Chromebook Plus buyers will get a free trial of the new web-based Photoshop
Adobe has partnered with Google and is offering both a three-month free trial Photoshopping on the web and an Express Premium subscription for those who buy one of the new Chromebook Plus devices.
Photoshop on the Internet, if you don’t know, was recently released and is “a more basic version of the desktop program”, although it does include basic tools such as the spot healing brush. However, it lacks many features such as the pen tool, polygonal lasso, and smart object support. The good news is that the company has plans to add them “soon.” But in the meantime, you can use the Generative Expand and Generative Fill powered by Adobe Firefly. The former “extends” an existing image by creating content that fits automatically or based on a prompt. The latter is possible add or remove objects within an image.
As for Adobe Express, it is an all-in-one creativity platform where people can create social media posts or edit videos. You can even use the Firefly AI generate content. Thanks to its integration with Google Bard, it can understand text prompts. It is also possible to transfer projects created in Photoshop to Express for further work. All this is part of the free subscription. The Premium version adds more tools, such as animation controls, the ability to remove the background from a video, plus access to the company’s extensive asset library.
After the three months, you will need to pay a recurring subscription to maintain access. Photoshop on the Internet will cost you $20.99 / £19.97 / AU$29.99 per month while the Adobe Express Premium plan will cost you $9.99 / £9.98 / AU$14.29 per month.
Admittedly, it’s disappointing that the company charges users the same amount as Photoshop on desktop since you don’t get the full range of tools, but at least Chromebook owners will finally get access to the software. Until recently, it was not possible to use Photoshop on ChromeOS because important executables could not be installed. It could only run on Windows or macOS, according to Android Central.
Future with AI
We’re particularly excited to see how the software interacts with the AI features on the Chromebook Plus series. These laptops focus heavily on artificial intelligence and integrate the technology in various areas. For example, you can have the laptop compose short paragraphs for social media or create custom wallpaper backgrounds.
Luckily, we won’t have to wait long before we get our hands on them, as all eight Chromebook Plus models will launch in the US on October 8. For our friends in Canada and Europe they will be available from October 9th.
Be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best Chromebooks for 2023 if you are thinking of getting one for yourself.