Adobe brings its Select Subject feature to Photoshop on iPad

When Adobe released Photoshop for iPad last month, the response was less than enthusiastic. Users complained about the lack of functions of the mobile app compared to the desktop version, and in response Adobe announced it would be rolling out new features to improve the abilities of the software. Today, the company has begun that process by updating the iPad app to enable the Select Subject feature.

Select Subject allows users to quickly select a subject from the background using AI. Typically, you can make a selection with just one tap even if the focus of the image has a complex outline. Once selected, you can apply filters or effects to either the focused area or the background.

Adobe promises that the mobile feature will mirror the desktop version of the software, producing clean lines around the subject and working quickly even on the limited hardware of the iPad. The tool uses machine learning algorithms and was trained using many different images of objects and scenes, although the company is still optimizing the way it works for difficult subjects like hair or fur.

As well as Select Subject, Photoshop for iPad is also being updated with faster upload and download of documents from the cloud and tweaks to the user interface. The app can be downloaded from the Adobe website now.