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An Overview Of Creative Cloud 2014 Share This on LinkedIn   Share This on Google   Tweet This   Forward This

18 June 2014

If we can say anything about Adobe's Creative Cloud 2014 release as we wait for its numerous updates to arrive here at the bunker, it's that it covers a lot of ground.

We've spent the last few weeks discussing the new release with various product managers at Adobe, attending a live demo of some of the products (including the new hardware) and working through a virtual reviewer's workshop of the new video capabilities.

Unfortunately, we haven't had a chance to kick the tires on much of this stuff (even some Adobe links in this piece may not yet be active), so this isn't a typical review. Instead, it's an overview.

Consider us your personal drone, flying over Adobe (and into the Cloud) to snap some reconnaissance photos of the frenetic activity all around us with no more ambition than to gather some intelligence.

Here's our report, chief.

BRIEFLY | Back to Contents

If you missed the rollout, Adobe Creative Cloud 2014 (which, by the way, B&H is offering a $50 discount on the yearly subscription and a $100 discount on the educational edition through June 20) includes:

  • 14 updated Creative Cloud desktop applications
  • New mobile apps tied to the Creative Cloud
  • A pressure-sensitive stylus named Ink and an intelligent ruler named Slide that complement three of those mobile apps
  • New Creative Cloud services with a persistent Creative Profile for each subscriber

Just as interesting, though, Adobe also announced it will release a Creative Cloud Software Developer Kit to developers at no charge. It's what the company used to build its three new mobile apps and has been in private beta for a while and by MAX this October, Adobe hopes to have more details about partners and apps using the SDK.

Updating. Creative Cloud listed our 14 available application updates and three app updates this morning.

As we wrote this piece, we were not able to confirm the hardware requirements for the release, but we were led to believe, in general, that only the latest generation Apple products would run this release and its apps. As we download the apps, at least, we're seeing at least one (Adobe Line) requires an iPad 3 or higher but others run on an iPad 2 as well.

No matter how you slice it, Creative Cloud 2014 is too much to take in at a glance. Instead, we'll report our overview of the major items and include the news releases for more detail at the end of this report.

THE NAME | Back to Contents

First of all, Adobe has decided that even though it will continue to release a constant stream of updates (which it has since the original release of the Creative Cloud), it will start tagging the Creative Cloud ecosystem archeologically.

Why? Creative Cloud Senior Marketing Director Scott Morris said there were a couple of reasons.

One is that book authors need to align their stars with the version of the applications they are writing about. You don't want to buy a book on Photoshop CC only to find out it's about the version that was release two years ago. By tagging the release with the year, you'll be able to tell which release that missing manual tome was written about.

That works for work groups too, where everyone not only has to be on the same page but using the same version of the software. That makes things a little dicey for updates but Adobe said it will make earlier versions available for just this reason.

On each splash screen, the product name appears as usual with a small "2014 Release" below it. But the application filename includes the whole schmear, as in "Premiere Pro CC 2014."

PHOTOSHOP PHOTOGRAPHY PROGRAM | Back to Contents

If you're minding your P's, you'll notice that Adobe never quite abandoned its discounted $9.99 Photoshop Photography Program, renewing it month after month. In something of an ironic twist, the company has decided to stop subscribing to the month-to-month plan and offer the program permanently.

But it's not quite the same as the old deal. You only get 2-GB storage instead of 20-GB and you no longer get a free Behance ProSite. Unless, of course, you opted for the program prior to today's revision. That deal will be honored as long as you subscribe to the program.

What you do get for $10 a month, though, is still impressive. Photoshop, Lightroom (on all your devices), updates to them all and access to Creative Cloud Learn. These products integrate with the free Photoshop Mix app, as well.

As Lightroom Product Manager Tom Hogarty put it during one briefing, Lightroom has become as integral to the photographic process as a camera and lens. And $120 a year for such an essential service, which now puts Lightroom on your iPhone, is about one month's cellphone bill.

In other words, still a pretty good deal.

INK & SLIDE | Back to Contents

A year ago, Adobe revealed it was working on some hardware, but who believed it would ever make it out the door as a boxed product? Today Ink and Slide are available for $199.99 and unchanged from the product announced a year ago at Adobe MAX:

They are impressive tools in themselves, neither gadgets nor toys. But matched with Adobe's new mobile apps, they really take off.

We've long used a stylus with our tablet because it's more precise and we do a lot of things that require precision. Though, we have to note that even navigating a Web page by touch these days requires precision.

