Photoshop Touch Comes To iPad 2

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Adobe Systems announced that Adobe Photoshop Touch is now available for iPad 2, via the iTunes App Store.

Adobe Photoshop Touch offers core Photoshop features, as well as new capabilities for creating and sharing in an app custom-built for tablets. The app is a central component of Adobe Touch Apps, a family of six intuitive touch screen applications, inspired by Adobe Creative Suite software. Adobe announced the Adobe Touch Apps at its MAX 2011 conference. The Adobe Touch Apps will be part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, which will be available this spring, the company said.

Other apps to come

iPad versions of the other Adobe Touch Apps are expected later this year, Adobe officials said.

Photoshop Touch gives users the ability to combine multiple photos into layered images, make essential edits and apply professional effects to create beautiful artwork, touch up photos, paint, lay out ideas, and much more.

The Scribble Selection Tool allows users to easily extract objects in an image by simply scribbling on what to keep and, then, what to remove. With Refine Edge technology from Photoshop, even hard-to-select areas with soft edges are easily captured when making selections. Photoshop Touch helps users quickly find images and share creations through integration with Facebook and Google Image Search.

“People will be amazed with what they can create on the iPad using Photoshop Touch,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager of the Digital Media Business Unit at Adobe, in a statement. “Photoshop Touch combines the magic of Photoshop and its core features with the convenience of a tablet, bringing image-editing power to the fingertips of millions of people.”

“Adobe Photoshop Touch offers a huge convenience factor and funnels cool Photoshop features tailored for the iPad,” said Brian Yap, creative director at Boxing Clever, in a statement. “Nearly all of the features I imagined being in Photoshop Touch are there, including the depth in layers, the extraction tools, and fade tool.”

Dan Marcolina, owner of Marcolina Design & MarcolinaSlate, said, “I love the organic process of working on the tablet. With Adobe Photoshop Touch, I have a new form of image creation with familiar tools but in a more relaxed work space, allowing me to rediscover image-making through play rather than production.”

Future releases

In addition to Photoshop Touch, Adobe expects to release the following touch apps for the iPad in the coming months: Adobe Collage for moodboards; Adobe Debut for presenting and reviewing creative work; Adobe Ideas for sketching; Adobe Kuler for exploring color themes; and Adobe Proto for website and mobile app prototyping.

Adobe Photoshop Touch is available as of 27 February in the iTunes App Store for $9.99 (£6). Photoshop Touch is available in most geographies with English language support. The app will run on iPad 2 running on iOS5.

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