Comments Recently the Adobe Illustrator team launched a free iPad and iPhone application called Adobe Ideas. The concept behind the application was to allow creative professionals to leverage devices for their ideation process. In this video, David Macy explains how to use the app as well as some of the cool new features. With the launch of CS5 (which we are incredibly excited about, btw) we thought it would be good to showcase another way we are extending the creative workflow.
David is the Sr. Product Manager for Illustrator. We would love to hear what you think about this application.
I really like this app on the iPad.* You should create a version for the desktop — basically a scaled down version of illustrator for ~$50 – $100. Other companies — Corel and Autodesk have products like this, but I like the line smoothing feature in ideas that these other products don’t seem to have.* I am just a doodler and I don’t want to pay $500+ for Illustrator… and I don’t need all the features…
I agree with what Woodman wrote 100%, it’s almost like you read my mind. Adobe you should do this, I’m in the same situation where I don’t want to spend the big bucks cause I really don’t “need” too yet I would really like to have this app on my desktop…
This is a great app, my favorite iPad addition.
I have a few tech questions and would love helpful answers…
1) how do you rotate the sketch? I did this by accident with one and have no idea how to go back.
2) how do I pick a color previously used in the sketch, but chosen from the adjustable color palate?
Thanks in advance!!!
Not sure about the color picking but I do know if you use three fingers you can rotate your layer while on the move tool.
Very nice indeed — useful and fun. Good for sketching roughs while on a train (or waiting for an appointment etc). That the sketches can be edited in Illustrator is a real bonus. Love the elegantly minimalist UI. For the future… have you considered layers?
ok
Thanks for the comments, especially on the UI. We are considering layers. Would you like to see a tighter connection with Illustrator and Photoshop?
Wow. I just spent four hours creating illustrations using Adobe ideas. I am in love with this app. You’ve pioneered a new romance between tactile contact and creative control. Vector is key for me here. I can’t believe an app with such limited tools has won me over from Brushes, Layers and the rest.Here’s my wish list… (don’t worry, I love and appreciate the simplicity.)Eye dropper tool… It’s important to be able to sample a color to complete an illustration. If a sleeve is blue, and I have to change colors and come back to it, I would like to return to that same custom blue. Which brings me to…Custom color tray… I gotta be able to save some custom colors for use across multiple projects.Additional layers… My original outlines get breached by fill, the ability to lift outlines to the front above fill layers would be great.I’ve emailed you a few of the fruits of the last four hours. I hope you enjoy. (I used a combination of touch and pogo stylus.)I would happily pay for this app to support its development.
I don’t see a contact link… I’d like to show you some of the illustrations I did. Let me know if / where you’d like them sent…
Hi Pete, I’m the Product Manager for Adobe Ideas (and for Illustrator). You can email to me: dmacy@adobe.comthanks.
I was very excited to see a vector application on the iPad, and I was *especially* excited to see that it was from Adobe!
I’m a user interface designer in Canada and this is great for jotting down client icon ideas on the go. I too would be willing to pay for this app to support future updates.Layers is my number one request, followed by a swipe gesture to bring up the menu and to redo / undo. Especially on the iPhone version – that little arrow on the top left only brings up the menu on 1 out of 4 or 5 touches for me, both with my finger and with a stylus.Looking forward to updates! *fingers crossed*
Wow! Very nice and simple app!Additional functionality would be really great to have:1)Additional tools like:- Text- Rectangle- Elips- Something to pick a color already in your sketch- Brush- Fill2)Possibility to ‘select’ and- Rotate,- Flip,- Move,- Copy,- Delete the selectionI love the simplicity. Looking forward for the coming versions!
I would love to see tighter Photoshop integration, layers, eyedropper tool and custom color palets across apliactioins. Maybe even a pen too for customizing anchor points within vectors.ThanksElias
Any plans to make this iphone app available for download in Panama and other countries?
Adobe Ideas has become my main drawing/sketching app on the iPad. It is worlds faster than Sketchbook and Brushes. Brush strokes follow your finger instantly and the minimalist UI is fantastic. I only have two requests.1. Instead of having color, opacity, and size in a pop-up menu, spread the three buttons out and make the highlighted one be controlled by the slider. Iswitch between the three often enough that one button press is significant.2. Layers. They dont even have to do anything fancy like transparency or visibility on/off.Thank you for this awesome product. Had I known the power of this FREE app ahead of time and it had cost $9.99. I would have paid for it. Best!
Our school wants to connect iPads to projectors to run Adobe Ideas app which does not output video via the 30 pin dock to VGA. Please consider adding this feature.
I’ve run into a major problem with Adobe Ideas. I am mysteriously losing data after long drawing sessions. I know this is a free app and I would certainly like to see additional features but even with the current feature set losing data is not tolerable.I can no longer trust what was rapidly becoming my go-to app for quck brainstorming and note taking.Please, please, please find and fix this issue. The only information I have is that it seems to happen after a long drawing session modifying a previously created document.While you’re at it: can you make the tools options more directly available? A flyout to select between brush size, color and opacity feels like it’s getting in the way. This forces two taps to change tools vs one (I change tools a lot so this would be a huge improvement).
