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Adobe To Launch Photoshop for iPad in Strategy Shift (bloomberg.com) 132

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
Adobe, the maker of popular digital design programs for creatives, is planning to launch the full version of its Photoshop app for Apple's iPad as part of a new strategy to make its products compatible across multiple devices and boost subscription sales. From a report: The software developer is planning to unveil the new app at its annual MAX creative conference in October, according to people with knowledge of the plan. The app is slated to hit the market in 2019. Engineering delays could still alter that timeline.

San Jose, California-based Adobe has been on a multiyear journey to modernize its dominant creative media software. The company shifted all of its apps to the cloud in 2012, launching a new subscription-based business model that's on track to more than double sales through the end of this fiscal year and sent the stock soaring more than 700 percent. Recently, Adobe has also begun pitching its products to hobbyists, who prefer working on mobile devices rather than PCs. Still, the company has yet to transition full versions of its best-known apps to smaller screens.
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Adobe To Launch Photoshop for iPad in Strategy Shift More

Adobe To Launch Photoshop for iPad in Strategy Shift

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  • iPad before Linux. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xack ( 5304745 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @10:43AM (#56940836)
    How much money do we have to give to Adobe for a Linux version?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Logger ( 9214 )

      Given the potential user base size difference, I'd say at least an order of magnitude more. I'm not even kidding. Would you pay that?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MightyYar ( 622222 )

      I know the main reason I run a free OS is so that I can take advantage of all of the proprietary software.

      • I know the main reason I run a free OS is so that I can take advantage of all of the proprietary software.

        You know a lot of people couldn't give a shit about free as in beer or free as in ... whatever the other one was called. Some of us actually use Linux because it's a technically great OS and would have no problem with it being closed source and paying for it.

        • I'm not exactly a Windows fan, only using it reluctantly - but it's hard for me to imagine a Linux user who uses it because they appreciate Linux's technical aspects but can also not figure out how to get Wine going. Or Windows in a VM.

          • but can also not figure out how to get Wine going

            "What does not:
            - Character panel overlaps font previews.
            - Sometimes a click on font preview window brings it to front, sometimes it doesn’t.
            - Font preview window only flashes, if Character panel is docked to the rightmost column or to the next to it.
            - OpenCL is greyed out."

            Maybe some of us would prefer working software rather than half-baked buggy workarounds that break functionality or the UI, or involve having to install a whole OS inside a VM.

            • "Installing a whole OS inside a VM" is not exactly difficult. I highly doubt you can find a significant number of Linux desktop users who would have trouble with the process. If getting work done is your real priority, then you will buy a Windows or Mac PC that is ready-to-go and you'll download Adobe cloud and that will be that. The idea that Photoshop on Linux would be trouble free is somewhat hilarious, given the number of variations that implies. It's like the same hardware mess as Windows with added OS

              • "Installing a whole OS inside a VM" is not exactly difficult.

                I didn't say it was difficult. It is however an impact on performance especially when that VM is likely to run an application that will demand most of the system RAM. Beside that you're advocating a mental barrier for Linux. You want the year of the Linux on desktop? I know I do. The first step to that is getting rid of suggestions of: "Run Linux! It's Awesome! Then install Windows anyway because you *need* it!"

                The idea that Photoshop on Linux would be trouble free is somewhat hilarious

                I know man. I'd never recommend anyone install Linux. It's complicated to partition, you need to

                • I'd never recommend anyone install Linux.

                  Naw, it's not like that. Linux is great for certain things. For development, it rocks. As a server, it rocks. Embedded - it's pretty darned good these days.

                  As a desktop environment for an artsy type? No. Sorry - not recommended. I'm not even sure I care if it ever meets their needs. Honestly, a Chromebook with the Adobe suite would be just peachy for them, if it were available. The compromises necessary to make desktop Linux luser-friendly are not worth it, IMHO. Actually, we already have seen it and it loo

                  • As a desktop environment for an artsy type? No. Sorry - not recommended.

