Photoshop Express adds new features and raw support

Published on July 23, 2014

The early versions of Photoshop Express, the mobile optimized version of its big-brother, Photoshop, it was little more than a tool for viewing photos and making minor edits. Although it had Photoshop in its name, it didn’t live up to expectations.

The latest version of Photoshop Express is still no replacement for the full-featured version of Photoshop, but it adds more digital imaging editing features, and now supports the RAW file format. This allows a photographer to work with a tablet rather than needing to carry a full-fledged laptop.

In addition to being able to preview files, more filters are now available in this latest version. A blemish removal tool is available for editing, and noise reduction tools can remove haze that may have clouded a shot. While the latest version of Photoshop Express remains free, the new editing features are an add-on that you can acquire through in-app purchases for under $10 total.

Adobe is taking Photoshop in the right direction by continuing to work on an alternate version of Photoshop for tablets. Yet the processing power and precision needed for most professional editing will continue to require a laptop for the foreseeable future for most users.

Microsoft may soon make it unnecessary to have a separate watered-down version of Photoshop for tablets. The maker of the Windows operating systems has produced their latest Surface tablet, the Surface Pro 3, which uses a full-fledged laptop processor. The Surface Pro 3 is a tablet-laptop hybrid is capable of running the full version of Photoshop, not just the less-powerful tablet version. It also includes stylus support, which makes it possible to edit images by applying revisions directly on the screen, avoiding the need to use a mouse, keyboard, or separate input tablet. If other hardware developers follow Microsoft’s lead, we may see additional smaller systems that are able to power the full featured version of Photoshop, making Photoshop Express obsolete before too long.

Regardless of which version of Photoshop you use, you can learn to improve your digital image editing skills with Photoshop training courses from American Graphics Institute. If more users adopt touchscreen devices such as the Surface Pro 3, you'll find them integrated into courses such as those offered at AGI.

About the author

Jennifer Smith is a user experience designer, Photoshop expert, educator and author based in Boston. She is the author of more than 20 books on design tools and processes, including Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies, Adobe Creative Cloud Digital Classroom, and Photoshop Digital Classroom. She has been awarded a Microsoft MVP three times for her work with user experience design in creating apps for touch, desktop, and mobile devices. Jennifer holds the CPUX-F credential from the UXQB.

Jennifer delivers UX training and UX consulting for large Fortune 100 companies, small start-ups, and independent software vendors. She has been hired by Adobe and Microsoft to deliver training workshops to their staff, and has traveled to Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and across the U.S. to deliver courses and assist on UX design projects. She has extensive knowledge of modern UX Design, and worked closely with the Microsoft Windows team to create educational material and deliver UX workshops to key partners globally on behalf of Microsoft. Jennifer works with a wide range of prototyping tools including XD, Sketch, Balsamiq, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Blend for Visual Studio. She also works extensively in the fields of presentation design and visual design.