The Adobe Max conference is currently underway in Los Angeles. What we saw yesterday was an uncharacteristic cosying up between Adobe and Microsoft, as the respective CEOs Shantanu Narayen and Satya Nadella announced collaborative projects. The partnership will see key Adobe creative apps such as Photoshop and Illustrator "designed for use with touch, rather than having touch support grafted onto it," reports The Verge.
A large proportion of creative types favour Apple computers and tablets for their work. That is a trend that's been going on since Apple's breakthrough in WYSIWYG desktop publishing decades ago. However Apple isn't making Mac computers with touch screens, which seems to be an area that Adobe wants to develop further. Adobe has just introduced new and revamped touch apps for iOS however. But on the desktop/laptop workspace the innovative new touch and motion features it is using in its apps aren't being employed right now. This is where computers like the Microsoft Surface come in.
The best way to see how Adobe is working with Microsoft to bring innovative and natural new ways to create and edit artistic works is by watching the short, 1 minute 30 second, video above. In the video you will see some interesting ways in which a user can edit and create art in programs such as Illustrator, Premiere and Photoshop. You will see the touch screen and pen supplied with the Microsoft Surface Pro used but also some other surprising interactions such as gesture control and using the tablet as a view port and even interaction with a smartphone.
The lucky attendees at Adobe Max got a nice surprise: Satya Nadella announced that they would all be getting a free Surface Pro 3 on which to test Adobe's new software. A year's subscription to Office 365 was thrown also in.
