Launching in November, Service Will Bridge CS Desktop Apps and Handheld/Tablet Equivalents

Top: A screen shot from the Adobe Ideas vector-drawing app announced today

At its MAX 2011 technology conference, Adobe today announced Creative Cloud, a subscription service offering access to the Creative Suite of software as well as six new Android and iOS applications. Through cloud hosting (the service includes 20 GB of cloud storage) the new applications will allow users to share files across devices and between tablet and desktop platforms.

The system is being pitched at the design community – users for whom Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver are the workhorses, not Premiere Pro and After Effects – but gives obvious indications of Adobe’s thinking regarding the future of creative apps. “The move to the Creative Cloud is a major component in the transformation of Adobe,” said CTO Kevin Lynch in a prepared statement.

The cost of the service, which is slated to make its first appearance in beta form in November, wasn’t announced. (As a point of reference, a subscription to Creative Suite Design Premium is currently $139 per month or $1140 per year.) Adobe said Creative Cloud would include Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Edge (for creating animated web content with HTML5 and CSS3), and Muse (a new web design tool). Also incorporated will be systems for producing tablet-based publications and designing web sites, including technology Adobe acquired in its just-announced purchase of web-font service Typekit.

The new lineup of tablet apps includes Photoshop Touch, Collage (for creating mood boards), Debut (for tablet-based client presentations), Ideas (a vector-based drawing tool), Kuler (for selecting and generating color themes), and Proto (wireframing and prototyping for the web and mobile apps).

Demonstrating the system in a press briefing, Lea Hickman, VP of design and web product management, showed a browser-based navigation system that allowed users to perform basic manipulation of content in the cloud – navigating through the layers of a Photoshop document, turning them on and off, for instance. (It doesn’t support camera RAW formats, however.) Product manager David Macy showed a demo of Photoshop Touch that indicated some surprisingly robust features have been ported straight across from its desktop-bound big brother, including the “refine edge” capability for easily improving the accuracy of a selection (a must-have when you’re drawing on an iPad screen with your fingers).

Android versions of the apps are slated to go live in November for $9.99 each. An announcement on the iOS versions isn’t expected until the first quarter of 2012. No hard launch date seems to be set for the Creative Cloud, either – officials said it will be available in beta form when the apps are launched, supporting sync and store capabilities. Look for more news then.

For more information: www.adobe.com.