Monday, October 26, 2009

Adobe's Photoshop.com: A Free Online Photo Editor

In our budget minded classrooms it is always nice to find a great application available for free online. Adobe has this wonderful web app (application) called Photoshop.com that allows you to edit pictures very much like the very expensive flagship program, Photoshop. The real real version of Photoshop as you might know can cost you $699. Luckily for our classrooms Adobe offers Photoshop.com the slimmer version online for free. Plus they offer Photoshop's awesome tools with 2 gigabyes of storage space. My students will be signing up for free accounts on Photoshop.com and using it in my classroom since having this web app available will help them continue to develop their picture editing skills when they exit my class. Many times I have students exit my program and then never get to use the expensive Adobe software I teach them on. This web app will hopefully help them continue to strengthen their photo editing skills and allow them to use it to create projects for other subjects.

How To Use Photoshop.com

This video will explain the basics of how to use Photoshop.com's picture editing tools. It might be a good video to download using Real Player's download feature so your students can refer to it while they use it in your classrooms.




Q&A About Adobe's Photoshop.com

This Q&A section is from Adobe.com. It might help you with some of the requirements needed to run this program from your classroom computers. The other exciting news about this program is that it is available for the iPhone and other mobile phones for free. The second Q&A section will tell you more about this feature. If you do try this program or any other online photo editing web app I would love to hear your experiences with them in the classroom.

"Q: What is Photoshop.com?
A:
Photoshop.com is the complete solution for managing, editing, storing, and sharing your photos online, with tutorials, inspiration, and more. Photoshop.com is available from any web-enabled computer, compatible mobile phones, and directly from within Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 7 or Adobe Premiere® Elements 7 software. With Photoshop.com, you can organize, tweak, create, e-mail, display, and store your photos.

Q: Is there a mobile app for Photoshop.com?
A: Yes. Photoshop.com Mobile lets you view and upload photos from your compatible mobile phone to Photoshop.com. You can download the software from Photoshop.com—see Photoshop.com Community Questions—Mobile for more information.

Q:What phones does Photoshop.com Mobile support?
A: Photoshop.com Mobile directly supports a number of Windows Mobile phones from HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Palm, including a few touch phones. See http://mobile.photoshop.com for the latest list of supported devices. Adobe partnered with ShoZu to offer users of the iPhone, BlackBerry, and other phones the ability to upload and store photos. With ShoZu, you can also take advantage of the photo editing, management, and sharing capabilities on Photoshop.com. For more information, visit www.shozu.com.

Q: What are the system requirements?
A: To use Photoshop.com, you need the following:

  • internet-connected computer with Windows XP or Vista, or Mac OS 10.4 or later
  • a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768; 512 MB of RAM
  • Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8 (Windows), Safari 3.0.4 or later (Mac OS), or Firefox 2 or later (either platform)
  • Flash Player 10 (version 10.0.22 or later)
  • The new landing page could run slowly if you have an older Mac G4 system. After creating your own login credentials and selecting Remember Me, you can skip the landing page on future visits to Photoshop.com.

Q: What type of security measures are in place for Photoshop.com?
A: Adobe uses industry-leading security engineering practices and processes in building its products. With Photoshop.com, security is considered at every level, from the applications to networks to physical facilities. In addition to the latest technologies, world-class security requires ongoing adherence to best-practices policies. When you access Photoshop.com, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology is used for server authentication, helping to protect your data and access. Additionally, Photoshop.com leverages firewall protection, intrusion detection systems, SSL encryption, and proprietary protocols to help protect your important information. Multiple layers of physical security protect the Photoshop.com hosting facilities—only authorized personnel have access to the facilities and servers.

Q: Does Photoshop.com work with video files as well as photos?
A: You can upload video files from the Photoshop Elements 7 or Adobe Premiere Elements 7 organizer to Photoshop.com. You can also download video files anywhere using a web browser, and view them on any video player that handles the file type. In the online organizer on Photoshop.com, video files are designated with a filmstrip icon. Video editing is not one of the features of Photoshop.com. However, Adobe anticipates that it will be one of the features requested by customers for future additions. Stay tuned!

Q: What rights do I have to my photos?
A: Refer to the Terms Of Use link for the specific legal terms and conditions for using Photoshop.com. You'll find it at the lower-right corner of the Photoshop.com window, along with a link to the Privacy Policy for the service."


Enjoy!
Alex