Adobe Photoshop for iPad Gaining Support for RAW Images

Tuesday October 12, 2021 9:00 am PDT by Juli Clover

Adobe today announced that Adobe Camera RAW support is coming to Photoshop on the iPad, which will allow Photoshop ‌iPad‌ users to import, open, and edit RAW files. The upcoming feature was highlighted in a demo video that Adobe shared on YouTube, but no details on when it will launch were provided.

According to Adobe, RAW support will work with file types ranging from DNG to Apple ProRAW, which is the RAW file format available on the iPhone 12 Pro and ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro models.

RAW files can be edited like any other image, with users able to adjust aspects like exposure and noise and use Photoshop's non-destructive editing and auto-adjustment tools.

Photoshop for iPad is part of Adobe's Creative Cloud plan. Access is available priced starting at $9.99 per month for the Photography plan.

Tag: Adobe

Popular Stories

Why You Shouldn't Buy the Next MacBook Pro

Tuesday February 10, 2026 4:27 pm PST by Juli Clover

Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models as soon as early March, but if you can, this is one generation you should skip because there's something much better in the works. We're waiting on 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with few changes other than the processor upgrade. There won't be any tweaks to the design or the display, but later this...

• 245 comments

Apple Releases iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3

Wednesday February 11, 2026 10:07 am PST by Juli Clover

Apple today released iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, the latest updates to the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 operating systems that came out in September. The new software comes almost two months after Apple released iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release notes, ...

• 92 comments

Apple's Next Two Products Are Coming Soon

Thursday February 12, 2026 11:17 am PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple plans to release an iPhone 17e and an iPad Air with an M4 chip "in the coming weeks," according to the latest word from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "Apple retail employees say that inventory of the iPhone 16e has basically dried out and the iPad Air is seeing shortages as well," said Gurman. "I've been expecting new versions of both (iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air) in the coming weeks."...

Apple Launching New 'Sales Coach' App

Friday February 13, 2026 2:01 pm PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple plans to launch a rebranded "Sales Coach" app on the iPhone and iPad later this month, according to a source familiar with the matter. "Sales Coach" will arrive as an update to Apple's existing "SEED" app, and it will continue to provide sales tips and training resources to Apple Store and Apple Authorized Reseller employees around the world. For example, there are articles and videos...

• 20 comments

M5 MacBook Air: Release Date, Features, and Performance Predictions

Wednesday February 11, 2026 3:36 am PST by Tim Hardwick

The MacBook Air is Apple's most popular laptop – a thin, fanless machine that wields quiet power thanks to the efficiency of Apple silicon. While the M4 model isn't exactly old, attention is already turning to its successor. Apple doesn't telegraph new product launches ahead of time, but we can draw a surprisingly clear picture of what to expect by looking at Apple's silicon roadmap,...

• 45 comments

Top Rated Comments

NoSoup4U

57 months ago

One of those stories where my response is, "You mean it didn't already support RAW?"

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

friedmud

57 months ago

You can tell that all of the current commenters here are not photographers.

RAW is a particular way of shooting that captures "raw" data from the sensor of your camera. This means that there are _tons_ of "formats"... they are essentially different for every camera maker (and sometimes between cameras).

RAW files are _not_ "images". They are _data_. To make an image you have to "develop" the RAW into an image. Traditionally, this has been done using a RAW workflow that first included an app like Adobe RAW to do the original "developing" of the RAW... then you would go to Photoshop to touch-up / add to the photo. It's only been relatively recently that Photoshop on PCs allowed direct importing of RAW files.

Personally, I use Adobe Lightroom for importing all of my RAW files and developing them. It has an iPad version (I won't get into how the new Adobe Lightroom is different from "Classic" - it's somewhat like the debate about FCPX vs FCP) that has worked awesome for _years_ for developing RAW files... and you can open what you develop in Photoshop.

So: there hasn't been a problem with having a RAW workflow on the iPad for a while now. All this is doing is making it so that if you want to go directly to Photoshop with a RAW you can.

Now...

I still don't understand where things are headed with the M1 chip in terms of software compatibility. Why are there still "for iPad" versions of ANY apps at this point? Isn't this a dead end for developers? They should be just developing universal apps shouldn't they? One upload into the App Store for iOS and MacOS M1 apps. What am I missing?

I suspect that Photoshop on the iPad is getting this capability precisely _because_ of the M1 macs. They added it to photoshop on the M1 macs - so it made it easy to add to their iPad app. This same thing has been happening to Lightroom and Photoshop since the M1 macs debuted... the iPad versions continue to gain parity with the Mac versions.

As another poster pointed out: the iPad UI is very different... so there will always be pieces that are iPad only.

One of those stories where my response is, "You mean it didn't already support RAW?"

If you are serious about photography then you already have a RAW workflow - even on the iPad. Photoshop is generally not the first place to start with a RAW file.

The interface of an iPad app has to be different than a Mac, to be designed around touch. That said, we’ll certainly get to a point where there is a lot more fluidity between more desktop and mobile apps.

Yep.

Exactly! What exactly were people doing with an app named "Photo" shop then? Drawing pictures?

Also how do you edit large files on an iPad with tiny storage? Can you attach a USB hard drive, or does that only work on the iPad Pro that happens to have a USB port?

Working on _photos_... which are "developed" from RAW data files in another app (like Lightroom).

wow lmao this whole time it didn't support it?

Marketing ipadOS as some kind of "productivity" platform that can "replace your computeR" is a huge joke

Ridiculous. I've been using an iPad as one of my main photography productivity devices for about 5 years now (since Lightroom came out for iPad). It's actually an awesome platform for photography. Adobe's apps are fast and have a great iPad UI.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

filmantopia

57 months ago

I still don't understand where things are headed with the M1 chip in terms of software compatibility. Why are there still "for iPad" versions of ANY apps at this point? Isn't this a dead end for developers? They should be just developing universal apps shouldn't they? One upload into the App Store for iOS and MacOS M1 apps. What am I missing?

The interface of an iPad app has to be different than a Mac, to be designed around touch. That said, we’ll certainly get to a point where there is a lot more fluidity between more desktop and mobile apps.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

baryon

57 months ago

One of those stories where my response is, "You mean it didn't already support RAW?"

Exactly! What exactly were people doing with an app named "Photo" shop then? Drawing pictures?

Also how do you edit large files on an iPad with tiny storage? Can you attach a USB hard drive, or does that only work on the iPad Pro that happens to have a USB port?

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)