Adobe Releases Free Web-Based Version Of Photoshop

Adobe Systems Inc.on Thursday unveils the beta of Photoshop Express, the long-awaited version of its popular image editor. The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop said it has made the basic version available for free online.

By launching the Internet-based version of its photo editing application, the San Jose, California-based Adobe hopes to strengthen its popularity among a new generation of consumers who edit, store and share photos online.

Adobe describes its Photoshop Express as a free Rich Internet Application (RIA) that allows users to store, sort and show off digital photos with eye-catching effects.

According to Doug Mack, vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe, "Photoshop is trusted technology that has changed the visual landscape of our world. Now, Photoshop Express allows anyone who snaps a digital photo to easily achieve the high-impact results for which Adobe is known."

"Photoshop Express is a convenient, single destination where you can store, edit and share photos whether you're at home, school or on the road," Mack continued.

Adobe said the newest addition to the Photoshop family line will be entirely Internet-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser.

Photoshop Express inherits much of Adobe's best image editing technology and makes it easy and accessible to a new online audience. Available for free with 2 gigabytes of storage, the online version of Adobe Photoshop supports nondestructive editing, and features the most widely used photo effects, such as removing blemishes and red-eye, converting to black and white, cropping and resizing, and much more.

Based on Adobe Systems' ubiquitous Flash 9 technology, Photoshop Express can embed or link photos to social networking sites like Facebook and personal blogs without having to leave the application.

The beta of Photoshop Express also includes special effects like Sketch, Distort and Pop Color which highlights part of an image by removing the color from the rest of the image.

With the launch of Web-based and free version of Adobe Photoshop interface of which is a lot like Picasa and iPhoto, the leading graphics and desktop publishing software company enters a crowded market where several strong online photo-management sites such as Flickr, Shutterfly, Picnik and Photobucket are giving stiff challenge to each other.

Adobe, in February, released its long awaited AIR 1.0 (Adobe Integrated Runtime), its cross-platform software technology combining HTML, Ajax, Flash and Flex to bring rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

The company boasts that the software enables computer users to use online applications offline. The technology allows developers to build tools that still have some functionality even when a computer is no longer connected to the net.