Adobe MAX 2019: Empowering Creativity for All

Last updated: 2019/11/14 at 12:00 AM

Editorial Team

11 Min Read

Recently at Adobe MAX, the world’s largest creativity conference, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) announced the next generation of Creative Cloud—a release of faster and more powerful products spanning multiple surfaces. The company officially launched Adobe Photoshop on iPad and extended Adobe Fresco to Microsoft Surface, while also previewing the highly anticipated Adobe Illustrator on iPad and the all-new Photoshop Camera. Adobe continues to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation with the introduction of Adobe Aero, a new authoring tool for creating in augmented reality.

Adobe also released major updates to Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects, InDesign and Adobe XD. With this Creative Cloud release, new Adobe Sensei-powered features were introduced across products including Auto Reframe in Premiere Pro, Object Selection in Photoshop, Auto Tone in Photoshop Camera and Live Brushes in Fresco as the company continues to enable creatives to work faster and smarter than ever before.

“We’re excited to push the frontiers of creativity to make everyone more productive and express their creative vision,” said Scott Belsky, chief product officer and executive vice president, Creative Cloud, Adobe. “Today’s announcements redefine the creative experience for everyone—not only seasoned professionals, but also the next generation of designers, photographers, filmmakers and illustrators.”

Create on Multiple Surfaces

Today’s Creative Cloud release empowers everyone to create anywhere, anytime and with anyone.

Adobe Photoshop on iPad. Initially previewed at MAX 2018, Adobe Photoshop on iPad brings core compositing and retouching workflows to the tablet. It features full PSD interoperability, a touch-based UI, cloud document access and the power to work on real world, multi-layered creations. Developed specifically for tablets, Photoshop on iPad is an intuitive, more accessible entry point to Photoshop for new users as well as a great companion app for professional creators.

Adobe Fresco on Microsoft Windows. Released for iPad earlier this fall, Adobe Fresco is now available on Windows, beginning on Microsoft Surface Pro X devices and Wacom MobileStudio Pro hardware. It provides a natural and versatile drawing and painting experience across devices by combining raster, vector and new Live Brushes. Powered by Adobe Sensei, the watercolor and oil Live Brushes mix and interact on the screen just as they would in real life. The product also allows artists to sync their favorite Photoshop brushes for a smooth roundtrip workflow between apps.

Adobe Illustrator on iPad Preview. For more than 30 years, Adobe Illustrator has been the leading illustration app. Today, the company previewed Illustrator’s future with a reimagined touch-based app that brings the precision and versatility of the desktop experience to the tablet. Designed with a more intuitive interface, the iPad update will make it possible for users to work with the same documents across devices and have seamless access to Adobe Stock, Adobe Fonts and all Creative Cloud Libraries.

Adobe Photoshop Camera. Previewed for the first time today, Photoshop Camera is a new mobile app that brings Photoshop magic directly to the point of capture. Photoshop Camera gives consumers a fun and easy way to create and share imaginative, high-quality images on social media. As an intelligent camera app, it applies Photoshop Magic to any photo, but unlike native phone camera and third-party camera apps, Photoshop Camera uses Adobe Sensei to automatically enhance photo quality. Photoshop Camera will include an expansive library of unique lenses and effects from leading artists and influencers, including musician Billie Eilish.

Accelerating Creativity Across Creative Cloud

Updates to flagship apps and new productivity features deliver even more value to all Creative Cloud subscribers.

Lightroom. Launched interactive in-app tutorials on desktop offering new ways to learn how to edit photos and get inspired by professional photographers. It also features Panorama Fill Edges, which magically fills in the edges of an image using Content-Aware Fill technology. It can be accessed in-app and is available on Windows and Mac.

Premiere Pro. Released Auto Reframe, a new feature which uses Adobe Sensei technology to analyze footage and apply intelligent panning and cropping to keep the action in the frame. This feature is designed to save creators hours of mundane tasks so they can spend time being more creative.

After Effects. Released significant performance updates with smooth, fluid playback of cached previews, faster Multichannel EXR files and a faster Content-Aware Fill that uses half as much memory.

InDesign. Launched new support of SVG Imports across digital and print design workflows, in addition to the option to use customisable Variable Fonts within the app. Designers can adjust typeface properties such as weight, width, slant and optical size. Adobe is also offering a new feature for Asset Link that enables direct linking between Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Assets and InDesign helping further accelerate print and digital content creation.

Live Coediting and Document History in Adobe XD. Released as a beta feature, live Coediting lets multiple users work in a document at the same time, enabling real-time collaboration for design teams and stakeholders. The addition of Document History allows anyone on a team to see a list of saved versions of documents, browse previously saved versions and open any given version in a new window to see changes.

Creative Cloud Desktop Redesigned. Adobe unveiled a redesigned Creative Cloud desktop app, which offers a more intuitive way to access, update, discover and learn Adobe apps. The update includes a powerful, native search engine, which searches across all Creative Cloud assets and files, and access to tutorials. It also features new ways to access services such as Adobe Fonts, Adobe Stock and Behance, as well as a new full-screen management tool for Creative Cloud Libraries.

Creative Cloud Libraries Built for Efficiency and Collaboration. Creative Cloud Libraries is the perfect tool to capture, organize and share the creative ingredients you want to have at your fingertips. Libraries are now fully integrated with XD, allowing you to leverage what you create in other applications, such as Illustrator, directly in XD. Now it can also be accessed in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, empowering your non-creative colleagues to build on-brand documentation and presentations with the most up-to-date assets. Finally, we have developed Library packs, pre-populated Libraries built to inspire or act as an entryway to Libraries for new users.

Exploring New Frontiers

As augmented reality, 3D and voice are adopted by creatives and consumers alike, Adobe is building intuitive tools that make it possible to easily create for new mediums. Today, the company released Adobe Aero, which empowers users to easily create immersive content that blurs the line between digital and physical worlds. Aero helps users create augmented reality experiences by leveraging familiar tools like Photoshop and Dimension to produce creations that pop in an immersive, three-dimensional environment. The company is also actively integrating the recently acquired Substance suite—the standard for 3D material and texture design—into the Adobe family, with additional details coming next year.

Adobe MAX: A Celebration of Creativity for All

MAX 2019 will feature keynotes from some of the world’s most innovative and prolific creatives including musician Billie Eilish; artist Takashi Murakami; director and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl; director and producer M. Night Shyamalan; renowned photographer David LaChapelle; and visual artist Shantell Martin. Emmy Award-winning writer and comedian John Mulaney hosts this year’s MAX Sneaks—a preview of technology innovation from Adobe Research. The conference can be livestreamed at https://max.adobe.com/.

Pricing and Availability

Updates to Creative Cloud desktop software are now available to all Creative Cloud subscribers, including those using membership plans for individuals, students, teams, educational institutions, government agencies and enterprises. Adobe’s mobile apps are available for download from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Adobe Photoshop on iPad is available to all Creative Cloud customers who are subscribed to Photoshop. It can also be purchased through the Apple App Store. Additional plan information is available here.

Adobe Fresco is available as a single app for $9.99 per month, or with most Creative Cloud plans. A freemium version is also available with many of the same features as the full version. Additional plan information is available here.