New Adobe apps for iPad and CS5.

Today I will be attempting to review Adobe Nav and Adobe Easel for the iPad.

First I'll cover Nav. This looks like a mighty handy app but there is one fatal floor to it's main feature. The toolbar… One hand is already on my mouse and my other hand is on my keyboard. Currently if I want to swap the foreground-background colour I just hit 'cmd-x' and it's done. To do this on the iPad I need to move one hand to the device and click it… Not much more effort, but an extra step… That's hardly streamlining workflow. The same goes for any other toolbar item, especially if I then need the keyboard to specify a corner radius or some other detail. So far the best use I have come across with Nav is the tab manager, because I get screenshots for each window which makes switching between untitled docs a breeze. This is the first version of the app and I'm pretty sure Adobe will be keen to enhance the app as time goes on.

Easel is more of a painting app for the iPad, similar in the basics to Brushes etc. The difference here is that I can paint away and then send that drawing to photoshop where I can do the finishing touches. This is a nice touch and I can see where this would be really handy. The only thing missing is the ability of sending even a flat image back from photoshop to the iPad. I like this app and I'm pretty sure some of you digital artists out there will be making some awesome drawings on it. I'm not sure who else will use this app though since Brushes and other painting apps are better at the painting bit and would be a better purchase for anyone who doesn't want to send things flying over to photoshop in a few seconds.

I can see how these apps may be handy for a few people but so far I am far from as excited as I was when I heard about them. To be fair to Adobe, the apps are well laid out, with nice interfaces that will be easy to learn with more use but until I start using them in my main workflow I can't see me getting much more than a gimmicky use out of them. My verdict… Give it time and wait for a later version.

Category: Design & Illustration