As I alluded to in an earlier post, online photo-editing applications keep getting better as the competition heats up between startups like Picnik and FotoFlexer. Today, a very large competitor, Adobe, is entering the market by releasing a Web-based version of Photoshop for editing pictures called Photoshop Express. It is in public beta and anyone can sign up.
Photoshop Express is by no means just Photoshop ported onto the web. It would even be a stretch to say it’s a stripped down version of the desktop software, since it’s intended for mainstream consumers, not professionals.
This distinction shows in both what it lacks and what it offers. There are only 17 editing features in Photoshop Express: a tiny fraction of those available with the $650 desktop software. And all of these 17 features are filters intended for tuning and effects – you won’t find any tools for drawing lines, adding text, or creating shapes. What you can do is easily take out red eye, touch up undesirable areas, change saturation, pop color, and crop (among other things).
One of the most innovative features in Photoshop Express is the ability to revert any filter you apply to a photograph. You can do this to a particular filter regardless of whether you’ve made other changes to the photo since applying it. All you have to do is uncheck the particular filter and it will be subtracted from your changes, which are represented in a historical filmstrip with all versions of the photo you have gone through. This undo functionality for particular changes partly makes up for the unfortunate absence of layers, which are so vitally important in the desktop version of Photoshop.
Photoshop Express also differs from its desktop cousin by serving as an online storage and photo sharing service. You can upload up to 2GB of photos to the web app (or pull them in directly from Facebook, Photobucket, or Picassa). They are arranged in a collection that can be made available to others or kept private. Embedding and slideshow functionality is also available.
Adobe has other motivations behind this launch: Doug Mack, the vice president in charge of Photoshop Express, says:
It is a showcase of what is the best that can be done with Flex and Flash. Hopefully, it will inspire other developers. We are also setting up a hosted services platform that we can expand to other products.
So this is just the beginning for Adobe. Should smaller fry like Picnik be scared now that Adobe is, uh, flexing its muscles online? Picnik CEO Jonathan Sposato isn’t too worried. He gives me the classic Innovator’s Dilemma argument:
We don’t envy the challenge Adobe is facing—they have to deal with not cannibalizing a highly successful finished-goods business. Adobe has a business to protect, while Picnik has a business to build.
Okay, but what about Adobe’s massive distribution through its existing products (Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.). Sposato’s got an answer for that one as well:
Sure, I think their distribution is a great strength for them. And there’s definitely a Windows vs. Mac analogy here. But i think today’s internet is so incredibly efficient that traditional models of distribution may matter less and less. The cost of switching apps for most users is just so easy. They can find new things really fast and try them out.
Hopefully, I am not smoking crack but I do think the marketplace is so efficient that we can compete based ultimately on quality and ‘winsomeness’ of the product (to use a very old fashion word).
No Jonathan, you’re not smoking crack. May the most winsome product win.
is the reindeer girl single?
I worked with the Adobe products at work. I let you know my impressions as soon as I tried it. It’s a little bit expensive but…
@2: Online Casino Back: TechCrunch unfortunately used “nofollow”.
They should allow following for people who have had a certain number of comments tracked by e-mail address.
Nice.
this is the beginning of the end of picnik et al …..
I think for something like this to go big time it is going to have to be integrated into a website like Flickr.
Outside of that, I cannot see people really jumping the gun to edit photos online and then move them to a website like Flickr.
This app (and the other mentioned) would be better used if integrated with a website like Flickr.
Very limited but a nice working beta. Huge Potential here with Adobe resources at hand.
Free QA tip: the site’s broken for me. Here’s my setup:
Running on OS X 10.5.2, with Flash Player (release version) 9.0.115, the main app page doesn’t load. I see a flicker, and then I think the Flex app fades to a background DIV/layer, etc.
I just tried with Safari, and all seems to be fine. So, whatever the FSObject or other flash detection script is being used, the site is foobar’d right now, at least for OS X 10.5.2 / FP 9.0.115.
Between this post and the post about FotoFlexer earlier today, it sounds like Erik is getting some kickbacks from Picnik. He seems to be pimping them pretty hard. Has he no shame?
Adobe Launches Photoshop Express Public Beta
>Picnik is not scared
Okay then. Fair enough, it’s a great tool.
>Today, a very large competitor, Adobe,
Oh please.
This is all good, but am in agreement that in order for this to be effective it has to be ideally matched to a service like flickr….we all are lazy and prefer doing ecverything in one application, rather than hopping around. Good luck to Adobe, as if they need it!
Its live and its dead.
Well the UI sucks and I’m very, very disappointed. They still have a long way to go.
I think they would do better by releasing a limited photo editor (as this one) for download, and branding it as Photoshop. This web top clearly works very poor. Try rotating a picture. It is hard to predict what you end up doing.
As other have said it might be better to integrate it with other services.
-Rasmus
I can’t believe you said no word about Aviary in this post…
very sad.
http://www.tech...e-design-suite/
I tried it and it rocks!
fast, easy and powerful.
@8. Flash Loader Issues
I’ve a pretty similar setup as you but it works perfectly fine for me. Mac OS X 10.5.2 Firefox 3 b4 with Flash Player 9.0.115.0. However, though it is crunching out lots of script heavy enough to drag my browser a bit.
