Adobe Launching Free Version of Photoshop Online

[kiwi_2005]

https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html

Thursday, March 27, 2008; 1:52 AM
Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) is taking a note from startups nipping at the edges of its core products, and has now launched a free version of its Photoshop picture editing software. Called Photoshop Express, the service is available directly through any browser though it will only work on Flash 9, so you may have to upgrade. Users have to register for the account, and get 2GB of free storage. Also, it also has ties to social networking sites like Facebook and other image-sharing sites, reports News.com (I am still waiting for the verification e-mail from the service to try it out).
Adobe intends to offer more premium features down the line, which 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.). It also plans to build an offline client, which will surely cut into its Photoshop revenues, but better to undercut itself than let others do. Some pics of the software are here.
This of course will be bad news for the likes of Picnik (a service we have used regularly here before) and others in the startup space.

[sonar732]

Sweet!

[Etienne]

Let's have a fun exercise:

Close your eyes and think of everyone you know who has Photoshop installed on one or more computer.

That many, uh?

Now think of how many of those people forked about 700$ for it.

Might as well give it for free, uh?

[bookworm_020]

But the people who want to work without a web connection or don't have one will still need a standalone product.

[TarJak]

As expected it's not as full featured as the stand alone but it's still not too bad for a browser based editor.

[Jimbuna]

Thanks to TJ i'm now aware of this

Unfortunately, I've been using PSPx2 for the past 3 months.

[danlisa]

:hmm: Think I'll be staying with my full version.

From what I can see from the menu bar, this is no different from any bundled photo editing suite that usually comes with a digicam.

The real power of Photoshop lies with it's image manipulation which is only available in the full package, seems to me Adobe are 'trading' in on the Photoshop name with this application.

However, many people will find it useful for family/personal photos and with 2GB online storage it's worth a signup.

[Bort]

Originally Posted by Etienne

Let's have a fun exercise:

Close your eyes and think of everyone you know who has Photoshop installed on one or more computer.

That many, uh?

Now think of how many of those people forked about 700$ for it.

Might as well give it for free, uh?

That's exactly what I thought this would be when I saw the thread title, haha. :rotfl:

[Etienne]

Originally Posted by danlisa

The real power of Photoshop lies with it's image manipulation which is only available in the full package, seems to me Adobe are 'trading' in on the Photoshop name with this application.

The way I see it, they want to cut down on piracy - Casual users will be content with the web based version, especially if it allows them to shoop Leonidas' face on Dakota Fanning, or create a demotivator.

These people will no longer be copying Photoshop. The less people shuttling the software around, the harder it is to get for those who might actually say "To heck with it, let's buy the goddamn thing."

Professionnal software's expensive... Just the spell check plug-in my stepmother has for QuarkXpress is something like 700$

But damn, does it spell check.