It’s got touch, but does it have the power we need?

Adobe Photoshop Touch : In order to maintain its reputation as one of the world’s premier photo editing apps, Adobe has gone back to basics with Photoshop Touch. Providing iOS users with a paired down version of its flagship image editor, Touch is more akin to Photoshop Elements than Creative Suite. Rather than focus on including all the bells and whistles of the parent app, Adobe have focused in on its role as a photo manipulator, and prioritized practical, useful tools that will help users edit photos, and not just create weird and wonderful artwork. Photoshop Touch is really easy to get started with; using a simplified interface, it’s designed to maximise the performance of your iPad’s smaller screen. However, just in case you’re a complete novice, it comes with 13 step-by-step tutorials.

The interface may seem completely new on first glance, but, following the same basic structure of the desktop app, it’s structured to be familiar to existing Adobe users. Your tool bar is along the left hand side, with old favourites like the marquee tool, lasso, clone stamp and Magic Wand, while along the top is a menu bar with options such as Edit, Transform, Colour Adjustment and Effects, in a familiar order. Instead of a numerous nest of palettes, there’s just the one on the right hand side Layers: one of Photoshop Touch’s crowning glories. Not only can it support up to 16 layers at a time, but these can be reordered with a simple drag and drop, and then you can apply one of nine layer effects to them (such as Multiply, Darken and Overlay). You can also adjust the opacity, and merge with other layers.

In terms of functionality, the app contains many of the features that Adobe users are used to, but with an iOS twist, making the best use of gestures. Unfortunately, there’s no RAW import options and a canvas limit of 1600 x 1600 pixels, but it’s an instant heavyweight in iOS photo editing. But now there’s iPhoto too!