Adobe Lightroom is now available in Mac App Store

Lightroom has become Adobe’s first pro app to be added to Apple’s redesigned Mac App Store.

An Aperture replacement

Lightroom is a cloud-based photography service akin to Apple’s iCloud Photos service and the stock Photos app. With Lightroom, you can edit, organize, store and share your photographs across platforms and access them anywhere with the included 1TB of cloud storage.

Apple has promoted Lightroom’s arrival with a Mac App Store editorial.

Although Lightroom is a free download, you will need to subscribe after a 7-day trial in order to continue using the software without restrictions, access your files in the Adobe cloud and more. In that regard, the Mac App Store version is the same as the Lightroom edition included in Creative Cloud subscriptions available through Adobe’s website.

Lightroom hits Mac App Store

You can have both your full-resolution originals and edits backed up to the Adobe cloud, organize your photos with searchable keywords that are automatically applied thanks to the computer vision and machine learning algorithms that Adobe calls Sensei AI.

Thanks to Sensei AI, Lightroom also provides features like an auto-editing tool that automatically adjusts a photo’s exposure, contrast and other elements for best results.

The Mac App Store version takes advantage of Apple’s In-App Purchase mechanism to offer monthly and annual subscriptions at $10 and $119, respectively. Apple takes a 15-30 percent cut on all in-app subscriptions but it probably cut a special revenue sharing deal with Adobe in order to incentivize the Photoshop maker to put Lightroom on Mac App Store.

Lightroom for Mac: features highlight

Adobe shared a rundown of the features you can expect in the Mac app.

Anywhere editing

With easy-to-use photo editing tools like sliders and filters, Photoshop Lightroom makes it simple to create photos that look just the way you want. And you can edit your full-resolution photos anywhere — on mobile devices, the web or your desktop. Edits on one device are automatically applied everywhere else.

Smarter organization

Adobe Sensei uses machine learning to recognize the people and other content in your photos and then applies searchable keywords automatically. Looking for shots of your cousin or favorite trips to the water? Auto-tagging makes searching a snap so you can create albums based on any person or theme you want

Worry-free storage

The 1TB of cloud storage included with Lightroom ensures that you can access your entire library of full-resolution photos anytime you want, anywhere you are, from any device.

Easy sharing

Share your photographs with loved ones, clients or an even bigger audience. Post photos directly to social sites, showcase them on your website by sending them directly to Adobe Portfolio and create stunning graphics, web pages and video stories in minutes with Adobe Spark. It’s all included in your membership.

Other apps are returning to Mac App Store

Last summer, Apple said it’d relaxed some of the stringer sandboxing rules on Mac App Store in order to persuade big name developers to put their warez back in the store. Since then, several major apps and whole suites have returned to Mac App Store, including Panic’s excellent FTP client Transmit, Microsoft’s Office suite, the powerful text editor BBEdit and more.

Other apps and developers mentioned during last year’s WWDC keynote as returning to Mac App Store include Serif, which just released the desktop publishing app Affinity Publisher, as well as Bloom, Feral, Corel, Aspyr, Black Magic Design, Intua and Houseparty.

Adobe’s only other app on Mac App Store is Photoshop Elements 2019, at $70.

Photoshop for iPad is coming

Adobe’s been working on a native iPad edition of Photoshop that shares much of the code base with its desktop counterpart and includes features like seamless Creative Cloud syncing, full layer support, the ability to open files created in Photoshop for desktop and more.

Creative Cloud users can apply for the Photoshop for iPad beta program on Adobe’s website. The anticipated app will release some time in 2019, probably in the fall when new iPads arrive.

Grab Adobe Lightroom for free from Mac App Store.