Today, Adobe announced that its Illustrator design app is now available on the iPad, extending beyond traditional desktop devices for the first time. Additionally, the company has also brought Fresco app to the iPhone.
For Illustrator, the iPad release is significant since it means the app had to be designed for touch and pen usage. It features a more streamlined experience compared to the traditional desktop app, so it"s easier to use with the iPad"s smaller screen and touch input. With the iPad app, users can opt for drawing designs with the Apple Pencil, and there are new features like radial, grid, and mirror.
Over on the desktop side, Illustrator is also getting some updates, including an improved Recolor Artwork tool, the ability to snap objects to a Glyph (that is, text), aligning text to the top, middle, or bottom of a frame, and other text-related improvements. You can also now preview objects in real time as you resize them, instead of only seeing outlines. While not new, support for Cloud Documents is also a bit more useful now, since you can start a project on the desktop and continue on the new iPad app and vice versa.
As for Fresco, the app was already available on Windows 10 and the iPad, but now it"s also available on the iPhone. Adobe says you can expect the same familiar interface, just scaled down to the smaller display. As such, all the same tools should be available. And on that note, some new tools have been added to Fresco, including support for text, a new smudge brush, and pressure sensitivity settings for brushes. There are also some new sharing features, including the ability to change the quality of timelapse videos, livestream capabilities so you can show your work in real time, and more.
You can download Adobe Fresco for the iPhone or iPad from the App Store, or for Windows 10 from Adobe"s website. You can also download Illustrator for iPad, though it does require a paid subscription.