Adobe has come out with three unique iPad apps to enrich the use of Photoshop with the unique features of the iPad touch.

Two of them; Adobe color lava and Adobe nav, are extra tools to use with the photoshop desktop program. Lava allows you to use your iPad to actually mix colors as you would with real paint and use them in CS5. Nav is a way to use the iPad as a ‘remote’ with shortcuts and tools, handy available when working in CS5. The other one; Eazel, although also compatible with CS5 can also be used solely on the iPad. Since I am trying out new ways to paint and draw digitally I have bought Eazel.

Even though in other paint and drawing apps I prefer using a stylus for stroke precision, the way the UI of Eazel is made up it really is a great app to actually ‘finger’paint. It as a 5 finger interface, with settings ‘at your fingertips’ color, stroke size and opacity.. You get used to this simple interface real quick and the way the paint flows into other strokes, and dries within a few seconds to be able to paint over it is really clever. After finishing on the iPad you can choose between either saving the painting to your cameraroll ( from where you can share it to anywhere really) or committing the painting to CS5 where you can fine tune it. I like the rough fingerpaint style I can create with this app and even though I can use a stylus as with other paint apps. Because of the easy 5 finger interface it feels natural to use a finger and experiment with new ways to paint. I love it!

(picture fingerpainted with Eazel app on iPad )