When Adobe first announced its new drawing and painting app for professional creatives and artists at Adobe Max 2018, it went by the code name Project Gemini.
The eye-popping preview whetted the appetites of many a design software fan.
Now, ten months later, the much-awaited moment has arrived: The launch of Adobe Fresco (its official name)—at least in feature-complete beta form.
The interface is so clean and intuitive that even a novice could have a fulfilling experience using Fresco.
When Apple Introduced touch drawing and the iPhone in 2007, they flung open the creative windows for artists to begin pushing the limits of what could be painted using an iPhone.
In fact, for the June 2009 New Yorker Magazine, Jorge Colombo produced the first-ever cover created on an iPhone using the Brushes App.
With the 2010 launch of the iPad, the canvas became larger and stylus developers clamored to engineer tools that offered more precision than one's finger.
With one foot in the future, Adobe identified an untapped opportunity with the 2015 introduction of the most expressive, precise stylus available: Apple Pencil (now in its second generation).
With Fresco, artists and illustrators no longer need be caught in the eyeball-hand weirdness that happens when the hand draws in a different place (the tablet) from where the image is (the monitor).
Of course, there are clunky hardware work-around solutions, but never has there been an app built from the ground up to take advantage of the ground-breaking features of the iPad–Apple Pencil combo.
Several noteworthy drawing and painting iOS apps compete for artists' attention, such as Procreate ($9.99), Tayasui Sketches Pro ($19.99), Concepts (free, with in-app purchases; $14.99), FiftyThree/WeTransfer Paper (free, with in-app purchases; Pro, $11.99), and my favorite ink pen app, Writeon Inkredible (free, with in-app offerings).
Let's take a look at what sets Fresco apart from those.
Getting Started with Adobe Fresco
You can sign up for the Fresco prerelease beta at Adobe's Fresco page, and it will be available as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.
It's unclear if the app will be available separately or which Creative Cloud subscription pricing levels will include it; Adobe has only stated that the final iPad version will be released this year, and isn't commiting to timing for other platforms.
The app requires iOS 12.4 or higher, and one of the following iPads: iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad (5th and 6th generation), iPad mini (5th generation).
Adobe's vision is to bring Fresco to additional platforms and devices in the future, including Windows 10 and Chrome OS tablets.
The tablet-only drawing and painting app was built specifically for touch-first and stylus-powered platforms like the Apple iPad with Apple Pencil.
I tested Fresco on an iPad Pro (11-inch) running iOS 12.3.1, and a second-generation Apple Pencil.
Additionally, I've installed a PaperLike matte screen protector, which emulates friction of paper tooth when using the Apple Pencil.
It's not perfect, but certainly offers a more realistic experience than does the slick glide of a screen without it.
Interface and Canvas
Fresco's interface simplicity and intuitive usability provide a pleasurable experience for pros and beginners alike.
Creative Cloud users have the additional benefit of Fresco's round-trip workflow with Photoshop and vector integration with Illustrator.
In Fresco, you can mix it up with both raster and vector layers; the raster layers pop open in Photoshop, and the latter in Illustrator.
Although Fresco is not able, at this writing, to access or create Adobe Illustrator($19.99 at Adobe) brushes, it can use and create Photoshop brushes—including everyone's beloved Kyle's Brushes by Kyle T.
Webster.
It's easy to get going, starting with a Home window that displays your recent work, a tutorial section, and an inspirational gallery section where you can look at what others are doing with Fresco.
The Home screen offers an overview of your recent work.
All screens have a Create New and Import/Open options.
A customizable UI, including full-screen mode with no visible UI, lets you tailor your space to your workflow needs.
Enjoy the simplicity of Fresco's uncluttered workspace or remove it entirely with Full Screen mode.
The Brush panels are detachable from the toolbar—movable, floatable, and re-dockable anywhere—which is fantastic if you need to keep returning to a group of brushes or want to keep certain tools open while you work.
The Magic of Live Brushes
The sparkling gem in Fresco's crown is, doubtless, the Live Brushes feature.
These watercolor and oil brushes look, feel, and behave like the real deal.
In Adobe's words, "It's so real, it's unreal." To pull off the wow factor of this organic interaction, Adobe partnered with scientists who study pigment chemistry, particle physics, liquid absorption on cotton substrates, and viscosity emulation.
They asked professional painters and illustrators what they wanted in a tablet-based painting app, and how they would use it.
Then they had those same artists offer iterations of beta-testing feedback.
Adobe's deep homework allowed them to recreate the behavior of real-world tools, pigment, water, and oil on paper and canvas.
