First Impressions: Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad

No less serious than iPhoto for iPad image processing, I was far less impressed with Photoshop Touch than with this nearest competitor.

With only a three layer maximum, PS Touch tries to be Photoshop, but for the Desktop PS power-user, leaves one wanting. Still, it has layers, and a fair amount of other features. But, I see myself using it far less.

The interface is clean, if not quirky. Its use of trendy iconography makes it slow to learn, and powerful features like the ability to resample and rotate an image may go unnoticed at first. But once you get the hang of it, you quickly find that it’s a tool you can’t do without.

Sadly, what would have been the most impressive feature, non-destructive adjustment layers, has not been implemented. Perhaps it’s slated for a future release, geared to generate more revenue for the hungry Adobe. What would have truly impressed me would have been an implementation of Adobe’s Lightroom (a.k.a. Camera Raw with its own standalone interface). Again, perhaps this is on the way. The future of image processing falls in the non-destructive camp, and this would have been the perfect venue for the go-to photo app for the iPad user.

Also less impressive is the display performance. Upon close inspection, images appear aliased, and one cannot help but notice the vast difference between this and iPhoto. Still, the quality does not seem to impact the final image rendering.

The good news is, These two app complement one another nicely, and the acquisition of both means getting rid of a whole lot of separate smaller apps that collectively try to do the same thing. I can already envision a series of iPad-based photo projects in my future.