Photoshop could soon be free to all internet users. Adobe, the company that owns Photoshop has reportedly started testing a free version of app with plans to roll it out and introduce more people on Photoshop.
Dubbed ‘Freemium’, the free version of Photoshop will only feature a few exclusive tools for paying subscribers, with the major tools required to perform Photoshop’s core functions available for free.
“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.
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Adobe first released the web version of Photoshop in October 2021 as a simplified version allowing users to make basic edits.
Among the available features were layers and core editing tools, but the service fell far short of the app’s full feature set. Adobe said the web version was more of a collaboration tool, allowing artists to share an image with others, have them jump in, leave annotations, make a few minor changes, and then hand it back over.
Since then, a couple of updates have been made on the web version, allowing users to log in and work on independent documents without necessarily having to collaborate with other users.
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Adope hopes to introduce more users to Photoshop, especially with the high demand for photo-editing tools online. This will help net in paying customers for future projects by the company.
“I want to see Photoshop meet users where they’re at now,” Yap says. “You don’t need a high-end machine to come into Photoshop.”
The company is continuing to update Photoshop for web with new tools, such as the ability to convert Smart Objects and refine edges and curves. The web version will also support image views and comments from mobile.
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Adobe also teased a new AI-powered Neural Filter that will be available in Photoshop. The new “photo restoration” filter can automatically clean up scratches and restore some of the color in a faded yellowed photo. When combined with Adobe’s existing colorize filter for adding color to black-and-white photos, the two filters can quickly bring an old photograph back to life, even if the end result is a little cartoony.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B16g-Edkvx0]
It is still not clear when the freemium version will be rolled out to global users; For now the company is rolling it out to users in Canada.
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