The iPad and other tablets have been positioned largely as media-consumption devices, for surfing the Web, viewing videos and photos, listening to music, and playing games. Now, Adobe is releasing a variety of touch-based tools that view the tablet as a productivity device for creative applications, with a major new cloud initiative to tie them together.

Adobe Touch Apps are six tools, inspired by the company's flagship Creative Suite. They include image editing, idea-creation, sketching, mood boards, website and mobile-app prototyping, and presentation of completed work. The lead app, Photoshop Touch, brings touch-based tablet interaction to a version of the famed creative and image-editing tool.

Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler, Proto

The other apps are Adobe Collage, to combine images into a conceptual mood board; Debut, to present designs to clients; Ideas, a vector-based tool for drawing; Kuler, for generating color themes to inspire design products; and Proto, for developing interactive wire frames and prototypes for websites.

Each app has an introductory price of $9.99, and access to the Adobe Creative Cloud is included in the price.

The Touch Apps are parts of Adobe Creative Cloud, which the company described in a statement as "a worldwide hub for creativity, where millions can access desktop and tablet applications, find essential creative services, and share their best work." Adobe expects that the stylus will become popular in next-generation tablets, and so the interaction is designed to work with stylus as well as touch input.

After creating files with Touch Apps, a user can then share the files, view them from other devices, or use them in Creative Suite, via the Creative Cloud. Each user of the cloud will have access to 20 GB of storage, and the company said the cloud will offer access to the Creative Suite tools, as well as the new Touch...

2011-10-05 01:44:49