Besides coming up with an online (free) tool from the Photoshop Makers, Adobe has another huge advantage here if this really catches on. With such online applications built on top of the Flash Player, it makes it easier for them to push the latest version of Flash Player much quicker than it used to be.
It was a normal norm in earlier days of Flash Player 5, 6 and even 7 to wait for about 6 to 9 months to sometimes even a year before rolling out applications with features targeted to the current Flash Player version.
Now, the Flash Payer version on the browsers are upgraded almost instantly and new features targeted towards the latest Flash Player version can be rolled out immediately.
The more faster a Flash Player version is upgraded, the bigger dominance can Adobe have over the Multimedia Browser Plugin realm.
I think I didn’t finish my comment and I hit the “Submit” button.
So, with a tool like Photoshop Express, Adobe can push the new Flash Player by asking users to upgrade more effectively than waiting for developers and other application developers alike to persuade users to upgrade their Flash Player version.
Eventually, if Adobe have enough such (free) tools, they can push the upgrade from left, right, top, bottom and centre.
Awesome. For FotoBlahBlah, “compete” = “stick around long enough and not bleed money too fast for someone bigger to buy us”.
For Adobe, “compete” = make a profit.
That’s really all that needs to be said. Adobe, being this thing called a “business” and having these things called “shareholders” actually has as its goal to make money. All you’re spouting is sound and fury and that’s the true legacy of Web 2.0.
This is a toy, and nothing more. Edith in Omaha can use FotoMisspelledAdverb for removing the Martian red from her bubby puppy’s eyes, and that’s certainly very important to Edith in Omaha. But Edith in Omaha NEVER would have purchased Photoshop in the first place. She’s not the market and she never will be. So what’s the point? For Adobe to give away their flagship product for the promise of great click-through rates on Google ads?
So no, Dougie Fresh, Adobe is not faced with “cannibalizing” Photoshop or anything from the CS line. That comment actually sounds like it comes from someone who has never used Photoshop in their life (though I wish you luck with your CMYK separations in a Firefox window). The next sale of the CS that Adobe loses to one of these tinkertoy online services will be the first, and that’s a fact.
What about aviary? picnik and photoshop express look shitty along that one.. :]
i found this news on so many websites and so many bloggers
i want to can i ( a new blogger ) post such news because i found this news around 10 hours before on the adobe website.
techcrunch posted this news in a very nice way.
this service will help me to not buy a new system for running adobe cs3.
cool service from adobe systems.
can any one give some other online photo editing tools.
Are you still using IE6?! Shame on you.
This is not awesome. This is something any decent programmer could do in a month using readymade ImageMagick or other libraries. Adobe is dragging the Photoshop brand through mud.
Everyone seems to have missed the learning center that went along with this: http://www.phot...techniques.com/
Only losers use Internet Explorer.
@a0 (20) and @phototron (16):
Aviary is not a finishing tool – it’s a layer based bitmap editor, more akin to the desktop version of Photoshop. You have a lot more freedom, but it’s not one-click editing.
Picnik, Photoshop Express and Fotoflexer are finishing tools, intended to enhance but not completely alter existing photos.
And for the record, I’m really dissapointed with Doug Mack’s line:
“It is a showcase of what is the best that can be done with Flex and Flash.”
No Doug, it’s not.
What? No mention of their ridiculous terms of service??
Thanks but no thanks, Adobe – I do not hereby grant worldwide and irrevocable rights for you to use my photos any way you darn well please.
More info…
Does Adobe really need to do this to show off what can be done with Flex and flash as the article says, or could that be left to all the developers and startups building with Flex as we speak? lol
Buzzword, file sharing, and now this — is Adobe planning to compete with it’s Flex developer community?
I would be worried but judging from the comments of folks who have tried it, it sounds like Adobe has dropped the ball.
Harry “misses Deluxe Paint ][ days” Wang
Where is their API? What fotoflexer put together for an API is awesome (simple get URLs both ways, no keys, no REST)…just wish there was a no ad version.
Aviary has produced a far superior product
Um, maybe I’m missing it, but where’s the image size?! I work at a small nonprofit and Picnik has been a godsend to me. Without having people cough up money for Photoshop or bugging me for simple image edits, I can send them to Picnik and do it themselves. But resizing is one of the most important (and really, one of the ONLY) things that I need in an image editor to roll out to employees. Pshop Express looks nice, but that’s a pretty crucial omission.
Aha, Adobe is finally wisening up to the internet. SEOriously though, they are now playing in a realm where the odds are levelled hugely, having said that though, there has to be something going for big players who have capital to throw at exercises like this, and if they don’t stick, so what? Just a pre-tax write-off, compared to a small undertaking actually going undr because of an unsuccessful web project.
Aviary is better than Photoshop Express and Picnick with one arm tied behind its back.
http://a.viary.com
How long before Adobe buys Aviary?
It shrinks your image with no warning:
I have tried it, and while most of it seems to be working quite well, I was shocked to find that the photo I edited had suddenly shrunk! It seems that without any notice, Photoshop Express resizes your image when you edit it. I uploaded a photo 3264 x 2448 pixels in size. After editing, the largest size I could download the edited image in was somewhere in the region of 2000 x 1500 pixels.
And to add insult to injury, that reduced size was called “original size”!