But there's another reason to like the stylus Ink.

It brings touch sensitivity to image editing on iOS. No, the tablet doesn't suddenly become sensitive but it takes two to touch and the stylus tip adds the sensitivity that the tablet necessarily lacks.

That matters in retouching and makes life a lot more pleasant in many other editing tasks. Take into account the three free apps that take full advantage of the new tools and you just might want to swoop in for a closer look.

Ink Stylus. Terry White uses Ink to make a selection in Photoshop Mix.

Slide Ruler. A straight line being drawn in Line.

Both tools gain quite a bit from the applications that were written with them in mind. There are three: Photoshop Mix, Adobe Sketch and Adobe Line. You don't need the hardware to use the three free iOS apps (the Touch Slide feature actually implements the Slide in software).

What about the price? A Jot Touch stylus with a Pixelpoint tip (like the Ink) by itself goes for $120 and you're getting the Slide ruler, too, plus the three free apps for $80. That doesn't strike us as unreasonable.

You can buy the set at Adobe.com but the actual transaction takes place at Adonit.net, which manufacturers the Jot stylus family and is Adobe's manufacturing partner.

PHOTOSHOP MIX | Back to Contents

For photographers, the free iOS app Photoshop Mix, available on the Apple app store, is where Ink meets the tablet. You will need to sign in with an Adobe ID to get it.

Mix. A set of screen captures provided by Adobe. Mouse over for captions.

Bryan O'Neil Hughes, principal product manager of Digital Imaging, said the new app was a challenge to the Photoshop team to solve imaging problems in a new space, moving the core editing functions off the desktop to touch devices.

But touch devices don't have the horsepower to support the Healing Brush, for example. So the team harnessed the Cloud. Your asset (or image) is marked up on the tablet and sent to the Cloud for processing. On completion, the full resolution image is returned to you on the tablet.

It's a hiccup but it works. And it's part of the SDK Adobe will be releasing at no charge to developers so they can build their own Creative Cloud-enhanced apps.

Mix starts by giving you access to images on your Camera Roll, Creative Cloud, Lightroom mobile, Facebook and Instagram. Then it enables those advanced editing functions but only in two layers (indicated as boxes at the top of the iamge window). It can save those layers as a Photoshop file for more work on the desktop.

A few of the noteworthy features of Mix include:

  • "Looks" are presets, which can be applied selectively. The selection technology is derived from Photoshop and optimized for touch.
  • Edits are non-destructive
  • Whichever tool you are using becomes more precise when you zoomed in
  • Soft-edge selections (not hard-edge) integrated with Photoshop using the Save to Photoshop option
  • You can open a layered Photoshop image in Mix but you have to select which layers to bring into the Mix image on one layer
  • No Raw processig but full-resolution local files are supported

You can also publish a work in progress to Behance to get feedback from the community as you work on it.

Again, we weren't able to confirm this but we were told only the latest generation of Apple hardware can run Mix. As for other hardware, Hogarty said the intent was "to go deep on iOS" but other platforms have not been ruled out.

LIGHTROOM | Back to Contents

Photographer Terry White, who is also an Adobe evangelist, demonstrated the new Lightroom features for us on the devices: laptop, tablet and phone.

Lightroom adds four new features to the mobile version:

  • Star ratings
  • Custom sort orders created in Lightroom desktop
  • Auto import of tablet and phone camera captures

The desktop version gets bumped up to v5.5 with:

  • New camera support
  • Compatibility with Lightroom mobile

In addition Adobe has ported a version of Lightroom mobile to the iPhone 4S and above. That puts Lightroom on the world's most popular camera, Hogarty observed.

Lightroom x 3. Terry White demonstrates Lightroom, Lightroom mobile on the iPad to his left and on the iPhone.

Lightroom on the iPhone. White edits an imaage on the iPhone (not the slider along the bottom).

PHOTOSHOP | Back to Contents

Photoshop Product Manger Zorana Gee briefed us on the new features:

Focus Mask

For images with a shallow depth of field where there is a clear distinction between the blurred background and the sharp subject, Photoshop will now draw a selection on the sharpest part of the image. Gee said it looked for "sharp pixels" but pixels are discrete so they're all sharp. We suspect it works by calculating the microcontrast between neighboring pixels, perhaps using color information as a guide (which helps identify edges).

