Adobe Photoshop Express beta blurs the lines

The lines are blurring. Again.

Adobe has just launched a public beta of a new version of Photoshop called Photoshop Express, which allows users to upload and edit JPEG images through any web browser. Once photos are uploaded into the web application, you can crop them, distort them, remove red eye, and do many of the standard image edits you’d do in your computer-based image editing software. The service, which requires you to fill out a brief registration page, also includes 2 gigabytes of storage to upload images. What this means is that no matter where you are, if you have access to a computer and the Internet, you’ll be able to make edits to your photos.

This is certainly not the first free online image-editing tool. There are many others available, including FlauntR and Picnik. So, Adobe’s not the first to blur the lines between an image editor and what many call a Web 2.0 application, or a software app that runs via a web browser. But since Adobe sells such well known image-editing programs like Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Elements 6, it's able to make this type of web app more mainstream. The company has even designed the Express version with the same clean interface that appears on CS3 and Elements.

There are some computer requirements in order to use the web tool. You’ll need Windows XP or Vista, or Mac OS 10.4 or later, a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768 and 512 MB of RAM. Browsers that work include Internet Explorer 6 or 7 (for Windows), Safari 3.0.4 or later (for Macs), or Firefox 2 or later (for either platform). You’ll also need Flash Player 9 (version 9.0.0.115 or later).

One potential drawback is that it doesn’t have some of the elaborate photo-editing features found on CS3, such as the Lens Correction tool. Since you can’t upload RAW files, there’s no equivalent of the Camera Raw editor either. But since it is in beta, meaning it’s not an official version of the app, perhaps there will be further enhancements that will add such features, including (one hopes) a full-featured help guide. At the moment, it only has a rather skimpy FAQ and online forum to find assistance.

But if it wasn’t enough that Adobe has introduced an online image-editing tool, the app has been integrated with certain social networking and online photo-sharing websites, such as Picasa and Facebook. According to the app’s FAQ, once you set up access to the other web services, the photos you have on those sites will appear in Photoshop Express. And the lines blur even more.

For more on Photoshop Express, click here.

—Terry Sullivan

Comments

[Barbara]

I totally agree with Thomas and Sandy. We caught the language as well here and no one I know is about to put an image up there for Adobe's use.

[Jayne]

Thanks for your information

[Sandy]

I agree with Thomas on this and it's a good catch by him. However, I do think that Adobe's lawyers knew exactly what they were writing when they prepared this contract. So it's "user beware" for now.

[Thomas]

Adobe slipped a bit with their EULA for this product - An interesting quote:

" Use of Your Content. 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. "

So if I upload a photo there Adobe can then sell it to anyone they want to. I'm sure this is not what Adobe really had in mind - their lawyers wrote it. I would never upload a photo there if I knew it might wind up God knows where, earning money for Adobe!