Adobe Launches Photoshop Touch for Smartphones

Digital photo editing legends Adobe have just released a new version of their Photoshop Touch app – this time optimised for smartphone use. The original app, which launched for tablets, has been updated to allow the smartphone user instant access to Adobe editing tools including layering; filtering; and tonal adjustment.

Photoshop Touch for smartphones follows in the footsteps of its tablet predecessor, by using the now-routine swipe, pinch and tap movements to access and employ blending effects and layering functionality. Unlike the original version of Photoshop, which required some training before successful use, Touch has been made intuitive and “organic” – like the devices on which its creators intend it to be used.

The rationale behind the rollout of the new app is clear. A smartphone is one of the most popular portable photography devices in the world – so much so that compact digital cameras are fighting to find ways to stay in the market for casual digital photography. With ever improving megapixel counts, screen resolutions and lenses, smartphones have become quality digital cameras in their own right, capable of creating images that are used for a variety of purposes.

The average smartphone owner uploads his or her images to social media platforms like Facebook on a regular basis. He or she may use built in phone features to edit his or her images – for instance by adding a sepia tone to the picture, or creating an image that looks as though it were taken by a Polaroid camera.

The existing editorial functions on a smartphone, however, are limited to pretty simple button pressing. Brining Photoshop to the phone allows the device to be seen in a whole new light, by digital creatives as well as by pocket photographers.

Photoshop has retained its status as the premier digital imaging package for over a decade. Like Google, which took over the search engine back in the early 21st century, Adobe’s product has become so popular that its name is a verb – to “Photoshop” an image is to digitally alter it, regardless of whether or not Photoshop itself was the actual program used to do so.

Making it available on the smartphone, then, announces the brand’s continuing interest in holding the lion’s share of the digital photography market. In a sense, the move can almost be seen as an indication of the shift in that market, from (as noted earlier) compact digital cameras with a solid megapixel value to smartphones.

A compact digital camera’s pictures are edited on a laptop, or a PC. Pictures taken on smartphones, though, are more likely to be edited in situ or not at all. Moving Photoshop Touch to the smartphone represents a continuing shift away from the idea of technology as rooted to a desk, or the table that flips out the back of a seat on a plane or a train.

Smartphones have blended the internet, and web software, with reality. People now interact with their technology and their world simultaneously. Photoshop Touch is another step along that path.