Adobe Photoshop Express Beta by End of Year

Adobe has confirmed it will make a beta version of its online Photoshop Express software available before the end of the year, committing to make a full version available in 2008.

Photoshop Express will be an online version of Adobe's industry-standard image-editing software, Photoshop. Using a standard web browser, users will be able to perform basic image adjustments, such as red-eye removal, cropping, color adjustment and image retouching.

Adobe is introducing the software, which will offer limited functionality in contrast to its desktop application, as part of its move to providing software as a service.

Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen recently predicted software as an online service will become the de facto standard for software distribution within the next decade.

The software will be licensed by photographic website portals including Shutterfly and Photobucket.