Adobe Photoshop Express beta

In this post Peter Carey takes a look at the new Adobe Photoshop Express.

Adobe is entering the online photo storage and editing field with its latest entry Photoshop Express, still in beta testing. The product looks to be a strong offshoot of the popular image editing software many of us rely upon. At the current time the service is free, but what can it do? Let’s take a look.

HOW IT WORKS

First and foremost, Express is an online tool. Current limits for storage stand at 2GB and only JPG files are accepted, noting TIFF and other files tend to be too large. Size limit is 4000×4000 and 10MB. Assuming the average JPG is about 2.5MB, you will be able to store about 800 images online. To me, this seems a bit small but the program is still in beta. If gmail is any indication of storage growth, more space should be available in the future, possibly for a fee if you’re a poweruser.

The screenshot at right is taken from the Test Drive portfolio which anyone can play with. It is located here and will give you a useful demo of what the service has to offer. The look of the site is muted in order to let your photos take center stage. The screen is thankfully clutter free, presenting just the tools needed in an orderly fashion.

You’ll first need to register for the service, which is currently only open to US residents. Once your account is setup and you have chosen your personal sharing URL (e.g. http://something.photoshop.com), you can start uploading and playing with your photos. The service would be just another photosharing site if it wasn’t for the handy tools Adobe is packing into this product.

TOOLS A PLENTY

Photoshop Express first presents the most basic of tools with just a single click of a picture. Referring to the image above, these are

• Edit (more on that powerful option in a moment)
• Rotate
• Email Photo
• Link
• Embed (in a blog, webpage, Facebook or other service)
• Download

These are the quick and easy tasks performed with a click or two of the mouse. The meat and potatoes of the product is located in the first item, Edit Image. (more…)