Adobe is hoping its new design tool can replicate Photoshop success

US-based software major Adobe Systems is hoping to replicate the sustained success it enjoyed with flagship offering Photoshop by betting big on a new UI/UX design and prototyping tool called XD.

The company has launched a free starter plan to engage students, designers and professionals involved in designing apps and websites.

Users can avail of all XD's functionalities and the software will support tools for designing Mac, Windows, iOS and Android applications.

The company also said that XD will also come integrated with its Creative Cloud Libraries so that designers can share their product with others.

However, the company has put in a limitation of sharing one project at a time and users will only get 2GB of cloud storage. 

"The new Starter plan for Adobe XD supports Adobe’s vision to give everyone—from emerging artists to enterprise brands—everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences and explore the rapidly expanding field of UX design with no financial commitment." Scott Belsky, chief product officer and executive vice president, Creative Cloud at Adobe, said.

Adobe has said that it will allow users to upgrade to a $9.99 (around Rs 680) single app monthly plan that will not have the limitations of the starter pack.

The company has also set up a $10 million design fund to build an ecosystem of integrations in its Creative Cloud suite - which includes Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator among others - starting with Adobe XD. 

The disbursal of funds will be done in the form of grants or equity investments for developers or designers who build outstanding products or designs.

"We are going to start by focusing on screen design and Adobe XD CC, our all-in-one design and prototyping app," said Vijay Vachani, director, head of partner platform and ecosystem, Adobe Creative Cloud. 

Speaking to TechCircle in March, Adobe India MD Shanmugh Natarajan had spoken about how Adobe was betting big on Sensei, a unified artificial intelligence and machine learning framework which aims to provide deeper and more meaningful insights into customer data to improve their output. 

Earlier, the company's India and South Asia MD Kulmeet Bawa had said that it was betting on clients from sectors such as fintech and retail for its next phase of growth.