Photoshop Touch Software Uses Tablet as Input Device, Display Extension

After failing to conquer the iPad and iOS with Adobe Flash, Adobe’s plans for Photoshop will help to leverage Apple’s consumer tablet as a useful input tool and extension of a computer’s display when working with Photoshop on a desktop. While not quite the standalone content creation tablet app that we’ve seen before, the Photoshop Touch Software adds a number of features that will make tablets such as Apple’s iPad useful to creative professionals working at their desktop.

All Things D got a chance to play with the Photoshop Touch Software and points at three different potential scenarios where the tablet can help to augment the desktop Photoshop experience. In one app, called Nav, the iPad could be used to either open photos or view tools–users can place tools on the iPad to save valuable space on the desktop monitor for editing images.

In an app called Eazel, the photoshop can be used to perform fingerpainting, which leverages the tablet’s multi-touch display as not only a screen, but an input device for creating content.

Adobe Color Lava, a third app, helps users to mix colors.

The Photoshop Touch Software tablet apps will hit the iOS App Store for $1.99-$4.99 around May 3rd.

Adobe is hoping that developers will be able to port and create similar experiences for tablets running other operating systems, such as the BlackBerry PlayBook and Android tablets.

Along with these apps, Adobe will also be announcing enhancements to its Creative Suite application package, of which the Photoshop program is part of the suite. The suite will get an update to version 5.5. With the new version of another suite application, InDesign, Adobe is also hoping to conquer tablets in a different way. InDesign, a page layout program, will give developers and content creators the tools needed to integrate video and other multimedia content into digital magazines, for example.

Given that the iPad and similar tablets can be used, as Adobe’s Photoshop Touch Software has demonstrated, as both an input device and as a display extension, hopefully Adobe fill find it fit to extend some of the lessons learned from Photoshop Touch to other software inside Creative Suite, such as Illustrator and InDesign.

Via: Technologizer