Adobe Photoshop for iPad Gaining Support for RAW Images - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Adobe Photoshop for iPad Gaining Support for RAW Images

by

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

Apple Event Logo

Apple Unveiled Four New Products Today

Tuesday August 25, 2026 8:39 am PDT by
Apple today unveiled a new Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro chip options, a new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chip options, a new version of the Polishing Cloth with a lower price, and updated Magic Keyboards for Macs. To learn more about these products, read our coverage below: Apple Announces New Mac Mini With M6 and M5 Pro Chips and More Apple Unveils New Mac Studio With M5 Max and M5...
Read Full Article
iPhone 18 Pro Dark Cherry Feature

iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra: When Will Apple Event Be Announced?

Monday August 24, 2026 6:45 am PDT by
It is now late August, meaning that Apple's annual iPhone event is just around the corner. Below, we take a look at when the event might be held this year. This September, Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and an all-new foldable iPhone that will reportedly be named the iPhone Ultra. The regular iPhone 18, a lower-end iPhone 18e, and the iPhone Air 2 are not...
Read Full Article • 19 comments
apple magic keyboard with glyphs 2026 refresh

Apple Quietly Refreshes Magic Keyboards

Tuesday August 25, 2026 7:22 am PDT by
Apple today quietly introduced updated Magic Keyboard models with revised U.S. English key labeling. On the new keyboards, the tab, caps lock, shift, return, and delete keycaps are labeled with glyphs rather than edge text. On the full-size models with a numeric keypad, the change goes further, with the home, page up, page down, end, clear, and enter keys also swapping their text labels for...
Read Full Article • 135 comments

Top Rated Comments

N
NoSoup4U
64 months ago
One of those stories where my response is, "You mean it didn't already support RAW?"
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
F
friedmud
64 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 Avatar
filmantopia
64 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)
sfwalter Avatar
sfwalter
64 months ago
Still can't hold a candlestick to Affinity Photo on the iPad. They are still missing key features from the raw processor including Curves.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
baryon Avatar
baryon
64 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)
S
svish
64 months ago
Did not know that RAW was not supported. At least the support for RAW is added now.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments