Adobe MAX: Photoshop, Illustrator go online, iPad gains RAW images

Photoshop on iPad now also supports commenting for teams

Just in time for Apple’s new MacBook Pros to arrive, Adobe today opened its important annual creative event, Adobe MAX. Noteworthy highlights taken from an extensive range of announcements include the introduction of beta versions of Photoshop and Illustrator for web and Camera Raw support for the iPad. There are many additional announcements, including some we may learn more of during the week.

Photoshop and Illustrator for web

Photoshop and Illustrator have become web apps, browser-based experienced which let Creative Cloud subscribers view, share, and edit documents online.

This extends to quick edits, image retouching and adjusting in Photoshop, while Illustrator subscribers can access essential design tools and editing workflows using a set of early features.

Photoshop also gained three AI-powered Neural Filters in Photoshop desktop and Camera Raw file support on the iPad as the latter becomes increasingly powerful.

Adobe also introduced Creative Cloud Spaces (Private Beta) and Creative Cloud Canvas (Private Beta). Creative Cloud Spaces is an online space in which teams can store and work with project files, libraries and external link. Spaces will be accessible across desktop and mobile through Creative Cloud Web and available in Photoshop, Illustrator, Fresco and XD.

Canvases enable teams to lay out, visualize and review creative work together, in real time, using a web browser that includes useful creative tools.

What Adobe said

“Creativity is evolving to meet the new realities of work. Adobe is bringing new collaboration capabilities, more AI-powered features and web-first applications to Creative Cloud to unleash our customers’ full creative potential,” said Scott Belsky, chief product officer and executive vice president, Creative Cloud, Adobe.

“We are reimagining Creative Cloud products and services to connect creative teams, enable new ways to create and empower more creative careers.”

Everything Adobe announced

The complete set of Adobe’s announcements follow:

• Photoshop : Three AI-powered Neural Filters in Photoshop desktop and Camera Raw file support on the iPad.
• Lightroom/Lightroom Classic : More powerful and precise ML-powered masking capabilities, recommended presets and Community Remixing.
• Premiere Pro : Enhanced Speech-to-Text capabilities and a Sensei-powered beta Remix feature.
• After Effects : Faster Previews and Renders with Multi-Frame Rendering and beta Sensei-powered Scene Edit Detection capabilities.
• Illustrator : Improved 3D effects and access to Substance 3D materials on desktop and a Sensei-powered Vectorize Technology Preview on iPad.
• Character Animator : Powered by Adobe Sensei, creators can now animate their entire body with Body Tracker, using movements and gestures to animate their puppets.
• Substance 3D : Tighter integration of 3D content, effects and capabilities across Illustrator, XD and Stock. A new Modeler (Private Beta) app joins the Substance 3D Collection, showcasing the role that 3D and immersive technology will play in helping users create the future.
• Fresco : Turn any drawing layer into an animation layer to create motion, draw with new perspective guides and grids, and use non-destructive adjustment layers to explore and enhance colors.
• Creative Cloud subscribers can now monetize their work through paid subscriptions on the Behance platform.

Adobe also introduced its Workfront plugin for Photoshop which gives creatives the ability to collaborate using an embedded Workfront update screen in Photoshop.

The Content Authenticity Initiative

Adobe launched its Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) a couple of years ago, but is taking this further. A new feature called Content Credentials makes it possible for creatives to share content provenance details about their images; and also connects to NFT marketplaces for further attribution. Adobe Stock will also automatically attach Content Credentials to images when they are downloaded.

All Creative Cloud subscribers can download updates to Creative Cloud desktop software today. Additionally, updates to mobile apps are rolling out globally and can be downloaded in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store starting today.

Creative Cloud subscribers can apply to join the private beta for Creative Cloud Spaces, Creative Cloud Canvas and Illustrator on the web here.

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