As much of a dent as technology has made in the design field, creative professionals still tend to begin projects with pencil and paper. However, a new iPad app from Adobe, Comp CC, hopes to break them of this Luddite-ish habit.
Comp CC (as in Creative Cloud—the surname of most of Adobe's applications these days) lets designers draw on the tablet with some key assists and assets, and then continue working on the ideas in the more powerful desktop applications, InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop CC.
The app, announced today, gives the designer access to brand assets and exact color values stored in his or her Adobe Creative Profile and Creative Cloud Libraries. It also supports a slew of intuitive gestures, such as scribbling over something when you want to erase it. Draw a rectangle, and Comp can turn it into a perfect rectangle.
"Doing creative work on a mobile device is only useful if the results can be synced to the desktop, where the project can be perfected in a precise, professional-grade tool like InDesign or Photoshop," said Adobe vice president Scott Belsky. "With Comp CC we've simplified the design process, helping creatives take their initial layout-designs on iPad and make them the basis of high-impact finished work on the desktop—all thanks to Creative Cloud."
The app ties in with Adobe Creative Cloud to provide users with access to fonts and other assets they have included in their online profiles. Any Typekit fonts a user has access to will be available in Comp.
Adobe has been busy churning out mobile design apps, including Illustrator Draw, Illustrator Line, Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Shape CC, and Adobe Color CC. The first three are designed to work with the company's nifty Ink stylus and Slide ruler hardware devices.
Comp CC was previewed in a sneak peek at Adobe's MAX conference last fall under the code name "Project LayUp." The app performs some processing in the cloud, so users will need a live Internet connection while using it. As with pretty much everything coming out of Adobe lately, Comp CC also requires an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, and it is available starting today on the iTunes App Store.