First announced in 2018, Adobe has been working on a version of Photoshop CC for the iPad for more than a year, and the release could be just around the corner.
Recently, Bloomberg offered an update on the software, telling photographers and designers that Adobe was “committed’ to releasing Photoshop for iPad by the end of 2019.
Now, Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber has shared some new insights into Adobe’s software plans.
“The team of engineers working on it has grown significantly from a year ago, and they have plans to add features iteratively on an aggressive schedule,” he said.
“It’s reasonable to be disappointed that it isn’t further along feature-count-wise, but anyone who cares about Photoshop for iPad as a long-term product should be very excited about its foundation, direction, and the attention Adobe is paying to the fine details of a touch-first Photoshop UI.
According to beta testers, the initial Photoshop for iPad release was limited and missed several core Photoshop features, so Adobe has been working hard to live up to the reputation its software has on the desktop.
Although they won’t be able to offer a “full” version of Photoshop for professionals, they are working hard to add as many new features as possible.
“Photoshop for iPad is real because it is using the same code base that’s been running on the desktop for decades,” Gruber added.
“That’s an amazing technical accomplishment.
“Photoshop for iPad is not full – and the initial release was never planned to be – because it only exposes a subset of features from the desktop version.”
When Photoshop does launch on the iPad, users will be able to open and edit PSD files for cross-platform functionality, and features such as custom brushes, fonts, swatches, curve adjustment, smart objects, grids, guidelines and more will be added in a future update.
It has also been revealed that Adobe is working on Illustrator for the iPad, which will preview next month at its Adobe MAX conference.
The release is expected in 2020.
Are you excited to see Photoshop come to the iPad?
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