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Software Graphics The Internet

Adobe Puts Free Photoshop Online 376

Amit Agarwal writes "Adobe today launched a basic version of Adobe Photoshop available for free online. Photoshop Express will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser. According to Yahoo! News, Adobe says providing Photoshop Express for free is part marketing and part a strategy to create up-sell opportunities. It hopes some customers will move from it to boxed software like its $99 Photoshop Elements or to a subscription-based version of Express that's in the works."
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Adobe Puts Free Photoshop Online

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  • by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:24PM (#22886662)
    I thought Photoshop was already free. Why would I want a Web-based version?
    • Re:Already Free (Score:5, Informative)

      by chexy ( 956237 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @05:13PM (#22887196)
      If your on a windows system why not use Paint.net http://www.getpaint.net/ [getpaint.net]
    • From the site:

      This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player.
  • by New_Age_Reform_Act ( 1256010 ) * on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:25PM (#22886666) Homepage Journal
    Read the ToS: [photoshop.com]

    Section 8 (a):

    Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

    Thanks I will stick with GIMP [gimp.org] instead.

    Of course, if you need free stuff, there is always The Pirate Bay.
    • by The End Of Days ( 1243248 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:27PM (#22886694)

      ...that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services...
      Reading comprehension FTW!
    • All they are saying is that if you upload shit to their Web site image library, they can do what they want with it. This is not a problem for most people. Gimp is a problem for most people, but you can stick with it if it floats your boat.

      The bottom line for this thing is that it's not that hard to get a copy of Photoshop, and Elementsa is cheap. I don't see this getting a lot of use.

      • This is not a problem for most people.

        I very much doubt that you are correct in the extreme examples of what the license allows, e.g., putting Aunt Martha's picture with snot coming out of her nose on a network television broadcast.

        That having been said, I doubt that particular commercial is in Adobe's business plan, either.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Of course, if you need free stuff, there is always The Pirate Bay.
      That statement and the one in your comment's title seem incongruous somehow...
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Not able to register on Safari browser
    • by IANAAC ( 692242 )
      Did you try it in firefox on the Mac? Or another browser?

      I ask because it works on a bog-standard Linux distro with firefox 2.0.*. I suspect your should have written that it's not working properly in Safari, but would work in another browser.

    • Not able to register on Safari browser

      I didn't try to register, but using the test drive feature seems to work. It seemed functional, with the exception of applying the distortion filters. (Safari 3.1 and OS X 10.5.2)

  • Ahoy (Score:2, Interesting)

    Adobe is becoming smarter by the day, and this is one of the moves that would give them an advantage over the other competitors in the photo-editing market.
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by iamhigh ( 1252742 )

      Adobe is becoming smarter by the day
      I wish they would put some of that smarts into the products they buy and ruin.

      More on-topic, this is something we are going to have to get used to. In 10 years my guess is that all major software will have something like this and in 20 years MS Office, Adobe Acrobat and many others might be completely online, forcing (or attempting) to force you to purchase licenses for the software.
  • More companies (Score:2, Interesting)

    by sskagent ( 1170913 )
    I hope this leads to more companies following in Adobe's footsteps. Free, while toned down, versions of software has often led me to buying the full version later on.
    • I liked this idea better when it was called "shareware" and you just had to mail a fiver to some BBS kid in Missouri.
    • I think their idea is to prevent uptake of competitors' software. This is great forward-thinking on their part, because the Gimp (or Apple's product) has yet to become a real threat. VMWare was a little late with their free version, and now we have KVM which runs perfectly on the latest CPUs, as well as others, which people actually prefer. MS Office is kinda de facto free, and it's definitely killed all the competition. I wouldn't be surprised if Adobe could have the same effect by unleashing the reign
  • Upsell? I think not! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Bryansix ( 761547 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:28PM (#22886706) Homepage
    Why would I want to move from this to Photoshop Elements. Elements sucks hardcore. It is hard to use while proporting to be easy to use. It holds your hand wand walks you right off a cliff. I'd much rather either have this simple express version or the full fledged CS3 version for many hundreds of dollars. It's as simple as that. If I wanted something in the middle I would use GIMP and Inkscape for free.
    • by RDW ( 41497 )
      The latest version of Elements is actually a pretty nice, powerful package now that Adobe has (finally!) stopped playing games and is no longer leaving out vital tools like Curves:

      http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_adobe_photoshop_elements_6.php [photographyblog.com]

      The Express edition is just a very basic editor written in Flash that barely competes with Picasa, but with Photoshop branding.
  • by Ralph Spoilsport ( 673134 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:28PM (#22886710) Journal
    If I'm not directly involved with being online, I tend to not have the modem even on, and I find this kind of thing creepy and somewhat offensive.

