Following last year’s release of Photoshop for iPad, Adobe is planning to release Illustrator for iPad in 2020, and now the company is starting to invite people to help it beta-test the app.
You can sing up to get early access to Illustrator for iPad over at Adobe’s website.
Announced in November, the app “not only makes the power and precision of Illustrator mobile, it also reimagines the interface in a way that makes the app easier and more intuitive to use.”
Adobe has confirmed that Illustrator for iPad will take advantage of Multi-Touch, the Apple Pencil and the iPad’s underlying hardware. You will apparently be able to use your iPad’s camera to capture sketches and convert them into vector shapes.
A few core concepts Adobe is focusing on include:
- Seamless connection across your devices: Everything you create in Illustrator can be saved to the Creative Cloud so you’ll be able to create on your desktop and iPad.
- Power and precision: Work with Illustrator files with no loss of the detail and precision you expect from Adobe. For many designs you create today, you’ll be able to start on your iPad and finish on your iPad.
- Intuitive experience: We’re rethinking the interface to help you save time and make Illustrator easier and more natural to use.
- Leverage the tablet interface: Benefit from things like the camera and Apple pencil to take your designs to new places. For instance, you can take a picture of a hand-drawn sketch and Illustrator on iPad will help you transform it into vector shapes.
Because it’s part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud service, Illustrator for iPad will allow you to access all your assets from within the app, including Adobe Stock. And thanks to the power of the cloud, all your brushes, shapes, colors, character styles and Adobe Typekit fonts will be instantly available across your desktop and mobile devices.
It remains to be seen how customers will accept the iPad version of Illustrator.
If Photoshop is an indication, the mobile version may not match all of the features of its desktop counterpart. The mobile version will likely use the same code base as Illustrator for desktop, and then Adobe will probably add missing features over time via free updates.
Indeed, as Bloomberg’s October 2019 report speculated, Illustrator for iPad “would mirror many of the features from the desktop version when running on the iPad,” but not all of them.
In the meantime, designers and creative professionals unwilling to accept compromises are wholeheartedly recommended to check out Serif’s Affinity Designer for iPad, a full-on vector illustration app with rich Apple Pencil support, advanced features and a low price.