Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator Come to the Web; Creative Cloud Canvas, Spaces Debut for Better Collaboration

Adobe at its Max 2021 virtual conference on Tuesday announced the extension of Photoshop and Illustrator to the Web. The update is aimed to allow users to access the best of Photoshop and Illustrator directly from their Web browsers, without installing any apps on their system. Creators can also share their work-in-progress with others to let them preview their edits online. In addition to the Web versions of Photoshop and Illustrator, Adobe introduced the Creative Cloud Web that serves as an online suite and includes Creative Cloud Spaces and Creative Cloud Canvas as two distinct parts to help teams collaborate on their projects directly from the Web.

With the launch of Photoshop and Illustrator on the Web, users can access some of the most popular image editing tools directly from a Web browser. It includes selection tools such as lasso, quick selection, magic wand, as well as cropping tools and paint brushes to let you do some light edits, without installing the native Photoshop or Illustrator app on your machine.

Illustrator on the Web includes all necessary tools that you can access online
Photo Credit: Adobe

Once edited, you can also share your work with any of your clients or friends to get their feedback and views simply by emailing their links — just like how you can share your documents through Google Docs or the online version of the Microsoft Word. You can also copy the link and share them with collaborators through an instant messaging app or over social media.

While you need to have a Creative Cloud subscription to edit images through Photoshop and Illustrator for Web, reviewers are not required to have a paid plan. This means that they can review your edits even if they aren’t a Creative Cloud subscriber.

You can also share a link of your work created using the traditional Photoshop app, and the receiver will be able to access the file on the Web browser. Further, you can change the permission settings for the link to make it accessible just with the people you want. This is similar to how you can share your documents on Google Docs either as a public link or just for certain email addresses.

For an enhanced collaborative experience, Photoshop and Illustrator on the Web will allow collaborators to comment. There is also an option to pinpoint a comment or draw a line to highlight a particular area in the edit. All this helps to get feedback from people who don’t even have Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator installed on their systems and are not a Creative Cloud subscriber.

Initially, Photoshop on the Web has been released in public beta, while Illustrator on the Web is coming in private beta. Adobe also told the reporters in a press briefing that the Web access will be limited to Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge at this moment.

Alongside Photoshop and Illustrator on the Web, Adobe has introduced Creative Cloud Canvas as a part of its newly developed Creative Cloud Web suite. Adobe said that Creative Cloud Canvas provides a “new way to display and visualise all of the creative work within a project, to review with collaborators and explore ideas together, all in real-time and in the browser.”

Adobe has also brought Creative Cloud Spaces that serve users as shared repositories where teams can access and organise files, libraries, and links under one roof. Creative Cloud Spaces can have the content directly from Photoshop, Illustrator, or XD that can later be used in a Creative Cloud Canvas space. Creative Cloud Spaces also list the active canvases in progress.

Adobe Creative Cloud Spaces brings a one-stop place for collaboration
Photo Credit: Adobe

Multiple people who have access can give their inputs on the images or text that seem the best fit for their projects directly on the Canvas. Creative Cloud Spaces can also get content from a number of people.

Creative Cloud Canvas and Creative Cloud Spaces are currently available in private beta, though both will be released more broadly next year, Adobe says.