Photoshop on iPad Adds Refine Edge Brush and Rotate Canvas

Get Photoshop on iPad here.

Today, we release another major feature for Photoshop on iPad: the Refine Edge Brush. With this feature, Photoshop delivers beautiful, incredibly precise image selection capabilities and control on the iPad for the trickiest subjects like hair and fur.

Every day we hear from customers about how they enjoy editing images with Photoshop on iPad to get “closer to the pixels.” Because precise pixel selection is fundamental to achieving realistic results, we’ve placed extra attention on bringing this feature to life on the iPad to make it sing with pencil and touch.

In addition, we continue to focus on the unique ergonomics of adding a touch interface to Photoshop. Today, we also release the ability to rotate the canvas while editing.

Get more info about all the new features we’ve released in the past few months here.

Read on for specifics about today’s update:

Refine Edge Brush

The Refine Edge Brush pushes Photoshop’s selections results well beyond anything else available on the iPad today. Now you can precisely refine the border area of tricky selections, brush over soft areas such as hair or fur to add fine details. This is required to achieve realistic, professional quality selections of objects with a mix of sharp and soft edges. Some examples include, lots of flyaway hair or removing subjects from complex backgrounds and many more everyday selection scenarios. Look how beautifully it removed the background behind the veil above, which I did with just a few brush strokes.

As you can see here, I’ve run it through the paces on some pretty tough images with a variety of complexity including both subjects and backgrounds. While the interface has been tuned a little for the iPad, it works just like Photoshop on the desktop and produces the same results. Try it yourself.

This feature is incredibly important to the Photoshop selections toolkit so we assigned some of our most senior engineering and design talent to reimagine it for the iPad. I spoke with the Head of iPad Engineering for some background and she explained the top two goals: 1) Design a user interface that is familiar to desktop customers while also adapting it to maximise the pencil’s direct interaction with pixels. 2) Make it fast. Tons of real-time calculations occur behind the scenes to isolate and select the right pixels and we worked hard to make it as absolutely performant as possible. She reminded me that like all the other major innovations we’ve added to this product, we don’t stop when we ship the first version of the feature. The team has already checked in more performance and other improvements to Refine Edge that will roll out with the next release.

Photoshop offers the most comprehensive, high quality image selection tools available on the iPad. Refine Edge is a key leap forward for creativity on this device.

For more info about the Refine Edge Brush, go here.
To learn about all the selection and masking tools in Photoshop on iPad, like Select Subject, Marquee, Lasso, Quick Selection, Select Similar…and more, go here.

Rotate Canvas

We continue to add the much requested capabilities that make working on the iPad far more natural and fluid. Now you can rotate the canvas with a two-finger gesture. Some key info about rotating the canvas:

Use a two-finger rotation gesture to rotate your canvas – and you can zoom in and out at the same time
The rotation can snap at 0, 90, 180, 270 degrees
You can reset your rotation and zoom by doing a quick zoom out pinch gesture
Both rotation and snapping can be toggled on/off in the Settings –> Touch menu
Rotation is not sticky and returns to zero degrees when re-opening a file

More info about Rotate Canvas is here.

Thank you

We have the deepest gratitude for the creative community, customers, and the people you inspire and delight with the images you create using Photoshop. Please take care. Thank you.

At Adobe, we believe that everyone deserves respect and equal treatment, and we also stand with the Black community against hate, intolerance and racism. We will continue to support, elevate, and amplify diverse voices through our community of employees, creatives, customers and partners. We believe Adobe has a responsibility to drive change and ensure that every individual feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. We must stand up and speak out against racial inequality and injustice. Read more about the actions we’re taking to make lasting change inside and outside of our company.

We also know many people are still impacted by the current COVID-19 crisis and our thoughts are with you. The entire Adobe team wants to thank you, our customers, and all creators around the world for the work you do to keep us inspired during this difficult time.