Adobe has come out with some pretty amazing new tools over the last year or so. While there have been several notable upgrades to many Creative Suite applications, the stuff we’re most excited about has to do with Photoshop and its new mobile capabilities. In fact, if you’re still using Photoshop CS4 or earlier, you’re missing out on some incredible stuff.
The Photoshop Touch Software Development Kit (SDK) was announced last April and will allow developers to create “companion apps” for mobile and tablet devices. The free-to-download SDK is part of a larger campaign to create an integration—or perhaps, more accurately, a communication—directly from tablet devices apps into Photoshop on your desktop computer. The SDK is compatible with iOS, Android, RIM, and webOS-based devices, as well as with both Mac OS and Windows.
As opposed to many websites and software companies who often just create a “mobile-version” of their program or network, Adobe is thinking more about tablets and mobile devices as a tool to be used in conjunction with your desktop computer. This means thinking about the inherent advantages that a tablet device offers. The apps are catered more to those times when creativity comes unexpectedly; in the coffee shop or in the park, scribbling on a napkin or taking a quick photo with your iPhone. Also, the apps are more designed to help “drive Photoshop” rather than act as a mobile substitute.
Adobe created this video to help elaborate on their vision for the Touch SDK’s potential for creativity and productivity.
To complement the release of the Touch SDK, Adobe has released three new mobile apps:
Adobe Color Lava:
If you’ve ever used Adobe Kuler, Lava is like that, but on steroids and made specifically for touch-based devices. You can actually swirl around colors and mix them up the way a painter would on his or her palette. Once you’re done, you can then transmit the colors you created back into Photoshop as swatches.
Adobe Eazel:
Digital finger painting done right; create rich realistic paintings on your tablet and then send them to Photoshop to finish them up. There are some other apps that do this, such as Sketchbook Pro, ArtStudio, and Brushes, but the ability to seamlessly integrate your work back into Photoshop is very attractive.
Adobe Nav:
In what is sort-of a mobile version of Adobe Bridge, this app can be used to browse through all the projects you have open on Photoshop, as well as to customize the default tools found in your Photoshop desktop toolbar. It can also be used as a way to transfer images from your tablet into Photoshop.
Adobe Revel (formerly called Carousel):
The newest of the bunch, this one requires a paid subscription, but for a good reason: it syncs your entire photo library between your computer, tablet, and mobile devices. No need to worry about storage issues or syncing things manually. Subscriptions go for $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year.
These all come together to form an amazing, cross-platform, Photoshop ecosystem of creativity. It’ll be exciting to see what other apps Adobe comes out with to expand Photoshop’s capabilities. Have you tried any of these apps yet for your iPad, Android device, or other tablet? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter!