Adobe has unveiled a new suite of mobile apps and complementary hardware that connect Adobe Creative Cloud, the company’s flagship offering for creatives worldwide, to iPad. A digital pen, Adobe Ink, and a digital ruler, Adobe Slide, bring true creative freedom and functionality to mobile devices.
Adobe Sketch and Adobe Line enable the next generation of sketching and precision drawing on iPad, and are both optimized to support the new hardware. A third app, Adobe Photoshop Mix, offers a new Creative Cloud connected mobile workflow for anyone who wants access to powerful creative imaging tools on their mobile device.
Finally, Lightroom mobile is now available for iPhone in addition to iPad, providing the most efficient way to manage and edit images across desktops, mobile devices and the Web.
Nearly half of creatives use their mobile devices to capture inspiration on-the-go and one in three would like to create more content on tablets, according to The New Creatives Report, June 2014.
Sketch, Line and Photoshop Mix pioneer new ways to create content on-the-go and connect to assets stored in Creative Cloud. They were created using a new Adobe Creative Software Development Kit (SDK), which will speed the development of third party mobile apps that access cloud-based Adobe technologies, forging frictionless creative workflows between device and desktop.
Currently in private beta, the SDK will enable developers to include and edit Photoshop PSD files in their mobile apps, ensure compatibility between mobile apps and desktop tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator, and offer never-before-available image editing capabilities in the cloud.
“We’ve seen a steady increase in the use of tablets among the local creative community. Many creatives use their tablets and mobiles to express their ideas immediately and Adobe has provided a playground for them, allowing them to create, share and access their work from wherever they are,” says Jeremy Matthews, MD of Dax Data, authorised Adobe Distributor.
Adobe Sketch and Line are both “Ink and Slide aware”. They also work without a stylus and feature a highly innovative software version of the ruler (“Touch Slide”) for straight-line drawing without hardware. The apps are also connected to Behance, allowing designers to seamlessly share and get feedback on their work with a community of over 3 million creatives.
Products introduced include:
* Adobe Sketch, a social sketching iPad app for free-form drawing. Sketch gives designers a connected creative process bringing inspiration, sketching and community together into one place. Create with essential drawing tools: a graphite pencil, an ink pen, two blending markers, (brush tip, chisel tip), and an eraser.
* Adobe Line, the world’s first iPad app for precision drawing and drafting. Line recreates the art of drafting, combining organic drawing with beautiful straight lines, French curves and perfect shapes that can be drawn in plan and elevation views or in perspective. Line can be used in conjunction with Slide and reimagines traditional drawing tools like rulers, T-squares and shape templates for the mobile world.
* Photoshop Mix, the most precise app for compositing and masking on iPad. Photoshop Mix also offers powerful cloud-based imaging technology on iPad for the first time, including Upright, Content Aware Fill, and Camera Shake Reduction. It offers the ability to open and save PSD files enabling a continuous workflow with Photoshop CC on the desktop.
* Lightroom for iPhone extends recently shipped Lightroom mobile capabilities to the iPhone. It provides the most efficient way to manage and edit images across desktops, mobile devices and the Web. Adobe Voice, a free animated video app that gives anyone the ability to create and share engaging video stories, for iPad, has also been updated to seamlessly sync with users’ Lightroom photo collections.
* Creative Cloud for iPad and iPhone, a new app that allows Creative Cloud members to access and manage their files, assets, and more from their mobile device.
* Adobe Ink, a beautiful three-sided hydro-formed aluminium stylus for iPad running iOS7. It enables controlled, expressive drawing and connects to Creative Cloud, giving users access to their creative assets – favourite drawings, photos, Adobe Kuler colour themes and more. Built using the Adonit Pixelpoint technology, the fine-tipped, pressure sensitive pen is lightweight and balanced for a comfortable grip.
* Adobe Slide, a category-defining digital ruler (and companion to Ink) for iPad running iOS7. Taking a modern twist on traditional tools used before computer graphics and desktop publishing, Slide enables precision sketching – straight lines, perfect circles, and balanced shapes.
Adobe Sketch, Line and Photoshop Mix are free applications, available in English, French, German and Japanese in the Apple® App Store. Adobe Ink and Slide are currently only available in the US.