The one app that Microsoft loves to point out is Adobe Photoshop, mostly as the editing app will run without issue on the company's range of Surface Pro tablets. Unfortunately though, Photoshop is designed to be operated with a keyboard and mouse as opposed to a touchscreen, with many of the toolbars and options being quite hard to manipulate on a tablet.
This is set to change, as Microsoft and Adobe have teamed up to improve Photoshop and Illustrator on touchscreens. Starting from today, both applications running in Windows 8.1 will support touch gestures, greatly improving their usability on tablets like the Surface Pro 3.
But the partnership goes deeper than just slapping on some touch features to Photoshop; Adobe is now working on an entirely new touch-friendly interface. At Adobe Max in Los Angeles, Adobe showed off a new feature called Playground, which strips back the Photoshop interface and allows you to manipulate layers simply by swiping across the display.
The benefit to these improvements for touchscreens is that Adobe can still offer the full Photoshop experience and interface when you switch to using a keyboard and mouse. On the Surface Pro 3, for example, attaching the keyboard cover could see the app switch from the touch interface to the full interface, giving users the best of both worlds.
What was detailed at Adobe Max was just meant to "get the journey started" for what software and hardware combinations Microsoft could provide to users of Windows, according to CEO Satya Nadella.