The nice thing about this, though, is that Adobe popped its Refine Edge technology into the same dialog box, so you can paint over more complex edges (like hair) to get a better selection.

Blur

The Blur Gallery adds Path Blur and Spin Blur to add a sense of motion (much like Exposure 6's new Bokeh tool, in fact).

With Path Blur you simply draw a Bezier curve with as many points as you like on the image to create the blur or, alternately, protect unblurred areas. You can have multiple paths and you can easily reposition them.

With Spin Blur you draw an ellipse to select the area to give a little spin to. You can also add a strobe effect.

Content Aware Color Adaptation Improvements

Content-Aware Fill, Move and Patch can now be blended into areas with gradients to give a more realistic rendering. Terry White demoed this for us and we liked the final result. Unfortunately you have to pick a number between 0 and 10 for the blend strength (you are taking a wild guess) before you drop the selection or can see what the difference is. Not a great interface for it.

Typekit Integration

Photoshop can now automatically resolve missing fonts using Typekit. And a button on the Type toolbar can add fonts from the Typekit library for you.

If you find fonts confusing, you'll be glad to know that as you scroll through the list of options, the type in your document will change to reflect the currently highlighted font.

Smarter Smart Objects

You can link Smart Objects to share them across documents and package the links in a single directory to share the Photoshop file on another computer

Photoshop's smarter Smart Guides now has alignment aides that report in nice bubbles exact pixel measurements as you move an object so you can see how far away it is from some other object or even just align them evenly.

Using the Command key gives more measurement data.

Improved Mercury Graphics Engine

You'll see the improved Mercury Graphics Engine in Premiere, too, but in Photoshop it delivers a 15 times speed boost to processes like upsampling images. And it can create fast, fluid motion blurs.

Experimental Features

There are a few experimental features introduced in this version of Photoshop, too. You can find them in the last tab of Preferences. So don't say no one told you.

  • Enable Multitone 3D Printing to convert the surface RGB channels into multi-toned channels based on the number or currenet 3D print heads currently assigned for use for a result that looks more like an image than line art.
  • Windows only: Scale the user interface for high-density displays
  • Windows only: Use Touch gestures for Windows 8 stylus support (on by default) with integrated drivers

PREMIERE | Back to Contents

We talked briefly with Product Manager Al Mooney at the live demo after going through a remote demo the week before with him. That illustrated the implementation of much of what had been revealed in the road map for Creative Cloud video earlier in the year.

While Premiere clearly has its eyes on the professional broadcast market, it continues to roll high-end features from its sister applications like SpeedGrade and After Effects into Premiere itself where non-craft people like mere editors can make simple changes.

In this release, for example, a couple of handy After Effects tricks made it into Premiere.

One called Live Text Templates involves editing the titles that inevitably appear overlaid on the video. Say you have 10 speakers at an event and want to identify them with the event logo. A designer can build the overlay with the right colors and fonts and enable editing of the text only in Premiere. No need to return to After Effects. So an editor who can identify the speakers can just click on the type and make the change.

Another called Masking and Tracking involved blurring a face of a person walking across the frame. You can also use it to highlight some aspect of the video or otherwise add an effect to just a moving object. Normally, you'd have to visit After Effects to do this, but it's in Premiere Pro now -- and yet fully editable in After Effects, if necessary.

Master Clips makes it into this release, too. Whatever effect (like a Lumetri color correction) you apply to a master clip ripples down to every part of that clip in a sequence. You don't have to copy and paste the effect.

The Direct Link to SpeedGrade has been improved, too, for a more flexible and robust roundtrip color grading workflow.

You can output to virtually any format, including Digital Cinema Packages and AS-11 content packages via Adobe Media Encoder.

Other enhancements include a faster editing workflow, enhanced graphics performance with the improved Mercury Graphics Engine, expanded native format support (including ARRI Amra, Sony STtP and Cinema DNG), autosaving to Creative Cloud, Typekit suppport like that for Photoshop.

But if you were hoping disc authoring niceties like more compatible chapter markers would make this release, we have to disappoint you. We asked Mooney about support for disc authoring and he said it was simply a matter of limited resources. There's Adobe Encore CS6 and that will be it. He was surprised to learn iDVD still exists, although it too has not been updated in ages.

CONCLUSION | Back to Contents

A one-day rollout for all these updates may be the kind of disruptive technology creatives can live without. But taking the long view, you can never get significant improvements to your productivity fast enough. And Creative Cloud 2014 represents significant improvements to your productivity.

