What we REALLY want in a Photoshop iPad App!
Last night I was talking with a buddy, and we started talking about what we would really like to see in a Photoshop iPad app. I think all the things that Adobe is doing right now in that space, especially with their introduction of a Software Development Kit (SDK) enabling other people to create apps that interact with Photoshop is incredible. However….
…..what I really want is for Adobe to create Photoshop as an App for the iPad. Real Photoshop. Basically, “Photoshop for the iPad” with the same type of interface, where everything is where we expect it to be—not some reimagined program that really isn’t Photoshop. I don’t want to learn something completely new, or I’ll just stick with the iPad photo apps I have now. I want PHOTOSHOP! Real Photoshop!
We can’t have it all
Now, I know there’s no way possible to have the complete version of Photoshop CS5, which is designed to run on a very powerful computer with literally Gigs of RAM, run on an iPad with just Megs of RAM, and that’s fine because I don’t want everything that Photoshop CS5 can do in “Photoshop for the iPad.”
For example, Photoshop CS5 has 108 filters. I just need six.
Photoshop has more than 80 tools. I just need 19.
There is tons of stuff I don’t use on my full version of Photoshop, so I surely don’t need them in my iPad version. For example, I don’t need the single-pixel Marquee tools or the Art History Brush. I don’t need the Paint Bucket tool, or the Note tool, or the rotate view tool, or the Background Eraser tool. I could go on and on.
I don’t need all this stuff either:
Same thing with Panels (we can’t have them all, right?). I can live without the Animation panel and the Measure Log panel (yes, that’s a real panel), and the Navigator and Tool Presets (among others).
I don’t need all those Image Adjustments either, like Variations and Channel Mixer, and Posterize and Threshold (if any of those made you gasp—NOT THAT ONE!!!! Just remember, you’ll still have Desktop Photoshop—you don’t have to trade it for the iPad version).
So, I went through Photoshop and looked at stripping it down to just the bare essentials that I’d need for editing my photos, retouching my photos, and doing what I need to do daily in Photoshop. I wouldn’t use my “Photoshop for iPad” for magazine production jobs, or building Web sites from scratch, or processing 1,200 images from a Wedding shoot (that’s for “Lightroom for the iPad”). But I don’t want to learn the 3rd party Apps out there, and keep switching every three weeks to the new “Latest & Greatest” photo app. I want one App that I can stick with. I want Photoshop for the iPad.
Here’s what I want in it (and just this stuff, unless of course, I forgot something really useful, which is entirely possible):
Tools:
The Move Tool
Marque Selection Tools
Lasso tool
History Brush
Crop Tool
Eyedropper Tool
The Healing, Brush
The Clone Stamp Tool
Gradient Tool
Pen Tool and Path Selection Arrows
The Line tool
Type Tool
Mag Glass (Zoom tool)
Grabber Hand
Eraser Tool
Quick Select Tool
Filters:
Gaussian Blur
Liquify
Lens Correction
High Pass
Unsharp Mask
Add Noise
Adjustments:
Levels
Curves
Hue/Saturation
Photo Filter
Shadow/Highlight
Desaturate
HDR Pro
Invert
Panels
Character Panel
Actions Panel
Brush Panel
Channels Panel
Layers Panel
History Panel
Adjustments Panel
Other stuff
Smart Objects
Free Transform
Transform Selection
Refine Edge (+ remove mattes + Defringe)
Image Processor
Define Brush Preset
Photo Merge (auto-align layers)
Load Selection
Rulers & Guides
Image size & Canvas Size
So that’s the list, but again—it has to look and feel JUST LIKE PHOTOSHOP. If I wanted another program, I’d be using that instead.
What do YOU want to see?
OK, so that’s what I’d like to see included, but to make this what “We” really want, I’d love to hear what you guys would expect in a full-blown Photoshop for the iPad (if Adobe would even consider it?).
What do YOU want to pay?
If you’re thinking $9.99, you can absolutely guarantee that Adobe will never produce this App. They’re not going to take a $700 software application, and make it into a $10 App and stay in business very long. So, would you pay:
(a) $49
(b) $99
(c) $199
(d) $299
(e) $399
If it did all those things, did them all very well, and it was REALLY Photoshop for the iPad?
Let me know what you think on both counts. I really want to see what you guys think of this idea (and I want to Adobe to see, too!).
P.S. I’d like a separate app called simply “Camera Raw for iPad.” :)