As a trained Photoshop user, I’ve often wondered why there is no real Photoshop app available for iOS. While there is actually an official Photoshop app from Adobe called PS Express, it’s hardly what I’d call the mobile version of Photoshop. Instead it is little more than an image enhancement app, offering the most basic of functions.
Moving away from the industrial application of Photoshop; 'photoshopping' is now a household verb that has almost as much weight as 'googling'. After all, normal people (plus my mother) know what it means. So why has Adobe not capitalised on this mindshare?
They’ve left a rather large gap in the app market, one that has been filled by myriad other developers (try a search on the App Store for image editor)… in much the same way as they have with web-deployed editing software. Check out Pixlr, one of my favourite bits of online software that I use when I’m away from a Photoshop install—it practically is Photoshop Lite. Ironically too, it’s made in Flash.
Snapseed is one of those apps that fills the void left (created?) by Adobe. But unlike many iOS imaging apps that I’ve used so far, Snapseed is an absolute cinch to use.
It's interface
I’m very big on user experience. I understand how difficult it is to create good software, but more developers and testers need to understand real-world users. They need to get out of their own environments and mindsets and look at what works and what does not.
It is clear that Snapseed’s developers Nik Software have thought about what they’re doing—they understand the touch interface and most importantly, they understand human beings.
Snapseed’s workflow (how you open an image, edit it and save/export it) is amazingly simple. It’s built around the Western concept of reading left to right. At the top left of the screen you have the Open button, which could actually be better named since it offers you two image sources; camera and photo library.
Beneath your image (or to the left in landscape mode) are a range of functions that you can apply. Launching a function continues the left-to-right feel—clicking a left arrow undoes any changes you’ve made, whilst clicking to the right will apply them to the main image.
Ultimately, when you’re ready to save your changes, clicking the share button at the top right of the screen reveals options to save to your library or to share via all the usual outlets you would expect of an iOS app.
There, folks, is a lesson in workflow. Everything moves as expected—it’s natural.
Snapseed includes any of the functions you would expect from an iOS editing app; brightness, contrast, saturation and crop, to name a few. It also features some nice extras such as Grunge, Details, Tilt & Shift, Centre Focus and my personal favourite; Drama.
Unlike many imaging apps (Instagram & Hipstagram come to mind) that use filters to modify the look and feel of an image, all of Snapseed’s filters are customisable, giving the user more control over the final look. If you’re thinking that’s a little more complicated than you need; you couldn’t be any wrong-er.
The true beauty in Snapseed’s interface is in its control system. When editing an image for brightness and contrast, swiping up and down with your thumb cycles between the functions, while swiping left and right moves the control in a negative and positive direction, respectively.
The control system has an amazingly natural feel to it. There are no clunky, confusing sliders to be seen and no menus/dialogue boxes that might clutter the view of the image.
But the real bling, is in my favourite feature of all; Selective Adjust. This little minx is something that I’ve been wanting in Photoshop for about 15 years. Drop a maximum of 8 nodes onto your image and adjust brightness, contrast and saturation in a constrained area of your image. Brighten your subject’s face whilst darkening and desaturating the background; then increase the contrast on their shirt.
You can move the nodes around, resize the area they each cover plus copy and paste them to duplicate their settings. The power and ease of this feature alone is mind blowing.
What’s bad about it? I’m not sure if I can fault it that much. Okay, it’s on the pricier side of $5 which is far more than a few of my friends would dare pay. It doesn’t have layers or any other compositing features and there’s no drawing and painting at all!
It’s no true Photoshop Mini without those features, but I’ve yet to use an app that is. It’s pretty hard to draw and mask on a 3 inch screen without it resulting in a kindergarten finger painting (and perhaps that’s why Adobe aren’t on it). For what it doesn’t have, Snapseed over compensates with its excellent interface and customisation of its features.
Here is an app that is going to make your images pop, yet stand apart from your regular Instagram filtered images. 'Snapseed' is my new verb.
Available for iOS, OS X and Android coming soon.