Photoshop on iPad Pro | Tutorial & Review By The Tech Millennial

So back in October of last year, Adobe went on stage and maybe big announcement that they were going to be bringing Photoshop to the iPad in 2019 and creators everywhere went wild, but Dogie made it clear that this was not going to be a watered-down version of Photoshop for the iPad, but in fact it was going to be Photoshop on the iPad. It was going to run on the same code base as the desktop version, so there would be no compromise on performance or power with this Adobe promised to introduce a new interface that would maximize on the real estate of the iPad and introduced touch gestures, keyboard, support and Apple Pencil support. So after over a year and months of beta testing, Adobe finally released Photoshop on the iPad a couple of weeks ago. Now, one of the things that I do have to point out is that during their announcement, Adobe didn't promise all the features on launch day. In fact, we were promised a set of smaller features with more features being added over time. So, after a few weeks of going in-depth with the initial release, let's go into my overview of Photoshop on the iPad.

So first things. First, let's talk about price, don't be fooled by the fact that it's a free download in the App Store, because the moment you open the app you'll be prompted to sign in to your Adobe account, and that's because Photoshop for iPad is an extension of Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription service, which means you'll, have to have an active Photoshop subscription to be able to access it on the iPad for current subscribers, you'll immediately have access to it at no additional cost. But if you don't currently have a subscription, then you'll have to purchase one which starts at $10 a month. You'll notice the familiar and iconic Photoshop icon on the home screen once it's downloaded. So let's go ahead and open it up upon opening the app you're greeted with a home screen that resembles the desktop version for importing options.

You have the option to create a new file with a template or custom settings. You can import a photo from your camera roll or take a picture directly on your iPad and you can access your follows from iCloud, which is great, because this allows you to import a PSD file directly on to your iPad. Furthermore, you also have the ability to suggest a feature on the top right, which I think many users are going to be doing for sure. Furthermore, you also have a Lean tab where adobe has provided tutorials and videos on how to use current features that are available. Photoshop on your iPad gives you access to photoshop score tools and features in a modern interface designed for a touchscreen.

Your cloud documents. Tab shows all of your projects, which are automatically synced to the cloud which allows you to start a document on your desktop, for example, and then you can continue it on your iPad. Any changes done on your iPad will instantly be synced back to your desktop version. Where you can resume your work. Definitely a game changer, the cloud icon lets.

You know if you're connected to the cloud or not, and of course you have some app settings here- you can choose between dark mode and light mode, as well as some touch and keyboard shortcuts. So let's go ahead and open a PSD file that I have on iCloud Drive. On the left hand, side you'll see some very familiar tools in the toolbar, although you'll notice that there seems to be a lot of familiar tools missing as well we'll get into that in a moment. The right side, however, is completely unfamiliar. You see when I first launched Photoshop a few weeks ago and opened my first PSD file on the iPad I personally expected to be able to get in and navigate very easily, so I ignored the tutorial thinking I would be able to move with efficiency throughout the app based off of my previous experience.

But boy was I wrong. After about five minutes of clicking around and attempting to guess how to reach certain functions, I ended up having to take the tutorial. The first thing I had to learn was how to navigate the layers. This icon right here shows a simple preview of the layers which allows you to quickly switch between layers while taking up less space on the screen. The icon right below it shows you a more traditional view of your layers with layer names and the ability to disable or enable the layer and right below it.

You have your layer properties, you have the very familiar opacity level and blend mode which has all the blend modes as a desktop version below that you have the option for some additional adjustments which you can see here. You also have an effects and smart filters tab which currently aren't supported on the iPad. If you open up a file that currently has any effects applied to it, then you'll see the effects rendered on the project as well as see what effects the layer has applied, but you aren't able to edit or even disable the effects in this version. Moving on down, you have the option to create a new blank layer, adjustment, layer or empty group. The option to hide or inside a layer create a new mask layer, disable or enable the mask layer at clipping mask filters and adjustments and some more layer options.

So after having use Photoshop on the iPad for a couple of weeks now, one thing was very clear to me: although the tools and functions remain the same as the desktop, the layout and menu formats are different enough, that it's actually going to require a learning curve on your part, simple tasks like grouping layers together, wasn't obvious to me: I actually thought it wasn't even a version until I got a line and did some research, which brings me to the biggest disappointment that I've had on this initial release, which is keyboard shortcuts. The very limited keyboard shortcut functionality on the iPad dramatically slowed down my workflow on it to start off. Some standard shortcuts from the desktop version remained the same while others have changed. One of the first things I attempted to do was delete a layer by pressing delete which did absolutely nothing attempting to press command. T also proved to no longer transform the layer.

So after digging into the settings, I was able to find a list of the keyboard shortcuts that are currently supported, which led me to my second problem: the inability to set your own custom keyboard shortcuts on the desktop I, have custom keyboard, shortcuts that I've been using for years, which makes navigating Photoshop, quick and easy so now being able to transfer or set some of this keyboard. Shortcut means I either have to learn these new shortcuts or not use them at all. I found myself taking more time to perform the same tasks on the iPad compared to my desktop. Now, it's not all bad news. Adobe has integrated some great new features that take advantage of the touchscreen and Apple Pencil support.

The new touch shortcut icon, allows you to press down to activate a second function immediately. For example, if you are using the brush tool to draw pressing down on the touch shortly deity switches over to the eraser and releasing it goes right back to the brush, a two finger tap will undo your previous change and three fingers will redo it. Apple Pencil also supports pressure sensitivity, which means you can control the size of the brush. Depending on how hard you press down and multi-touch works fantastic. It allows you to easily zoom in and zoom out to edit more easily, but despite that, Photoshop in its current state lacks a lot of functionality.

Many basic tools like the pen tool and custom shape tools just aren't available yet and simple effects like stroke and drop shadows are nowhere to be found. Combine that with the fact that you can import custom, fonts or brushes. It makes it feel, like the lack of features, greatly outweighs the features that it does have. So after having attempted to use Photoshop on the iPad, only it's become apparent that I can't rely on my iPad as my sole Photoshop device yet, but Bobby has promised to aggressively roll out features on a tight schedule, so we'll have to wait and see just how fast that goes for now, I can see myself using Photoshop on the iPad to make very minor adjustments on projects that I already have, but I don't feel confident. I'll be able to take just my iPad and create a project from scratch.

To finish with that being said, let's have some fun I'm going to take a few random images that I pulled off the web and, let's see what we can create Photoshop for iPad as it stands, is definitely not ready for prime time, but I guess getting a bare-bones version like this with new features. Rolling out is better than not getting anything at all for now and having to wait, but thanks to his current state, I definitely won't be leaving my laptop behind with that being said, that's it for this video see you guys in the next one you.

Source : The Tech Millennial