Adobe Illustrator confirmed for iPad, following in Photoshop's footsteps

Just a couple of weeks ago, a rumor claiming that Adobe was plotting to bring Illustrator to iPad began making the rounds. At the time, that rumor said we'd see the reveal of Illustrator for iPad at Adobe MAX 2019. As it turns out, those claims were accurate, because today Adobe officially pulled back the veil on Illustrator for iPad.

Unfortunately, those of you looking for a lot of specifics are going to be waiting a little while longer. Adobe admits in today's announcement that its still in the early stages of creating Illustrator for iPad, but it does say that it's building the app from the ground up to leverage both the mobile platform and the Apple Pencil.

Like a lot of Adobe's Creative Cloud efforts, the company says that a connected experience between its various apps will be at the core of Illustrator. This, in short, means that you'll be able to edit the same project across the desktop and iPad versions of Illustrator. Adobe also says that while the interface will be changed to be more touch-friendly, the iPad version of Illustrator will be just as capable as the desktop version.

That's about all we're getting from Adobe concerning the iPad version of Illustrator, so details are definitely slim at this early stage. Illustrator will be joining Fresco and Photoshop on the iPad, and like the latter, it'll go through a beta test before launch. If you're interested in taking the app for a spin yourself, you can sign up to be considered for the closed beta over on the Illustrator website.

At the moment, there's no word on how long the beta will last, but it's worth remembering that the beta test for Photoshop on iPad ran for around six months before Adobe rolled out version 1.0 (which, not coincidentally, happened today), so it could be some time before Illustrator for iPad is ready for wide release. Adobe is targeting a 2020 release window for Illustrator, and we'll be keeping an eye out for a more specific release date.