Adobe Photoshop Touch turns your iPad 2 into a photo and graphic editor

Photoshop is the program to which most artists, designers, and hobbyists turn. Now users can edit and enhance photos in a new version of the app made just for touchscreens.

Photoshop Touch is an impressive app that can accomplish many of the same feats as the desktop app. It’s not as powerful as the PC app, but Photoshop Touch has a much easier learning curve thanks to built-in tutorials and the natural feel of physically touching the device. The app lets users apply professional effects without being professionals.

Creatives and tinkerers should get a kick out of the easy-to-learn photo editing capabilities of Photoshop Touch. Layers, blending, object removal, and other in-demand features are available in Photoshop Touch, as are the addition of filters. That allows users to liven up dull photos, like one of two friends standing against the wall. The extraction tool would do a fairly good job of removing the background, layers would enable a new background color or image, and color adjustments would make the image brighter and have more range. The user could then add text or incorporate other designs into the photo.

The finished product can then be shared with friends and family by posting directly to Facebook. Or if you are an artist and have Photoshop on the desktop, the app allows exporting to CS5. The only problem is that because the maximum image resolution is 1600 x 1600, Photoshop Touch’s usefulness might be limited to professionals. The average consumer who is only looking to enhance personal photos or make art to display online need not worry about that limitation.

Photoshop Touch is available in the App Store for $9.99. The app is compatible only on an iPad 2 running iOS 5. Anyone with an Android 3.1 or higher tablet can also download the app from the Android Market (I’ve been using the app on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and it’s great).

Other features include:

• Use popular Photoshop features designed for the tablet such as layers, selection tools, adjustments, and filters to create mind-blowing images.
• Use your iPad camera to fill an area on a layer with the unique camera fill feature.
• Select part of an image to extract by scribbling with the Scribble Selection tool. With Refine Edge, use your fingertip to capture even hard-to-select image elements, like hair, with ease.
• Search and acquire images with the integrated Google Image Search.
• Share images on Facebook and view comments right within the app.
• Browse an inspirational gallery for the styles and results you’d like to achieve. Then follow step-by-step tutorials to easily learn techniques the pros use for great-looking results.
• Use AirPrint for wireless printing of Photoshop Touch projects.
• Upload projects to Adobe Creative Cloud* and open layered files from Adobe Photoshop Touch in Photoshop CS5.
• Maximum image resolution: 1600 x 1600 pixels

[Check this amazing demonstration of how to use a tablet's camera in conjunction with a flashlight to achieve spectacular effects in Photoshop Touch - Ed.]