Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

Adobe eyeing iPad release of full Photoshop suite in 2019

Adobe has confirmed that there are full-featured cross-platform apps coming for Photoshop, but less clear is an announcement date, and a release window.

"My aspiration is to get these on the market as soon as possible," Adobe Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky told Bloomberg. "There's a lot required to take a product as sophisticated and powerful as Photoshop and make that work on a modern device like the iPad. We need to bring our products into this cloud-first collaborative era."

Belsky refused comment on timing, or details of the release. Also not specified is if the release would be for the iPhone and iPad, or just the iPad.

If the report is accurate, Adobe will debut the new app at October's MAX creative conference in October, with the release at some point in 2019. Bloomberg claims that "engineering delays could still alter that timeline."

Adobe already has a cut-down version of Photoshop available on the iPad. Companion apps for the title were released in 2011, but had little actual functionality.

Adobe currently has 34 apps in the App Store. There is no Adobe equivalent to the full Photoshop experience in one title.

The existing Photoshop Fix is geared towards retouching and restoring images, using various brushes, and adjustment tools for focus, color, exposure, and saturation. Mix is built around cutting, combining, and layering, though some basic image adjustment tools are present.

Photoshop Express is Adobe's the most recently updated iOS app for photo manipulation, and is similar to Photoshop Elements on the Mac.



40 Comments

melgross 20 Years · 33622 comments

Full article on Bloomberg.

this is a big thing. I use Lightroom and the other apps named in the Bloomberg article. Affinity, and others are really going to have to up their game. Their apps are good, and in some areas go beyond what Adobe offers currently on the iPad, but fall far short of the full professional feature set of photoshop. In addition, Affinity’y Photo is very poorly laid out. It’s clumsy in a number of ways. Enlight I’d very good too, and fixes some of Ohoto’s problems, but also falls short.

a lot of us are waiting for this with a high degree of anticipation.

lkrupp 19 Years · 10521 comments

If anybody still thinks a tablet can never replace a desktop or laptop you’re whistling past the graveyard. Adobe seems to be skating to where they think the puck will be. I have been in a real quandary over whether to buy a MacBook or an iPad Pro as a mobile platform. 

deminsd 7 Years · 143 comments

lkrupp said:
If anybody still thinks a tablet can never replace a desktop or laptop you’re whistling past the graveyard. Adobe seems to be skating to where they think the puck will be. I have been in a real quandary over whether to buy a MacBook or an iPad Pro as a mobile platform. 

If running one app is what you do, then possibly in your case, a tablet can replace a desktop/laptop.  It depends on what you do.  But for every app like this, there are 100 others that have no tablet version, making it impossible to REPLACE a desktop/laptop.  Not to mention the lack of a real filesystem and no connectivity to Windows networks, lackluster printing, etc. 

A tablet is a tool.  A handsaw is also a tool that has it's place, but I wouldn't build a house using it.

Mike Wuerthele 8 Years · 6906 comments

melgross said:
Full article on Bloomberg.

this is a big thing. I use Lightroom and the other apps named in the Bloomberg article. Affinity, and others are really going to have to up their game. Their apps are good, and in some areas go beyond what Adobe offers currently on the iPad, but fall far short of the full professional feature set of photoshop. In addition, Affinity’y Photo is very poorly laid out. It’s clumsy in a number of ways. Enlight I’d very good too, and fixes some of Ohoto’s problems, but also falls short.

a lot of us are waiting for this with a high degree of anticipation.

The Bloomberg article is linked in the piece.

icoco3 13 Years · 1474 comments

melgross said:
Full article on Bloomberg.

this is a big thing. I use Lightroom and the other apps named in the Bloomberg article. Affinity, and others are really going to have to up their game. Their apps are good, and in some areas go beyond what Adobe offers currently on the iPad, but fall far short of the full professional feature set of photoshop. In addition, Affinity’y Photo is very poorly laid out. It’s clumsy in a number of ways. Enlight I’d very good too, and fixes some of Ohoto’s problems, but also falls short.

a lot of us are waiting for this with a high degree of anticipation.

Affinity Designer was just released this week.  Serif has been around a long time and makes great products that do not break the bank.  Over time they will mature.  (been a customer since 1992)