Adobe News from MAX 2011

Michael Garrity — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:30:00 GMT

The Adobe MAX 2011 technology conference, which is running through October 5, has seen the software company make a number of big announcements about new products or product enhancements.

Some of the biggest news came out yesterday when Adobe officially announced the acquisition of privately-held Typekit Inc., a subsciption-based cloud service that delivers a variety of high-quality fonts to designers and developers.

Currently, Typekit has over 250,000 customers, including sites like The New York Times, IGN, Condé Nast and many more.

The acquisition of Typekit is going to be a way to bolster Adobe's biggest new initiative, which was also announced at the conference, the Adobe Creative Cloud. Explained by the company as a redefinition of "the content creation process," the Creative Cloud will be a hosted service that allows users to access content in the cloud such as desktop and/or tablet applications and essential creative services; it also allows users to share their best work with others.

Typekit will exist as a standalone service at first, and eventually it will be integrated into the Creative Cloud.

"Adobe Creative Cloud reinvents creative expression by enabling a new generation of services for creativity and publishing," says Kevin Lynch, Adobe's Chief Technology Officer. "The move to the Creative Cloud is a major component in the transformation of Adobe."

The three major features of the cloud will be Applications, which includes access to the portfolio of Adobe Creative Suite tools, Services and Community.

Users can also use the Creative Cloud's Applications feature to access Adobe Touch Apps, their other major release to come out of MAX 2011. Touch Apps is a collection of six new touch screen applications that can be run on both Android and iOS tablets that enable "creative professionals to explore ideas and present their work anytime, anywhere."

The apps include:

- Adobe Photoshop Touch: For users to alter images using core Photoshop features on-the-go

- Adobe Collage: Allows users to capture and refine ideas by combining images, drawings, text and Creative Suite files

- Adobe Debut: An app that lets users present designs anywhere

- Adobe Ideas: A vector-based drawing tool that uses a stylus or finger

- Adobe Kuler: A color theme generator

- Adobe Proto: Allows users to develop interactive wireframes, website prototypes and mobile apps with a touch-based interface

Other big news from the conference includes a definitive agreement to acquire Nitobi Software, the creator of PhoneGap and PhoneGap Build, the future release of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Single Edition, which allows freelance designers and small firms "to publish interactive content created with Adobe InDesign CS5.5 on the iPad, a partnership with LG and TiVo to bring Flash-based applications through Adobe AIR to connected home televisions and the general availability of Flash Player 11 and AIR 3.

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Adobe News from MAX 2011