Whenever a huge company not traditionally associated with 3D printing announces it intends to pursue and promote 3D creativity it send ripples throughout the entire industry, as the rest of the world becomes more aware of these technologies. It happened with eCommerce giant Amazon, and it is now happening with Adobe, the largest graphic design publisher in the world.
Just like with Amazon, Adobe’s entrance into the world of 3D printing is not really an absolute first: the high profile announcements represent the desire for both companies to make their presence in the 3D sphere more official and an endorsement of the potential these technologies hold.
Adobe’s strategy has been a crescendo of added features, starting last June, increasing last August and culminating with a strong presence – together with Stratasys – as a main sponsor at last week’s London 3D Printshow, where a number of artworks were exhibited showing the company’s software colour capabilities.
Some of the most interesting works Adobe participated in, to publicly launch its 3D venture consisted of masterpieces by top 3D artists and designers, one of the most fascinating ones was a 3D printed copy of the Minories Moran Eagle, from the Museum of London Archaeolgy (MoLA), a Romano-British artefact found in 2013, during the digging of foundations for a new boutique hotel near the Tower of London (very close to Old Billngsgate, the venue of the show).
In May 2014, UK based EuroPAC used an Artec Spider scanner to create a perfect virtual replica of the sculpture, which then made it to Adobe’s stand at the show as a perfect physical copy. Starting with this and more 3D printed models of beautiful artifacts from the past, Adobe is planning its 3D future by signing direct partnerships with all the most important global 3D printing services (Sculpteo, iMaterialise, Shapeways, as well as Japan’s DMM.make). The company is also now partnering with Makerbot consumer 3D printing and with Mcor Technologies, one of the few companies to be able to 3D print in the full Photoshop RGB range, for the consumer 3D printing service segment.
