As wonderful as many art and design programs from Adobe are, they tend to lack in the ease-of-use category. We love how Creative Cloud tools such as Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC and InDesign CC have matured, but such complexity can sometimes get in the way of one's creative stream.
Adobe's new Comp CC app for the iPad is something of an answer to that need, as it comes from a completely different direction. Think light and airy, instead of deep and broad. As the name implies, Comp CC is designed to help the designer create comps, short for 'comprehensives'. Years ago this sort of work was done on paper, which gave the artist great freedom.
Comp CC leverages the easy interactively of the iPad (alas, no Android support as yet) to try and recreate a similar interactive and creative workflow – one that never quite existed on our desktops. All the basic are there for the design process. Using a finger or stylus, the art director can easily drop in text, images, and other elements.
The feature set for this first release includes the following:
- Use content assets saved in your own Creative Cloud Libraries, including images, text styles, colors and shapes.
- Layouts started in Comp CC can be opened and finished in InDesign CC, Illustrator CC and Photoshop CC on your desktop.
- Comp CC uses simple and natural drawing gestures to allow users to intuitively layout shapes, and add text and images.
- Quickly sketch out basic elements of your layout. Comp instantly transforms a roughly-drawn square or lopsided circle into a crisp graphic. Need placeholder text? Simply draw a rectangle with a few straight lines inside it.
- Full integration with your Typekit fonts.
Built on the Adobe Creative SDK, Comp CC joins a growing number of connected Creative Cloud mobile apps, including Illustrator Draw, Illustrator Line, Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Shape CC and Adobe Colour CC which could end up changing your workflow forever.
The Comp CC iPad app is free to Creative Cloud subscribers. Head here to find out how to subscribe.
Words: Lance Evans
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Lance Evans is creative director of Graphlink Media.
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