Adobe unveils free online photo editing software

Adobe Photoshop Express US public beta launches

27 March 2008 4:01 GMT / By Katie Scott

Anyone who wants to store, sort and edit their digital pics can take part in a public beta being launched by the Photoshop team at Adobe today.

Photoshop Express is claimed to have "taken much of Adobe’s best image editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience".

The beta testing will start in the US today but will be rolled out in other countries and in other languages aside from English in the coming months.

The beta is accessible outside of the States, but Adobe warns its performance will be slower.

Photoshop Express allows users to store up to 2GB of images online for free, make edits to their photos, and share them online, including downloading and uploading photos from popular social networking sites like Facebook.

And images are always saved so that you can edit but always return to the original.

Editing tools include blemish and red-eye removal, converting to black and white, and cropping and resizing.

Photoshop Express also offers tricks like "Pop Colour" which selects an object in an image, mutes the background colour of the photo and allows the user to swap the object’s colour so it jumps off the page.

Sketch effects help photos look like drawings and the Distort feature allows you to distort facial features or objects within the images "for a comical or artistic effect".

Users can also create their own online gallery, which includes a slideshow application.

Sign up now, for free, to take part in the beta test.

Adobe adds that you will only need an internet connection and an up-to-date Flash Player 9.