Adobe’s mysterious ‘Project Rigel’ is now called Photoshop Fix

You may recall that awhile back we told you about a brand new Adobe mobile photo retouching app code-named Project Rigel. At yesterday’s Apple event, Adobe demoed Project Rigel under its brand new real name, Photoshop Fix.

Adobe demoed Photoshop Fix in conjunction with two other mobile apps — Photoshop Comp CC and Photoshop Sketch — to showcase Adobe’s cloud-based creative workflow on the new iPad Pro. It outlined the major points in a blog post.

Photoshop Fix relies on the GPU to open really large files and to retouch photos in real time. Born at the sunset of Photoshop Touch, it is designed to handle files up to 50MB on your device. Among its other talents, the app has a facial detection feature that lets you alter a person’s features and expressions.

Like Adobe’s other mobile apps, Photoshop Fix is built with the company’s new Creative SDK. Adobe Photoshop Mix,  Shape and Comp, for example, use a common framework allowing them to open files, pass files to each other and send files to desktop apps.

The new Photoshop Fix will be available free as part of the “Adobe ecosystem” and will not depend on having a paid Creative Cloud subscription. Instead, users will be required only to have an Adobe ID to log in, save and access their work on the server.

The smile from hell

Despite the brilliance of the software, the demo itself touched an unintended nerve when Adobe’s director of mobile design, Eric Snowden, chose as an example of the app’s capabilities to convert a female model’s neutral expression into a smile.

This sort of thing has an almost universally negative association for women — who are often exhorted by men in public places to “smile” or “lighten up” and served as a reminder of the overall lack of diversity in the tech industry.

TNW writers had some observations concerning both topics.

Hey Apple/Adobe pic.twitter.com/MlgTXTt5K0

— Natt การุณรังษีวงศ์ (@nattgarun) September 9, 2015

Adobe’s VP Products & Community, Scott Belsky, in a series of tweets, assured the presentation’s critics that the company meant no offense.

@drew i know team never meant for photoshop demo to be offensive. #1 use of retouch apps is for selfies, intention was to show off the tech

— Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) September 9, 2015

@drew watching live, got excited seeing ppl like feature and retweeted. but I agree, don't like the "make someone smile" context. At all.

— Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) September 9, 2015

➤ Adobe Debuts The Next Generation Of Mobile Creativity Apps During Apple iPad Pro Keynote