I have been experiencing exactly the same issue! Very frustrating to lose a lot of my work when I enjoy creating it so much with your app. Looking forward to an update that resolves this issue.
Mark,I will have someone from the team reach out to you to better understand the issue.lea
I just encountered the same issue of lost data. Please advise. I love this app.
Alece
I love the feature that extracts colours from a photo! Is there any way to export or share colours from the app?
Too bad this is only available in the US iTunes Store. I don’t want to have to “cheat” my way to an iTunes Store out of France to be able to play with this.Please let us, French, get our hands on this and give you feedback. I’m sure it’s only a few clicks for you and it would be great for us.T.
I too have been wanting to install this app for over a week now on my iPad, but it’s still not available on the French app store.. Any idea when it will become available on international app stores? I don’t care about waiting for any kind of language translation for the UI, so I hope Adobe aren’t holding it back until they’ve made different language versions ready. I want mine in english in any case, so I really hope this has just been left as an oversight and will be made available very soon.
I second Antonio and Thierry. Adobe Ideas has been praised everywhere as a must have app, and it looks promising. But we can’t install it from the French store. A non-translated version would be just fine at first, so we can get hooked too !Any way good job with the app !R.
Second the comments about loving the elegance and responsiveness of the app. By far my favorite app on the iPad, and I’ve spent many happy hours sketching out software designs.Unfortunately, I’ve also had the issue where a document is lost after a lengthy session. Temporarily mitigating the issue by emailing myself copies of the document as I work on it, but this sours and otherwise delightful experience, and limits the amount of real work I’m willing to do in the application.Would love to see this fixed.Otherwise, I wouldn’t change much (except VGA out, please!).
Please add VGA output! This is a great application, and would make an ever-so-convenient whiteboard and brainstorming tool connected to a screen or projector!The best ideas are the ones you collaborate on…
If you introduce Layers in a future version consider adding templates such as drawing grids. Wonderful App please do note lose the wonderful spars quality of the interface, its a winner
We have a wealth of experience in creating high quality prints for the home and retail market.i ,love this.thanks
A fill tool and layers. Please! Maybe redo. Otherwise it’s my favorite app on my iPad next to Safari.
I think is a gorgeous app, but is only available in USA app store, when are you guys planning to realese it internationally?thanks a lot.
Great App. Is there any chance that you will be adding functionality to export the drawings to the photo library on the Ipad rather than just the email option? Thanks
Sure I’d love layers support! Drawing quick Anime-style illustrations would be very cool with Adobe Ideas, I see a lot of potential, considering that there’s also a simulated pressure-like effect when drawing lines! But we need layers man. I can color my illustrations with simple colors but that will overlap the inking… for example. We need layers, layers layers!
And yes, I’d love to see a tighter integration with PS and AI (export to vector, multiplayer psd, like in sketchbook, that kind of stuff 
)!Great job, please keep it up and update your wonderful app!
VGA Support Would Be really great!!!! Wounderful App. So far.
iPad Ideas works fine but I can’t find any instructions for turning on the color palette to extract colors from a photo. Also, is there any way to move the dots which choose the color from the photograph? I need step by step instructions.Here is a drawing/graphic of something I did with your program.If you send me an email address I’ll send you an image.FWA
Thanks for the idea Fredda. I think that many customers and developers were surprised that Apple didn’t simply give a video mirroring option like what you can do on most computers, and instead they left it up to app developers to specifically enable VGA output for each app. Anyway, it is on our list. Can I ask what you think you’ll do with Adobe Ideas within the school?
Hi Fred,To extract colors from a photo – go to Organize. At the bottom of the screen, tap on Colors. From there, tap the + icon and select a photo. Sorry but you can’t move the dots around to select different colors (yet).To use these colors in a sketch, when you have the drawing tool selected, tap on the Size button to access the drawer that contains Opacity and Color, then tap on Color. From here you’ll see a set of 5 current colors. Tap on the >> icon to access a drawer of all of your saved color themes.have fun
Russell, The best way to get drawings into the photo library for now is to take a screenshot – hold the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons simultaneously for a couple of seconds.Since Adobe Ideas is vector based and resolution independent, it certainly could make sense to add an “export to library”. What resolution do you think you would like to use?
Is this working for people? Taking a screenshot by holding the two buttons? It’s not working for me.
Adobe Ideas is currently available in 29 countries, but obviously that does not include all of them. Some clever folks have found ways to download apps from the stores for other countries (works as long as it is a free app).http://www.labnol.org/software/install-apps-from-itunes-store/13523/
Lea,I’m running into this problem too, and as Mark said I absolutely cannot use this app any more if I can’t trust that what I create won’t be there when I come back. Any word on a fix?Thanks!
