Android, iPad apps as Adobe heads in cloud

Oct 04, 2011 at 06:24 pm by Staff


Six low-cost apps which run on both iPad and Android tablets will take Adobe into a new cloud-based creative hub initiative.

Among them is a version of Photoshop and a facility to access Adobe InDesign documents.

They are related to the company’s Creative Suite software, and address image editing, design, website and mobile app prototyping, with plans for both finger and stylus input. Adobe says its Creative Cloud will become a worldwide hub where users can access desktop and tablet applications, find creative services and share work. Files created with the apps can be transferred to CS software for refinement.

Photoshop Touch uses finger gestures to transform images, with a tablet-exclusive ‘scribble selection tool’ enabling objects to be extracted by scribbling on what to keep and remove. Cloud-based syncing capabilities will enable the files to be opened in Photoshop.

Collage combines images, drawings, text and CS files into conceptual mood boards, importing images, drawing, adding text and applying colour.

Debut will present tablet-compatible versions of CS files – including Photoshop layers and Illustrator art boards – so they can be shown to clients and stakeholders. Feedback is gathered using a markup pen tool to add notes and drawings.

Ideas is a vector-based drawing; while Kuler generates colour themes, hundreds of thousands of which are already available in the creative community.

Additionally, Proto allows users to develop interactive wireframes and prototypes for websites and mobile apps. Ideas are communicated and shared with teams and clients using a touch-based interface. Adobe says gestures are used to express a design concept, explain website structure or demonstrate interactivity, and the wireframe or prototype then can be exported as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and shared in browsers.

Adobe says the Touch Apps will be available for Android next month (November 2011), with iOS versions to be announced in early 2012. Starting prices are US$9.99 each and include access to file viewing, sharing and transfer functions of Creative Cloud.

Pictured: Adobe Proto (Photo Business Wire courtesy Adobe)

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