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.

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
airtag 4 pack blue

AirTag 2 Launching This Year With These 3 New Features

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:11 am PST by
After a four-year wait, a new AirTag is finally expected to launch in 2025. Below, we recap rumored upgrades for the accessory. A few months ago, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was aiming to release the AirTag 2 around the middle of 2025. While he did not offer a more specific timeframe, that means the AirTag 2 could be announced by the end of June. The original AirTag was announced...
apple power beats pro 2

Powerbeats Pro 2 Coming Soon: Apple to Announce Them 'Imminently'

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:25 am PST by
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon. Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...

Top Rated Comments

mystery hill Avatar
47 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
47 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
47 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
47 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
47 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
47 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)