Josh and Mark,We’re aware of the problem that in some cases data can be lost. It seems to happen when you have done quite a bit of sketching (which causes the file-save to take a while), and you quit the app. The OS only allows a certain amount of time for the app to complete any process before it is killed.We are trying to figure out the best fix for this, but in the meantime you can avoid any data loss by periodically going back to the Organize screen. This will save the current data. Once saved it should be safe.
Ideas is one of my favourite iPad apps; bravo, Adobe
It’s funny that 37signals are trying to sell a $9.99 app that does pretty much the same thing only without a choice of colours: http://37signals.com/draft
Can’t wait for my Ipad to get here so I can try it out!!
Why is this nice app not available for download in India? This is really strange. Please take necessary steps to make it available for download in Indian Apple App store. My kid would love this
Great app, by why isn’t the iPad version available in Australia?
It is now!
As far as sketching this app is great but if Adobe wants to take the next step it would be great if we can adjust the the lines after they are drawn or to select the lines and redraw them as we can using the brush tool in Illustrator. Drawing with the brush tool in Illustrator is the best thing in the world! If I could just have the full brush tool capabilities I’d be a happy man. Imagine the possibilities.So, I give OK. Need to be able to adjust the vector lines. doesn’t seem difficult to add.
I wanted to start by saying great app. I love the vector lines. I too would like to mirror the statements and requests of others and ask for more vector functions (like illustrator, and others), but this was one of the first apps I loaded onto my iPad, and I’m not disappointed. Another thing that may be beneficial would be a quick instruction manual somewhere in the app.Great work and good luck with this one.
Why not make avaliable free to all countries?
Hi Leo,
Adobe Ideas is now available in all of the iTunes stores worldwide!
I would really like to see Adobe Ideas style sketching used for scribbling notes on top of a pdf. Particularly for my subject, mathematics, writing text notes isn’t good enough because I need pictures and mathematical symbols. Adobe Ideas has the best interface I’ve seen for writing at all different scales.
For now, you can take a screenshot of your pdf and place that as a picture in Adobe Ideas, but it sounds like you would like something more than that. Where are the pdf’s coming from?
I would love to see a pdf import functionality. I use this to show my clients the graphics / storyboards and then write/draw notes over the screen shot layer. Having to take a screen shot every time to make an image is a big time waste. I can save other pdfs straight into iBook or other pdf readers. Adobe please add this functionality.
PDF import would be fantastic. Would love to use Ideas on iPad hooked up to a projector to display PDF version of powerpoint course slides and make beautifully smooth scribbled annotations in front of my students. Basically add presentation functionality to the tool. I would pay for that!!!
Extra credit for displaying tool box on the iPad while only the image layers shows through the apple VGA adapter. Getting carried away now – how about an option to zoom both images, iPad and VGA or just the iPad image so viewer don’t see you drawing/writing in jumbo close up mode. Is any of this possible?
Great product so far!!!!
Great app! I have been using it for creating zentangles. I love it! However, I have 2 issues, one is loss of data, so I just hit the organize button every so often to save my work. The current issue I am experiencing, is I used color for the first time and opacity, now I can’t get it back to solid color, as it is stuck in opacity? What can I do to fix this?Thanks!Lori
Hopefully we’ll have an update soon to adress the data loss. The OS only gives us a brief time after the user exits to complete any save, then it shuts down the app. We’re working on making save faster so that this problem doesn’t occur.
As for getting back to opaque – tap the size button to access the tool options drawer, then tap Opacity. Now the slider on the toolbar will control opacity and you can slide it all the way up to 100.
Never heard of a Zentangle before – thanks!
It would be really nice to have VGA out functionality for this app.
We’re looking at VGA out (actually I was a bit surprised when I heard about the VGA connector and learned that it doesn’t just work the same way as most computers, offering video mirroring). The question is – do you want it to display only the contents of your “canvas” so that viewers could only see what you are drawing, or do you want it to also display the UI (toolbar, etc.)?
I love this app and the video tutorial above is very helpful.
Can you export the colour palettes? It would also be nice to be able to edit/delete/manage colour palettes as your collection grows?
I love this app and the video tutorial above is very helpful.
Can you export the colour palettes? It would also be nice to be able to edit/delete/manage colour palettes as your collection grows?
Only way to export color palettes at the moment is to include each of the colors in a sketch. Then when you export a pdf, the colors will be there and you can sample them using the eyedropper in Illustrator or Photoshop.
If you could picture the ideal way of working with color palettes, what would it be?
I’m overwhelmed. I’ve spent way too many hours pulling photos of family from iPhoto and drawing them as cartoons. A freelance writer, I’ve often thought of writing a memoir of things that have happened to me in life with a big family. These drawings may spur me on!
