Adobe plans to introduce web version of Photoshop

Adobe has expanded the editing functions that it currently offers in the web version of Photoshop, although the company plans to turn it into a ‘freemium’ model after its presentation last October.

Adobe is reportedly testing a free online version of Photoshop and plans to open the service to everyone, with the goal of introducing more users to the industry-standard app. According to The Verge, the company is currently testing a “freemium” version of it in Canada where users can access Photoshop in their browser using a free Adobe account. It eventually plans to remove some features and offer them exclusively to paying subscribers. But even then, there will be enough tools available for users to perform what Adobe considers to be basic Photoshop functions.

The first web version of Photoshop was released in October last year. It was a stripped down version of the desktop app that could be used to handle basic edits; this included layers and some basic editing tools. But this was nowhere near the extremely feature-rich and versatile tool that is the Adobe Photoshop desktop app. Instead, the company positioned it as a collaboration tool where artists could share images with others and collaborators could leave annotations and minor adjustments before handing it over to the artist.

But since then, the company has taken many steps to expand the application’s use case scenarios and open it up to work beyond mere collaboration. An example that illustrates this is how initially someone had to share a document on the web from the desktop app, but now any Photoshop subscriber can log into the web app and start a new document without uploading one.

According to the report, Adobe aims to use the web version of the app in a more accessible way to hook users who will want to pay for the full version in the future. The company had already taken a similar approach with mobile apps like Photoshop Express and Adobe Fresco. Offering a free web version of Photoshop could be a turning point, opening up the service to those who want to access it from devices that might not otherwise be powerful enough to use Photoshop, including Chromebooks, which are widely used. in schools in the United States. United States and elsewhere.

The company hasn’t given a timeline for when this free version would be released more widely, but it continues to update Photoshop for the web with more tools. New updates include tools like sharpening edges, curves, the dodge and burn tools, and the ability to convert smart objects. The web app is also getting support for reviewing and commenting on images on mobile devices.

This model is currently being tested in Canada , and over time it will lose some of its features and functions, which will become exclusive to the paid edition. “We want [Photoshop] to be more accessible and easier for more people to try and experience the product,” said Adobe’s vice president of digital imaging, Maria Yap, in statements to the aforementioned medium.