Adobe launches three Photoshop-branded apps for iPad

Eazel, Nav and Color Lava all sync wirelessly with the Photoshop CS5 desktop software.

Adobe has launched three new Photoshop apps for iPad, with each of them designed to work wirelessly with the fully-fledged Photoshop CS5 desktop software.

Adobe Eazel for Photoshop promises the ability to "use your iPad and your fingertips to create beautiful paintings". Users can create artworks on their iPad and then send them to CS5 for further editing, with a mixture of 'wet' and 'dry' virtual paint to create their masterpiece.

Adobe Nav for Photoshop is more of a remote control app for CS5, allowing users to tap and swipe on their iPad to do things in the desktop application, accessing images and triggering tools.

Finally, Adobe Color Lava for Photoshop is all about mixing custom colours and themes for use in CS5: "Dab, smudge, and swirl your way to creating unique individual color swatches and five-swatch color themes" promises its App Store listing.

All three apps went live on Apple's App Store overnight. Adobe and Apple's relationship has been somewhat tense in recent times, thanks to Apple's steadfast refusal to allow Flash onto its iOS devices. However, iPad has considerable potential as an interface to Adobe's creative apps.