                    Well yes but you missed my point. As a desktop environment for any type? No Sorry not recommended. As a desktop environment for office work? No Sorry not recommended. As a base system to build games on? No sorry not recommended.

                    These were all the conclusions you would have come to 10 years ago. Instead there has been active development that makes all of the above possible.

                    The compromises necessary to make desktop Linux luser-friendly are not worth it, IMHO.

                    Like what? Userfriendliness is just an interface. In the meantime the things that artsy type of people need is exactly the kind of things

                    • Instead there has been active development that makes all of the above possible.

                      I get your point, and totally agree. It still doesn't make today's Linux desktop something that I'd recommend a non-computer geek photography or graphics design friend use. I can't imagine Adobe porting it over in the hope that... what, exactly? I don't think they would necessarily relish supporting another platform, so it's not exactly in their interest that desktop Linux catch on with creative types. They have Mac and Windows already, and soon tablets - so they aren't beholden to a single vendor at the mo

                    • It still doesn't make today's Linux desktop

                      Yeah I fully agree. Today's Linux isn't there yet.

                      And for that, there is Android and ChromeOS. Maybe you don't see those as a compromise, but I certainly do.

                      These are extreme cases but I would still not consider compromises necessary. Take Linux itself and compare a system from the 90s to a system now. The emergence of apt, or the Settings GUIs didn't affect the ability to compile and install your own software, or edit the Xorg.conf or manually set symbolic links to configure startups. It complimented them.

                      We can most definitely apply layers of simplicity on top of features for power users. The problem is when w

                    • I suspect our opinion on Windows goes a long way to explain our relative positions. I find Windows to be barely usable for newbies and barely clinging to life for power users. Screen scaling is so bad (though I admit loads better now since April's update) that every old person I've ever helped with a computer has their LCD set to a non-native resolution to zoom the interface up. There are at least two distinct places to change most settings, for instance Networking can be accessed through the new Metro sett

                    • To be clear I was talking about the interface itself. I.e. the way a user will interact with applications (start, stop, manipulate, change, find files, etc) I fully agree the settings are an absolute clusterfuck for newbies and techies alike! They are getting better to the point that any reason you would now have for accessing the control panel is usually done via a link from the settings panel (rather than accessing the control panel directly) but still they have a long way to go. And when they are done t

    • Re:iPad before Linux. (Score:4, Funny)

      by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @10:57AM (#56940912)

      How much money do we have to give to Adobe for a Linux version?

      They're planning on releasing it for Linux during the year of the Linux desktop.

      • Ages ago I was hired at Adobe to work on a number of products coming out for Linux (I don't work there anymore) doing developer support - this was around 2003-2004. Adobe had previously made things like Photoshop and Illustrator for Solaris and Irix back in the mid 90s (when the last really big push for Unix on the desktop happened) - so it's not a completely crazy idea - the Linux desktop. Adobe also made Acrobat Reader for Linux.

        Ultimately in focus groups a lot of the potential big customers (many of whic

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      When a free OS can use RAM, GPU and CPU in very advanced ways and give all computing power to an application.
      ie the computing power to secure renting the software.
    • On desktop / laptops wine might work.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jythie ( 914043 )
      Probably have to sacrifice the WINE developers first.

    • Isn't going to happen. Adobe was able to convert their owned software model to subscription because professional users are using the software daily. The cost is essentially irrelevant; they'd pay more if asked. And they buy the hardware and the OS necessary to run it, again regardless of cost and again they'd pay more if necessary.

      The move to the subscription model, however, seriously dented their hobbyist market. This was preceded by a change in Adobe's longstanding upgrade policy, where owners of previous

  • I can't imagine using Photoshop without a keyboard and mouse, or not being able to access my files from my file server. Video rendering on the iPad will probably suck donkey balls.

