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Friday, April 04, 2008

Photoshop Finds its Way to the Web

Continued from page 1

By Kate Greene

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Library of photos: Photoshop Express allows users to store up to two gigabytes of photos on its servers. As shown above, a library of photos can be edited, displayed publicly in galleries, and transferred to other sites such as Facebook, Picassa, and Photobucket.
Credit: Adobe

As it is, Express has a number of appealing characteristics. The interface is easy to use and intuitive. It's exceedingly simple to update photo libraries and edit pre-existing photos on sites such as Facebook. The service includes thumbnails that give the user an instant glimpse at how a specific editing decision will change the picture. And importantly, it's easy to see the changes you've made to the picture and retract any of them individually using the toolbar on the side of the screen. For instance, if you've cropped and rotated a picture, changed the white balance, and converted it to black and white, a check mark appears next to these editing options in the toolbar. To retract an edit, simply click the check mark.

One drawback to Express is that it's impossible to edit pictures while waiting for others to upload to Adobe's server. Baum says that future versions might address this problem, especially if they incorporate Air, Adobe's forthcoming software that allows online applications to run without an Internet connection. "We're planning on taking certain components of Photoshop Express and putting them on Air so you can use them in a connected or unconnected environment," he says. For instance, in the future, you might be able to edit pictures offline, and Air would automatically update your photo library when you connect to the Internet.

Baum says that Adobe has a few plans on how to make money from Express, even though the company is giving it away for free. For instance, while the two gigabytes of storage will remain free, Adobe will likely charge for certain advanced editing tools and more storage. Additionally, the company could license Air-enabled desktop components for Photoshop Express to computer manufacturers when they include the software on new machines. But another part of the plan, says Baum, is to give a younger generation a glimpse at Adobe's capabilities and hopefully interest them in more advanced (and expensive) Adobe products. "It's about connecting with an audience we hadn't had a lot of sway with," he says.

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Comments

  • Problem with Terms of Use
    whoisvaibhav on 04/04/2008 at 2:54 PM
    Posts:
    2
    Avg Rating:
    5/5
    Adobe Photoshop Express is receiving a lot of bad press because one particular clause in their TOS basically says that they own any photos placed on their service and can do whatever they want with it.
    See here for details
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • TOS for PS Express - "publicly accessible areas"
    nekote on 04/04/2008 at 3:12 PM
    Posts:
    120
    Avg Rating:
    4/5
    8. Use of Your Content.

    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.

    b.) “Publicly accessible” areas of the Services are those areas of the Adobe network of properties that are intended by Adobe to be available to the general public. However, publicly accessible areas of the Services do not include Services intended for private communication or areas off the Adobe network of properties such as portions of World Wide Web sites that are accessible via hypertext or other links but are not hosted or served by Adobe.
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • Photoshop not
    jmaximus9 on 04/04/2008 at 9:19 PM
    Posts:
    44
    Avg Rating:
    3/5
    Calling this offering Photoshop is like calling a tricycle a Harley. You are better off using Picaso.
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • What is the battery "Memory Effect"?
    uk_shopping-batteries on 04/06/2008 at 11:10 AM
    Posts:
    1
    Avg Rating:
    2/5
    Ni-Cd batteries, and to a lesser extent Ni-MH batteries, suffer from what's called the "memory effect". What this means is that if a battery is repeatedly only partially discharged before recharging, the battery "forgets" that it has the capacity to further discharge all the way down. To illustrate: If you, on a regular basis, fully charge your battery and then use only 50% of its capacity before the next recharge, eventually the battery will become unaware of its extra 50% capacity which has remained unused. The battery will remain functional, but only at 50% of its original capacity. The way to avoid the dreaded "memory effect" is to fully cycle (fully charge and then fully discharge) the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Batteries can be discharged by unplugging the device's AC adapter and letting the device run on the battery until it ceases to function. This will insure your battery remains healthy
    Rate this comment: 12345
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