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Adobe shows ‘real’ Photoshop for iPad – with layers and everything

Thursday, March 31, 2011 · 12:02 pm · 48 Comments

“One of the coolest things at the Photoshop World 2011 Keynote this morning was the unveiling of the Photoshop for iPad tech that Adobe is working on,” Eric Reagan reports for Photography Bay.

“While the recent upgrades for Photoshop Express on iOS adds some horsepower to the app, the stuff that Adobe has in the pipeline for tablet devices looks pretty sick,” Reagan reports.

“We were treated to a live demo of this future app on the iPad,” Reagan reports. “I’ll have a couple little video clips up later, but for now I have a few screen shots to share.”

Full article with the screenshots here.

MacDailyNews Take: We have to wonder, if they ever release it, what price Adobe will try to get for such an app. Will it be the most expensive iPad app ever or one of the best-selling reasonably-priced apps ever or somewhere in-between?

Categories: News

Tags: Adobe, iPad, Photoshop

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Comment Feed

48 Comments

krquet

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:22 pm · Reply

I’m glad it features that highly sought after everything.
- Michael A. Robson
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:28 pm · Reply
  
  I wonder if it has a feature that mutes fanboys who keep saying the iPad is just a toy/consumption device
midwestmac

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:26 pm · Reply

This may not be a popular comment, but I like it when pro apps are priced pretty high. I own my own business, and probably 30 percent of our revenue comes from commercial printing design.

I don’t mind paying higher amounts for the software because then every Tom, Dick and Harry doesn’t have it (not that they’d be able to compete with our designs, necessarily, but they might think they can).

There is a time and a place for pro apps (this coming from someone who uses them a lot).
- macromancer
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:40 pm · Reply
  
  I couldn’t agree more. There are too many clients who have a ‘nephew that knows Photoshop’ and think they can cut corners on things they should value more.
  
  (Photoshop pro since v2.0)
- A Real Pro
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:54 pm · Reply
  
  If you rely on the price of a tool to keep competitors away, then you’re a hack.
  - Pirate4now
    
    Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 1:08 pm · Reply
    
    i kinda have to agree. The price of the software isn’t what makes your service good. It’s your actual service that makes it good.
    Additionally were the price high then you can continue to feel justified charging me 90$ for a t shirt art work set up which consists of my logo with words added by your service below it (not the screen cost BTW I expect to be charged for that)
    If you feel that too many of your clients are trying to get a deal price it high and they won’t bother you with deals any more.
  - auramac
    
    Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 1:13 pm · Reply
    
    Make the tool accessible to poor, starving artists with talent and we’ll separate the men from the boys, the women from the girls, the creatives from the hacks.
  - Menow
    
    Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 1:23 pm · Reply
    
    BS. Many people (Tom, Dick and Harry) put low prices on their ‘hobby work’ because they are not professionals thus forcing real professionals to lower their prices as well, because, for the majority of tasteless clients the one and only thing that matters IS the price.
    
    And you could be da Vinci and not a single fsck would be given by the clients…
    - 8^þ
      
      Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 2:31 pm · Reply
      
      Welcome to the US of Walmart.
    - Vladimir Lenin
      
      Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 6:38 pm · Reply
      
      Yep tell it to Picaso and Shagal
- TightMac
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 1:11 pm · Reply
  
  As a pro (thirty years) I don’t think a novice will steal any “real” clients work from me. Higher cost of software won’t stop the amateur from using it. It’s talent and reasonable pricing that keeps you in business, not artificial barriers.
- Truth
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 1:18 pm · Reply
  
  You must not be good if the price of software is expected to give you a competitive advantage. Thats some real wrong-headed thinking.
  
  First of all ANYONE can download the entire Adobe suite of software for NOTHING on the web. They are one of the most pirated out there.
  
  Second of all, students get discounted versions already. So do educators.
  
  third, if you were that good you wouldn’t care who else had a paintbrush, your masterpieces would shine anyway.
  - midwestmac
    
    Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 1:46 pm · Reply
    
    Look, I understand what you’re all saying about being good and not losing clients if you are. My market is different than yours, though.
    
    I only have a handful of big-ticket clients (I’m a small town newspaper), so I do a lot of low volume jobs where I am indeed competing against a lot of desktop publishers.
    
    If I were in a big market, I’d agree with you completely. I can only comment on my own market, though. That’s why it’s just MY opinion.
    