I really like the app for the iPhone. The one thing I feel is missing is an easy way to export themes to a desk top. Maybe connecting it to kuler would help. People would be able to retrieve color themes later on there computer
brilliant app! My only problem is transferring these files, in editable form, to another idevice. I’m going to be switching from my 3 year old ipod very soon to a flashy new one in the near future. How do I go about restoring the ideas that i’ve spent weeks on without doing a full backup?
This is a great app! The elegant interface is amazing, particularly after trying out other clunky apps. Only problem is that on my iPod touch (3rd gen) with iOS4, I can’t use any of the functions involving photos. Can’t extract colors from a photo, can’t add a photo as an idea.
All the menu items are there, and I can follow the instructions well enough, but after I click on a photo from the library, there is a split-second pause and then I’m back to where I started with no result.
Anybody know if this feature is only supported on the iPad or something?
Sounds like there may be a bug with using these features on iOS4. Color extraction certainly works on earlier iPhone OS and does not require iPad. We’ll investigate this one, thanks for reporting it.
Update – one of our developers had the same problem when he first installed iOS4. He found that the problem was not limited to Adobe Ideas – he couldn’t use photos in other apps. In the end he re-installed the OS and now it works. Can you see if you have problems with any other apps that access the photo album?
I had a similar problem, but not just Adobe Ideas and photos. On an iPhone 4 (obviously with iOS 4), every once in awhile photos or camera doesn’t work, and not just third party aps, I have seen this with Apple’s photo application too.
Power off and restart the phone – photos begin working again.
Thanks for the tip David. I looked into it and found that the feature (in Ideas) actually does work fine as long as I select a photo from my “Saved Photos” folder. All of the other folders, however (which are based on syncing with my computer) seem to only contain thumbnails. I’m not sure if that is due to iOS4, however. Now that I think of it, I moved all my computer photos to an external HD a few months ago, so the whole thing is probably my fault.
Your prompt feedback, however, speaks volumes to the quality of the product and its support.
Thanks again!
We use it to let customer sign invoices. It would be great if you could move the tool bar and make the hide tool bar button bigger.
Hi David! Great app! I’m spending away too much time playing! One question. Besides taking a screenshot of the Idea, is there a way to save it as a .jpg? Thanks!
Hi Marilyn,
If we add an option to save to the photo album, what size would you like it to save? Since the content is vector, we could choose to make the jpg higher resolution than the display or we could do it just as if it is taking a screenshot.
Very intuitive. It would be great if you can add a text control. This would be very handy to do quick paper napkin style mockups or wireframing
Loving Adobe Ideas, mainly using it so far to draw initial black and White outlines and then adding colour on the desktop. Having export to eps or ai or a fill tool would make this easier, but it’s a fantastic app as is.
Emailing the idea sends it as a PDF which is fully compatible with Illustrator. Is there something missing here that makes you feel like you need .ai or .eps?
hello! first, i want to say how impressed i am at your commitment to customer satisfaction. i love reading the responses from abode folks to the users’ requests. very encouraging.
i freaking love this app. i understand the difficult balance you are achieving between functionality and simplicity.
is there currently a way to sync between an iphone and an ipad? i often use the app in clothing stores to grab color schemes that i dig, but then i’d prefer to work on the idea on my ipad. i know there’s a long way to get the stuff on my ipad, but i wondered if there was a quicker, native way to keep both libraries synced.
thanks!
-pete
No easy synching between devices yet, only the long way around like emailing the idea to yourself. Not the first time I’ve heard this kind of request though!
Have you considered syncing ideas by storing everything on dropbox? It would be very nice to be able to access these ideas on a non iOS device.
Great work on the app!
ahh! i embarrassingly typed Adobe as abode above. the above abode should be adobe. i do not like green eggs and ham. i will not eat them, sam i am.
-pete
our feeling are not hurt, but thanks!
David,
Was a pleasure to read through these comments and see the development team engaged and communicating with the users. And congratulations for such a successful product. This app really does strike the balance between functionality and simplicity. I’m using it currently to sketch out ideas of software design changes to a website.
No one seems to have gotten back to you yet to suggest a resolution for exporting to picture on the iPad (great idea – I’m a supporter of this), nor for .jpg export. Why not just mirror the resolution of the iPad itself? 1024×768 I think?
Also – I would vote for showing the entire UI, rather than just the canvas. Might be disorienting on a screen with the zooming if you didn’t have a point of reference on the side? Also the toolbar is so un-intrusive already that I don’t think it takes away from the sketching when displayed out.
Thanks Jimmy. It is great to be able to explore these kinds of questions with real users before we implement. We really want to keep focused on simplicity, so it is important to ask questions like whether VGA output should include the toolbar or not instead of taking the common approach of “oh, we’ll put in an option for that and let the user decide”.
If you could add text ballons with arrows it would be just about perfect.
I second the motion!
