Adobe planning a full version of Photoshop for the iPad

As far along as devices like the iPad or Chromebooks have come in terms of productivity, one main sticking point for many users has always been in the professional line of creative apps, like those used for video or photo editing. Now, a new report claims photo editing on the iPad may about to receive a major boost with a "full feature" version of Adobe Photoshop.

According to the report, Adobe wants to make its apps more compatible across platforms in an effort to attract more subscribers to its Creative Cloud. The main piece of that strategy will be a fully featured version of Photoshop coming to the iPad sometime in 2019, athough Adobe has been somewhat cagey about putting down a proper timeline in case there are delays. Adobe is expected to show off an early build of the app at its MAX conference in October.

Adobe is reportedly planning to update all of its apps -- Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, and Mix -- with options to have full versions run on the iPad and desktops and continue work on another device. However, the timeline for all of this is still very unclear. It sounds as though Photoshop will be the first app to get the update and Illustrator will come at an unknown time in the future. No word on Premiere on the iPad though.

It's also a bit unclear what exactly will constitute a "full featured" version of Photoshop on the iPad, because the report claims the app won't be a proper replacement for Photoshop, at least not at first. It will start out as more of a companion and potentially expand from there. We'll have to wait and see what Adobe shows off in October for more details, it seems.

source: Bloomberg