Flex Powered Adobe Photoshop Express

Today, Adobe Systems released the beta version of Photoshop Express. Photoshop Express is a web based version of the popular Flagship Image Editing product and contains a plethora of common features in an easy to use Web Based Interface.

Users can store 2 GB of images on Adobe servers for free and also show their images in a personalized gallery, akin to Flickr.

This offering competes directly with the Picasa product from Google, however, Adobe beats Google at their own game by providing an online version that doesn't require a specific client installation apart from the ubiquitous Flash Player.

This isn't your mamas web based application, no sir! Cropping, removing red eye, adjusting color and other such tasks have been historically in the domain of desktop applications but not any more. Photoshop Express is delivered completely over the web, solving a host of installation issues across platforms. Also, since the Adobe Flex platform is consistantly rendered across platforms, Adobe only needs to maintain a single version of its software that can then be used on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Apple Macintosh and various Linux distributions, thus redirecting developer effort away from platform peculiarities and towards delivering relevant features for their user base.

As this new generation of RIAs comes into its own, expect more offerings a la Photoshop express. It just makes economic sense.

Give Photoshop Express a test drive and let me know what you think!

Dan Wilson, principal partner of DataCurl LLC, began his IT career at a fast-paced start-up during the dotcom heyday. He has since then held senior program and development positions in Technical Consulting, Health Care, Online Publishing and Government Contracting. Dan is an avid participant in technology communities; currently serving on the board for the Triangle ColdFusion User Group in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Dan is a DZone MVB and is not an employee of DZone and has posted 26 posts at DZone. You can read more from them at their website.