You’ll also need an internet connection to register and download the software, as standard.
Requirements are pretty standard for an app of this ilk you’ll need at least 4GB of RAM 8GB of free space on your hard drive and iOS 14 or later. With the ability to also link docs from Photoshop ( download Photoshop here) and Fresco in the Cloud, the whole ecosystem provides a great experience, as you know you can pull images wherever you are, and collaborate in real time.
The app may be supplementary to the desktop version, and slightly stripped down – there’s no familiar tools like image tracing, or as many stroke options, as of yet – but overall it could be said to be slightly smarter because of the dynamic nature of working on a touch screen. You might be used to keyboard shortcuts, which still exist (though not in their entirety) so the touch shortcut should be thought of as an evolutionary adaptation, or iPad translation, and one that adds to the already mentioned fluid nature of the app.Ĭreate your own custom guides (Image credit: Ben Brady) For instance, with the touch shortcut held, you can adjust singular nodes and snapping points, making your editing techniques a lot more instantly nuanced and intuitive. The touch selection aspect, or touch shortcut (a little white circular module) allows a variety of editing options once lines or shapes are drawn. It essentially takes away from the need to navigate to the adjustment toolbar to make any changes. Everything from changing layer order, transparency, adjusting strokes, or moving and locking shapes can be accessed through this neat little menu, and it’s super-easy to select any shape, no matter how small or partially hidden, and adjust while you're focused on the drawing itself. Although it’s still easy to dip into the layers or properties tab, the focus is more on having everything a mere touch away on your ‘desktop’ or canvas.Ī small menu appears below every selected drawn shape allowing you to edit with far more fluidity. It has turned Illustrator into a tool more honed toward drawing, making the drawing experience, and the vectorisation of drawing feel far more natural and easier to edit. The main highlight is really the optimisation for Apple Pencil. The Photoshop app for iPad does not support the 9.7-inch and 10.2-inch iPad and that’s likely going to be the case for the Illustrator app as well.Adjustment menus pop up for any shape selected (Image credit: Ben Brady)
Whenever it does launch, Adobe Illustrator will only work with iPad Pro and selected iPad models. The first release will also probably be lackluster in terms of features and tools as Adobe will keep adding new ones with constant updates after release. Given that Photoshop for iPad took a year to launch after its initial announcement, it is likely that we will see Illustrator for iPad also take a similar amount of time before launch. Similar to the Photoshop app for the iPad, the Illustrator app will feature integration with Creative Cloud allowing one to sync their files and work progress across devices. Users will also be able to use the camera on their iPad to click a picture of a hand-drawn sketch and then transform it into vector shapes on Illustrator for iPad. This will also include Apple Pencil support which should help creators.
Adobe is building the Illustrator app for the iPad from the ground up to ensure it is able to take full advantage of the iPad.
Like the Photoshop app, the Illustrator app for iPad will also be a full-blown app with the same feature set as its desktop counterpart.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of Adobe launching Photoshop CC for iPad on the App Store. At its MAX conference, Adobe today announced that it will be launching Illustrator CC for the iPad in 2020.