    • That sounds backwards: most artists canâ(TM)t imagine drawing/painting WITH a mouse. The iPad Pro has essentially killed all sub-1000â Wacom tablets for professional use.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jythie ( 914043 )
        I had a similar thought. I think I occasionally use maybe the 'option' key in Photoshop for pasting behavior and typing in file names to save, but outside that, not a keyboard heavy app.

    • Re:iPad is missing a few features... (Score:5, Informative)

      by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @11:11AM (#56941014) Homepage Journal
      You gotta go with an iPad Pro to do this.

      Adobe PS for iPad is going to have to really go a LOOONG way to beat the current Affinity Photo for iPad Pro [serif.com].

      It is full functioning, one time license fee (like $14 right now), and they do periodic updates, no extra charge.

      The performance is amazing, I've been lately really stretching it to do things like 11 full RAW images from my 5D3, for panos....and I did about 18 RAW image focus stacking.....and Affinity on iPad Pro handled it.

      PS is really going to have to redo their engine....Affinity on desktop is often faster, so I would think they're really gonna have to redo PS if they try to put it on a tablet.

      Adobe is really going to be playing catch up on this one, IMHO.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Njovich ( 553857 )

        You are right that it's probably a lot of work for Adobe to make it work on iPad, even to just get it working. However, don't underestimate the Photoshop market power. Lots of companies and people are stuck with it and Photoshop only has to be 'good enough' to retain those. They don't have to put in the work to make it better than the competition. Also, for any competitor, Adobe may just decide to buy it (and then either kill it off or include it in their offerings).

        • You are right that it's probably a lot of work for Adobe to make it work on iPad, even to just get it working. However, don't underestimate the Photoshop market power. Lots of companies and people are stuck with it and Photoshop only has to be 'good enough' to retain those. They don't have to put in the work to make it better than the competition. Also, for any competitor, Adobe may just decide to buy it (and then either kill it off or include it in their offerings).

          Good point.....

          But I believe there is a

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            I'm in the same position, almost.

            The big difference is that I'm also considering going after Adobe in court for their broken promise that Lightroom would remain non-subscription. I bought LR6 with that promise in mind, confident that they would eventually add actual dual-pixel RAW support to Lightroom, and that I could buy an upgrade with that feature. Then, when the next version came out, they made what constitutes a material change to their policies that, had they been truthful up front, would have prev

            • The big difference is that I'm also considering going after Adobe in court for their broken promise that Lightroom would remain non-subscription.

              Oh wow...

              I never knew they had said that!!

              Very interesting....

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by dgatwood ( 11270 )

                Yeah. And this wasn't the first time. When they first came out with the rental model for Photoshop, they clearly stated that it was not going to become rental-only, too. Then, after I bought CS6, they changed their minds. So basically, this has happened to me twice. But their denial that Lightroom would go that way was so much more emphatic than the previous denial, so I foolishly gave them the benefit of the doubt. In hindsight, trusting those greedy, blood-sucking leeches was a mistake, but a mista

      • PS is really going to have to redo their engine....Affinity on desktop is often faster

        I agree with your post in general, but this one is confusing. Why is this a criteria for you? I personally use software far slower than Photoshop when I need to extract the maximum image quality. Speed is something that is important on a workflow level, but for Photoshop hasn't been relevant since .... well for ever.

        • I agree with your post in general, but this one is confusing. Why is this a criteria for you? I personally use software far slower than Photoshop when I need to extract the maximum image quality. Speed is something that is important on a workflow level, but for Photoshop hasn't been relevant since .... well for ever.

          Well, it is a factor when you're processing a LOT of images.

          For instance, I shot a 4 day concert festival...and when using Adobe tools, I'd do most of my processing, the simple stuff, in LR. B

          • That sounds like a tool for the job complaint rather than a general engine is slow complaint. Also I agree the panorama functionality in Lightroom leaves a lot to desire, but so does the one in Photoshop. Personally I export them into Autopano using the relevant plugins.

