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Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

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Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#31

Hopefully, this means we’ve reached some critical mass of Mac apps moving over. Because the iPad is the future of computing, much the same way the GUI superseded text interfaces.

After some initial craze in the first years, I rarely even see an iPad (or any other tablet) in the wild anymore. Smartphones getting bigger seem to have already replaced them.

Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#32
post #9

I wonder if people will drop Photoshop from their list of deficiencies when the topic Tablet vs. PC comes up. Often, some people bring up the lack of productivity tools like PS, X_Cad, writing and building code etc.

My Photoshop workflow depends on its ability to act as a plugin host for third party workflow tools and to integrate with the rest of a professional toolchain. So, for me, Photoshop functionally remains a PC/Mac application. (This applies to most applications ported to iOS or even the Web with such fanfare -- I still use Office plugins here and there...)

Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#33
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why that'd be the case. I don't doubt that Photoshop on a desktop machine will usually perform better. But the latest iPad Pro models have six-core 2.3GHz processors and 4GB of RAM. It was only a few years ago that were were doing pro photography work with machines of that specification. The challenges are definitely going to be building a productive and useful UI using the iPad's input constraints. This…

This is not a pro tool. It is called PRO like Windows 10 PRO there is no way an ipad can handle pro resolution (10k+). The input methods available right now are not fit to do pro work.

Hmm, not sure it's that clear-cut.

The iPad can almost certainly handle massive images just fine. The industry has been getting by with that sort of processing power for some time. I can't comment on support for 10k images specifically, but 4k video editing works pretty well, and 30MP+ images too (so 8k-ish?). And while there's a segment of pro work that needs 10k+ support, it's not everything – just because the whole professional market isn't supported doesn't mean a segment of it isn't! (I haven't had much call to edit anything in excess of 4k for a long while, despite using Photoshop pretty heavily).

The input methods might be a challenge, like I said, but it's possible to think of ways in which a good editing experience might be achieved, with the compromise being worth the trade-off in portability – but we'll need to wait and see before jumping to conclusions!

Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#34
post #2

The complete Photoshop is a pro-level app that makes a lot of sense on an iPad. Illustrator would also be great. Easy enough to write out a new PDF, but so hard to edit an existing PDF.

I think Illustrator would work much better than Photoshop. I don't know too many people who don't have third party plugins in their professional (nontrivial, couldn't-just-use-Pixelmator) workflows, or don't need pretty fast storage for stuff like batch jobs. Illustrator tends to be used more as-is, in my experience.

Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#35
Well, I expect this is the beginning of the end for macOS. iOS and macOS have been converging for a long time. First Photoshop runs on iOS, then Apple makes larger and larger "i" devices until there's one with a 27" screen that sits on your desk, then there's no reason for macOS. At that point everything happens inside one of Apple's sanctioned App Store apps.

Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#36
post #29

Well that's disappointing :(, I would have expected the full Photoshop experience to be ported to the web instead, not in Apple's locked garden. Sigh.

There will be likely a WebAssembly-based port to browser as well like what AutoDesk demonstrated recently, with Web DRM locked garden for a change and without any GPU acceleration.

Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I understand how one could possibly use Photoshop effectively with such imprecise and limited input options as touch. I don't think I'd be able to do it on a surface the size of an IPad with a good stylus, let alone my grubby sausage fingers. Especially without keyboard shortcuts to reduce the amount of clicking around to select different tools and navigate.

The apple pencil is pretty good. As of the most recent generation of iPads, all current iPads support it too (not just the iPad Pros, as was the case in the past).

But what about "gorilla arm"? I used to hear that as an excuse for why touch screen windows laptops with a pen were impractical.

Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#38
post #2

The complete Photoshop is a pro-level app that makes a lot of sense on an iPad. Illustrator would also be great. Easy enough to write out a new PDF, but so hard to edit an existing PDF.

How often would anyone do pro-level PS work on an iPad? I'm sure some will. Some just love love the attention of "swinging their junk around" in public. But that's - hopefully - a pretty small market.

Niche uses? Yeah probably. But general pro-level? I'm reaching for the erase tool ;)

Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#39
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why that'd be the case. I don't doubt that Photoshop on a desktop machine will usually perform better. But the latest iPad Pro models have six-core 2.3GHz processors and 4GB of RAM. It was only a few years ago that were were doing pro photography work with machines of that specification. The challenges are definitely going to be building a productive and useful UI using the iPad's input constraints. This…

This is not a pro tool. It is called PRO like Windows 10 PRO there is no way an ipad can handle pro resolution (10k+). The input methods available right now are not fit to do pro work.

Exactly. From gf's experience, doing her many-layers/high-resolution work even in older Photoshop versions on RAM lower than 16GB is a nightmare. At 16GB it barely starts to be usable.

We're working on a 2D game. Some years ago, when PCs had lower amounts of RAM, games didn't even had to include full HD assets. These days you may even target 4K. While you're at such resolution already, you may even go a bit further and keep it at printable quality for easy marketing. This eats lots of resources, no iPad will be up to such task. It will work fine for occasional, amateur editing, with low resolutions and low amounts of layers, but definitely not in our professional case.

Re: Adobe will bring the full Photoshop to the iPad

#40
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a pro tool. It is called PRO like Windows 10 PRO there is no way an ipad can handle pro resolution (10k+). The input methods available right now are not fit to do pro work.

Hmm, not sure it's that clear-cut. The iPad can almost certainly handle massive images just fine. The industry has been getting by with that sort of processing power for some time. I can't comment on support for 10k images specifically, but 4k video editing works pretty well, and 30MP+ images too (so 8k-ish?). And while there's a segment of pro work that needs 10k+ support, it's not everything – just because the whol…

It is a pretty clear cut we are talking about 16bit images not 8bit. When my workstation with 64gb ram is coughing an ipad will die under the load. Just don't call it PRO.
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