New for the iPad – Photoshop Touch

As a Photoshop fan, I was interested to hear that Adobe has now launched an iPad version of their ever-popular image editing software. The software has been around for Android Tablets for a while, but now iPad 2 users can also get their hands (literally) on the Photoshop Touch app.

The iPad app features many of the things Photoshop users are used to, such as working in layers, sophisticated selection tools and re-touching tools. The degree of accuracy these tools will be capable of achieving is yet unknown. Other features include pre-loaded image effects and the ability to use your iPad’s built in camera to fill portions of the image you are working on.

Photoshop Touch is part of Adobe’s upcoming suite of iPad ‘Touch’ Apps, which will be inspired by Adobe’s Creative Suite. The apps include: Adobe Collage, Adobe Debut, Adobe Ideas (similar to Illustrator), Adobe Kuler (color theme manager); and Adobe Proto.

I can’t imagine that professionals will take to this software as they have to regular Photoshop. For a start, an iPad screen is far too small for the precision that professional photo editing demands. However, photography enthusiasts might find quickly fixing an image from the comfort of their sofa very appealing. More so perhaps the teenagers with iPads who insist on re-touching their profile pictures before uploading them to Facebook… (a social media upload facility is another feature of the app).

Priced at just $9.99, it is just a fraction of the price of conventional Photoshop software which retails at around a whopping £500… Maybe this signifies that Adobe is looking into making their software more affordable to the masses. Could this be the beginning of the end of Adobe’s overpriced reign over photographers and designers? I’m hoping so.