    RS

  • This is:

    a. one less reason to stick with Windows
    b. one less reason to switch to linux
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      a makes sense, b just begs the question wtf?

      will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser.

      what does this have to do with not using linux? it was my understanding that one of the major reasons [read excuses] people used for not moving away from windows to linux was that their apps from windows would only work in windows, removing that obstacle for certain adobe software would seem to make it one less reason *not* to use linux [damn double negat

    • by Tribbin ( 565963 )
      So it was sort of a far fetched wordplay meant to lightly confuse. Hm, it made perfect sense in my head but seems kinda awkward reading it back.

      What I meant:

      a. One less reason to stick with Windows.
      b. One less reason to switch (the developers of Photoshop) to linux.
  • Fucking Flash. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SanityInAnarchy ( 655584 ) <ninja@slaphack.com> on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:30PM (#22886730) Journal

    From TFS:

    will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser.

    Except, of course, operating systems or browsers which don't have flash... [photoshop.com]

    Can we invent a new term for sites like these? "Web-based" is misleading -- it makes you think of open standards and compatibility. I propose "Flash-based."

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      So that excludes the people who would want Photoshop to go Web-based, the MOST.

      I'm talking about people using Opera or Konqueror on Linux. The Adobe Flash Player 7 and even 9 Beta works very, very poorly with these browsers, on Linux, and doesn't seem to be improving at all. The only browser being given attention is Firefox.

      Guess we Linux users will have to wait for a long time, before we really starting using the internet and get recognised by the world.
      • So that excludes the people who would want Photoshop to go Web-based, the MOST.

        I'm talking about people using Opera or Konqueror on Linux. The Adobe Flash Player 7 and even 9 Beta works very, very poorly with these browsers, on Linux, and doesn't seem to be improving at all. The only browser being given attention is Firefox.

        Guess we Linux users will have to wait for a long time, before we really starting using the internet and get recognised by the world.

        Unless, of course, you try using firefox sometimes.

      • I can understand insisting on using Linux over Windows, but no offense, if you refuse even to run a different BROWSER within Linux, I don't think you have much room to complain about how much the world fails to "recognize" you.

        Firefox is a 9.2MB download. I'm sure you can find room for it.
    • I can't picture how you could do real-time editing of a picture without Flash. The only ways I can think to do it at all would be slow and very server intensive.

      Personally, I would like to see a nice lynx photo-editing app, but I am not going to hold my breath.
    • CRAPOLA (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Thursday March 27, 2008 @08:06PM (#22888946) Homepage Journal
      Can we invent a new term for sites like these? "Web-based" is misleading -- it makes you think of open standards and compatibility. I propose "Flash-based.

      Too specific. There's all kinds of junk like this, say sites that only work in IE, sites that require Silver-Light, etc. Sites that would be more usable as a desktop app in the firstplace, but sacrifice that for the sake of the 'web' moniker (with no significant additional benefits).

      How about 'Compatible Rendering Abandoned Proprietary On-Line Application'?

  • The Gimp is free and works great. I haven't used Photoshop in years.
    • by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:50PM (#22886934) Journal
      I can't use GIMP because I NEED CMYK (seriously, how many people on /. need CMYK?) and I'm a professional photo editor (according to GIMP related threads, /. is positively infested with photographic professionals). And because I've spent so long pirating it that I am incapable of learning another UI. Oh, and apparently the name prevents me from using it as well.

      Yeah, I know, mod me troll, but this is how about half of the posts on the GIMP related threads read. Most people aren't like that. In fact, I don't know anyone who is. For them and me, the GIMP is great, and free.
      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        I'm in information security now, but I studied illustration in college and CMYK is definitely a must, if you ever want to send your work to press.

        Gimp is an extremely awkward UI. Photoshop is nice and clean.

        You seem to be complaining about the fact that people have legitimate reasons not to use gimp. I'm one of 2 linux users in an all-windows shop, and I hate non-open software as much as any /.er, but Photoshop is one of the few examples of absolutely phenomenal closed-source software.

        Do I wish it was ope
      • (seriously, how many people on /. need CMYK?)

        I can't tell you numbers, but anyone who's doing professional work for print media needs CMYK. It's not that unusual if your doing any kind of graphic design or photo work.

        according to GIMP related threads, /. is positively infested with photographic professionals

        It shouldn't be too shocking if there are a lot of people who need to do something that involves professional-level features. Anyone working in graphic design, advertising, or even a creative bra

        • by Xabraxas ( 654195 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @06:40PM (#22888146)

          It shouldn't be too shocking if there are a lot of people who need to do something that involves professional-level features. Anyone working in graphic design, advertising, or even a creative branch of some other kind of company might need some particular features (including CMYK). I worked for an engineering firm that wanted to send some presentation materials to a professional printer so they looked nice. Those needed to be in CMYK.