I too am enjoying this app, but more for experimental design than anything else (I do biology research). I only find two shortcomings:
I’d like to be able to create my own color palette from within the color organization menu. All you’d need to do is have a tap to fill template, so to speak, where you pick the color normally for the brush and tap to fill one of the five “spots.” Then, just return to organization and voila, new palette!
Finally, I’d like the ability to add text. This could best be accomplished by having a vector drawing layer, a text layer, and then the photo layer. Text could be manipulated in a “tap to edit” style as per Photoshop with the text tool active. Only one button differentiating between screen resizing and text-box moving would be required. Given that Adobe has an excellent library of fonts, licensing concerns would be minimal. You’ve also already picked out the fonts perfect for inclusion: http://blog.typekit.com/2010/08/16/typekit-and-adobe/
Thanks for the app!
Well, it is quite hidden but Adobe Ideas already has the ability to create your own color theme by mixing each color. Instead of tapping on the palette icon to get the color mixer, double-tap on one of the five color chips visible on the toolbar. This will bring us the color mixer so that you can choose a custom color to add to the color theme.
regarding the request for text, can you explain why you would like a separate text layer instead of just being able to put a text box wherever you want on the drawing layer?
btw, fonts on the iPad or iPhone are tricky. Apple supplies some built in fonts, but there is no way to install additional fonts. That’s one of the reasons that many of the digital magazines you see don’t use live text.
I can definitely understand the font limitation for installation.
Regarding your question about putting text on the drawing label, one of the cardinal sins in science is to alter or manipulate data. If I’m quickly adding text labels to an agarose gel, having them in a separate label would be greatly preferred to “tarnishing” the image. While that’s unlikely to be an issue (it is an iPad app after all; figure-making should be done in Illustrator or Powerpoint), it’s nice to know that someone savvy can extract the image un-altered from the resulting PDF.
About “not being able to install additional fonts”. Perhaps you could INCLUDE your own fonts and use them through a custom font rendering engine instead of the iOss one.
Is that possible to combine with typing from the iOS keyboard?
I’d like to add my vote for VGA compatibility. I use diagrams to teach business law classes but have no way to draw on a real-time basis in a way that allows me to save snapshots as I go along. My students want to be able to review the graphics after class. If you solve the VGA issue, you’ve essentially turned the Ipad into a portable electronic whiteboard. It would be even better if the drawing could be recorded as a movie so they could see fluid changes in structures, and also record audio over it. I currently do this using Imovie a series of still diagram, but it’s very cumbersome and time-consuming. It’s not clear to me, however, whether Adobes Ideas can record the evolving picture in the way, for example, that you can watch Jorge Columbo paint a scene at the New Yorker using Brushes. As a general matter, I think that Adobe should be thinking not only in how to create real-time adaptations of this kind of software, but also how to integrate it with audio and recording/editing functionality to allow a video record to be created.
Killer Killer app..
+1 for text tools please..
any ETA on when we can expect that?
and again – Killer app – better than Sketchbook that I paid for
I absolutely love this tool and have been recently using it to design sketch style cover art for my band. It would be awesome to see some ability to merge two ideas, like a drawing I’d done in one and a title I’d done in another?
Thanks
Can you project through the VGA port? I am an author of HS science books and present all over the US. I desperately need a presentation app that lets me teach with the ipad through a projector, drawing like a chalkboard, filling in pre-drawn graphs, showing animations and videos. I am also considering developing ebook from my physics and chemistry textbooks. Long-time user of Framemaker, Photoshop, and Illustrator.
Hi Dr. Hsu,
No VGA output yet. We were actually surprised when we learned that Apple requires developers to build the VGA output into each app rather than just having it as an OS provided feature. We are compiling a to-do list of features to add, and this is definitely on the list.
When Android?
Excellent app, very nicely designed. One crucial thing missing: eyedropper. Ability to save custom palettes from drawing window would be nice too.
Dr Pomeroy,
Eyedropper would surely be a good addition. There is a workaround for you to save custom paletts from a drawing you’ve done:
1. Hide the toolbar
2. Take a screenshot of the drawing (Hold the Sleep and Home buttons at the same time to take a screenshot)
3. From the Color Organizer, create a new color theme from the screenshot.
Fantastic app, would be even better with more layers.
I love the app.. Would be willing to pay for additional features.. You should look to implement features as purchasable items like game levels, only with additional functionality. I would like layers and save to cloud services like drop box, mobile me etc.
Mollerade,
We’ve had lots of requests for Layers so the need is pretty clear. Can you elaborate a bit on how you would like to use a drop box type of service with Adobe Ideas? Also, services are typically available through a monthly subscription – what do you think a reasonable monthly price would be?
Awesome app it’s easily my preferred sketch pad for quick and dirty Application design.
- and I love that Adobe actually hold a conversation re suggestions…well done guys!
For myself, I find the fly-out menus a little cumbersome for switching between size / colour / opacity etc. I’d really like the option to dock each menu on the left / right etc. i.e. My preferred setup would be size & tools on the left, color / opacity / layers on the right.
I’d also like to second the requirement for a discrete text tool – my handwriting is horrible…and gets no better when using a finger / stylus on the iPad.
I’d gladly pay for the additional tools.
Cheers
Grant
The line smoothing is the best… A fill bucket tool and more onscreen placement of the tools would be nice, so there’s fewer menus…. Lines that bisect when they intersect would also be great! I would pay for such an app!
The app is great and very useful already!
It basically lacks layers.
A few suggestions for the future, though:
1) Color, Size and Opacity should be top level menu items, since we use them all the time.
2) It would be nice if we could touch a line and select its vector segment (e.g to remove it, or recolor it).
3) It would be groovilicious if we could touch a line and select the vector segment and have anchors and handles appear that we could manipulate by dragging them…
I would pay for that. Hey, I would even pay for just layer support. Heck, I would even pay for the app as it is.
Looks like you are reading our mind on some of these items
Seems like anchor point handles would be pretty tough to work with on a touch device. Are you imagining maybe an auto-zoom on the pointes when selected or something of that nature?
We think that Adobe® Ideas looks awesome and that is why it has been added today on Moblly | Beautiful apps| – http://www.moblly.com/Adobe_Ideas
Thanks Moblly
Thank you so much for this simple but elegant application. Being sensitive to paper your iPad app has made learning and drawing enjoyable again. Blessings to you and your team.
Rose
Can you also consider adding a move tool that actually moves the drawing on the canvas, as well as the ability to export out to png or jpeg, directly into the iPad photo gallery?
Great app!
Export to JPEG – working on it. Apple doesn’t provide any API to save PNG to the photo album even though screenshots are written as PNG !?!
No API? Surprise surprise,
, but glad to hear it’s being worked on (around?), despite the lack of the API!!
Thanks!
Just to clarify, there is a public API for writing to the photo album, but it only supports jpeg. Apple has a clear policy that using any non-public API’s will result in them rejecting the app. It is very interesting that Safari is allowed to write png to the photo album…
And sorry to be a pest, but a fill bucket tool would be amazing! Again, I would gladly pay for these kinds of features…. The other vector drawing ipad apps I’ve bought just don’t compare at all! Thanks again for the great app!
I would really like to see an ‘offset drawing’ option (see Autodesk’s Sketchbook Mobile app). This gives you the option of actually seeing the point where the brush is applying its effect, rather than that point being constantly hidden under your finger. This is hugely useful for fine placement control. Oh, and many more layers with layer opacity, layer masks and layer blending modes please!
Good work Adobe!
In an effort to try to make it easier for customers to communicate with us. Adobe Ideas now has its own blog http://blogs.adobe.com/adobeideas/ . Not too much there yet, but help us get it started with some of your comments.
Does the app allow saving sketching process to a video file? Could be a handy feature.
put app on ios4 brand new ipod touch w camera. love app but it seems useless since the envelope is gray and i can’t seem to export what i make in any way. am i missing something?
Hi Linda Bee – you need to set up an email account on your iPhone, then the Envelope button will be active.
I really like this app. The drawing is pretty much the same as on Flash, and the fact that it is capable of sending the finished artwork as a PDF, which I can further modify on Illustrator is just great.
There’ only a couple features, I miss; color picker and layers. With those add-ons it would be perfect for me. I guess, If you implement those changes in some future releases, people will be hungry for more and they start demanding all kinds of funny brushes, cmyk editing, etc… But if we could get the color picker, at least…
Great app, is there a way to export the color pallets to Kuler?
I like this app too on my Ipad. I am starting to use this app like writing on a napkin for coffee discussions. Will you be adding features to group/organize pictures in folders?
Also, a feature to show a grid would be good so that when zooming in and out for finer details I don’t lose perspective.
Looking forward to the next release.
does n’t need changing!
I think this Ap is a great first step to a tool that could fit a need I’m searching for as an Architect. I like the core interface. It work well on the iPhone 4 as well. I’m hoping for a few more tools besides just the pen to make quick markups to images and photos for notes and dimensions specifically. I currently use ‘snag it’ on my desktop for this and it’s changed my workflow dramatically. Having that power on an iPad in the field would be awesome. Feel free to email if you’d like samples of what I’m talking about.
sorry my link has changed! (if it matters) – dee light
What a great App …leaves all other free sketching apps that I’ve seen in the dust, as well as many you pay for! A perfectly focused feature set for so many people…importantly it is useful not just for artists & designers: I used it to visualise complex audio matrices in my recording studio.
This is a wonderful app (version 1.1), but I think the line smoothing is too aggressive. I’d love to see a knob that allows the user to set the level of smoothing in a future update.
Thanks!
Hi MaryM,
Are there other drawing, sketching or note taking apps that you think do a better job with interpreting your input? I do agree that sometimes the smoothing goes to far, but I’m also hesitant to put in any controls that aren’t really necessary. One of the best things about Adobe Ideas is how simple it is.
