Adobe plans full Photoshop for iPad in 2019

After several half-steps in the past eight years, Adobe plans to release a full version of its popular Photoshop photo editor for iPad. Bloomberg reports today that the app will likely be presented at the Adobe MAX conference in October 2018 and will be released in 2019.

Photoshop is one of the most important applications for creative professionals for decades. Cloud, a Mac and PC subscription service that rents access to Adobe applications. The computer version of Photoshop offers powerful image editing tools that have evolved slowly but surely over the years, including adding AI to "fill" empty spaces with modified versions adjacent content.

be the same as the Mac and PC application, as part of Adobe's strategy to boost subscription sales by running its applications on multiple devices. Creative Cloud manager Scott Belsky confirmed the decision, saying he wanted to get iPad versions of Photoshop and other applications "on the market as quickly as possible", but that apps are running on "a modern device like the iPad". A lot of work.

Adobe has released several Photoshop brand apps for the iPad in the past, starting with a version that only appeared a few months after the iPad debut in 2010. But all applications have been reduced for mobile devices, with limited functionality, and none strongly resembled the full version of Mac and PC from Photoshop. Meanwhile, rival applications such as Pixelmator, Affinity and Enlight Photofox have come up with much bigger features, as countless smaller apps have arrived with narrower but more user-friendly capabilities.

Belsky says that the latest iPad Pros are powerful enough to run full versions of Adobe applications, although the report suggests that Adobe will launch the new Photoshop – and a longer, new Illustrator – "beside" the original application rather than replace it immediately. This will allow Adobe to adopt a more user-friendly interface for computer and tablet users, while gently leaving users with the aging code base of Photoshop.

Apple used a similar strategy years ago to eliminate its final version. Cut Pro in favor of a streamlined Final Cut Pro X, leading to screaming from the video editing community – and abandoning the Mac by some professional users and prosumer. However, Apple insisted that the updated application was better positioned for the future, and continued to rebuild the new application with the features requested using major free updates. By comparison, the Adobe plan apparently depends on ongoing subscription revenues.

Adobe's decision to integrate Photoshop to the iPad accords with Apple's "Marzipan" initiative, a multi-year strategy allowing iOS and Android applications to macOS to share the same code base. It's unclear whether Adobe is collaborating with Apple on the Photoshop port, but companies have recently worked more closely together after their infamous Flash battle on iPhones about ten years ago.