Photoshop CS5 gets tablet-savvy

I’m pleased to say that the Photoshop team has announced three new iPad apps that work closely with Photoshop CS5:

  • Adobe Color Lava allows you to mix colors on the iPad, creating custom color swatches and themes to transfer back into Photoshop.
  • Adobe Eazel lets digital artists create rich realistic paintings with their fingertips. These paintings can then be sent directly to Photoshop CS5 for compositing or for taking the artwork further.
  • Adobe Nav allows you to select and control Photoshop tools using the iPad as the input surface, customize the toolbar, browse and zoom in on up to 200 open Photoshop files or easily create new files.

Here are some glimpses of the apps in action, plus perspective on what it means:

For more info, check out this post from Maria Yap, director of PS product management, plus details on the new Photoshop Touch SDK.

9 thoughts on “Photoshop CS5 gets tablet-savvy

  1. Hi John,
    You might not be the person to ask, but is there a place where I can send in my vote for Android? The Android OS is as capable as iOS, apps are not subject to the Apple Apps store regulations, and Android is the #1 smart phone OS in the country. And now, we have tablets, too!
    I see an ever increasing number of neat Adobe apps, like Ideas and the 3 you mentioned…and it looks like everything’s being developed for iOS first and foremost, with no news for Android. Is there a place where folks can voice their interest in Android?
    Thanks for continuing to expose Adobe’s diverse work to us, in spite of having to hear me whine!
    Cheers,
    -Jim

  2. these apps look great, i can’t wait to try them out.
    one thing…
    with the control surface function, it seems counter-efficient to make a controller for Photoshop that i have to look at to use (and thus have to look away from my image).
    i look forward to being proven wrong.

  3. I’ve got sketchbook pro but I never use it because it doesn’t have finger size sensitivity.. so I can’t use my fingernail for instance to draw a thin line. It’s a limitation of the tablet, that’s why I’m still on a Wacom + laptop for professional drawing interface. When a new Tablet can make a leap to a more precise sensitivity like the http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/ then we’ll be talking about a seriously new era… these Adobe products are just their foot in the market, but it’s a good start.

  4. The Nav app looks interesting, though I would think most people would know the keyboard shortcuts for the tools they use most. Is there any reason that a visual/thumbnail selection for open files isn’t available in Photoshop itself? This has got to be the biggest time waster when working on sets of images (which is how I usually work). The Nav app would appear to address this with (presumably) some overhead to keep the iPad copy in sync, plus the extra desk space required. I guess it’s just something that needs to be experienced to see if it’s genuinely useful. Sure to impress the clients though!

  5. You might not be the person to ask, but is there a place where I can send in my vote for Android? The Android OS is as capable as iOS, apps are not subject to the Apple Apps store regulations
    Sure, they are subject to Android Market regulations…
    and Android is the #1 smart phone OS in the country.
    #1 for people who don’t care about apps and just got it as a carrier bundle with their phone –seeing as the Android Market is 1/10 the sales of the App Store.
    And now, we have tablets, too!
    And in multiple sizes, colors and flavors from multiple vendors! Fragmentation FTW!
    I see an ever increasing number of neat Adobe apps, like Ideas and the 3 you mentioned…and it looks like everything’s being developed for iOS first and foremost, with no news for Android. Is there a place where folks can voice their interest in Android?
    The Sonora desert?

    1. lets stay with the facts, please.
      1. the market is subject to regulation, but a) there’s more than one market, and b) you can, if you wish, distribute your app without using any market at all.
      2. i believe there are as many android-defaulters as there are iOS-me-too-ers. I don’t have anything to support my claim, but neither do you.
      3.Adobe perfectly well adjusts their desktop software to a variety of platforms as we speak. I am very confident that they can do this on tablets and phones, too.
      I, too would love to cast my vote for android.

    2. 1) See Claudius’ Comment
      2) The very fact that there are Android users voicing their desire for apps here indicates that this statement is invalid.
      3) And your point is? Same OS. Same API (remember, we’re talking about Adobe Apps here …) The argument is the same as for Windows based applications on PC. PS will run as well on a Dell as on similar spec Toshiba or a Mecer or a . The fact that Android users have a choice in form factor has nothing to do with the suitability of Android as a platform for Adobe apps.
      4) Actually, I think this is as good a place as any

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