          I work in a prepress job and I've noticed two things:

          1. Marketing and advertising people know nothing about CMYK, color gamut, color seperation, or any of that. Just yesterday we were sent a screenshot of an art file made in Word to use for a poster and the customer wanted to know why the proof was all pixelated! We're sent all kinds of crap that takes a lot of effort to get into a state where it can be printed accurately. Most customers grudgingly give in and pay for us to transform their crap images into workable images. They just don't know anything about what it takes to print images made on a computer.
          2. Photoshop is rarely used unless you are working for a magazine or something of that nature. Most things printed are vector graphics and text. Most design work involves logo design, color correction, and layout. Just as customers send us screenshots and things of that nature, they also just send us compressed jpegs when they send pictures. In a perfect work everyone would send us proper files that can be printed easily but they don't and its our job to get it to press.
      • I can't use GIMP because I NEED CMYK (seriously, how many people on /. need CMYK?) and I'm a professional photo editor (according to GIMP related threads, /. is positively infested with photographic professionals).

        Heh. These same 'photographic professionals' will be bitterly disappointed with higher-end software like Apple's Aperture and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - I didn't see any references to CMYK in the fully-functional trial versions I played round with the other week. Plus I liked the latter program s

      • I guess this is a good place to point out that GIMP now supports CMYK. My only issue with GIMP nowadays is that the keybinding-follows-frontmost-window/focus feature really doesn't work well and clashes horrendiously with the OS X interface.

        Modern Photoshop isn't a picnic either, but I don't spend time actively fighting against the UI to try to get things done like I do with GIMP. I don't care one bit about learning a different workflow, but it shouldn't involve workarounds to the UI itself.
      • by Kjella ( 173770 )
        I'm not incapable of learning another UI. I just don't want to learn one that looks like ass and that I hate. Pretty much every other application lets me arrange it the way I want it, GIMP insists on splattering windows all over my desktop so they look like a mess with whatever is underneath. I don't way to walk down the One Gnome Way, give me a normal workspace with dockable widgets. Gimpshop and the other hacks are nice but they don't come as "sudo apt-get gimp" to install and I got better things to do th
      • by blhack ( 921171 )

        I can't use GIMP because I NEED CMYK (seriously, how many people on /. need CMYK?) and I'm a professional photo editor (according to GIMP related threads, /. is positively infested with photographic professionals). And because I've spent so long pirating it that I am incapable of learning another UI. Oh, and apparently the name prevents me from using it as well.

        I do all the design work for my company in Scribus/Gimp/Inkscape. I have NEVER had a problem sending something to a printer.
        Ever.

  • Sounds like Picnik (Score:5, Informative)

    by Skidge ( 316075 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:32PM (#22886762)
    Sounds kind of like Picnik [picnik.com], which provides free basic photo editing and is integrated directly into Flickr. It's pretty handy for doing some tweaks on your photos. Picnik has some advanced, paying-account-required features, though, so maybe Photoshop Express will be better in that regard.
  • ? Questions.?? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Zymergy ( 803632 ) *
    Why is it ONLY Flash 9 based?

    Why not download something locally that checks in for updates and new features only but runs locally? (Sometimes I require the ability to edit images in the field while only having a remote EDGE Cell Connection.)

    Why is it so DOG Slow?

    How do you turn on the decades-old proven standard Photoshop tool bars?

    Why does it require my images to be uploaded to be edited? (I do not want any of my copyrighted media to cross the line of possession demarcation.)

    Does Adobe use re
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by brunascle ( 994197 )

      Why does it require my images to be uploaded to be edited?
      because Flash doesnt have access to your filesystem. if it did, it would be quite a security issue.
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by theNetImp ( 190602 )
      Why is it so DOG Slow?

      Two symbols. /.
    • by sd.fhasldff ( 833645 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @05:26PM (#22887318)
      I tried it, but it just says my Flash isn't supported and redirects me to Macromedia.com, which then directs me back to to adobe.com for a new flash download.

      Flash 9.0 r48, Firefox, Ubuntu Gutsy 64bit.

      Not sure if it REALLY wants a newer version of Flash or if the 64bit-ness is confusing it.
    • It requires flash 9 because it's a Flex 3 app. They used Flex 3 so they could make an Air version, which will solve your second and fifth questions. It's dog slow because its a flex app. It doesn't have photoshop toolbars because it doesn't have photoshop's tools. It's for entry level users (as you later point out). Adobe does retain the rights to your images... probably copy/pasted from the EULAs at Facebook, Myspace, etc. It's not better than GIMP for those experienced in image manipulation (that's wh
    • Why does it require my images to be uploaded to be edited? (I do not want any of my copyrighted media to cross the line of possession demarcation.)

