Photoshop Express - An Excellent Web-based Photo Editor

In a move that seems somewhat delayed on Adobe's part, given the amount of competing web-based services already available, the beta release of Adobe Photoshop Express has been publicly launched.

Despite carrying the same name as the legendary digital image editing software, Photoshop Express is a free service that is more of a cross between Google's Picasa and Picnik, the web-based photo editor used with Flickr.

Sure there are plenty of choices when someone wants to quickly edit a photo online (FotoFlexer, Phixr, Pixer.us, Snipshot, Fauxto and PXN8 just to name a few), and each may have its own instinctive shining point, but none that I have tried as of yet seem to find a good balance between an appealing UI, features and ease of use. Adobe, on the other hand, has done quite an impressive job.

When starting out with Photoshop Express, I found it quite similar to the desktop-based Picasa editor, but with a much more attractive interface that faintly resembles a Windows Vista explorer look utilizing an iTunes-style drag-and-drop feature for adding uploaded photos to albums. The ability to take the web app full-screen almost made me forget I was working on the web, an advantage over Picnik, which only offers full-screen mode with its Premium service for $25 per year.

Taking a cue from Picasa Web Albums, Photoshop Express users are given 2GB of online storage space, as compared to the 1GB provided with Picasa web companion. Even better, Photoshop Express offers direct integration with a user's Picasa and Photobucket accounts, which, theoretically, could give you 3GB or more (2GB for PSE, 1GB for Picasa) of online space to store photos. All of these photos, from multiple accounts, would then be accessible in one interface on Photoshop Express. Be warned, however, that all of these services recommend that you backup these photos elsewhere, such as on an external hard drive.

Upon registering, each user selects a subdomain (Ex: mgarrett.photoshop.com) which will serve as a public gallery of the photo albums that the user decides to share. Users of Facebook will also be happy to learn that there is a Facebook app for Adobe's online editor, which basically allows access to your existing photos from the social network, and gives the ability to add new photos to your Facebook profile, all from within the PSE editor interface.

As far as photo-editing features, there are a variety from the ability to crop photos to adjusting saturation, white balance, focus and fill lights. The crop feature equals that of Picnik in ease, though it would be nice to see the actual dimensions of the crop marks, as Picnik provides. For effects, the 'Pop Color' feature quickly allows users to make any color 'pop' or stand out, while the 'Sketch' feature can make any photo looks like a hand-drawn work of art. Of course, all of the other usual tools, such as rotation, auto-correct, black & white, red eye removal, and sharpen are also available.

Overall, Adobe has done a great job on the premiere beta version of Photoshop Express. In true beta-style the company has provided a feedback survey for users to provide input on what is liked and disliked, as well as what features to include in future updates to this already excellent online photo editing and storage service. Let's just hope they don't try to start charging for any 'premium' features.

If Adobe actually mated this application to its other online offerings in a tightly integrated web-based suite as Sarah Perez has proposed, Google could have some fierce web app competition ahead.