Adobe launches free online Photoshop

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sumbody may find it useful

Adobe opens shop on Web-based Photoshop Express

Adobe Systems opened up Photoshop Express on Thursday, its long-anticipated Web-based image editor aimed at the millions of consumers that want a simple way to touch up, share, and store photos.

Photoshop Express, available for free with 2 gigabytes of storage at www.photoshop.com/express, is a significant departure from Adobe's desktop software business and a big bet that it can make money offering Web services directly to consumers.

The application, which needs Flash Player 9 to run, pushes the limits of browser-based applications and will likely ratchet up the competition on the dozens of free and online photo-editing products available now (see our full review of Photoshop Express and gallery of screen shots of the application).

News of an online version of Photoshop first came to light last year when Adobe's then-CEO Bruce Chizen told CNET News.com that the product would be available within six months.

Since then, Adobe has expanded the scope of the project, one reason why the product launch has taken longer than expected, according to executives. Rather than only an image editor, Photoshop Express also has ties to social networking sites like Facebook and other image-sharing sites.

Also, Adobe needed to build the back-end infrastructure needed to offer the service directly to consumers, rather than partner with another photo-sharing site, as it did with its online video editor, Premiere Express.

"We've seen a convergence of trends where the everyday consumer is becoming overwhelmed with the number of images and they have the desire to share images in new and interesting ways," said Doug Mack, the vice president of consumer and hosted solutions at Adobe.

"We're at the point now with bandwidth that most consumers can use really rich Internet applications and also have a relationship with a service where they store and upload images," he said.

The service will go live in beta test mode on Thursday. Mack said that the company intends to use the test period as a way garner feedback from customers.

Adobe intends to offer more features to consumers who pay a yearly fee. Some planned features include a printing service, more storage, support for audio and other media, and the ability to read additional image file types (the service works with .JPGs now.)

Adobe also plans to build an offline client using AIR (the Adobe Integrated Runtime) so that people can edit photos offline, executives said.

Under the hood
Adobe already has a few other Photoshop-branded products--Photoshop Creative Suite 3 and Photoshop Lightroom are aimed at professional and serious amateur photographers, while $99 Photoshop Elements is a consumer-oriented product.

Photoshop Express is designed to be used essentially by anyone who uses a point and click digital camera, said Mack.

People can organize photos by dragging them into albums or create a gallery to share images. The service also lets people email links images stored online, embed them in a Web page, or download them.

When people hover a mouse over an image, a menu appears that lets people do tasks, such as rotating an image. The editing tools are designed for speed, with an autocorrect option, redeye removal, and a touch-up tool.

Adobe has sought to make Photoshop Express intuitive enough for people to use without any training but still have features that appeal to more sophisticated photographers, said Geoff Baum, director of Adobe's Express products.

For example, the touch-up tool will automatically choose a color from a surrounding item to, say, remove a blemish on a face. Or, a person can choose where to sample a color to replace the blemish.

Photoshop Express also includes several ways to tweak photos just for fun. There are a number of effects to change the color of one item in a photo, like a hat on someone's head, or blur parts of an image.

While editing, the application displays thumbnail images that let people view how effects will change a photo before saving it and people can revert back to an original. The connections to Facebook and other social networking sites let people edit and update images from within Photoshop Express.

First impression
Adobe engineers wrote Photoshop Express from scratch using its Flex development framework and ActionScript, its JavaScript-compatible language.

"We had some of the top Photoshop engineers who understand the technology and science behind Photoshop rewrite some of the algorithms in ActionScript 3," Baum explained.

Having used Photoshop Express for a short time, I can say that it is simple to use. It's attractive, too. The use of Flash animation makes for a dynamic page and smooth transitions between operations.

Adobe is hoping that people who use Picasa, Google's free downloadable application, will be tempted by Photoshop Express.

As someone who uses Picasa for both work and personal photo editing, I'd say that Photoshop Express is indeed tempting because it's slick yet easy to use. You can get edits done quickly, particularly using the thumbnail preview feature.

However, launching the editor and actually saving changes is far slower than Picasa. That's not surprising, given that Photoshop Express has to download photos and upload changes, while Picasa doesn't. By design, Photoshop Express also has a broader range of options for sharing photos on other sites.

Source

Adobe Photoshop Express

[koolbluez]

Ah... at last... the master plays.... 2gb OF FREE SPACE TOO... KoolBluez gallery!

[sachin_kothari]

a great step forward

[ThinkFree]

Read just now at tech2.com

[ray|raven]

Finally, its out!.

Thanx for the awesome news.

[shadow2get]

Thanks for the news.

Tried to sign in for a new account. Not possible in Selecting India. Only US.

Anyway, tried the "TEST DRIVE", it looks very good in terms of the functionalities, modifications we can do on a Image/Photo. Superb & very fast UI for the Photoshop Express. The Full Screen option makes you feel like you are using an application & not in a Browser.

You can also access your Facebook, Picasa & Photobucket accounts, provided you give info abt those accounts.

[Gigacore]

2 GB Storage is really great

[DigitalDude]

I tried it just some basic 12 tools to touch up photos nothing big... I expected more from adobe and thought it would blow away others like fotoflexer

and read the TOS properly.. Adobe has exclusive rights to all the images that you store in your account


btw http://www.photoshopexpresstechniques.com/ will help to get started for the photoshoppically challenged (its an official website)



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[Voldy]

Grt news and more coolest thing is 2 gb storage
thks for the news

[iMav]

its gud but id still recommend ppl to use the portable version rather than this for obvious reasons

[Pathik]

This thing is a bandwidth sucker.

[cooldudie3]

Yeah, it can come out slow if you use wireless
but 2GB is jussst... GR8

[blueshift]

This is really great. Its created using Actionscript.

So I think apart from bandwidth, it also needs good CPU/RAM.

[anand1]

Good i have checked it out really working.

[ax3]

agreed with @Pathik .... good 4 UNLIMITED broadband users while limited\dialup ppl can use its pc versions .....