People use their computers for various of reasons. But what is certain, almost all computers for designers have Adobe products installed.
Most notably, the Adobe product those people would use, is the ubiquitous Photoshop, which is Adobe's answer to photo- and image-editing software that deals with raster. After putting the product as a standalone app on various operating systems, on both desktop and mobile, and then on the web, Adobe is ramping things up.
And that is by introducing Photoshop on the web as a free product for everyone.
The company is testing the free version of Photoshop to users in Canada, where users can access Photoshop on the web through a free Adobe account.
While Adobe wants Photoshop to become a free product, Adobe describes the service as “freemium,” meaning that some features are only exclusive to paying subscribers.
But regardless, the free version of Photoshop for the web should be enough for most people, as it encompasses most Photoshop’s core functions.
“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.
When Adobe first released its web version of Photoshop in October, the company's goal was to deliver a simplified version of the app that could be used to handle basic edits, by having access to Layers and core editing tools.
However, the service didn’t come anywhere close to including the app’s full breadth of features.
Adobe knows this, and this is why Adobe marketed it as a collaboration tool, which allows users to do quick editing and share the image they edited to others, and have others jump in and collaborate.
Others can leave some annotations and make a couple small tweaks, and hand it back over.
In other words, Adobe first launched the web version of Photoshop as a relatively rudimentary alternative to the full desktop version.
In the months since, Adobe made a handful of updates to the service. And that was when it started to open it up beyond collaboration use cases.
Adobe changed the goal, and wants the web version of Photoshop to be more accessible to everyone, hoping that the strategy would help it can gain more users who would eventually pay for the full version down the road.
In the world where apps and web services are taking over, the strategy is similar to the way Adobe did with a number of its apps, including Adobe Express.
Photoshop is widely regarded as the industry standard for photo editing, but this powerful tool is also an expensive one.
With the free version of Photoshop for the web, Adobe can ensure that the product would get more users, with a percentage of them converting to paying users.
What's more, by having Photoshop accessible via a web browser, Adobe can ensure that everyone can use the product.
"I want to see Photoshop meet users where they’re at now," said Yap. "You don’t need a high-end machine to come into Photoshop."
During the announcement, Adobe didn’t provide a timeline on when the freemium version would launch more widely. But what is certain, Adobe continues to update Photoshop for web with more tools, including Refine Edge, Curves, Dodge & Burn tools, as well as the ability to convert Smart Objects.
The web version of the product is also getting mobile support for reviewing and commenting on images.