Free From Adobe Photoshop

Adobe will be following a trend that has been seen across the internet by releasing a free online version of its popular Photoshop image-editing software. The online version will be a stripped-down edition of the program that has rapidly become an industry standard for graphics professionals.

The move is part of a larger effort by the company to bring key aspects of its software portfolio - which includes audio, video and graphics applications - online to draw advertising dollars and lure users into buying software upgrades. Until now, Adobe’s business has been based primarily on packaged software.

A sneak peak at Adobe’s photography’s future: Currently the company offers four versions of its Photoshop software, beginning with the high-end CS2 package which is targeted to creative professionals all the way to the free Album Starter Edition which is used by the casual photographer. According to Adobe, the online offering will be more like the consumer products.

Last month, the company also publicized that it was planning on entering a partnership with image- and video-hosting web site Photobucket in order to give the site’s 35 million users free access to Adobe’s web-based video editing tools.

The company said then that it expects to announce more partnerships with Internet companies over coming months, and that the ventures would be driven by its quest for more advertising revenue and increased software upgrades from existing customers.

The Photobucket features will become available to the site’s users sometime in March. Adobe’s shift to free online applications follows similar moves by other software makers. Google (Charts), for instance, has released online word processing and spreadsheet software under the Google Docs banner