Adobe's annual MAX conference in Los Angeles serves as a venue for in-depth software training sessions for creatives and a platform for new product announcements. The big news from this year's show is the release of a new fast video-editing app called Premiere Rush CC.
But Adobe also showed off: previews of a full Photoshop version for iPad; Project Gemini, a mobile drawing and painting app; and Project Aero for AR design. The company also has a major update to its XD interface design and prototyping app, along with feature adds to many of the Creative Cloud professional media apps.
Rush to Post Video
Rush is a new quick video-editing app for mobile and desktop that syncs projects between the two. It targets those frequent social video producers and is available for Windows, Mac, and iOS, with more platforms to follow.
The interface resembles that of the simplified Lightroom CC, and will be welcomed by those who are intimidated by Premiere Pro's massive assortment of tools, menus, and panels. The software makes it easy to cut, add transitions, titles, and soundtracks. Rush also simplifies exporting video projects to multiple social outputs in one step and with the required format specs.
Rush is available with full Creative Cloud subscription or as a standalone for $9.99 per month.
Full Photoshop on the iPad
Adobe also demonstrated a fully capable version of Photoshop running as an iPad app. Yes, that means all those layers, blend modes, gradients, filters, and masks will be editable on the leading tablet. Of course, the interface has been redesigned to work well with touch and pen input. And it saves to the standard .PSD format, so you can take projects started on iPad to the desktop. Photoshop for iPad will launch in 2019.
Project Gemini and Project Aero
In a similar vein to Photoshop, Project Gemini is an iPad drawing and painting app without all the complexity that comes with the bigger, more traditional image-manipulation app. It's intended purely as a creative app for artists working on iPads. It combines both raster and vector drawing capabilities, and effects like water running on watercolors and oil paint smearing are surprisingly realistic.
Gemini lets you dock its control panels or work in full screen mode. For now, it's is in closed beta, but you can apply to join the beta program, or follow the team's Instagram account.
Meanwhile, augmented reality (AR) is popping up everywhere, and Project Aero is a new AR authoring tool that integrates with Adobe Dimension and Photoshop. At MAX, the company showcased a demo in collaboration with Adidas of an AR-powered retail store for a vision of the future.
XD and More for CC Subscribers
Other Adobe Creative Cloud apps get feature adds today as well, many of which take advantage of Adobe's Sensei AI technology to anticipate designers' needs.
XD, the interface design and prototyping tool in particular received lots of attention, with over 60 new features. One of the coolest is support for AI-powered voice apps. It also gets plug-in support, animation tools, and integration with Illustrator and After Effects.
All Creative Cloud subscribers now can take advantage of Adobe Fonts (formerly TypeKit) in their print and web projects. That's a choice of over 15,000 fonts! Premiere Pro users get new tools to make widespread changes to colors in videos, Photoshop gets improved Content-Aware Fill, and Illustrator gets a more powerful and flexible way to build gradients. Ligthroom CC can now import from Apple Photos, and Lightroom Classic's tethering is improved. InDesign gets a new Properties panel, and Audition gets new intelligent audio cleanup, just to name a few of the large numbers of improvements in the suite.