Posted: 01 Apr 2008 07:01 PM
::: 0 Comments
::: permaLink
I signed up for an account on Adobe's Photoshop Express Beta program the other day. It's One of a handful of truly useful Software-as-a-Service (SaS) offerings I've found.
The User Interface
The design of the site is quite polished; the user interface is clear, simple, and easy to understand. I didn't care for some of the markup (heavy use of tables) and the application seemed to take quite a while to load initially. Overall, though, the site looks great and the UI is a winner.
Features
While the Express version isn't anywhere near as robust as the full-fledged version of photoshop, or even Photoshop Elements, it does offer some basic tools that make quick retouching of photographs and artwork a snap.
Here are some features, just to name a few:
- Cropping, rotation, and distortion
- Saturation, tint, and hue adjustment
- White Balance
- Sharpening
You can also organize your photos into galleries, and we're not talking boring ol' lists of pictures here - Photoshop Express allows users to create rich, highly interactive photo galleries. (Even 3D ones!)
What's Missing?
One thing I would like to see on the site is more community/collaboration features. Currently, you can create public galleries on the site with one or more albums. The ability to leave comments on other users' work would be cool; some syndication support would also be nice. With that, the Photoshop Express site could become a landing spot and networking point for designers and artists.
Also, I think the 2GB storage limit is a little low; I think some of my designer friends could max that out rather quickly. But, since there are no super-huge .PSD documents to deal with, maybe not.
All things considered, I like Photoshop Express and look forward to using it. Oh, and did I mention it's FREE?