Finger painting

April 11, 2011 3:45 PM

Adobe announces Photoshop Touch SDK plus three Photoshop iPad apps
posted by Artw (30 comments total)

I was talking with a friend yesterday about how surprising it was that Adobe hadn't done this yet when so many music apps have been falling over themselves to integrate iDevices as a control surface. I guess I should have know that it was already in the pipeline.
posted by lekvar at 3:50 PM on April 11, 2011

... creates a bridge between Android, Blackberry Tablet OS, and iOS apps allowing them to use Photoshop on their touchscreen-navigated desktops

...

Though these apps are only available for the iPad and iOS

Yeah, I wouldn't hold your breath for the Blackberry Tablet OS version.
posted by wcfields at 3:50 PM on April 11, 2011

I think this is the first thing I've seen that made me really interested in an iPad. The idea of doing finger-art on it is very appealing to me.
posted by immlass at 3:52 PM on April 11, 2011

This looks pretty neat. If only Adobe could put as much effort and care into Flash, they'd be onto something.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:52 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

The idea of doing finger-art on it is very appealing to me.

There are quite a number of iPad art apps available already, some quite good.

Adobe is late to the game with this - but I do like they under-the-finger tool popup deal they have going on.

The big color mixing palette is a great idea too.
posted by device55 at 4:04 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can't say I'd mind a way to use my Xoom as, essentially, a Wacom for desktop Photoshop, or even a version that runs directly on the tablet. Shame none of these seem to be that.
posted by kafziel at 4:05 PM on April 11, 2011

Adobe & Apple, can you please take the time to fix flash on the Mac? If you're capable of something like this, surely you can fix flash.
posted by TrialByMedia at 4:10 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Shame none of these seem to be that.

I work on Photoshop.

The three iPad apps are just examples. Most of the work done by the Photoshop team was hooking up the plumbing.

The cool thing about this is that it's an SDK so people who don't work at Adobe can write cool stuff.

Like turning a Xoom into a Wacom for Photoshop.
posted by DaveP at 4:14 PM on April 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Annnnd the iPad just became a business expense for a lot of designers.
posted by azpenguin at 4:22 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think it's an important distinction to note that there are not three photoshop apps like the headline leads you to believe.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:30 PM on April 11, 2011

Annnnd the iPad just became a business expense for a lot of designers.

Eh, this has been true since the Mac Classic, and pretty much every product since except for maybe the Pippen or the original Mac TV.

I knew designers back in the day who had Newtons. About the only thing a Newton was good for at a design workstation was operating as a very expensive paperweight.

I suppose some designer somewhere probably used the handwriting recognition in "gibberish" or "glossolalia" mode to brainstorm crazy, unheard of names for a client. I have a sneaking suspicion that many of the 2000 era "new branding" style names (like, say, Altria) were originally invented during drunk/stoned sessions with some kind of Markov text generator.
posted by loquacious at 4:36 PM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some of the UI choices here seem inspired by a post Matt Gemmell wrote a while back.
posted by drmanhattan at 4:40 PM on April 11, 2011

Adobe's had some apps out there for a while. Look for the Ideas app, and their Photoshop Express app. As for extra panels: I use Air Display, and move the icons to my iPhone for touch access. I've heard people use it on their ipads as faux-wacom's.

Related this app makes me yearn for an ipad... plus extra time to edit my photos.
posted by stratastar at 4:53 PM on April 11, 2011

The idea of doing finger-art on it is very appealing to me.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Photoshop approach. I've got a bunch of painting apps on my iPad (Sketchbook Pro, Auryn Ink, Adobe Ideas,Layers Pro, ArtRage, SPHD, Inspire Pro, neu.Notes, tinker Paint) and each does a particular "thing" but all have drawbacks. One has a finicky interface, another has kludgy realistic media controls or gimmicky procedural effects, jerky line line quality or slow brushstroke rendering. Another whole raft of apps (not worth mentioning) are just toys.

My favourite so far is Procreate. Savage Interactive really seems to be trying hard to build an iPad centric painting/drawing environment. I like Brushes too, but it's hide-and-seek UI feels a little iPhone-ish.
posted by bonobothegreat at 4:56 PM on April 11, 2011

I wish I could say otherwise, but honestly.
Want.
posted by Mister_A at 4:59 PM on April 11, 2011

I just don't get how a serious user is supposed to surmount the crippling limitations on precision that come with a finger-poky glass interface system. Even a mouse lets you move on a pixel-by-pixel level, not to mention Wacom tablets and how sensitive they have become. The iPad seems so crude by comparison...
posted by overeducated_alligator at 5:03 PM on April 11, 2011

The iPad seems so crude by comparison...

Baby steps. Keep in mind the iPad is only a year old (!). An iPad 3 will more than likely have a Retina Display with its higher pixel density, and Apple could add pressure sensitivity to its gesture recognizer library, as well as all the other multitouch gestures already recognized, making a wider palette of UI control possibilities in apps like these.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:15 PM on April 11, 2011

I've done a little bit of iPad and Photoshop + Wacom illustration work.

