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See the original image at a.viary.com

How does Photoshop Express compare to Aviary?

a.viary.com — Artist tries to create the same picture in 5 different image editing web apps (Picnik, Fotoflexer, Splashup, Photoshop Express and Aviary) with surprising results.

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  • jaxomlotus, on 03/29/2008, -8/+110It should just be made clear up front - the writer of this review (who also happens to be one of the top photoshoppers on Worth1000) should be considered biased. He does the work for Aviary... so take his words with a grain of salt.
    • Tralobyte, on 03/29/2008, -12/+30I see you can read the first few paragraphs. I up your ante.

      "Although this is obviously biased in that it was written by an Aviary employee, we asked Meowza to do a comparison from the point of view of an unaffiliated artist. The opinions expressed in this post are entirely his own. Now please stop mailing us, Mom."
      • ronoxQ, on 03/29/2008, -1/+38Jaxomlotus is actually a staff member FROM Aviary. Hence his disclaimer for diggers.
    • OpaqueMurdock, on 03/29/2008, -0/+10Kudos for the full disclosure... I can see that you are trying very hard to be open about the information and how it is presented.
    • artliquide, on 03/29/2008, -0/+3Agreed. I think they should have gotten an independent artist, despite the disclaimer.
    • ksaravanakumar, on 03/30/2008, -0/+2I have used both Photoshop Express and AViary Phoenix. Aviary's tool is much more advanced than Photoshop Express. Adobe people may add more features in the future like Selection, Layers. Aviary almost looks like mini photoshop. Whereas Photoshop express looks like web version of Picasa !!
  • GhostWithToast, on 03/29/2008, -1/+35I think Adobe has made an error not including layer support in the free version. If they had a big picture approach they would make a true basic version of photoshop that would get a whole new generation of young artists used to their software, and riding the wave of the now adjective 'photoshopping' brand. I guess this just leaves more room for tools like Aviary to get a share in the market.
    • koltregaskes, on 03/29/2008, -1/+4Perhaps this is a stepping stone and layers will be added later?
    • BigFloppy, on 03/29/2008, -0/+12Adobe already has a strategy for getting new users; almost completely ignoring how frequently Photoshop is pirated.
      • liquidpele, on 03/29/2008, -2/+0Exactly. I don't know anyone under 30 that DOESN'T have photoshop installed...
        • lodgelinks, on 03/29/2008, -3/+6I'm under 30 and I don't have it. GIMP FTW!
        • Darkhacker, on 03/29/2008, -1/+1I used to, but I'm one of those unlucky souls that got caught. On the other hand, I'm also the luckiest bastard in the world because I was let off with a cease and desist rather than getting charged with anything and having to go to court. After that whole mess I don't take chances anymore. Besides, I think Adobe deserves payment for making such a top quality program. I'm not going to compare pirating software to stealing cars or purses from old ladies, but as a business making a quality product, they really deserve some income.
          • McBradd, on 03/29/2008, -0/+2A Friend of mine was hosting a large file called Photoshop.zip on a server I used, and Adobe issued a cease and desist almost immediately... They're aggressive about protecting their brand, but understanding at the same time.

            I think they know that most are exposed to their software through a pirated copy, but that once anyone gets serious about using their product, they almost always buy a copy. They know their bread and butter is Studio's and Agencies.
  • nomadishere, on 03/29/2008, -0/+23"I guess this just leaves more room for tools like Aviary to get a share in the market." and the competition only means great things for us all.
    • xaogypsie, on 03/29/2008, -0/+1Which is really why I love the numbers of online image apps coming out lately.

      The internet is about as close to a truly free market as we will get, and it really seems to be working to our advantage...
  • superjunaid, on 03/29/2008, -1/+2Pretty neat work created just using a browser and possibly the best web-based programming yet. I'm sure Adobe might be able to add those features in the full-version of Photoshop Express. But whats seems to happen here is that Adobe is going after the market of Photographers that are taking pictures and posting them to their social networking sites such as facebook, photobucket and picasaweb. Plus its also a competing product against iPhoto users on Mac, cause the features Photoshop Express highlights are similar to those of iPhoto. my 2 cents
    • monkeyvoodoo, on 03/29/2008, -3/+1People need to stop calling this "web based". It's frickin' flash. Granted, you need an internet connection to do anything with it, but it's flash, so I wouldn't consider it any part of any web standard.

