Adobe's groundbreaking online photo editing software Photoshop Express has been granted new export options in the latest release, including the ability to upload to social networking sites such as Facebook and the photo storage site Flickr.

Released as a public beta in March 2008, Photoshop Express is a free rich Internet application (RIA) available to anyone who wants to store, sort and show off digital photos with eye-catching effects. As the newest addition to the Photoshop family line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe’s best image-editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience. Within the first week of launch, hundreds of thousands of people registered for an account and within the first month, over 60,000 public Web albums were created.

“We’re overwhelmed by the positive response to the Photoshop Express beta and all the people who are actively editing and showing off their photos,” said Doug Mack, vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe. “Photoshop Express will continue to evolve over time as we listen to user feedback and build a complete hosted solution that gives people the right balance of performance, convenience and that ‘wow-factor’ that makes their photos stand out from the rest. We’re fortunate to have innovative technologies in our arsenal like Flex® and Adobe Flash® Player that guarantee the overall experience will always be engaging and dynamic.”

Photoshop Express provides convenient access from right within the application to photos posted on social networking sites like Facebook, Photobucket, Picasa and now Flickr. Photoshop Express serves as a complementary solution for people with Flickr albums who want to upload or download photos into Photoshop Express, add special effects and send them back into Flickr to share with the community. The experience is seamless, so users never have to leave their community environment. 

The new “Save As” feature allows users to save multiple versions of an image in addition to the original version. Also new to the lineup is the embeddable player, which lets users post their slideshows to Facebook, MySpace, and other sites to share with friends and family. 

With Photoshop Express, users get 2 gigabytes of free storage, can upload and sort anytime and from anywhere, edit non-destructively to always preserve the original image, and share online in creative ways.

With just a few easy clicks, Photoshop Express empowers anyone to make standard edits, such as removing blemishes and red-eye, converting to black and white, cropping and resizing and much more. Photoshop Express features a collection of creative effects such as Pop Colour, which highlights a single colour in a photo; Distort, which distorts facial features or objects; and Sketch, which makes photos look like artistic drawings. Even users with limited photo editing knowledge can simply select what looks best from a line-up of sample photos with visual hints showing different variations of the added effect. Photoshop Express offers a variety of fun sharing options, including “My Gallery” that highlights collections of user photos called Albums. The unique slideshows feature interactive animation that make photos float and fly across the screen, allowing for an engaging sharing experience.  

For more information head to www.adobe.co.uk