Adobe to Support Photoshop, Lightroom, and Lightroom CC Natively on Apple Silicon

Adobe to Support Photoshop, Lightroom, and Lightroom CC Natively on Apple Silicon

Earlier this year, Apple announced its two-year timeline for a transition to its own silicon — to Macs without Intel, that is. With that shift come many questions about the future of our pro applications, so we reached out to Adobe to get some answers.Apple touted support for a number of apps as universal apps (applications that will work both on iOS and macOS devices running on Apple Silicon), but said little about native support for Apple Silicon in a Mac-focused keynote Tuesday morning. In an email response to us, an Adobe representative helped clarify Adobe's plans for its professional photo editing and management applications:

We’re excited to bring CC apps to Apple Silicon devices, including native support for Lightroom next month and Photoshop in early 2021...the team is working on a native version of Lightroom Classic for Apple Silicon, and it will be released next year. We’re also committed to continuing support for Intel-based Macs."

Notably missing from Tuesday's keynote was any mention of Apple Silicon updates to the higher end Mac Pro, iMac, and 16-inch MacBook Pro devices; and it may just be that we see Adobe's announcements coincide with releases of these more pro-focused Macs. While we don't know exactly when Adobe will release updates for these applications, photographers can at least rest assured support for everything will come in time as everyone prepares for the new processor transitions.

Apple's first Apple Silicon-based Macs with its new M1 processor include the new fanless MacBook Air and updates to both the 13" MacBook Pro and the Mac Mini. They are currently available for pre-order and ship next week.

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Adam works mostly across California on all things photography and art. He can be found at the best local coffee shops, at home scanning film in for hours, or out and about shooting his next assignment. Want to talk about gear? Want to work on a project together? Have an idea for Fstoppers? Get in touch! And, check out FilmObjektiv.org film rentals!

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5 Comments

Remember - the M1 is an SoC, not just the processor.

Not really impressed with the Lightroom announcement - its expected since this is the same Lightroom that also runs in a browser after all. Lr Classic and Photoshop are a different story though so I'm excited for that.

It's not the same - the Web version just looks very similar.

Yea I get that - but the point I'm trying to bring across is that it was designed for lighter systems - to the point where it also scales down to SaaS through a browser, iOS, etc with identical features.

Long story short - it's nowhere near as powerful as Lightroom Classic (with all its problems)

Very likely, the Pro and Desktop models will feature the M2. With specs like having 4 TB3/4 ports, More than 16GB memory addressing, and SMT. Waiting for it...

Yup. Whether it's M2 or M1X or whatever they want to call it (hoping for a completely new/beefier M-series that would be an M2, I suppose), I can't wait. Going to jump on that 16-inch the minute they announce it. All those PC fans have had some points when it comes to build-your-own system price-to-performance ratios, but this will change things significantly if the M1 systems recently announced are any indication of what's to come.