In what will surely be welcome news for those who routinely use Photoshop and Premiere, Adobe is planning to natively support the higher resolution display of the new Macbook Pro (as well as any other HiDPI displays in the future). While there are certain creative applications that immediately supported the Retina resolution with software updates (namely Apple's Final Cut Pro X and Motion), Adobe was not able to offer this support right away. For those who are loving the extra screen resolution, it's disappointing to then have to open Adobe products only to see them not share the same crispness as the native apps. Not all Creative Cloud applications will receive support (at least at this time), but you can read the full list of programs that will get software updates below.
Adobe explaining why this support is important:
Software that is not native to HiDPI display uses interpolation to duplicate pixels to fill the screen, meaning text is not as sharp and images don’t have as much detail...As an example, to enable HiDPI display support in Photoshop requires the replacement of 2500 icons and cursors and other engineering work which will be complete and ready for customers this Fall.
Here is the full list so far of products that will receive a free update:
- Dreamweaver
- Edge Animate
- Illustrator
- Lightroom
- Photoshop
- Photoshop Touch
- Prelude
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- SpeedGrade
I'm sure this comes as a relief for those who purchased the new Macbook Pro hoping to be able to utilize the Adobe suite of programs to their full advantage, only to be forced to look at an upsampled image that doesn't match the clarity of the native Mac apps. One other interesting note from their blog, and I've probably read this before, but those who sign up for Adobe's Creative Cloud (40% off deal for a year ends today, by the way) will be able to receive minor updates sooner than those who purchase the entire suite:
Creative Cloud members will be able to enjoy the latest product enhancements as they are ready without having to wait for major product releases. We will continue to release security patches, bug fixes and support new hardware changes, like HiDPI display support, to all of our customers outside of our regular development cycles just as we have always done.
It still seems like you'll receive major updates if you don't use Creative Cloud, but it definitely feels like a way for Adobe to push more people into purchasing their applications through a subscription. There are major benefits for Adobe to want that, but for users who are already using Creative Cloud, it's an added benefit.
If you have a new Macbook Pro, what do you think about the way the Adobe products look now? Do you need this update immediately or is it not that essential?
Link: New MacBook Pro Retina Display Support -- Adobe Creative Layer Blog
[via Adobe Premiere Twitter]