Even more, though, it offers an opportunity to develop new skills in the imaging arts. The Photoshop retoucher can learn non-destructive editing in Lightroom. The Lightroom photographer can dabble in video with nothing less than Premiere Pro.

And increasingly you can do this with the device at hand. Your phone, your tablet, your computer, your camera. If it doesn't excite you to have Lightroom mobile on your camera phone, dial 911. You're in trouble.

What's easily overlooked in such a large rollout is how integral to these improvements the Creative Cloud is. At the Creative Cloud launch in May 2012, Adobe President and CEO Shantanu Narayen said Adobe wants to "fuel your creativity through the Cloud anywhere, anytime with anyone."

And Creative Cloud 2014 promises to do just that.

Adobe Announces All New2014 Release of Creative Cloud

Mobile Apps and New Hardware Extend Creative Cloud Workflow; All Major CC Desktop Apps Updated

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Adobe has continued to drive Creative Cloud innovation by announcing 14 new versions of CC desktop applications, including essential tools such as Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Dreamweaver CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC. The biggest Adobe software release since CS6,it also includes four new mobile apps, the immediate availability of creative hardware, updates to Creative Cloud services and new offerings for enterprise, education and photography customers.

"Our shift to Creative Cloud has given us a broad canvas on which to innovate like never before," said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media, Adobe."We've taken bold steps with this milestone release, fast-tracking new features to industry-defining tools like Photoshop and InDesign, while introducing mobile apps that turn tablets into indispensable creative tools."

The release serves a creative industry that is changing at a staggering pace: three in four creatives believe the industry has changed more in the past five years than the previous 50and about two thirds believe their role will significantly change in the next 3 years (see The New CreativesReport, surveying 1,000 U.S. creatives, issued June 16). Creatives cited new technologies as the top driving force behind the rapid change.

Mobile Apps ExtendCC Desktop Workflows

Delivering on mobile innovation,Adobe launched three new mobile apps foriPad: Adobe Sketch, Adobe Line and Adobe Photoshop Mix and began shipping new creative hardware called Adobe Ink, a new digital pen and Adobe Slide,a new digital ruler. The mobile apps were developed using a new Adobe Creative SDK that unlocks over 30 years of Adobe innovation and makes it available on mobile devices for the first time. These new apps are professional-grade quality but easy enough for anyone to use, similar to the recently launchedLightroom mobile for photographers and Adobe's new animated video app for storytelling,Adobe Voice, which were also updated with this release. These powerful, yet easy-to-use apps add significant mobile capabilities to Creative Cloud, integrate workflows with the CC desktop app sand bring tablets into serious creative workflows for the first time.

New Versions of CC Desktop Apps

Beyond mobile innovation, the 2014 release of Creative Cloud delivers more Adobe magic, makes everyday tasks easier and faster, while delivering new support for cutting-edge hardware and standards. Highlights of top features in the 14 new desktop apps include:

  • New capabilities in Photoshop CC for photographers such as,Blur Gallery motion effects for creating a sense of motion; Focus Mask, that makes portrait shots with shallow depth of field stand out; new Content-Aware capabilities; and the recently introduced Perspective Warp for fluidly adjusting the perspective of a specific part of your image without affecting the surrounding area. Designers using Photoshop CC will enjoy enhanced Mercury Graphics Engine performance as well as the ability to link Smart Objects and share them across multiple documents. With improved Layer Comps, users save time by changing the visibility, position or appearance of one layer and simply syncing to see the change reflected in all other Layers. Photoshop CC also has ability to pinch and zoom images, create smoother strokes and deliver a more responsive experience on Windows 8 Touch devices, such as Microsoft Surface Pro 3.
  • Also for designers, new capabilities in Illustrator CC include Live Shapes to quickly transform rectangles into complex shapes and then return to the original rectangle with just a few clicks, as well as faster rendering of vector graphics with GPU acceleration on Windows with an Adobe-certified NVIDIA graphics card. In InDesign CC, layout artists can now select table rows and columns and use EPUB Fixed Layout to easily create digital books.Adobe Muse CC now includes 64-bit support, HiDPI display support for sharper-looking images, objects and text and the ability to preview and optimize desktop, smartphone and tablet versions of your sites before going live.
  • New features in the video apps include,Live Text Templates and Masking and Tracking, new integrations that leverage the power of Adobe After Effects CC inside Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Race through projects thanks to enhanced graphics performance in Premiere Pro; precise new keying effects in After Effects; a more flexible Direct Link color pipeline in Adobe SpeedGrade CC; and enhanced multi-track tools for audio work in Adobe Audition CC. Integration between apps has also been further improved to save time when working between Premiere Pro and After Effects or SpeedGrade.
  • Web tools now include the ability to look at the markup in a document using the new Element Quick View in Dreamweaver CC, which allows web developers to easily see, navigate and modify the HTML structure of pages. CSS Designer improvements help apply CSS properties like gradients, box shadows and borders and then easily undo. SVG export in Flash Pro CC lets developers export any frame in Flash projects as an SVG file, while native HTML video support in Edge Animate CC allows the direct import ofHTML5-friendly video clips.