What’s your favorite new ting about 1.1?
I would like to be good in photoshop software.
thx
I’m not great with traditional drawing tools (paintbrushes, etc.), and as a teacher I always wondered before the iPad came out how to get into art those people who draw better with their fingers than with their hands. Ideas has sparked my creativity in drawing and this has become my favourite app. Plus the smoothing makes even my doodles look professional. Great job, and thanks for making both the program and the feedback process very accessible.
Here are some things that I would like to see changed. If you can only make one improvement, it would be a flood-fill function.
-flood-fill
-customized palette
-skinnier or auto-hide toolbar
-select and re-size tool (ie. being able to select a section of your drawing and re-size it)
How does “save to album” work?
When I hold my device upright (potrait), I can save what I see on the screen. But when I hold it in landscape and try to save it, how does the function work?
Adobe Ideas is on of my favorite apps on the iPad. VGA support would be great (preferably without the toolbar and the zooming).
Can we add 2 photos into ideas ??
and be able to shuffle the photograph layer location as in to move it to the top or btm ..
Please add a fill or paint bucket tool. Otherwise perfect all!
Вариант 2.
[IMG]http://v7em.com/go/vnimanue.png[/IMG]
Where are the additional brush shapes in Layers?
Thanks,
Ken
I think paint bucket tool should be there.
Wow…what fun! And I just sent a page to my kids…they need this app as well…Thanks!
Please make this for the DESKTOP for those of us not able to purchase an iPad – for whatever reason.
Hi, a major problem for me is the buggy pdf-export: The lines are converted to outlines, rendering the app practically useless for LINE sketching. Also a lot of weird transparent layers are added. Please make the pdf-export retain the lines/strokes as they are! Otherwise it would have been the perfect app for tracing photos.
Also, an export to ai, svg and such would be much appreciated. By the way: The app crashes everytime I go insede the layer menu. I have an iPad and paid for layers.
Why can’t this be available for the Droid X? Not everyone is an apple fan!
I would appreciate these features very much:
- I would like to choose a background color
- templates including background color and color scheme
- I would like to switch on a grid to guide me when creating an image
- when loading an image from an album, it would be nice if I could choose the size of the image in the background so that it is possible to fill the whole page
I’d love to use it on my Ipad, but will have to wait till you have added a selection tool, so that one can move, duplicate and/or delete the selected area. Of these, the most essential is the ability to delete just a selection…undoing is no replacement for this facility.
I think it has fantastic potential, and would be happy to pay for a professional version once you have implemented the very valuable suggestions made on this board.
Looking forward to your progress, Carmen
Awesome! I’d really like the option to change the colors sampled from photos, because sometimes it doesn’t sample the colors I actually want and there isn’t really a good workaround.
Hi Adobe! Great app! I love it and the feel of drawing with it.
I am a amateur storyboard creator and I see the potential here! I have 2 feature suggestions/ requests that would make this app even GREATER.
1: Add the possibility to rearrange the ideas. (great for creating a storyboard)
2: Add the possibility of adding ready-made clip-art or vector-graphics. ( Draw in photoshop and find the images in Adobe Ideas next time you sync your ipad )
That would be awesome!
Kjetil
First, really love this app. I use it all the time. This is a (very) short list of stuff I would love to see:
1. Color Picker.
2. Ability to switch the control menu to the right side, for us lefties.
3. The addition of layers has really moved this app to a whole other level, and led me to adandon Sketchbook pro (I prefer vectors for my illustrations). But more functionality within layers would be great… I would love to be able to combine layers, or resize/reposition individual layers.
The beauty of this app is in its simplicity. I’m excited to see it develop and very curious to see where it will go next…
We keep going with this — in v 1.2 you can move, scale and rotate layers and you can project your sketch to an external display if you have the VGA adapter.
this is a great app, and have been using this religiously on my ipad. it is great, and really is quite on point for all that i need to draw.
this is an app that i have been waiting to have for quite some time.
finally a pad that makes life eeasy and the app to go with it.
the app needs a brush palate so i dont have to go back and forth changing the brush size, and it needs to have an easier color palate as PS does.
all iin all, this is a great program….
Love this app. Has great potential for so many things with just a few more features. Are there any plans to allow for organizing images in folders or groups in the near future? That would be such a huge help!! Also, any plans to allow adding a layer of typed text (like in Photoshop?) for adding notes, etc? That would be a great addition as well. Thanks!!
I use adobe idears very frequently. I have one suggestion. Can u please place minimise button for the left panel while drawing and the organise button to go back to the dashboard away or apart? Many a times i hit the organise button by mistake and then the image gets saved as it navigates to the dashboard. Now i make copies to avoid this.
But it would be grt if this change can be brought about.
