastic example of what can run on an iPad).
 
A photoshop light for the ipad (maybe like photoshop elements - as that is what I use) would be cool. then I could get rid of about 3-4 different apps that I have now, that do different things. Also would need to have the simple enhance feature that iphoto has (I use that one a lot to fix lighting and color issues - mostly for pictures taken with an iphone; where the lens tends to darken on real sunny days. Don't have that issue with my Nikon).

If they did, that would be cool - as then I could get rid of another application on my macbook. This keeps up, then all I will need is my ipad and a mini LOL.

It does need to be more advanced than their current offering for the iphone:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photoshop-com-mobile/id331975235?mt=8

I would not want it to be a service (monthly charge) or in the cloud. But I would pay for a real app on my ipad. if they make it along the lines of photoshop elements (I am still using version 6 for mac and had not had a need to upgrade) - then I would consider paying upwards of $30 or so. I mean elements right now I can get for $79 or less (depending on version, distributor, instant savings, and rebates). so $30 for a feature rich app is not really over priced.
 
There are several drawing, sketching, painting apps (including Pages) already on the iPad.

Sume are quite capable, but none (including Pages) have gotten the UI quite right.

There is an opportunity here, that needs to be addressed: Create a multitouch UI for aps like PS, FCP, Aperture, etc.

Then, there are iPad apps, like Air Display*, which allow the iPad to be used as a co-peripheral to a Mac (additional display, tablet input). You can run apps like PS on the Mac and view/control/input from the iPad.

This is workable, but really needs changes to the computer app UI (PS in our example).

*http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-display/id368158927?mt=8

Great opportunity, though!

.
 
just hopped over to the blog

I posted my 2-cents there. But reading the blog over there, the consensus boils down to the following camps:

1. Yes we want it, but why limit yourself to just a viewer and just PSD.
2. A photoshop Elements and/or lightroom would be perfect.
3. What makes your think Jobs will allow it, Jobs hates adobe.
4. Viewer is thinking too simplistic, c'mon this is adobe go all out.
 
UTclassof89 said:
I'm sure if Adobe made an iPad version of Photoshop, Jobs would say it's too processor-hungry and would drain the battery too fast (oh, wait--he'd be skimming money of that app. so he'd say it was a fantastic example of what can run on an iPad).
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There is a difference when I EXPECT an app to be CPU hungry. I don't generally expect a simple slide-show to max out my CPU. I also don't expect doing something simply like playing a video or audio file to do the same either.

Also, since Web apps can be developed without Flash OR having to go through the App Store, your financial argument flops. Hmm... good technical reasons, yet failed logic on the financial reasons. I wonder which it is?

Back to the topic at hand....

I would welcome a good Photoshop Lite for the iPad (or iPhone OS). As others have noted, since there are already some great sketch/painting apps for the iPhone OS, it would have to be unique in some way. Certainly including some of Photoshop's filters and working directly with Photoshop files would be crucial. If they could find a slick way to work on images stored external to the iPad, that would be a big deal.
 
I don't need to draw or anything. Give me a program that's can look at PSD files.

Let me store my PSD's and look at them.
Let me turn layers on or off.
Let me save them as a JPEG or TIFF.
Let me adjust the pixel size of those exports.
Let me change text within the image.
Let me e-mail the PSDs and exported JPEGs OR send them to Dropbox.

There. That's it. I can have my work with me and when someone asks for me to send them something with a minor change, I can do it all on my phone.

This would not be a creation app, it would be a storage, sharing, and minor-changes app.
 
It's Still too early to judge the limitations of Gestures

Grimace said:
I'm having trouble seeing how Photoshop, with its complex UI, would be implemented on an iPad. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it seems nearly so to do well.
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I just read an article by Lukas Mathis where he compares current touchscreen interface limitations as an product of having to memorize gestures, similar to using the command line. He offers some insight of UI that i'm sure Adobe is already aware of. Lukas explains how curated use of Modes, Quasimodes and Inspectrors might open the door for more complicated input while re-using simple gestures.
 
I'd be very happy with a very light photoshop app, but I can't see me trying to use it without a stylus. You could cut out a huge % of PS abilities for a photoshop iPad app and a lot of guys could still get a lot of good work done on the go.. You could even have different 'lite packs' aimed at photographers, graphic designers etc.. so that way you could cut out a lot of overlapping bulk.

I just can't see it happening though, anything that good or that productive isn't a reality in the current entertainment climate.
 
Pogo Stylus

niuniu said:
I'd be very happy with a very light photoshop app, but I can't see me trying to use it without a stylus. You could cut out a huge % of PS abilities for a photoshop iPad app and a lot of guys could still get a lot of good work done on the go.. You could even have different 'lite packs' aimed at photographers, graphic designers etc.. so that way you could cut out a lot of overlapping bulk.

I just can't see it happening though, anything that good or that productive isn't a reality in the current entertainment climate.
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Why bother

Maybe they should focus on another more pressing issue at the moment. They certainly have more than one that I can think of.
 
What a terrible idea, what Apple should do is build their own Photoshop-esque suite and block Adobe apps from running on OSX because they suck so hard :mad:.
 
niuniu said:
I'd be very happy with a very light photoshop app, but I can't see me trying to use it without a stylus. You could cut out a huge % of PS abilities for a photoshop iPad app and a lot of guys could still get a lot of good work done on the go.. You could even have different 'lite packs' aimed at photographers, graphic designers etc.. so that way you could cut out a lot of overlapping bulk.

I just can't see it happening though, anything that good or that productive isn't a reality in the current entertainment climate.
Click to expand...

iPad does not need a stylus. Its screen is very accurate.

And app makers already figured out how to utilize it for photoshop-like applications. There's one if you google: super mario ipad painting ;)
 
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