One of the few advantages of Amazon’s recent Mac download store was the availability of titles such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, which was unavailable in the Mac App Store. That all ended this week as Adobe dipped its considerably large toe into Apple’s digital storefront at long last.
Adobe has announced the immediate availability of Photoshop Elements 9 Editor, a special edition of their consumer-centric image editing software available exclusively from the Mac App Store. The $79.99 is aimed at complementing Apple’s own iPhoto rather than replacing it, removing the Elements Organizer application from the retail version but otherwise released feature complete.
“The powerful capabilities in Photoshop Elements 9 Editor complement iPhoto perfectly, for users who want to take their photos to the next level with advanced compositing and stunning effects,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president of Digital Imaging Products at Adobe. “Photoshop helped pioneer creativity on the Mac, so it’s appropriate that this special edition of Photoshop Elements is Adobe’s entry into the Mac App Store.”
Photoshop Elements 9 Editor doesn’t hold back on the pro-style features, with Guided Edits that offer easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for creating artistic effects such as Out of Bounds for making your photos literally leap off the page, Pop Art for creating retro-style images and Perfect Portraits for easy retouching. The Spot Healing Brush even borrows powerful content-aware technology from Photoshop CS5 to remove clutter from photos or repair imperfections in just one stroke.
Adobe also realizes the power of digital photo editing, enabling Photoshop Elements 9 Editor with the capability of combining the best facial expressions from a number of different shots to create a single perfect photo. The company’s new Photomerge Style Match even analyzes stylistic characteristics of any photo and automatically applies them to another one, including contrast or color tone. Quick fixes include whitening teeth or creating vibrant blue skies, and when users are done tweaking, they can easily create and print customized calendars, cards and photo books right on their own printer at home.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 Editor is now available on the Mac App Store for $79.99; the 1.02GB download requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later and with any luck, it’s just the beginning of Adobe making their full complement of creative software available on Apple’s burgeoning storefront.
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