Adobe embraces touch with six new apps

03.10.2011

Perhaps the most significant release for many people will be Adobe Photoshop Touch, a version of Adobe Photoshop designed for touch capability. Many of Photoshop's key editing features are enabled with this software. Users can apply filters to an image, or combine them with other images, or extract individual elements from an image. The tool menu has been redesigned so that one tool can be called directly from another tool, which saves space on the palette.

The software also offers a three-dimensional view of an image. This feature can be handy for images with multiple layers, where the designer overlays multiple elements together in a single image. When the image is flipped on its side, each layer of the image is shown as a separate level. It also is handy in managing multiple images in a single view.

Another touch-based app with a potentially wide audience is Adobe Proto, which provides Web developers a workspace for developing wireframes, or prototypes, of websites and Web-based mobile applications.

Using Proto, Lynch demonstrated how, using only his finger in a series of gestures, he could sketch out all the major sections of a Web page. From these drawings, the application will recognize basic features such as navigation bars, headers, menu lists and other common Web page elements. The software can then convert the wireframe into HTML, CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) and JavaScript code, which then can be edited in more detail in Adobe Dreamweaver or other Web editing tools.

The remaining apps address other aspects of the creative process: Adobe Collage provides a workspace for users to create virtual idea boards, into which they can add images and annotations. Adobe Debut acts as presentation software for Adobe Creative Suite files, which could be handy in presentations and meetings.