Adobe plans to make Photoshop on the web free to everyone

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The service will be open to everyone as a way to introduce more users to the app.

The company is testing a free version of the program in Canada. Some of the features that will be exclusive to paying subscribers will be called freemium. Adobe considers the core functions of the program to be enough tools that are free.

Adobe wants to make it easier for more people to try out the software.

Image: Adobe

The simplified version of the app that could be used to handle basic edits was delivered by Adobe in October. The service didn't come close to including the app's full breadth of features. Adobe framed it as a way for an artist to share an image with others and have them jump in, leave some annotations and make a couple small changes.

Since the beginning of the year, Adobe has made a number of updates to the service, and it has begun to open it up to other use cases. It used to be that someone had to share a document to the web from the desktop app, but now anyone can log in and start a new document from the internet.

The goal of the web version of Photoshop is to make the app more accessible and possibly hook users who will want to pay for the full version down the road. Fresco and Express are two of the company's mobile apps. One of the company's most powerful tools up to Chromebooks, which are widely used in schools, is now available on the web.

Yap wants to meet users where they are currently. You don't have to have a high-end machine in order to use the program.

Adobe didn't give a time frame for when the freemium version would launch. The company is continuing to update Photoshop for web with more tools, including refine edge, curves, doge and burn tools. The mobile version of the web version can be used to review and comment on pictures.

A new Neural Filter that is powered by artificial intelligence was shown off by Adobe. The new filter can take a yellowed photo and restore it to its original color. Even if the end result looks a bit cartoony, the two filters can bring an old photo to life.