My typical workflow these days is to produce a sketch / developed draft in Brushes.app on iPad, transfer the actions used to create that image to my desktop, and then replay them using the Brushes.app Viewer at a print-ready resolution for finishing work in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.

While interesting, the apps (and features) outlined in the Adobe video are not so compelling that I'd significantly alter that workflow to accomodate them. I simply don't switch contexts between mobile and desktop enough to make the semi-automatic wireless transfer or remote control features all that useful.

All that said, I am glad to see Adobe finally doing something in this domain.

( What would help my workflow the most right now is a pressure-sensitive bluetooth stylus. Any product designers want to eat Wacom's lunch? Sort that problem out. )
posted by Kikkoman at 5:26 PM on April 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

If I'm going to draw on the go, I'd rather get one of the HP tablets, which can run CS5 outright, and have a pressure sensitive stylus, and a keyboard. (Plus I can code on it, which is fan-tabulous)
posted by hellojed at 5:40 PM on April 11, 2011

The Wacom-tablet thing has been done, Tablet PCs commonly used Wacom digitizers. They ran full Windows and full Photoshop. I don't think they were very popular with designers, though I could be mistaken.
posted by polyhedron at 6:21 PM on April 11, 2011

Assuming they have pulled off the execution: Adobe is really showing something here - whoever is over there clinging to Flash needs to be hunting for work in this group.

This is just so smart on so many levels. It seems to set the benchmark for 'compelling'
posted by victors at 7:33 PM on April 11, 2011

The Wacom-tablet thing has been done, Tablet PCs commonly used Wacom digitizers. They ran full Windows and full Photoshop. I don't think they were very popular with designers, though I could be mistaken

We walk among you. I write this comment on a Thinkpad X61T, which you would never guess was also a tablet PC unless you noticed the swivel hinge between the display and the keyboard. Whenever I'm in a coffee shop I keep my eyes open for the telltale swivel hinge on people's laptops. I probably spot another tablet PC in the wild about once a week.

The problems with them have largely been issues with weight and battery life, as well as failures of imagination in the marketing department.

Whenever I swivel my screen around to turn it into a slate and write something, a small crowd forms. People haven't seen stylus-based input and rejected it (as Steve Jobs implies), they simply don't realize these devices exist. I hope future iterations of the iPad can approach the capabilities of Wacom hardware, because I'd love to have that level of control in a lighter and sleeker device.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 7:47 PM on April 11, 2011

I had a Toshiba convertable as my work laptop for a while. It was not a good tablet or laptop.
posted by Artw at 10:19 PM on April 11, 2011

I'd wager apple is also working on a remote touch interface sdk or library for Mac apps. The iPad as an add-on is just too good an opportunity to pass up. Glad to see Adobe leading here, for the first time in ages.
posted by wemayfreeze at 10:53 PM on April 11, 2011

What would help my workflow the most right now is a pressure-sensitive bluetooth stylus. Any product designers want to eat Wacom's lunch?

There are pressure-sensitive styli in the Android space, so it's really a question of whether you value the functionality or the branding more.

And I'll nth those who mention Windows tablets; I'd personally rather have full apps if I was aiming for this sort of functionality, so I can run any of the apps I care about.
posted by rodgerd at 1:24 AM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Adobe & Apple, can you please take the time to fix flash on the Mac? If you're capable of something like this, surely you can fix flash.

Screw that. Please fix the Postscript font bug in the 10.6.7 update.

These apps look like a great step into the future. I've played a bit with Adobe's iPhone Pshop app, and, while a handy toy, it was very obvious that it was hampered by screen size.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:29 AM on April 12, 2011

I want to like the portable revolution, but I just can't.

It's really a problem of size and horsepower. I've got a laptop that's pretty beefy, has a gorgeous screen and has Creative Suite. While it's certainly useable in a pinch, it really sucks compared to a desktop. The keyboard is cramped, the touchpad is slow, and the processor just doesn't compare. If I have to lug around a mouse and keyboard or bring the power cord and brick, it kinda negates the "portability". And "power" tablets have yet to show up.

Gimme my desktop with my Wacom 6x8, full sized peripherals, beefy CPU and GPU and lots of RAM anyday. I can display my work on portable equipment, but designing on them sucks.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:34 AM on April 12, 2011

Anybody got $2,000 dollars lying around?
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 8:40 AM on April 12, 2011

I use a Wacom tablet for my design work. I like it, but I've always wanted a small, inexpensive way to mimic natural media directly on the screen (Cintiq is too pricey and unwieldy). This is heading in the right direction.
posted by contemplace at 9:23 AM on April 12, 2011

Mobius on a Cintiq
posted by Artw at 9:32 AM on April 12, 2011 [2 favorites]