Adobe Releases Free Online Version Of Photoshop Express

Adobe Systems launched a beta of its much-anticipated Photoshop Express on Thursday, offering for the first time a free online version of its popular Photoshop photo editing software for the consumer market.

Photoshop Express allows users to access Photoshop's photo editing and organizational capabilities through a Web portal with up to 2 GB of storage. Photoshop Express will also be able to connect and share photos with other online destinations like social networking site Facebook.

Adobe says users can access the service from any Web browser including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari, but Adobe's Flash Player 9, the most recent version, is required to use it.

"Photoshop is trusted technology that has changed the visual landscape of our world. Now, Photoshop Express allows anyone who snaps a digital photo to easily achieve the high-impact results for which Adobe is known," said Doug Mack, vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe, in a statement the San Jose, Calif.-based company released on Thursday. "Photoshop Express is a convenient, single destination where you can store, edit and share photos whether you're at home, school or on the road."

The online version has several of the same tools that come with Adobe's Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS3 products, which retail for $99.99 and $649.99 respectively. Users can crop, resize and edit flaws like blemishes and red-eye using Photoshop Express. It also has more creative features like sketch effects.

Adobe hosts the images and users can organize them in galleries that can be accessed and shared online. Tools to share photos via Facebook or on a blog are embedded in the interface so users don't need to leave Photoshop Express to share images.