    Appreciate that attack on mine and my staff’s abilities, though
    - silverhawk1
      
      Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 7:22 pm · Reply
      
      Hey midwestmac,
      Did you ever get your VZ iPhone?
      - midwestmac
        
        Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 11:21 pm · Reply
        
        Ordered at 2:02 a.m. that first night and received it a couple of days before the rest of them went on sale. Pure bliss.
- Ben Heys
  
  Monday, May 30, 2011 - 12:18 pm · Reply
  
  wow man, you must do some absolute rubbish work if you are scared of loosing clients due to others being able to afford the tools you take for granted.
  
  One of the best things that happened to photography was the introduction of the DSLR and even microstock. All of a sudden we are seeing some amazing talent come out of places like Malaysia & Indonesia and some of it by 14 year olds with an entry level dslr. Talent that frightens the old dinosaur pros who used to sit secure in their knowledge that achieving their “skill level” was reserved to those that had tens of thousands of dollars to spend on lessons, film, developing, tools etc
  
  Photography is now much more open to those that have TALENT and the desire to put in the work to create the SKILL, rather than those who just think it’d be a cool way to make a living and get their rich daddies to throw money at them.
  
  Shame on you for hiding behind the price of tools rather than putting in the work to create the true skill that will get clients coming back to you and talking about you to all their friends….shame on you indeed…
iLurker

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:26 pm · Reply

I think they’ll probably have 3 versions with Express, Elements and Pro. I can see myself getting an Elements version right away if under $10. If you can sync settings with the desktop version, add action support and use a stylus, I can see paying up to $100 or possibly even more for a Pro version. That would be a serious game changer for me and I suspect for others. I would get rid of my Wacom tablet in a heart beat.
- really?
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:38 pm · Reply
  
  iLurker…
  
  The iPad is ridiculous as an input device when compared to a Wacom of any flavor. It does not even support pressure sensitivity! Wacom is literally thousands (10′s of thousands?) of times more accurate as well.
  
  I use both at home and a Cintiq at work. The Cintiq is the real deal… so accurate, fast and easy to use.
  
  You cannot be serious.
  - iLurker
    
    Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:56 pm · Reply
    
    You’re right, I got a bit too excited in my reply. I would love to have a Cintiq. I was thinking more out in the field.
- macromancer
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:41 pm · Reply
  
  You’re out of your mind if you think you could replace a Wacom tablet with an iPad.
  - 8^þ
    
    Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 2:36 pm · Reply
    
    What about a Wacom connected to an iPad? It’s just a driver away…
    - macromancer
      
      Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 2:50 pm · Reply
      
      That would be an entirely different story, and in fact I hope they do this. I could see a cool iPad case that has a fold out with a wacom attached.
      
      That would be cool.
O

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:35 pm · Reply

Just throwing my 2¢ in here, but I’d be happy to pony up $99 to $199 for a semi-pro version of PS on a tablet.

Makes me also want a 15″ pro tablet.
rocklebee

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:41 pm · Reply

hopefully it’ll drive some quality styli (proper plural declension of stylus). i want something with the form factor more along the lines of a wacom pen. not these little nub jobs that are out.
- Where's The Corrector when you need him
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 8:32 pm · Reply
  
  Stilus is Latin (stili is the correct plural), stylus (with a ‘y’) is English and therefore the correct plural is styluses. Despite that you can find styli and even stylii in dictionaries.
omalansky

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:42 pm · Reply

Personally, I’m still waiting for “real” Photoshop on my Mac. Right now, I’m running Photoshop CS5, which is so buggy that it can only be called “unreal” Photoshop.
- disposableidentity
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 3:02 pm · Reply
  
  That’s for sure.
  
  CS5 is a total mess. Photoshop is buggy and slow. InDesign is almost un-usable (scrolling is so jumpy I can’t navigate my files unless I use the hand/grab tool). Switching from one CS5 app to another often requires a coffee break.
  
  And this is on a 1 week old machine with 4 GB of ram (thought it might have been my year-old Mac’s fault — no it’s Adobe’s fault).
  
