Photoshop for iPad gets better touchscreen control and Curves

Photoshop for iPad just improved on one of the biggest benefits of using the photo editor on a tablet.

With an update launching on May 19, Photoshop for iPad now supports custom pen sensitivity. The photo editor also gained the curves tool.

In a direct response to feedback from the early versions of Photoshop for iPad, the new pressure sensitivity option allows users to customize the way the Apple Pencil responds. The slider allows users to increase or decrease the amount of pressure used to make strokes. With the new slider, the light end means less force is needed, while the heavy end requires more force.

Using a touchscreen interface is one of the perks to working with Photoshop’s new tablet-designed version. Tasks like cloning, healing, and using a brush are easier to do with the pressure-sensitive Apple pen.

The iPad version of the photo editor now also includes Curves, including contrast, exposure, saturation, highlights, shadows, and color balance. Curves is now part of an adjustment layer, which means those changes are nondestructive and can be tweaked later, no matter how many edits are done in between.

Photoshop for iPad was highly anticipated, but launched with a very limited selection of the tools from the longstanding desktop version.

Adobe says the goal is to eventually bring the same list of options into the tablet version, but in an interface that takes advantage of the touchscreen. Curves is one step in that direction, while the app still has a ways to go to include the same level of features as the desktop counterpart.

Adobe today also updated the drawing app Fresco with several major new tools, including an eyedropper, vector trim tool, and capture shapes.

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