            Granted, I cull through those as fast as I can

            And that's what I was talking about. The process of culling and selection is critical (workflow). The ability to with a quick shortcut display side-by-side images and reject one is far more important than raw speed while making an edit.

            Now I

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I can't imagine using Photoshop without a keyboard and mouse

      I can. Innumerable tasks are easier with a stylus than a kb/mouse. Anything where fine motor skills are required tends to be easier, particularly drawing or writing or editing. There are exceptions in both directions of course but you're probably just used to doing things a certain way and haven't explored the alternatives.

      or not being able to access my files from my file server.

      It's doable and it's basically a requirement for any sort of professional work flow.

      Video rendering on the iPad will probably suck donkey balls.

      Strange comment since people take and edit videos on an iPad all the time. Horse for courses of cou

      • Strange comment since people take and edit videos on an iPad all the time.

        My PC has an eight-core processor and a Nvidia 1050 Ti 4GB video card. A minute of 1080p video renedered on the processor takes a minute. A minute of 1080p video rendered on the Nvidia card takes 10 seconds. I don't think an iPad has the same performance of my PC for rendering videos longer than a short clip.

        • I don't think an iPad has the same performance of my PC for rendering videos longer than a short clip.

          It probably doesn't but so what? You also can't use your big desktop PC in a coffee shop or on a photo shoot in the field. Professional photographers actually have a need to be able to do work away from the home office routinely. Not every job you do is going to be rendering Toy Story 12. There are plenty of video tasks where an iPad is more than sufficient. A sports photographer in the field needs to be able to edit and post pictures and short videos quickly and they aren't going to carry around a PC

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I'm not a graphic artist, but isn't editing photos a lot like CAD, you need precise input?

      How can you remove wrinkles from your older girlfriend's pictures with a giant finger mashing on a 7 inch screen?

      You can't... you'll have to dump her and date a college student instead.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      The artist with the correct tactile fingertips guides the software into placing the masks. The really advanced software also places the mask in the best position once prompted by a set of fingers over a part of the image.

    • Re:How usable can it be? (Score:4, Informative)

      by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @11:22AM (#56941074) Homepage Journal

      I'm not a graphic artist, but isn't editing photos a lot like CAD, you need precise input?

      That's what the Apple Pencil is for....using that combined with and iPad Pro, works quite well, no perceptible lag, high res screen...its quite easy to work on.

      You also have combination with finger presses and gestures to simulate keyboard shortcuts and the like.

      Affinity Designer [serif.com] was just released the other day for iPad.....here's a good demo of it [youtube.com] (skip to about 1:13 to get past the early chatty part.

      There's others:

      Affinity Photo for iPad [serif.com]

      Vectornator [youtube.com]

      Procreate [youtube.com]

      • That's what the Apple Pencil is for....using that combined with and iPad Pro, works quite well, no perceptible lag, high res screen...its quite easy to work on.

        True. Unfortunately Apple treats the Apple Pencil as an afterthought instead of an important usability device. Very little software really takes full advantage of it. There still isn't a quality note taking application (yes I've looked). Annotate documents? Don't make me laugh. They basically treat it as a toy for the 3 artists who actually do art on an iPad. It doesn't work well with any serious productivity applications nor does that seem likely to change. Plus the design of the Apple Pencil sucks

        • True. Unfortunately Apple treats the Apple Pencil as an afterthought instead of an important usability device. Very little software really takes full advantage of it. There still isn't a quality note taking application (yes I've looked). Annotate documents? Don't make me laugh. They basically treat it as a toy for the 3 artists who actually do art on an iPad. It doesn't work well with any serious productivity applications nor does that seem likely to change. Plus the design of the Apple Pencil sucks. Round

          • I"m not sure it would be even viable to use on a phone tho....? Too little real estate IMHO on a phone, and you'd not use it on a desktop, so to me, make sense tablet only.

            For a lot of applications sure, but if it isn't enabled to work on the iPhone how will we ever know? Nobody will design software for it if the hardware isn't available. Right now it isn't even possible to try.

