Adobe announces new tablet apps and cloud service

Adobe is preparing to launch a suite of mobile graphics tools, including a …

Ryan Paul – Oct 4, 2011 7:00 am | 28

Credit: Image courtesy of Adobe

Adobe has announced a new suite of mobile applications for content creators that will allow users to do graphical work on tablet devices like the iPad. Adobe is also launching a new Web service called Adobe Creative Cloud that can be used to sync and share content between devices.

The Adobe Touch suite consists of six tablet applications, including a photo editor, a collage toool, a Creative Suite file presenter, a vector drawing program, a social color palette manager, and software for designing wireframes. Although the flagship mobile photo editing application is called Adobe Photoshop Touch, it’s not a fully-featured port of its namesake—it’s a lightweight tool that offers a selection of “core” Photoshop features with a finger-friendly user interface.

Unlike the expensive Adobe Creative Suite, which is intended largely for a professional audience, the new tablet tools are designed to be more accessible to mainstream users. They are also priced accordingly: Adobe’s website indicates that the Android version of Photoshop Touch will sell for $9.99 at launch.

The Android application is built for Honeycomb and is shown running on the Motorola Xoom in videos on Adobe’s website. The software will also be available on Apple devices, though Adobe hasn’t yet announced the price of the iOS version.

Five of the six applications in the Adobe Touch suite are new, but the vector art program—called Adobe Ideas—has already been out for over a year and is currently available for purchase from the iOS App Store. The other tablet applications are not yet available. Adobe plans to release the Android versions next month and will disclose a release schedule for the iOS versions early next year.

Alongside the new tablet applications, Adobe also announced the Creative Cloud, a hosted storage, synchronization, and sharing service for users of Adobe Touch applications or Adobe Creative Suite. The Creative Cloud will allow content creators to easily move their work between desktop computers and mobile devices. It will also have social features and integration with Adobe’s digital publishing technologies.

Adobe also revealed today that it has acquired TypeKit, a company that hosts fonts in the cloud and serves them to users through the HTML5 @font-face feature and sIFR. The company’s services will presumably become part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud offering.

Adobe hasn’t yet announced the pricing for Creative Cloud, but promised that more details will be available next month. The service will initially offer users 20GB of storage capacity in the cloud.