      Also, working with an image in this program is horrible - the quality is crap (flash isn't good at scaling images), and I shudder to think of what kind of color management this has...
      • artliquide, on 03/29/2008, -1/+1Yes. When I used it, it has so few features and so slow, I actually wonder how meowza was able to pull off that image. One cool thing about the a.viary community is that you can look at a composition's layers online and can make remixes of others work. Good way to learn some basic photo editing skills from pros. But I'm just not patient enough to play with the program anymore.
  • davidwasman, on 03/29/2008, -3/+16Let's have a third party do the review and then I might pay attention.
  • bigpeeler, on 03/29/2008, -1/+10"But pictures are worth one thousand words..."
    That's a catchy saying. Some website ought to utilize that as their name. I'll bet it would fly!
  • geoken, on 03/29/2008, -0/+66Apparently this guy really like Tara Reid.
    • theenginedriver, on 03/29/2008, -0/+10lol @ "Why not, eye removal!"
    • jnadke, on 03/29/2008, -3/+2Yum....... fat Tara Reid...
    • Ranvier, on 03/29/2008, -2/+1I don't usually find her very attractive, but she looked really good in the picture used for the picnik example.
    • Llanowar, on 03/29/2008, -0/+17Not sure if he really likes her...

      fattening, putting a guys face on her, putting her in a cold enviroment and removing her eyes don't really indicate liking.
      • artliquide, on 03/29/2008, -0/+3Maybe he just likes to make her look obnoxious (moreso than she already is)
  • greedz, on 03/29/2008, -2/+50isn't this a bit stupid ?
    PS Express is meant to be a tool for correction and retouching, NOT editing.
  • z0mbie2099, on 03/29/2008, -0/+9He probably used Photoshop to make his web design.
    • Ranvier, on 03/29/2008, -13/+0I don't usually find her very attractive, but she looked really good in the picture used for the picnik example.
  • boodog, on 03/29/2008, -8/+3dugg from another Net entrepreneur!
  • gravityboard, on 03/29/2008, -1/+7Regardless of the author's affiliation with any of the companies who's products were tested, it's a fascinating article with some interesting insight on photo editing -- this from a complete photo noob, of course.
  • MattFromSeattle, on 03/29/2008, -5/+1Here's an idea - why not try them out yourself and see what you get?
    • bowe, on 03/29/2008, -0/+4unfortunately you can't, since it's still in invite only beta.
      • artliquide, on 03/29/2008, -0/+3a.viary? Yes, but all you have to do is request an invite. Took me less than a day to receive the email.
  • jimjoke, on 03/29/2008, -6/+1PWNT
  • vincimus, on 03/29/2008, -1/+3i like how for "picnik" he says the original photo is all he can do.
  • my10cent, on 03/29/2008, -3/+3Photoshop online cant do *****, even Picnik can do more that that piece of crap.
  • nhugg, on 03/29/2008, -6/+4ummm.....why do they have the review on aviary's site....I'm not rocket scientist but saying only your product can do something means aviary is really good or the reviewer only put effort into his product= biased
  • MikeFallopian, on 03/29/2008, -0/+5That was pretty clever actually. I like how the guy picked out one impressive feature from each of the competitor products and then followed it up with a paragraph about how Aviary can do the same thing, only better.
    • ronoxQ, on 03/31/2008, -0/+1I also liked that he was honest about the other products making certain things easier. Some people might really just want to do some eye retouching.
  • kmb1794, on 03/29/2008, -0/+2I think it's a tad "apples and oranges," however I think it's a fairly astute read of the software out there.
    I was pretty much with Meowza until I read this line,
    "Aviary's unparalleled collaboration system, rights management and built-in storage gives the user added incentive to use the program over its desktop predecessors."
    This statement needs to be made not by judging online applications but DESKTOP apps, for instance, the real photoshop.
    • autoignite, on 03/29/2008, -0/+1i agree on apples to oranges. the comparison is pretty meaningless when the products have a different goal (and I'm not defending Photoshop Express because I haven't tried it).
      It's hard to imagine web app tools like Aviary becoming more than something you use when you're in a jam and don't have photoshop installed locally. That said, it's still compelling to try.
    • artliquide, on 03/29/2008, -0/+3They did come up with cool collaboration though. Like I said earlier, you can look at the layers of someone's work to figure out what they did. You can also expand on their work, creating "remixes", if you will. That, I think is a great feature, as much as I dislike the app.
  • synyster, on 03/29/2008, -5/+1dugg for apple !
  • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 08/11/2008, -3/+5buried as corporate spam
  • amadeusdemarzi, on 03/29/2008, -1/+4Aviary I find to be a great proof of concept of what is possible in a web application. But has anyone tried to actually use it? It's very sluggish. Good luck designing anything for print, such as dealing with large images at 300dpi.