Your Creative Assets and Your Creative Profile Anywhere

The new CC desktop apps, mobile apps and hardware are tightly integrated through Creative Cloud services. This integration helps liberate the creative process by enabling users to access and manage everything that makes up their creative profile --their files, photos, fonts, colors, community and more --from wherever they work. Also introduced today is the new Creative Cloud app for iPhone and iPad that allows users to access and manage their files, assets and more from their mobile device.

New Creative Cloud Offerings For Enterprises, Educational Institutionsand PhotographersAdobe Creative Cloud for enterprise is an offering designed specifically for large-scale software deployments that works with other Adobe enterprise offerings such as Adobe Marketing Cloud, Acrobat,Adobe Anywhere and Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.Updates include more services with collaboration and file storage, expanded options for deployment and a new dashboard for managing users and entitlements. For education, Adobe now has a device-based licensing offer for classrooms and labs, which allows multiple users to access software on a single device rather than tying it to an individual with an Adobe ID, critical in an environment where students come and go. And for photography customers, Adobe has introduced a new Creative Cloud Photography Plan for $9.99 per month.

Pricing and Availability

Today's updates to CC desktop tools are immediately available for download by Creative Cloud members as part of their membership at no additional cost.The new mobile apps are free to everyone. To join Creative Cloud, special promotional pricing is available to existing customers who own Adobe Creative Suite 3 or later. Membership plans are available for individuals, students, teams, educational institutions, government agencies and enterprises.


Adobe Releases New Creative Cloud Photography Plan for $9.99 Per Month

New Creative Cloud Technology Connects Latest Photography Tools;New Photoshop MixDebutsfor iPad

SAN JOSE, Calif -. Adobe has announced the availability of the new Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan. Designed for anyone interested in photography, the new plan brings together -- for $9.99 per month -- Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5, two tools that have fundamentally impacted how photographs and imagery shape our visual culture, as well as Lightroom's breakthrough mobile apps on iPad and now iPhone.

Also introduced today is the all-new Photoshop Mix, a new iPad app that provides access to powerful Photoshop features normally confined to the desktop, enabling compositing and transformative edits while on the go. Built using the new Adobe Creative SDK, Photoshop Mix delivers new levels of Adobe imaging precision and magic to mobile users.

"With our Lightroom products alone managing over 100 billion images, we know there's a huge appetite from photography enthusiasts to have powerful, world-class software available on their mobile devices as well as their computers," said Winston Hendrickson, vice president of digital imaging at Adobe. "With Photoshop, Lightroom and new mobile photo apps, we've created the most complete photography solution on the planet, ensuring that anyone interested in photography can be creative with their images, no matter where they are."

Create and Manage Beautiful Images in Photoshop CCand Lightroom 5

Photoshop CC, part of the Creative Cloud Photography Plan, was updated, with stunning new features --as part of a milestone release of Adobe Creative Cloud (see separate press release). Features for photographers, include:

  • Perspective Warp -- The recently introduced capability for fluidly adjusting the perspective of a specific part of your image without affecting the surrounding area-
  • Blur Gallery motion effects -- Two new additions, Path Blurand Spin Blur create a sense of motion, even if not originally captured with a camera, enabling photographers to tell their story or express just the right feeling in an image. There's also faster performance when creating blur effects with the Mercury Graphics Engine delivering a performance boost with OpenCL.
  • Focus Mask -- LetsPhotoshop CC create the first step of a mask by automatically selecting the in-focus areas of an image. The Focus Mask feature works great with headshots and other images that have shallow depth of field.
  • Content-Aware color adaptation improvements -- Previously when using Content-Aware features, if a selected area contained smooth gradients, it didn't necessarily appear in the final image. Now retouched images using Content-Aware Fill, Move andPatch gets more seamless and realistic.Additionally, new technology blends areas containing gradients, like skies, to give exceptional results.
  • Improved stylus support and experimental features for Windows 8.1 -- Enjoy smoother brush strokes and a simple out-of-the-box experience with expanded stylus support for Windows 8.1. Turn on experimental features for touch and gesture controls and bigger touch targets on devices like Surface Pro 3.