Now anyone with an iPad and Apple Pencil can benefit from having Adobe Sensei's artificial intelligence in their pocket.
Live brushes include Watercolor (Round Detail, Wash Soft, Wash Flat, and Wet Spatter) and Oil Paint (Flat, Round, Filbert, Detail, Glaze, Chunky, and Short).
The Oil is luscious and gooey, slightly dimensional, and very realistic.
You almost forget that you can Undo a misguided stroke.
The settings offer you considerable control over your designated brush.
The Watercolor Live Brushes are even more thrilling to watch.
As with the Oil Brushes, you have a full, contextual range of control over brush behavior.
You can see staining pigment flow from the brush and penetrate the fibers of the paper, or you can see a non-staining wash settle and glow on the surface as it awaits your addition of water or more pigment.
You can watch the osmosis between the paint, water and paper—the color blooms into another wet color, or on dry paper, it pools slightly and darkens perfectly around the edges.
It's amazing.
Other Brushes, Vector Brushes, & Adobe Capture
With 1,000 brushes—each of which is infinitely editable—it's easy to find yourself experimenting in ways that would be difficult, expensive, or impossible with traditional media.
I love lettering, so I was especially eager to try some of their inky brushes.
I drew the alphabet below with a rake brush.
The brushstrokes have a natural and organic feel.
Brushes are organized into the following categories: under Pixel Brushes you get Basic, Comics, Dry Media, FX, Ink, Lettering, Marker, Painting, Rakes, Sketching; the choices under Live Brushes are Watercolor and Oil; and under Vector Brushes there's Basic Round, Basic Taper, Basic Flat, Basic Chisel, and Basic Terminal.
Under each section is the option to access your library brushes.
Vector Brushes behave as they do in Illustrator.
Although we can't yet create or access Illustrator brushes, I have high hopes it will come down the road.
Adobe Capture, a member of Adobe's suite of 15 iOS apps, lets you use any image on your device (or take a photo) as a source for creating derivative color palettes, brushes, patterns, and several other useful assets.
Happily, this underrated tool integrates with Fresco so you can create a bevy of creative building blocks for your projects.
If you are familiar with Photoshop or other raster editors, you'll be comfortable with Fresco's layers, masking, precise selection tools, and 28 blending modes.
Layers are drag-and-droppable to reorder level, group, and delete.
Fresco's Selection tool is unique because, with a single tool, you can make selections lasso-style and polygonal lasso-style (rubberband).
A novel tool is the Touch Shortcut, the circle under the import tab.
Think of this like the Option or Alt key—it allows an alternative action for the tool you are using.
For example, you can use it to change your tool to an eraser version, constrain the Move Tool, amend an active selection when you're panning the canvas, or toggle the visibility of layers.
I'm fond of Fresco's live preview window in the brush settings.
As you make changes to the parameters, you can either see the changes in the swatch as you make them, or you can test out a stroke or two in that same preview window.
I'm hoping that in future releases there will be an option to add color to the jitter options.
Creative Cloud Integration and Output
Files transfer between Fresco and Adobe Photoshop($9.99/Month at Adobe) seamlessly, and you can set preferences to have your project open automatically in Photoshop on your desk or laptop.
When you draw with a vector brush, Fresco creates a new vector-only layer, which you can open and edit in Illustrator.
Projects save by default to Creative Cloud, and you can export or share files several ways.
If you want to share your image, you can tap Quick Export and the app will send a snapshot to your choice of AirDrop, Print, Message, Notes, Mail, and many other options.
When your masterpiece is finished, you can save your file as a PSD, PDF, JPG, or PNG (in high or low resolutions)—and you can even do a direct export to the portfolio site, Behance.
Finally, you can export your project as a time-lapse movie, detailing your every move just as you made it.
Since Fresco is a citizen of Creative Cloud, all your files, brushes, colors, and content libraries are always available if you are a subscriber.
The Future of Fresco
Even though Fresco was built as a natural media emulator, I have a modest, more digital wish list for future incarnations of Fresco.
For example, it would be great to have more Live Brushes, and other generative brushes like a particle, flame, or morphogenic brush.
Additionally, it would be great to have a nudge or liquify feature, but perhaps we only need to wait for the upcoming built-for-tablet version of Photoshop where we'll be able do that.
Whether those wishes come true or not, the company has created an exciting new experience with Fresco.
While there is some competition, Fresco hits it out of the park with Live Brushes and a productive workspace that's simply easier to use than most of the competition.
Look for our full, rated review when the final version of Fresco launches.
