Adobe has announced a new suite of mobile apps and associated hardware, though this is only available in the US for now and costs $199.99. The hardware includes a digital pen, Adobe Ink, a three-sided hydro-formed aluminum stylus for iPad running iOS7. It enables controlled drawing and connects to Creative Cloud, giving users access to their drawings, photos and Kuler colour themes.
There’s also a digital ruler, Adobe Slide, that enables precision sketching – straight lines, perfect circles, and balanced shapes – on iPads running iOS7.
The software includes Sketch for freeform drawing on an iPad that has a number of drawing tools – a graphite pencil, an ink pen, two blending markers, (brush tip, chisel tip), and an eraser.
Line claims to be the world’s first iPad app for precision drawing and drafting. It reimagines traditional drawing tools like rulers, T-squares and shape templates for the mobile world, as well as giving creatives access to assets, Kuler colour themes, and the ability to share work. Not surprisingly, both of these are optimised to work with the Ink and Slide tools.
There’s also Photoshop Mix for compositing and masking on iPad. It includes cloud-based imaging, including Upright, Content Aware Fill, and Camera Shake Reduction. It offers non-destructive photo enhancements, selections, the ability to cut-out and mix images, and the ability to open and save PSD files enabling a continuous workflow with Photoshop CC on the desktop.
Sketch, Line and Photoshop Mix are all free, though obviously you’ll need a Creative Cloud account to get the most out of these.
Adobe has also extended Lightroom to the iPhone so that images can now be edited across a range of devices.
More significantly, Adobe has also developed a new SDK that enables developers to tap into Adobe’s creative technologies to build mobile apps. Examples include, browsing files stored in Creative Cloud and extracting elements from PSD files; Adobe’s “Touch Slide” software for straight-line drawing; and cloud image editing services like Content-Aware Fill and Upright.
Adobe Photoshop Mix utilises these new APIs and offers some of Adobe’s best imaging technology for applying Photoshop looks and compositing images. It is initially targeted at the delivery of iOS applications and is currently being tested by select developers. A beta launch is expected in the coming months.
Adobe has introduced a new Creative Cloud Photography Plan, which combines Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5 for £8.78 per month. It’s another bid to encourage more photographers to sign up to its cloud services though the press release sounded a little desperate. Then again, if photographers had embraced the subscription model Adobe wouldn’t have to drop the price.
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