I have been using Photoshop Touch almost obsessively for the past week, despite being holed up in the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for much of that time. At first look, I thought it was yet another photo-editing app, and in many ways it is. But as I dig in more and more, its clear that — while this is no substitute for desktop Photoshop — its an amazing app in itself. And all the more so as it runs in just 512KB RAM.
First, what Photoshop Touch for? That’s not as dumb a question as it might seem.
Image apps for the iPad boil down to drawing/painting apps and photo processing apps. But Photoshop Touch is both, and manages each part as well as most dedicated apps. You don’t get all the fancy textured paintbrushes of SketchBook Pro, but the brush engine is crazy-good anyway. And you don’t get the grunge filters of PhotoStudio HD but, as this is Photoshop, you can build your own from scratch.
In this way, Photoshop Touch is a lot like the desktop version. You take a wide variety of tools and use them to create whatever you like. It is famously said that even top-end Photoshop pros will never learn to use everything in the app. You could learn all that Photoshop Touch has, but it would take you longer than your might think.
Better than the desktop
There are many things you can do with Photoshop Touch that are impossible on the Mac version. Snapping a picture with the iPad’s camera as a quick reference to sketch over for example. Sure, you can take a photo, import it and open it in PS on the Mac, but it’s clunky. And shooting straight into a transparent layer, lining things up on the fly, is tablet-only. And it gets better: One of the demos in the Russell Brown Show podcast shows you how to add lighting effects by shining a flashlight into the camera lens. It’s quite amazing.
Super smooth
The other thing that Adobe got right is the touch. The brush engine is smooth, the UI layout is incredibly finger-friendly, with extra options only exposed when you might need them. Somehow, it looks as simple as Adobe’s own Ideas app, but when you use it, many, many options are suddenly available.
While some filters take a second or so to update as you tweak the sliders, for the most part everything happens instantly. Last week I was giving my esteemed colleague John Brownlee a demo in my local bar, and many of the buttons weren’t registering a touch. It turned out that I wasn’t pressing hard enough with my Wacom Bamboo stylus, which needs a little pressure before it registers a touch.
Adobe has even improved on some of Apple’s designs. The whole app has a flat, non-nonsense Windows Metro feel to it, including the photo browser. This ties into your existing library — albums and all — but is way better than the built-in browser. It’s full-screen, shows big thumbnails, and is at least as responsive as the native browser (which you can opt to use via the preferences if you really hate yourself).
Selections
Also remarkable is the selection tool. Tracing around objects with a fat finger without a pressure-sensitive stylus should be a recipe for disaster, but Adobe pulls it off. Watch, as I pick the Scribble Selection Tool (toolbar, left side, under the Magic Wand section) and pull this bottle from its background.
Easy, huh? And better still, the first time you use a new tool these little tips pop up on screen to help along. But to really get to grips with all the features, take a look at the tutorials.
Tutorials
The tutorials are as well thought through as everything else. All the images are provided, and step-by-step instructions are overlaid on the app itself, and you just follow along. If Adobe had released just the tutorial section as a $10 app, it would be worth the price.
There’s plenty more in there, but you really should just go and play. It’s not all perfect, though. Getting photos in and out is easy, and you can even send layered PSD files to the desktop. But they are big, and they have to go through Adobe’s Creative Cloud to get there. Fine on super-fast Wi-Fi, I guess, but the option to use iTunes to transfer bigger files would be great (despite iTunes’ clunkiness). Also, when bringing layered files into the app, they are flattened, likely due to memory issues.
Right now, PS Touch is a must-have app for your iPad 2. And with the retina display iPad 3 announcement tomorrow, my guess is that Adobe might have an update ready very soon, maybe even demoed on stage. And that is going to be very, very sweet.
Pros
Fast. Incredibly versatile. Fun. Writes the book on how to make a touch-based photo app. It’s Photoshop.
Cons
No import of layered files. That’s it.
Charlie Sorrel writes reviews and how-tos. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @mistercharlie, and at micro.blog on @mistercharlie
17 responses to “Photoshop Touch Proves iPad Is Every Bit A Real Computer [Reviews]”
Photoshop cannot run on the 1st iPad, a perfectly fast and capable “real computer.” ADOBE: FAIL!
Photoshop Touch is absolutely awesome!
Photoshop Touch is absolutely awesome!
Cool. Good start. Now imagine how much more awesome it could be if it wasn’t written with Adobe Air and ported to iOS…
Did you mean 512MB? Because 512KB would be a very small amount especially for an app like Photoshop to run on, otherwise great review.
1st gen iPad is well… How should I put this… It kind of sucks with iOS 5 and all that. Believe me, I know. It slows down after half a page of note taking on Pages. If it can’t handle that then it certainly cannot handle an awesome photo editing program. Thankfully I sold mine a few weeks ago and will have a new iPad 3 by the end of the month :D
That lack of layer import is your only con?
What about the low resolution output? I read it maxes out at 1600 pixels (or somewhere in that range). That is terrible, considering that you might have spent some time working on a picture. After investing that time, you should be able to have a much higher resolution image to keep, and then decide if you want to mail people a lower res image. That is a big turn-off for me, and it is a big reason that has kept me from buying it (along with the lack of layer import).And as far as being able to use the iPad’s camera…. well, the camera is embarrassingly awful on the iPad, so that’s just pointless. But, I realize that is not Adobe’s fault. Maybe we’ll see a much nicer camera in the iPad 3 later today, that will make this Photoshop feature much more useful.
“First, what Photoshop Touch for? That’s not as dumb a question as it might seem.”
Ohh the irony.
I’ve tried to install the app on my iPad 1 and it says it’s not compatible with my iPad…obviously made for the stronger iPad2
photoshop
office rumour…
perfect lineup for a ipad3 “is a real computer” sales pitch
The iPad 2 itself only has 512MB RAM, so perhaps the author is correct.
How do you write an article like this and not mention the 1600×1600 max image size as a Con? For me, that limitation turns it from something useful to a gimmick, but surely everyone would agree that only being able to edit 2.5 MP files is less then ideal.
You can’t even take a picture on the iPhone and send it to the iPad to edit. You have to downsize it first or the program won’t import it.
Don’t you think that’s a bit of a “Con”?
Your review is very good but I’m surprised you didn’t add the resolution on your cons. 1600×1600 is for who? I can use other great apps with full-res on my iPad. I’ll buy this app only when it’ll be full-res! No excuse!
Perhaps you should read the post you replied to a little more carefully.
David, I’m curious, what is “full” resolution?
This has been running on Android tablets for months. Does that prove they are “every bit a real computer”? Nope. For a more realistic assessment of PTouch, read the comments in the App Store and Android Marketplace. The jury is still out.
WTF only for States not for the UK readers. Should have mentioned it before completion of survey!!!!