At Adobe’s annual MAX conference in Los Angeles, the company is announcing several updates to its Creative Cloud platform, including new mobile apps and a tighter integration between its mobile and desktop apps to allow for seamless workflows, regardless of the device. These updates follow those Adobe unveiled only a few months ago, back in June 2015. The first MAX keynote will be held on October 5, where Adobe will introduce these new features and more. You can read more about the details, but here are the highlights of what we will see from Adobe products in the upcoming weeks and months (live stream available here).
The two new apps are Photoshop Fix and Capture CC. Photoshop Fix, for iOS, is made retouching and restoring photos, using editing tools like color, paint, adjust, and defocus. For more detailed editing, all the work is synced over Creative Cloud and can be accessed in Photoshop CC on the desktop, via Adobe’s CreativeSync technology. Photoshop Fix (formerly Project Rigel) was first teased during Apple’s iPad Pro unveil, where it was demonstrated how the Apple Pencil and the iPad Pro could be used for powerful image editing.
The second app, Capture CC, is available for Android and iOS. The app combines four current apps – Brush CC, Color CC, Hue CC, and Shape CC, into one app for easier access. Now, you can convert any photo into a color theme, look, vector graphic, or unique brush by using just one app. The content is saved to a user’s Create Cloud Library, available for use in other Adobe apps.
Adobe is also bringing updates to the Photoshop Mix, Photoshop Sketch, Premiere Clip, Illustrator Draw, and Comp CC apps. Adobe says they’re being upgraded with desktop-like performance, and there will be mobile-to-mobile CreativeSync asset sharing (files, photos, fonts, vector graphics, brushes, colors, settings, metadata, etc.) via Create Cloud Libraries. Adobe is also adding CreativeSync improvements to desktop-to-desktop and mobile-to-desktop workflows.
The two new apps are available now via their respective mobile app stores.
On the desktop, Adobe is bringing updates to its various applications. From Adobe’s news announcement, these include:
- For Design, Adobe introduces new and updated Touch workspaces to InDesign CC and Illustrator CC, powering mobile creativity for layout artists and graphic designers. New Illustrator CC features include the Shaper tool, Live Shapes and enhanced Smart Guides. InDesign CC delivers new online publishing capabilities and Adobe Fuse CC (Preview) 3D character software is added to existing Creative Cloud membership plans. These 3D models can be synced across Creative Cloud Libraries for use in Photoshop CC. Fuse CC recently joined the Adobe product family through the company’s acquisition of 3D innovator, Mixamo.
- For Web and UX Design, free-form responsive design comes to Muse CC, to easily create websites that dynamically scale to any size screen, browser or device, without having to code or use restrictive templates. For developers, Dreamweaver CC also adds responsive design capabilities powered by the popular Bootstrap framework. In Photoshop CC new Artboards capabilities precisely place elements and layers for easier visualization and the first version of Design Space, a streamlined design-centric experience, is made available to all customers. UX designers can also look forward to Project Comet, the only end-to-end UX design solution that includes a new CC desktop app with a companion mobile app. Currently under development Project Comet is demoed publicly today for the first time during the MAX opening keynote.
- For Video, Adobe ushers in a new era of Ultra HD via comprehensive native format support for editing beautiful 4K-to-8K footage; and advances color, with support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) workflows in Premiere Pro CC and improved color fidelity and adjustments in After Effects CC. Remix, a powerful new audio feature is added to Audition CC. New Touch capabilities are introduced, with Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC and Character Animator optimized for Surface Pro, Windows tablets, or Apple track pad devices.
There are upgrades to Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC as well. According to Adobe, “New and updated touch interfaces and enhanced features in Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC pioneer a fresh way for photographers to interact with their images. As well as introducing Photoshop Fix, Adobe also updated Lightroom mobile with new capture capabilities (such as a new Bird’s Eye View) and Dehaze functionality; added more layer support for Photoshop Mix; and introduced powerful new editing capabilities (40 one-click presets and precise control over exposure, temperature, and contrast) for Lightroom for Web.” You can also easily create videos out of Lightroom content via Premmiere Clip mobile app.
The Creative Cloud Photography Plan, which includes access to Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, Photoshop Mix, Lightroom Mobile, Photoshop Fix, and Premiere Clip, remains at $10 a month.
Adobe Stock, the company’s marketplace for stock photos and graphics, will add videos. From within Adobe CC desktop apps, such as Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC, users can search for video for their projects. Adobe Stock will also add support for Muse CC, Dreamweaver CC, and Flash Professional CC, giving you access to the marketplace from within those apps. (Adobe Stock is also available to non-CC users as a separate service.)
There will also be a new way for creatives to build online portfolios, via a new service called Adobe Portfolio. Users can build an online portfolio of their work without the need to know any Web coding, and Adobe will host the portfolios (including personalized URLs) as part of a user’s Creative Cloud plan, including the Creative Cloud Photography Plan (a nice way for photographers to quickly showcase their work). The feature is tied to Adobe’s Behance creative social network, where existing Behance users can bring their content there to Adobe Portfolio.
