Adobe is finally building Photoshop for the iPad Pro — but its biggest announcement might be a new app for painters and illustrators (ADBE)

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Adobe is launching a suite of iPad apps for graphics pros, including a full version of Photoshop.
But one app designed from the ground-up for styluses may be the most interesting new Adobe product.
It's called Project Gemini, and it's an iPad Pro app with a focus on different "brushes" that can turn your Pencil into a range of different digital paints and drawing tools.

Adobe announced on Monday that it was finally planning to launch a version of "real Photoshop" for iPads as part of its Creative Cloud subscription product.

Photoshop for iPad will be able to open Photoshop "PSD" files and it will be tightly integrated with Photoshop on desktop computers.

"It shares the same code base as its desktop counterpart, so there’s no compromises on power and performance or editing results," Adobe said in a statement.

But Adobe is also simultaneously bringing a new app to iPads that could end up being more closely linked with how design professionals use high-powered tablets.

The company announced on Monday that it is launching a preview of a new app called Project Gemini. You can't download it yet, but Adobe is seeking beta testers and professional illustrators to test the Pad Pro app in pre-release form.

In the past few years, stylus technology has gotten way more advanced. Apple's iPad Pro supports a stylus, Pencil, that has thousands of levels of pressure sensitivity, and latency so low it's nearly indistinguishable from writing on paper.

Previously, elite digital artists used accessories made by companies like Wacom to create digital illustrations, but Adobe would rather they use an iPad Pro and a stylus. Illustrators have used iPads and the pencil to do a range of professional art, including covers for major magazines. ProjectGeminiArt_Daich Ito Woman

One of the new app's key features is a range of brushes that lets you turn your stylus into watercolors, oils, and pastels. The app also has a streamlined user interface that's been adapted for touch.

One of the designers behind the app is Kyle Webster, who first came to prominence developing a suite of brushes for Photoshop that was so popular, Adobe hired him and made his brushes free to subscribers, he told Business Insider.

Adobe says that it expects to launch Project Gemini for other platforms with high-quality stylus support, like Microsoft Windows.

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