Adobe Updates Illustrator, InDesign, and Lightroom Classic to Run Natively on M1 Macs

Adobe today announced the release of major updates across its Creative Cloud software suite. Most notably, its Illustrator, InDesign, and Lightroom Classic apps now run natively on Macs with the M1 chip, resulting in faster performance.

adobe m1 chip
Creative Cloud apps are on average over 80% faster on an M1 Mac compared to an identically configured Intel-based Mac, according to Adobe.

Additional notable new features and workflow improvements in today's releases, per Adobe:

  • Lightroom Ecosystem: New Premium Presets, collaborative editing capabilities, Super Resolution in Lightroom and Lightroom Classic (previously available in Adobe Camera Raw), and custom crop aspect ratios in Lightroom
  • Powerful new retouching features in Photoshop Express, including skin smoothing, content aware healing, face aware liquify and caricature
  • Custom brushes in Photoshop on iPad
  • Rotate View in Illustrator on desktop
  • New styling tools in Adobe XD: Inner Shadow, Outline Stroke, and Angular Gradient

Premiere Pro with native support for the M1 chip remains in beta, with a public release coming soon, according to Adobe.

Top Rated Comments

mystery hill Avatar
30 months ago

Creative Cloud apps are on average over 80% faster ('https://www.pfeifferreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Creative_Cloud_on_Apple_Silicon_Benchmark_Report.pdf') on an M1 Mac compared to an identically configured Intel-based Mac, according to Adobe
RIP Intel.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MauiPa Avatar
30 months ago

My testing of an After Effects (running through Rosetta of course) render on an M1 mini compared to iMac Retina 5k 27-inch Late 2015 does not show 80% improvement. More like 2%.

Admittedly I'm not a professional tester, but it was a real world test - no plugins.
Seriously? You think that is equivalent? You even stated Rosetta. so a low power M1 processor beats a full on desktop CPU while running an emulator, and you are not impressed? the article specifically said that "NATIVE", which are faster than emulated, BTW is 80% faster. so there you go
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
davidwes Avatar
30 months ago

My testing of an After Effects (running through Rosetta of course) render on an M1 mini compared to iMac Retina 5k 27-inch Late 2015 does not show 80% improvement. More like 2%.

Admittedly I'm not a professional tester, but it was a real world test - no plugins.
Umm, the article is about the apps now being native and therefore being 80% faster. Of course rosetta would be slower.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MiG007 Avatar
30 months ago
According to Adobe (Adobe M1 status ('https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2020/12/21/now-in-beta-premiere-pro-premiere-rush-audition-for-apple-m1-systems.html#gs.2ttjax')) a release version of Premiere Pro is supposed to be available first half of 2021 -- within 22 days?

And they will begin work on a native version of After Effects this year.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djphat2000 Avatar
30 months ago

My testing of an After Effects (running through Rosetta of course) render on an M1 mini compared to iMac Retina 5k 27-inch Late 2015 does not show 80% improvement. More like 2%.

Admittedly I'm not a professional tester, but it was a real world test - no plugins.
The new one should not be running under rosetta. So the fact that it was still 2% faster than an old 2015 iMac shows just how close emulation on M1 is to the real thing. You may see more like double the performance once you run the native version of the apps on your M1 system.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
otternonsense Avatar
30 months ago
There is no reason these apps can't be running just the same on M1 iPads –other than Apple's arbitrary reasons to drive a wedge between the two platforms.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 17

Apple Releases iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 With Bug Fixes, Plus iOS 17.0.2 for iPhone 15 Models

Thursday September 21, 2023 10:28 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 updates for the iPhone and the iPad, adding bug fixes to the new software. The iOS 17.0.1 and iPadOS 17.0.1 updates come just a few days after Apple launched iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. The software, which is build 21A340, can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. There is a...
iPhone 15 Pro Lineup Feature

iPhone 15 Models Feature New Setting to Strictly Prevent Charging Beyond 80%

Tuesday September 19, 2023 2:04 pm PDT by
All of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models feature a new battery health setting that prevents the devices from charging beyond 80% at all times when enabled, as confirmed by The Verge's Allison Johnson during a Q&A session today. The new setting is separate from the pre-existing Optimized Battery Charging feature on iPhones, which intelligently delays charging past 80% until a more...
emojipedia 15 1 emoji

Emoji Coming to Future iOS 17 Update Include Shaking Head, Brown Mushroom, Lime, Phoenix and More

Tuesday September 19, 2023 12:43 pm PDT by
As Apple was announcing new iPhone models last week, the Unicode Consortium was officially approving new emoji characters that are set to be added to smartphones starting in 2024. Mockup of new emoji from Emojipedia Approved Unicode 15.1 emoji include phoenix, lime, an edible mushroom, shaking head vertically (as in a "yes" nod), shaking head horizontally (a "no" head shake), and broken...
iPhone 15 Pro Max 5x Optical Zoom Limit Feature 1

Apple Explains Why iPhone 15 Pro Max is Limited to 5x Optical Zoom

Wednesday September 20, 2023 9:52 am PDT by
In an interview with Numerama's Nicolas Lellouche, Apple's VP of camera software engineering Jon McCormack explained why the iPhone 15 Pro Max's tetraprism lens system is limited to 5x optical zoom, instead of 10x like on Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra. The interview is in French, so quotes below are computer translated. Apple says the Telephoto lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max features the...