    So, I give it props for achieving some amazing stuff in a browser, but it could never replace the 'real' Photoshop in it's current status.

    (I do understand that it was not being compared to the 'real' Photoshop in this article).
    • artliquide, on 03/29/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I don't think it's meant to be for pros or to replace photoshop, at this point. It's more of a collaborative design community. But, I agree, it's extremely slow and awkward to use. That's why I won't be using it to do anything I could do in PS in about 5 minutes.
  • OpaqueMurdock, on 03/29/2008, -1/+1I have owned and used Photoshop for a very long time and I can say that I see great potential in Aviary. Looks like they have a plan to grow it into a complete suite of creative tools and i think any serious novice or curious pro should check it out... As a photo illustration pro myself, Phoenix won't be replacing PS in my toolbox any time in the foreseeable future but man do I love playing in Peacock and I can't wait to see want else they do. I'm sure I will use bits and pieces of the suite to fill in the gaps in my pro applications or just when I need to do something quick and don't have access to a computer with PS on it.
  • seanachai, on 03/29/2008, -0/+0jaxomlotus and his site Worth1000 is one of the best photo editing competition sites on the internet today but with that said I have seen more than my fair share of half baked ideas come from Worth in the the past years. I can only hope the Worth team has got this one right this time. Best of luck Jax :)
    • artliquide, on 03/29/2008, -1/+1Yeah, though I think the voting system on Worth is jacked up. I submitted something in the "beginner" section, and I received a lower score than people who did much less work, and not as clean as the work I did, with concepts that were unoriginal. Their voting system reminds me of superdelegates in politics. Some people get 500 votes, while others get 1. There's some great stuff on there, and I wouldn't expect to win against people in the advanced photo editing section, but there's also a lot of crap that gets the same ratings as great stuff.
  • r3negadeX, on 08/11/2008, -5/+4Wait...what about the Gimp?
    • DigitAl56K, on 03/29/2008, -0/+4Is Gimp an online in-browser image editor? No.
  • chsbrgr, on 03/29/2008, -0/+1I can tell by the pixels.
  • Neo2627, on 03/29/2008, -1/+2Photoshop Express, is what it is! It's not a fancy editing tool, that will cost you big dollars! It's just a simplified software program, for people that want a quick fix up of their photos, without all the complications of layers, vectors and such. I personally enjoy it. . .it is what it is!
  • McBradd, on 03/29/2008, -0/+1I find it funny that they are using Adobe Flash and Adobe Air to create a competitors for Adobe Photoshop (Phoenix), Adobe Illustrator (Raven), Premier (Starling), InDesign (Owl), Adobe Encore (Roc) and Adobe Soundbooth (Myna).
    It's cool to see that some of their mini Apps cover ground not available in the Adobe Master Suite. (Or is their a seam carving plugin like 'Woodpecker' that I'm unaware of?)
  • RSS14, on 03/29/2008, -3/+4He really sucks at photoshop.
  • DigitAl56K, on 03/29/2008, -2/+3Maybe Aviary is better... if you are actually allowed to use it.

    You don't have to sign up for an "early bird invitation" and cross your fingers to use Photoshop Express.
  • saintandre, on 03/29/2008, -0/+4Everyone I know who signed up for the invitations got one. Not only that, but if you sign up, you get five invitations to hand out to your friends. I have invitations left over, 'cause all the graphic designers I know already signed up.
  • tech42er, on 03/29/2008, -3/+1Well, I don't think you can store birds in Photoshop Express, but I may be wrong.
  • pentak, on 03/30/2008, -3/+2buried for being a lame infomercial
  • slickcorp, on 03/30/2008, -3/+0AlternativeSolutions.ky Located In Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
    Are a team of professional web designers and graphic designers.

    visit them at www.alternativesolutions.ky
  •  

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