Photoshop is getting a couple of important new features on the iPad today: the refine edge brush and the rotate canvas tool.
The refine edge brush is a big one for photographers, since it’s pretty much the only way to select the edges of fur or hair with any accuracy. The tool lets you brush around the edges you want to refine the selection of, and then toy with some controls to hone in on exactly what you want to select. The interface has been simplified for use with touch controls, but Adobe says the tool will deliver the same results as the desktop version.
Rotate canvas is the other addition. This isn’t as exciting of a tool, but it’s likely to be a lot more useful on the iPad. You can now rotate the canvas you’re working with by touching and turning it with two fingers, which should be handy for sketching without repeatedly repositioning the tablet itself.
Photoshop users were frustrated by missing features when the app debuted on the iPad last year. The desktop version is 30 years old and has built up a long list of detailed and powerful tools, and Adobe is never going to bring all of them to the tablet. But plenty of core, commonly used tools – like curves – were missing, which meant the app just wasn’t usable for a lot of people. Adobe promised it would quickly ship new features, and it’s continued to build out the app’s capabilities with regular updates in the months since.