The Creative Cloud Photography plan includes Lightroom 5 desktop software, a staple for all photographers, making digital photography easier, faster and more amazing. Photographers can experiment without limits in a nondestructive editing environment and perfect shots with advanced controls for tone, contrast, color and more. Efficient organizing tools help sort thousands of photos and make it simple to share them almost anywhere.

Mobile Solutions TakesSerious Photography Work Anywhere

Following its April 2014 release on iPad, Lightroom mobile is now available for iPhone. Lightroom mobile for iPhone and iPad provide the most efficient way to manage and edit images across desktops, mobile devices and the Web. The apps can automatically import images from the iPhone camera roll and sync back to a Lightroom catalog on the desktop. Lightroom mobile provides photography essentials, including non-destructive processing of files using Smart Preview technologies to enable professional class photo editing from the confines of the desktop. Quickly apply star ratings, flag or reject images and edit them on iPhone and iPad. Edits and metadata changes automatically sync back to the Lightroom catalog on the desktop and are also viewable from any Web browser at lightroom.adobe.com. Lightroom mobile photo collections are also accessible for users of Adobe Voice, the recently introduced free animated video story-telling app.

Photoshop Mix, provides a connected mobile workflow to Creative Cloud, aimed at anyone who wants access to powerful editing tools on their mobile device. Open Adobe Photoshop documents, individual layers from PSDs and images from Lightroom mobile. Easily apply looks, create advanced selections and masks and access advanced Photoshopfeatures like Upright, Content-Aware Fill and Camera Shake Reduction to take creativity on the go. Then export your layered and masked composition to Photoshop CC for further refinement on the desktop. Share work or even save it to a Photoshop document for a mobile workflow that works seamlessly with Photoshop CC.

Technology Optimized for Mobile Photography

The Creative Cloud Photography plan's desktop and mobile apps are connected by a powerful technology designed to enable users to edit and sync photos non-destructively from anywhere. By combining the same non-destructive editing pipeline found in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw, with Adobe's renowned Smart Preview technologies, the amount of information being moved between apps is minimized, without compromising the end result. This gives users confidence that edits will be saved while being able to access their images with unprecedented speed, no matter what device.

Pricing and Availability

Creative Cloud Photography plan is available at $9.99per month. For additional details, please visit http://www.adobe.com/go/photographyplan.

To get started with Lightroom mobile, visit http://www.adobe.com/go/lrmobile_getstarted

Photoshop Mix is free and available for download in the Apple app store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe

To learn more about Photoshop Mix, please visit mix.adobe.com


Adobe Takes Creativity Mobile with New Creative Cloud Connected AppsandHardware

Sketching, Precision DrawingandPhotographyApps Extend Creative WorkflowtoiPad; SDK Unlocks Over 30 Years of Adobe Innovation for Mobile App Developers

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Adobe has unveiled a new suite of mobile apps and complementary hardware that connectAdobe Creative Cloud, the company's flagship offering for creatives worldwide, to Apple iPad. A digital pen, Adobe Ink,and a digital ruler, Adobe Slide,bring true creative freedom and functionality to mobile devices. Adobe Sketchand Adobe Line enable the next generation of sketching and precision drawing on iPad and are both optimized to support the new hardware. A third app, Adobe Photoshop Mix,offers a new Creative Cloud connected mobile workflow for anyone who wants access to powerful creative imaging tools on their mobile device. Finally, Lightroom mobile is now available for iPhonein addition to iPad, providing the most efficient way to manage and edit images across desktops, mobile devices and the Web.

Nearly half of creatives use their mobile devices to capture inspiration on-the-go and one in three would like to create more content on tablets, according to The New CreativesReportsurvey of 1,000 U.S. creatives (issued June 16).

Sketch, Line and Photoshop Mix pioneer new ways to create content on-the-go and connect to assets stored inCreative Cloud.Theywere created using a new Adobe Creative Software Development Kit,which will speed the development of third party mobile apps that access cloud-based Adobe technologies, forging frictionless creative workflows between device and desktop. Currently in private beta, the SDK will enable developers to include and edit Photoshop PSD files in their mobile apps, ensure compatibility between mobile apps and desktop tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator and offer never-before-available image editing capabilities in the cloud.

