Recently, Adobe released the beta of Photoshop Express, a free photo editor. Yes, you read that right - it’s FREE, a real departure from the norm for Adobe. As you might expect, it’s based on their flagship product, Photoshop CS3. The other big deal about this product is that to use it, all you need do is go to Adobe’s web site, and sign-up. It’s run completely within a web browser, no need to download a thing. You simply upload your digital photos via their slick interface, do your things to them, and store up to 2 gigabytes of them on Adobe’s servers.
Full-featured Slide-show Interface
One toadily neat feature of Photoshop Express is that you can create a beautifully rendered feature-rich slide-show from your photos, (take a look at one I created here.) and then generate a link to e-mail to your friends, or place on a web site. Even better, if you’re a Facebook user, Photoshop Express has the benefit of a direct interface with the social network!
Down the Saas path We Go
This product sees Adobe joining the tide wave of companies that are working diligently to give us great reasons to return to their web pages; I must say, I’m lovin’ the trend so far. In technical jargon, this new product is know as “Software-as-a-service” (Saas). With study after study solidifying the fact that dollars spent on web-based purchases are one of the few places that will continue to have positive numbers, we’re not going to see this trend slow down anytime soon.
Still in Beta Test mode - Snafu’s Possible
First of all, remember Photoshop Express is in beta testing mode right now. This means that there is a good likelihood that you’ll run unto a few snafu’s here and there. There’s a handy-dandy feedback button to make it easy to let Adobe know if you do! I used the slide show tool to create a show from some images I shot at a house and garden show in the Orwin section of Winter Park this past April. There is a resize slider that appears when you hover over the upper right portion of the screen.
Posted in Digital Photography | Tagged Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe Photoshop Express, digital photogaphy, facebook, online auction, picture editing, software as a service, web-based | No Comments »