            I've just now been looking into note taking with iPad pro and apple pencil....these look promising:

            I've been keeping an eye on this for a long time. Been disappointed to date but I guess I'm the eternal optimist.

            From what I see on YouTube reviews, both of these seem quite powerful, you can have hand written text transformed to type, you can insert pictures, videos, sound, some allow you to record say a lecture and the audio is timed out to the writing and stuff you do on the note...etc.

            They keep trying to do the handwriting conversion thing and I think that is largely a waste of time. If I want to have a typeface I'll bust out a keyboard - there are bigger fish to fry.

        • Mod +1 Insightful.

          You've nailed every exact same criticism I have as well.

          So much potential to be a game changer, squandered.

  • Affinity has Adobe shook (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @10:50AM (#56940878)
    Affinity Photo for iPad is an incredible app and cost $19.99, once.

    https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/ipad/ [serif.com]
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by OzPeter ( 195038 )

      Affinity Photo for iPad is an incredible app and cost $19.99, once.

      https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/ipad/ [serif.com]

      I happily bought the Desktop version a few years ago. Works for me and no renting software from Adobe.

      • I happily bought the Desktop version a few years ago. Works for me and no renting software from Adobe.

        Same here and I got Affinity Designer too...I also have both for iPad....worth every (not many) penny.

        One time buy...and free updates keep coming.

        I think the new Affinity Designer for iPad is on sale for like $14 right now....

  • Hobbyists (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Adobe has also begun pitching its products to hobbyists, who prefer working on mobile devices rather than PCs

    *spits tea everywhere*

  • Fuck off adobe with your subscription... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The biggest gripe is the cancellation terms of the subscription - it's absolutely assholish and literally cons you out of more money when you simply want to cancel it there and then

    That company, with that strategy can simply FOAD.

  • ADOBE IS EVIL (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Adobe is an evil company. You should not spend a penny on them.

  • Fuck Adobe (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @11:27AM (#56941108)
    They haven't done anything new or innovative in decades, and moving to subscriptions is absolutely TERRIBLE for their users -- now you can never buy their bloated software, just rent it, forever. That company seriously needs to die in a fire.

  • Nice I suppose but as long as they require a subscription for the product I'm not interested.

  • Wonder if this is at all driven by the glacial pace of Apple's (pro) Mac hardware upgrade cycle? I think its been frustrating many pros.
  • How much would that be on an iPad? I mean, is that price reasonable? The desktop version is still awful expensive ; ok the soft delivers, but seriously there are amazing pieces of software from Apple which price went down crazy a few years ago ( or even free ).

  • FTS:

    Adobe has also begun pitching its products to hobbyists

    I'm somehow pretty sure that their subscription-only model isn't going to have as strong of an appeal among hobbyists as Adobe might hope.

    While I certainly can't discount the possibility that there are probably a few die-hard adobe fans out there that would do this, it certainly wouldn't be the norm. I would put at being about as common, I think, as someone who likes to cook as a hobby going and renting a professional kitchen whenever they do.

  • Maybe if they would cut the shit with the damned monthly subscription price and go back to a real pricing model that is sustainable for people who have slow-income parts of the year, perhaps they'd be doing better.

  • "Cloud" (Score:4, Informative)

    by tverbeek ( 457094 ) on Friday July 13, 2018 @04:10PM (#56943272) Homepage

    No, Adobe has not shifted their applications to The Cloud. The applications run right there on a local CPU and GPU, like any other desktop application. (Go ahead and turn off your wifi and check: the software still runs just the same.) I know, I know: the word "cloud" is right there in the name of the product, but keep in mind that "Photoshop" does not actually include a store, and "Illustrator" doesn't actually draw for you. The difference between "Adobe Creative Suite" and "Adobe Creative Cloud" is a licensing model, not a computing model.

  • Sounds like Adobe is jumping early into the game of going unified for their codebase for IOS and OSX. https://www.theverge.com/2018/... [theverge.com]

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