      Because Flash plug-ins don't have access to your filesystem, duh.

      Am I the only one noticing this "service" appears to be only intended for amateurs in image manipulation?

      It's a Flash site. Duh. You can't get professional tools over Flash, last time I checked Photoshop was over a gig.

      How is this ANY better than the FREE GIMP?? http://www.gimp.org/ [gimp.org]

      Well, for one, t
    • Does Adobe use retain share or gain any legal use of my uploaded images?

      Yes. As I understand it from discussing the matter with a lawyer earlier today, the license agreement gives them the right to take images you load to public areas of their web site, and gives them free reign to do with them as they will. They *don't* have your copyright, you can do with them as you will as well, but they can, for example, put those images in a TV ad for their product, they can sell rights to use your image for money

  • by Anonymous Coward
    a.viary [viary.com] is in beta (but you can sign up for a quick invites) and offers a pretty impressive online image editing suite. I'm not much into image editing / manipulation but the things [youtube.com] people [youtube.com] are already doing with it [youtube.com] are pretty damn impressive.
  • by abh ( 22332 ) <ahockley@gmail.com> on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:40PM (#22886858) Homepage
    The scary thing which isn't getting much play is that the terms of service indicate that if you use their hosting/gallery service, Adobe has a royalty-free, unlimited license [hockleyphoto.com] to use your photos in any way they choose...
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Joe Decker ( 3806 )
      I'm pretty annoyed by the way that licensing is hidden under a banner of "free". I charge for the rights to use my images, if I have to give those rights away to use a web site then, from my perspective, that site isn't "free".
  • by DRAGONWEEZEL ( 125809 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:43PM (#22886880) Homepage
    Here is what I have noticed so far.

    Requires Flash 9. to install.
    They have a notice that basically says
    Account creation is heavy today it may take 60 minutes to recieve your e-mail.

    Mine (done 4 min. ago) took about 1 min.

    Super fast uploading! 1 3mb pic took all of 3 seconds to upload!

    Very basic editing tools, but has a few cool distortion features. One neat thing to note is links to external sites such as Picassa, Photobucket and Phacebook! (er uh Facebook!)

    Gallery and gallery sharing is neat, but slow (probably due to high use right now)
    This won't come close to replacing your pirated versions of PS you all have at home. It'll be interesting to see if they add new tools or leave it as is.

  • by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:44PM (#22886896) Journal
    Sweet! It works in lynx!
  • by PortHaven ( 242123 ) on Thursday March 27, 2008 @04:51PM (#22886958) Homepage
    Adobe's Online Office Productivity Suite:

    Photoshop Express (Photo Editor)
    https://www.photoshop.com/express [photoshop.com]

    Buzzword (Word Processor)
    http://www.buzzword.com/ [buzzword.com]

    Sliderocket (Presentation Software)
    http://www.sliderocket.com/ [sliderocket.com]

    Blist (Spreadsheet)
    http://www.blist.com/ [blist.com]

    ***

    Did you buy stock? I did a while ago... :)
    • by babyrat ( 314371 )
      Did you buy stock? I did a while ago... :)

      Why are you smiling? Their stock is down over 20% from 3 months ago, and unless you timed one of the slight dips, is essentially unchanged since December 2005.

  • This is on the Adobe website at https://www.photoshop.com/express/terms.html [photoshop.com]

    Please pay attention to this - fully sublicensable license

    8. Use of Your Content.

    1. Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remune
    • 1. Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

      Part of me is digusted by this, part of me wonders how Adobe could possibly defend themselves from frivilous lawsuits otherwise. (I'm thinking about that story from yonks ago where somebody sued somebody else because there was a 'copy' of their content in their browser cache.)

      Lame.

  • Doesn't seem to work on my hand built OS running Grail as the browser.. Or my atari running STiK..

    On a more serious note, why would i want to choose this over something free that runs locally that i know wont be yanked in 6 months due to a change in the weather at Adobe, and effectively orphaning my files?
  • Finally. Now I don't have to suffer with Microsoft Paint at work on Windows machines I don't have access to install software on. It's rather amazing after all these years Windows still doesn't have something to properly crop and resize images with.
    • If they did, you'd see long rants on Slashdot how an OS should do nothing but run applications. Unless it's Linux, in which case it should include several different, competing, kitchen sinks.

      Frankly, I agree with you, but Microsoft improving bundled software goes against the Slashdot zeitgeist. I'd recommend Paint.NET, but you can't install software so... uh... sorry.

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