MacOS Catalina: Do Adobe, Affinity, Corel, Wacom and others support Apple’s 64-bit only MacOS 10.15?

Apple’s new MacOS is the first to be 64-bit only – so many older apps and hardware won’t work, and newer tools may need to be updated to work correctly. Here’s what we know so far. 

(This feature will be updated as companies release updated software/drivers and as users discover bugs and other issues.)

Apple has released MacOS 10.15 Catalina around the world, adding new features including an improved Photos app, a new Music app and – most important to creatives – the Sidecar feature that lets you use an iPad and Pencil like a Wacom Cintiq.

However, Catalina no longer supports 32-bit applications – it’s 64-bit all the way. Before you upgrade, here’s how to find out if you’ve got any 32-bit only apps on your Mac currently.

Also, some app developers and hardware manufacturers have yet to upgrade their tools for MacOS Catalina.

Here’s what we know about the most commonly used tools, including whether they support Sidecar.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe says that only the latest version of its Creative Cloud applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Premiere Pro are supported on Catalina. Older versions of Creative Cloud apps may run – but Creative Suite apps such as Photoshop CS6 will not.  

In a note on its support site, Adobe also says that there may be issues with enterprise deployments.

Apple says that Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and Substance Designer and Painter would all support Sidecar. We are installing MacOS Catalina and will update this story after testing.

Affinity

Serif has let us know that Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher are all compatible with Catalina, including Sidecar.

Apple Final Cut Pro

Apple has released an update to Final Cut Pro X that adds support for Catalina – including Sidecar – as well as processors with up to 28 cores and multiple graphics cards, ready for the launch of the new Mac Pro.

CorelDRAW and Painter

Both of Corel’s main creative apps were listed by Apple as supporting Sidecar – but as yet Corel hasn’t announced updates for Catalina for either.

Maxon Cinema 4D

Again, this was – and still is – listed as supporting Sidecar, but Maxon has not confirmed as yet whether the current version of Cinema 4D formally supports Catalina or whether an update is needed. 

Wacom tablets and Cintiq

In a note on its site, Wacom says “Apple has released the production version to their operating system, Mac OS 10.15 Catalina. As of Wacom’s 6.3.36 driver, Wacom added support for the Beta version of Catalina. To ensure no interruption with your current Wacom product, we recommend waiting to update to Catalina until our team has had time to fully test the final release version. If an update is needed, the team will work to update our driver as quickly as possible.”

Based on previous experience, we would recommend not updating to Catalina until the final release version is out and any bugs have been identified and fixed.

Which Macs and iPads support Sidecar?

According to a white paper on Apple’s website, these MacBook introduced in 2016 or later

• MacBook Air introduced in 2018 or later
• MacBook Pro introduced in 2016 or later
• Mac mini introduced in 2018 or later
• iMac introduced in late 2015 or later
• iMac Pro introduced in 2017 or later
• Mac Pro introduced in 2019

And these iPads support Sidecar:

• 12.9-inch iPad Pro
• 11-inch iPad Pro
• 10.5-inch iPad Pro
• 9.7-inch iPad Pro
• iPad (6th generation or later)
• iPad mini (5th generation)
• iPad Air (3rd generation)