After making Illustrator and Photoshop available on the web, Adobe is testing a new free version of Photoshop that includes more features that are available in the paid version.
The new version of Photoshop Web, which is currently being tested in Canada, will allow users to access a number of Photoshop’s core features by using a free Adobe account. While it is free to use, Adobe plans to eventually put some complex Photoshop on a paywall. Despite that, Adobe assures that Photoshop for Web will have enough tools to cater to the needs of most users.
“We want to make [Photoshop] more accessible and easier for more people to try it out and experience the product,” says Maria Yap, Adobe’s VP of digital imaging.
Adobe’s move to add more features to Photoshop for the web is part of its efforts to compete against other freemium photo-editing software like Pixlr and Canva, with the latter gaining a lot of popularity in several countries like the Philippines.
The current iteration of Photoshop for the web is limited to basic editing, viewing of .PSD files, and sharing comments among collaborators, and the upcoming new version aims to bring a number of ore features like the ability to start a new project, deal with layers, and more.
Adobe has yet to provide a timeline for the launch of the freemium version of Photoshop for Web, but they are continually updating it with new tools like dodge and burn, curves, converting Smart Objects, and more.
