Adobe flashes more looks at online Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express has a timeline below the image that lets people view and undo changes.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News.com)

Update: we have added a video of the Photoshop Express demo.

CHICAGO--Adobe Systems gave a public viewing Tuesday night of an online version of Photoshop, its popular image-editing application.

During a sneak peek session at its Max 2007 developer conference, Adobe product manager Geoff Baum gave a demo of Photoshop Express, the Flash-based image editor that runs inside a Web browser.

The application is aimed at consumers, rather than professional developers, and complements existing versions. Baum showed how people can quickly make changes to images with the program.

With one click, people can fix red eyes or blemishes. The application also generates a thumbnail of an image with various effects, like sepia tone, which people can click on to select.

Below the main image editing window, there is a timeline of thumbnail images that lets people view all the changes they've made to a photo and revert to older versions.

The features that got perhaps the most applause from Max attendees was the ability to selectively change colors in an image.

Baum edited a photo of a car by changing only the color of the car and only the background. He also showed how people can quickly alter the image with different distortion patterns, like curving straight lines, by dragging the cursor over the image and clicking.

With the image editor, people will also be able to create slide shows, share pictures with others and embed photos in Web pages, Baum said.

Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen told CNET News.com about the online version of Photoshop in February of this year, saying it was a way for Adobe to offer a low-end consumer-oriented product to compete with free desktop photo editors.

At the time, Chizen said Adobe would have a beta version within six months, a deadline it has missed. Since then, the company hasn't said when it plans to ship the product or whether Adobe will offer it directly or through partners as it has done with its online video editor Adobe Premiere Express.

This was the second public viewing of Photoshop Express. John Loiacono, senior vice president of Adobe's Creative Solutions Business Unit, gave a demo at Photoshop World in September and the company supplied a screenshot.

Photoshop Express lets people selectively change colors in an image.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News.com)

During Tuesday's sneak peek session, Adobe executives also showed off Visual Communicator 3, a video editing product that looks to mimic live television production to simplify editing. The program could generate production-quality videos from a laptop, Adobe executives said.

The application is structured around a display of text. People can synchronize images and effects, such as a video snippet and transition, with text by dragging icons into a column next to the text.

Visual Communicator 3 will let people switch between three cameras and use blue and green screens for background images.

Adobe also showed off "Flash Home," a project that lets people personalize their cell phone screens. The phone starts Flash when it boots up. The platform will allow people to customize the display. During the demo, Ken Sundermeyer of Adobe showed how calls from a New York area code can display the Statue of Liberty as the call comes in.

[NickH]

What's the advantage of it being web-based?

I mean, what advantage to the end-user?

[rollcage]

Use it anywhere!

Probably the biggest advantage would be the ability to use it on any computer connected to the internet. A lot of the apps that we are used to using in a desktop environment will be moving toward web-based services in the coming years. It's allows the user to have the same working environment no matter where they are at and what computer they are using.

[dh619]

Bennefits Companies More Than Consumers

While portability will be a benefit to some consumers, it seems to me that hosting applications online is more of a move to control licensing and increase the profits of software vendors.

With online applications, users will have to login to a server and authenticate their rights to use the software with each use. This should, at least temporarily, hinder hackers from releasing cracked applications and distributing them freely.

Companies will also have the ability to license software on a subscription basis, rather than a buy once, use for life model. Imagine having to throw down a renewal fee every year rather than a one time buy.

This could prove to benefit consumers if they can pay a monthly or yearly fee that is lower than the cost to buy outright. Another option might be a pay per use model. If you need to use an app just once, why pay for lifetime rights to it.

One benefit to both parties is in the form of updates. Applications only need to be updated on the server side, saving the cost and time of distributing and notifying customers of updates, and allowing users to always have access to the latest versions of software.

[anole360]

Benefits?

The benefits? 1) Adobe doesn't have to ship you anything. 2)
They can charge you monthly or yearly fees for its use or for
"premium" versions. 3) they can target ads at you based on the
types of content you work on 4) it's a portal to selling you the
full $800 photoshop or the entire CS. 5) Staves off Microsoft
web domination.

Oh, sorry... you were probably asking about the benefits to end
users. 1) Flash applications are real purdy and so full of sizzle.
Oooh! Ahhh! 2) Works on any web browser (as long as it's IE 7 on
Vista.) ;-)

[dcsonka]

For real

If you can have something online or offline, I would choose online anyday of the week.

[NickH]

ok.

If that works for you, then more power to you. So, I guess the question is, why do online apps work better for you than offline ones?

[dh619]

Bennefits companies more than consumers

While portability will be a benefit to some consumers, it seems to me that hosting applications online is more of a move to control licensing and increase the profits of software vendors.

With online applications, users will have to login to a server and authenticate their rights to use the software with each use. This should, at least temporarily, hinder hackers from releasing cracked applications and distributing them freely.

Companies will also have the ability to license software on a subscription basis, rather than a buy once, use for life model. Imagine having to throw down a renewal fee every year rather than a one time buy.

This could prove to benefit consumers if they can pay a monthly or yearly fee that is lower than the cost to buy outright. Another option might be a pay per use model. If you need to use an app just once, why pay for lifetime rights to it.

One benefit to both parties is in the form of updates. Applications only need to be updated on the server side, saving the cost and time of distributing and notifying customers of updates, and allowing users to always have access to the latest versions of software.

[xcgeek]

Has potential

Fix Red-eye, blemishes, sepia - ahhh. If I see one more product that thinks these are FEATURES...
Every (offline) product for the past 8 years can do this. There has to be VALUE to the consumer if they are going to use this. It will only work if it can beat facebook/flickr/picasa at all the other stuff like uploading, sharing, social networking, print ordering, etc. People don't want to use different products, they want a one-product does all suite, easy, fast, and FREE.

[dunn3r-2k8]

eoin-2k8