"Adobe's new mobile apps, hardware and Creative SDK are perfect for creative professionals but, equally importantly, are designed for anyone with a creative spark," said Scott Belsky, vice president of product and creative community at Adobe."Today we're introducing cutting-edge drawing tools that can carry the designer'sCreative Cloudidentity, provide access to favorite color themes and can even copy and paste across devices. This is just one example of how our SDK will shake up the creative industry."

Adobe Sketch and Line are both "Ink and Slide aware." They also work without a stylus and feature a highly innovative software version of the ruler ("Touch Slide") for straight-line drawing without hardware. The apps are also connected to Behance, allowing designers to seamlessly share and get feedback on their work with a community of over three million creatives. Products introduced today, include:

Mobile Apps

  • Adobe Sketch, a social sketching iPad app for free-form drawing. Sketch gives designers a connected creative process bringing inspiration, sketching and community together into one place.Create with essential drawing tools: a graphite pencil, an ink pen, two blending markers, (brush tip, chisel tip) and an eraser. Get live feedback from the creative community as you work.
  • Adobe Line, the world's first iPad app for precision drawing and drafting.Line recreates the art of drafting, combining organic drawing with beautiful straight lines, French curves and perfect shapes that can be drawn in plan and elevation views or in perspective. Line can be used in conjunction with Slide and reimagines traditional drawing tools like rulers, T-squares and shape templates for the mobile world, as well as giving creatives access to assets, Kuler color themes and the ability to share work.
  • Photoshop Mix, the most precise app for compositing and masking on theiPad. Photoshop Mixalso offers powerful cloud-based imaging technology on iPad for the first time, including Upright, Content Aware Fill and Camera Shake Reduction. It offers non-destructive photo enhancements, selections, the ability to cut-out and mix images and the ability to open and save PSD files enabling a continuous workflow with Photoshop CC on the desktop.
  • Lightroom for iPhone extends recently shipped Lightroom mobile capabilities to the iPhone.It provides the most efficient way to manage and edit images across desktops, mobile devices and the Web. Additionally, the recently announced Adobe Voice, a free animated video app for iPad, has also been updated to work with your Lightroomcatalogs.
  • Creative Cloud for iPad and iPhone, a new app that allows Creative Cloud members to access and manage their files, assets, and more from their mobile device.

Creative Hardware

  • Adobe Ink, a beautiful three-sided hydro-formed aluminum stylus for the iPad running iOS 7. It enables controlled, expressive drawing and connects to Creative Cloud, giving users access to their creative assets -- favorite drawings, photos, Adobe Kuler color themes and more -- all at the tip of the pen. Built using the Adonit Pixelpoint technology, the fine-tipped, pressure sensitive pen is lightweight and balanced for a comfortable grip.
  • Adobe Slide, a category-defining digital ruler (and companion to Ink) for iPad running iOS 7. Taking a modern twist on traditional tools used before computer graphics and desktop publishing, Slide enables precision sketching -- straight lines, perfect circles and balanced shapes -- on the iPad.

New SDK Lays Groundwork for Creative Cloud as a Platform

Adobe's new Creative SDK is a software library that enables developers to tap into Adobe's creative technologies to build mobile apps. Examples include, browsing files stored in Creative Cloud and extracting elements from PSD files; Adobe's "Touch Slide" software for straight-line drawing; and cloud image editing services like Content-Aware Fill and Upright. Adobe Photoshop Mixutilizes these new APIs and offers some of Adobe's best imaging technology for applying Photoshop looks and compositing images. Adobe Creative SDK is initially targeted at the delivery of iOS applications and is currently being tested by select developers. A beta launch is expected in the coming months.

Adobe also updated AdobeVoice, a free animated video storytelling app for iPad that gives anyone the ability to create and share engaging video stories. Over 50thousandAdobe Voice videos have been shared since the debut of the app in May and, by leveraging Creative Cloud, Adobe Voice now seamlessly syncs with users' Lightroom photo collections.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Sketch, Line and Photoshop Mixare free applications, available in English, French, German and Japanese in the Apple App Store. Adobe Ink and Slide are available now via Adobe.com for $199.99. The hardware is currently available in the U.S. and is expected to ship in other regions later this year.


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