Adobe Introduces New Mobile Apps, Accessories and Pricing Options

• By Christopher Piehler
• 06/23/14

Adobe has unveiled a new suite of mobile apps and complementary hardware that connect Adobe Creative Cloud to the iPad. The company also announced new pricing options for education. 

The new mobile apps are the following:

Adobe Sketch is a social sketching iPad app for free-form drawing. Sketch allows designers to create with drawing tools including a graphite pencil, an ink pen, two blending markers and an eraser. Users can get live feedback from their collaborators as they work.

Adobe Line is an iPad app for precision drawing and drafting that combines organic drawing with straight lines, French curves and perfect shapes that can be drawn in plan and elevation views or in perspective. Line reimagines traditional drawing tools like rulers, T-squares and shape templates for the mobile world, as well as giving users access to assets and Kuler color themes as well as the ability to share work.

Photoshop Mix is an app for compositing and masking on iPad. It also offers cloud-based imaging technology on iPad for the first time, including features such as Upright, Content Aware Fill and Camera Shake Reduction. Other tools include non-destructive photo enhancements, selections, the ability to cut out and mix images, and the ability to open and save PSD files.

Lightroom for iPhone extends the recently shipped Lightroom's mobile capabilities to the iPhone, allowing users to manage and edit images across desktops, mobile devices and the Web. Also, the recently announced Adobe Voice, a free animated video app for iPad, has been updated to work with Lightroom catalogs.

Creative Cloud for iPad and iPhone allows Creative Cloud members to access and manage their files, assets and more from their mobile device.

Three of the new apps — Adobe Sketch, Adobe Line and Photoshop Mix — were created using a new Adobe Creative Software Development Kit (SDK), designed to speed the development of third-party apps that access cloud-based Adobe technologies. Currently in private beta, the SDK will enable developers to include and edit Photoshop PSD files in their mobile apps, ensure compatibility between mobile apps and desktop tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator, and offer new image editing capabilities in the cloud.

Adobe has also released two new mobile accessories that work in conjunction with the new software. Adobe Ink is an aluminum stylus for iPads running iOS7. The fine-tipped, pressure-sensitive stylus enables controlled drawing and connects to Creative Cloud, giving users access to their favorite drawings, photos and Adobe Kuler color themes at the tip of the pen. Adobe Slide is a digital ruler (and companion to Ink) for iPads running iOS7. Slide enables precision sketching — including straight lines, perfect circles, and balanced shapes — on iPad.

Adobe Sketch, Line and Photoshop Mix are free applications, available in English, French, German and Japanese in the Apple App Store. Adobe Ink and Slide are available now for $199.99. 

Along with the new product announcements, Adobe is now offering new pricing options on Creative Cloud for education. For individual use on personally owned computers, the company is offering a first-year introductory offer for Creative Cloud Complete (Student Teacher Edition) for $19.99 a month.
 
For environments that need anonymous deployment of Adobe’s creative desktop applications, the "classrooms and labs" option provides licensing for each computer, rather than each user. For small work groups and departments that need access for each individual user, the named-user license provides a name and password to access Creative Cloud applications and services. 

For large school districts, Adobe’s enterprise licensing option offers customized licensing and includes a complete set of Creative Cloud applications (with or without services) as well as other Adobe software applications. Individual schools and smaller school districts can also take advantage of Adobe’s FTE-based Education Enterprise Agreement (EEA) program, which is designed especially with the needs of educators and IT administrators in primary and secondary education.