Has anybody besides me had a problem with this app hanging? It froze just as I had extracted a color palette from a photo. I am now stuck on the screen showing all my palettes, and the app is completely unresponsive.
A solution might be to uninstall and then reinstall the app, but then I would lose the sketches I have already done.
Suggestions?
Does this issue remain after restarting the device?
The issue persisted after restarting the device, but it went away after charging the device overnight.
Hi Ted, I am a Quality Engineer for Adobe Ideas, do you mind contacting me to iproano@adobe.com, because I have some questions to ask you about this issue.
I have downloaded the app twice on my ipad and have purchased layers, but when i try to access my photo albums–i just see a black box where the photos should be.
I can see the list of my albums, but not the individual photos.
Extremely frustrated,
Steve
Never mind–i corrected it.
I’ve played with this app for several weeks and really like it. I think it can help me present landscape design ideas to potential clients, although I really wish this app had the ability of importing skethes created previously in other files, so I can create and use my own symbol library.
I would like to create a number of independent sketches and have the ability to quickly import these “symbols” into another sketch, with the ability of placing, sizing and rotating the symbol within the new sketch. If I did this repeatedly for the same symbol, I would have the ability of populating several symbols without neededing to redraw them. This would allow me to create very quick design ideas.
I would probably want to import many symbols into the same sketch with the ability to place each of them independently, so either the number of available layers would need to increase dramatically (to the point of making layer management an issue), or an “import” layer could be created that allows temporary landing of imported sketches until placement, size and orientation have been established, then the symbol is transferred to another layer of choice becoming a permananet part of the designated layer and clearing the “import” layer for the next import. File management would be a must to manage a potentially large number of symbols files. I mentioned a background grid layer in a previous post (very important) – perhaps the background grid layer could also serve as the “import” layer to assist import symbol landing, placement and transfer to another layer.
Here is how I would envision my work flow.
1. Create an image file representing the plot plan (property lines, outline of house and other structures). Import this to my new sketch as the photo layer.
2. With the grid layer turned on, create a base layer sketch to outline landscape and hardscape design features using a light, thin translucent line.
3. Start importing symbols from my “library” to represent shrubs and trees over baseline sketch. Import symbol into grid layer, drag to appropriate location, size and rotate as necessary. Select “transfer to another layer” button, then select appropriate layer, and complete transfer. Repeat for all symbols.
4. Draw additional details such as turf areas, pathways, mulched areas.
5. Arrange layer order as necessary.
6. Turn off the grid layer, turn off baseline sketch.
7. Show to client.
8. Win job.
9. Write glowing reviews of Adobe Ideas
Jon
What the frac. i read about this program a few hours ago. pulled it up on my ipad and it was marked free (like the article i read said it was) but when i tried to buy it says its being updated and to check back later. I check back a few hours later and now its 5.99!
Hi! Great app!
I’d really like an option for keeping the brush size constant during zooming. So that, even though youre far away or close up, the brush size is “screen space locked” if you will.
Awesome by the way that you can modify brush size while drawing! Really wish you could do the same for opacity.
Best,
-m
I just tried to add the FREE app and it says it is 9.99.
This program only needs one additional feature and that’s an eye-dropping tool.
I’d love a text tool. I am using Adobe Ideas to create presentation slides. Handwriting is ok but a text tool would increase the uses of this tool, as suggested above, importing PDFs as a layer would be fab as well as saving to iBooks or straight to dropbox would be at the top of my wish list.
thanks for a great product
Is there any news on an update to include PDF import to Ideas and an eye dropper tool. I still love this App but these two features are essential for me. Please Adobe, don’t leave me hanging
Hi, when the fill tool will be added? The grid and items rotation would be also greate.
Is this app still being developed? It’s been a long time since we’ve seen any updates. Just curious.
App needs a color picker desperately.
Otherwise it’s my favorite art app on iPad
Great controls, easy to use, very impressed!
Color picker!!!!! please!!
certainly like your web site but you have to take a look at the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling problems and I to find it very troublesome to inform the truth however I will definitely come back again.
There are 3 more features I want from Adobe ideas
1)cut, copy and paste of irregular small patch selection from my ongoing drawing canvas,like that of the Microsoft Paintbrush(I know paintbrush is not sophisticated but this feature is great in paintbrush)might be available in photoshop too.
2)the eyedropper tool
3)Few special effects tool like smudge tool,blur too,etc.
I am amazed by the fine pencil tool in adobe ideas.
The first feature I want is the most important feature I need.Please consider an update on this features.
U can email me at amansanat@gmail.com regarding this issue.
I think the program only need these 3 features ,which will make it the highest deserving and highest selling sketching app on iPad ever.
It seems Adobe team have not responded to customers views from many months,is anyone from adobe hearing us!
Oh, One more feature i wanted in addition to these three features,more photo layers.
In all I want an update on 4 new features in adobe ideas.
Lea, where are you? Nobody’s home here.
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