Photoshop Goes Mobile: Top Announcements From The Adobe MAX Show

The much-anticipated Photoshop for iPad, the Fresco drawing app for Windows and an AI-powered Photoshop camera app for smartphones are among the new products or updates rolled out by Adobe Inc ADBE at its annual design conference.

Here’s a look at the products getting attention at the Adobe Max conference in Los Angeles.

Photoshop For iPad

Adobe said it's launching Version 1.0 of Photoshop on the iPad, a migration of full photo editing capabilities until now only possible on more powerful desktop and laptop computers to a more mobile device.

Full photo editing programs have largely required desktop — or at least laptop-level — computing power, and many photographers have been waiting for this development. 

The iPad version of Photoshop also moves serious work another step along on the path from deskbound to fully mobile, seen by some as the broader import of the rollout.

“This is just the beginning of our journey to expand Photoshop to devices, increasing your choices on how to work using Photoshop,” the company said in a blog post. 

Inspiration can happen anywhere, not just at your desktop. With the new #PhotoshopOniPad, you can bring Photoshop wherever your imagination takes you! Download Photoshop on iPad now and share where you create using the tag #InspirationAnywhere: https://t.co/W6xukEPu8b pic.twitter.com/kmoQfC9w27

— Adobe Photoshop (@Photoshop) November 4, 2019

Adobe said work on the new mobile version is automatically saved to the cloud using another new product, cloud documents. 

Photoshop Camera App 

"Imagine if the magic of Photoshop was inside your camera," the company said, bringing some of the editing capabilities to a new AI-enabled smartphone camera app. It's another extension of the effort to make one of Adobe's signature products more ubiquitous.

The app is available for iOS and Android. It's not an editing app: it's a camera app for taking and editing photos. 

Adobe is touting the app's use of artificial intelligence, which can add effects or filters without the user needing to know how.

"Leveraging Adobe Sensei intelligence, the app can instantly recognize the subject in your photo and provide recommendations, and automatically apply sophisticated, unique features at the moment of capture," Adobe said in a blog post. 

Fresco For Windows

Adobe's drawing and painting app aimed at professional artists will now be available on Windows after launching earlier this year for iPad.

The Windows verion is meant for pen computers like Microsoft Corporation MSFT's Surface Pro. With the new cloud documents feature, users can create art in Fresco and send it to Photoshop. 

Real Time Co-Editing In Adobe XD

Adobe XD, the company's design tool, will now make use of Creative Cloud to allow collaborators to work with each other remotely in real time.

The tool will be similar to Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG's Google Docs feature in which multiple users can all be in the document making changes at the same time that everyone sees in real time — except Adobe's is in a design tool. 

Digital Content Protection

Adobe also announced a system it is developing with The New York Times Company NYT and Twitter Inc TWTR that will allow publishers who put content such as photos or documents on the web to securely attach attribution data. 

The system is aimed at letting authors verify their content so that they receive proper attribution, and providing a "trail" for viewers of the content who want to know where it originally came from. The initiative is in part a response to the rise of "fake news." 

"Discerning trusted news on the internet is one of the biggest challenges news consumers face today,” Marc Lavallee, head of research and development at The New York Times Company, said in a statement.

“Combating misinformation will require the entire ecosystem — creators, publishers and platforms — to work together. This initiative lays the groundwork for doing that through open standards and protocols.”

Adobe Stock Higher 

Adobe, which affirmed fourth-quarter sales guidance in line with estimates and issued strong fiscal 2020 EPS and sales guidance Monday, saw its stock rising on Tuesday. Investors were bidding shares up 3.7% to $287.82 at the time of publication. 

Related Links: 

Analysts Still Bullish On Adobe Despite Bookings Miss

Adobe, GM And More 'Fast Money Halftime Report' Picks From October 28

Adobe's Jamie Myrold talks about the role of Adobe XD at MAX in Los Angeles, California on Monday, Nov. 4. Photo courtesy of Adobe.