  For the first time in over a decade I’ve taken a huge step back in productivity. This reminds me of the last year or so I spent on Mac OS9.
- Snapper
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 4:37 pm · Reply
  
  Sorry guys but I process 100+ images every night and CS5 has been great. I upgraded from CS3 6 months ago and have found it to be a little faster and very stable.
  One thing to remember is that we are all using cameras with bigger sensors every few years so this put more emphasis on the speed of our equipment and software. Don’t get me wrong though I am pissed at Adobe for not writing PS to take full advantage of multicores and underlying technologies and even RAM.
  Get a SSD to act a scratch disk and get as much RAM as you can.
KenC

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:45 pm · Reply

I’m an original beta tester of Photoshop v1.07 (i bet I have that disk around somewhere) and I think an Elements level app for $10 sounds about right. That’s not to say a Pro app wouldn’t work, it’s just that if you are going to do Pro work, which usually means lots of images then you are probably going to want a MBP to make your life easier. Further, you’d want to have some color correction in order to calibrate your screen before doing any significant work on your RAW files. Can the iPad screen even be calibrated?

Like I said, quick and dirty adjustments in an Elements type app for $10 sounds good to me.
rhoytink

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:46 pm · Reply

I got Pixelmator and love it. Adobe is to late to the game!

They’ll probably be to expensive, like always!

just my 2 cents
- Ralph M
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:59 pm · Reply
  
  Now THERE is an idea – would Pixelmator be cool on an iPad or what? I hope the idea has occurred to those guys.
  - Backlash
    
    Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 3:10 pm · Reply
    
    I use the free express that adobe has out. For what I use it for, it rocks.
    I doubt I would buy, or even need, a full blown photoshop myself.
    But pixelmator… I’d probably buy that on day one.
Pros

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 12:57 pm · Reply

Yeh people who bash Photoshop’s high price and upgrade fees obviously aren’t pros. If even one new feature saves you even a couple minutes a day, for a working pro, that’s worth the price of admission. Tools do not equal talent.

If you don’t need pressure sensitivity than an iPad could probably replace a wacom pen but I can’t see hardcore pros doing any serious retouching on just an iPad… don’t throw away your wacoms yet. I’m guessing it’ll be excellent for the quick touchup though.

A lot of Photoshop’s power comes from its extensive keyboard shortcuts and able to be customized and the iPad’s small screen resolution leaves a lot to be desired to make it a serious content creation tool. That’s not to say you can’t do serious work on it…anything can be considered a pro tool in the right hands.
MIchel PM

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 1:04 pm · Reply

As much as like Photoshop and the idea of having a pretty decent version on the iPad, if Adobe charges outrageous pricing for the app, forget it!
Adobe apps are seriously bloated and overpriced now, I haven’t upgraded since CS2.
I, for one, am holding out that a full version app of Pixelmator will come out for iPad and that it will come out first and be reasonably/sensibly priced.
For the price, Pixelmator is amazing and works real well, too!
breeze

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 1:09 pm · Reply

There will be competition this time around because of the iOS/SDK platform that other developers have taken to. That should make Adobe think twice before raping any potential iOS customers. If they do continue with that mentality however, they will find themselves in for some serious competition and maybe alternatives that will cut their golden cow to slices.
jtcdesigns

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 1:15 pm · Reply

@iLurker, really? and macromancer

I kinda always wanted a wacom tablet but couldn’t justify the cost since it was more for hobby purposes. But imagine this.. and its something I thought of a while ago.

Take your iPad and plug it into your computer, open photoshop and through a plugin it detects the ipad that is running a photoshop plugin app as well. Now.. there are some styluses out there for the ipad but nothing of any good for drawing.. but imagine that capability I just mentioned with an added stylus for drawing… it would put wacom right out of business. Why would I ever spend $1000 to get a small color wacom tablet when I could spend 600 and just get an ipad..

Of course this is a dream but its not at all impossible. The main killer is the stylus. There is nothing stopping Adobe writting an app to use the ipad for a tablet… With this photoshop app it would basically be the same thing but plugged into the computer so you could still use your mouse to navigate menus and such.
- leodavinci1
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 2:29 pm · Reply
  
  Why is a pressure sensitive pad/screen even necessary?
  
  Why hasn’t someone designed a pressure sensitive stylus?
  
  When using non-digital tools such as pencils or airbrushes, “pressure sensitivity” is in the tool, not the surface (paper, whatever) the tool is being applied to.
  - macromancer
    
    Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 2:58 pm · Reply
    
    In fact the Wacom tablet ISNT pressure sensitive, the sensitivity is measured in the stylus. If you have to ask why pressure sensitivity is necessary you haven’t actually seen it in action. You could do some tasks without it, but it’s a legitimate feature of a Wacom tablet.
    - really?
      
      Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 3:26 pm · Reply
      
      You are correct about the pen being pressure sensitive. The other major factor here is the density of receptors per square inch (so to speak… not into the terminology). Wacom tablets are far denser in this regard… iPad would never be able to produce as smooth a line, it is made for a finger not an accurate pen. It could not replace (not even close) the Wacom as it stands.
      That said; I am seeing some very good artwork being produced on iPad, I am planning on trying all the “paint” apps I can find very soon.
      - macromancer
        
        Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 4:22 pm · Reply
        
        Agreed on the smoothness. The Wacom is about as smooth as you’d ever need. A wacom hooked to an iPad would be a pretty killer combo though.
    - leodavinci1
      
      Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 4:55 pm · Reply
      
      I own a Wacom and I’m familiar with Cintiq. I was under the impression that pressure sensitivity in both was due to technology in the stylus and the tablet/screen.
      
      I wasn’t asking why pressure sensitivity was necessary.
      
      I was asking why don’t we have a stand-alone, pressure sensitive stylus that doesn’t require a tablet/screen. Technology-wise, it should only be somewhat more complex than a wireless mouse.
- macromancer
  
  Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 2:56 pm · Reply
  
  Why are we cheering to put Wacom out of business? They make great products, are innovative and very friendly to creatives.
  
  I can’t think of many companies that I would actually be sad if they went out of business but Wacom is one of them.
  
  If it’s price that is driving your criticism of them, then I’m sure they have a tablet that’s in your price range. I haven’t owned many tools over the years that I’m more pleased with other than my Wacoms. They are worth every single penny.
  
  (Wacom user since 1994)
leodavinci1

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 2:03 pm · Reply

$100 and up for PS on an iPad?

I couldn’t rationalize paying $50, and I’ve been an Adobe Design Suite user since Adobe started packaging them together.

It’s hard to believe that so many (so far) appear willing to take it up the wazoo for Adobe… or are so obviously afraid that they want the apps Adobe provides them to be priced out of the reach of potential competitors (especially beginners, however incompetent and/or inexperienced they may be).

If I know Adobe they’ll probably grant your wishes. I’ll be surprised if PS for iPad doesn’t cost almost as much as the desktop version.
kneugent

Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 6:44 pm · Reply

Most expensive app ever? Not unless they sell it for $1000.00, which they can’t. There are already a few at $999.99.
dave

Friday, April 1, 2011 - 4:05 am · Reply

what’s the point when, to the best of my knowledge, you can’t calibrate your iPad screen? I’d never do anything at a professional level on an uncalibrated screen. Ergo, why bother shelling out the bucks for PS…
- Snapper
  
  Friday, April 1, 2011 - 4:15 am · Reply
  
  If you travel light and on the move then I can see spot news or real estate guys using this, especially when you can tether and upload instantly in the field.
  Yes I’m interested.
  Oh and a calibrated camera can solve allot of colour problems.
Pixel Magic Bloke..

Friday, April 1, 2011 - 8:04 am · Reply

I really don’t want Photoshop on my iPad. I use a 2 monitor setup. I need the coffee machine running and good sounds moving air from my speakers when a big editing session is happening. I can’t imagine serious editing on a screen I can’t calibrate. My Panels take up the whole second monitor.

I would like an iPad version of Lightroom for when I’m out and about shooting. Ballpark RAW editing on location. That would be useful.

The price doesn’t bother me. I’ve never paid for it. Adobe give me what I want. The joys of being an Adobe tester and Photoshop writer.

Gee. Ain’t I the lucky one? No. Not really. I worked hard for it..
- Lee Hughes
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 2:15 pm · Reply
  
  @Pixel Magic Bloke
  You have hit the nail on the head, raw editing when on shoot/away from desk/office. I think this will be one of the main selling points of Photoshop on the iPad. This will be SO handy where I can be on location and quickly correct/edit files directly from my iPad without booting up my laptop, and hopefully the IOS version of Photoshop will fully take advantage of the IPad interface so I could do my edits with a few taps instead of the clunky trackpad on my laptop. This won’t replace the desktop version of Photoshop it will compliment it for me.