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Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

Summary: Adobe is warming up to HTML5 - so much in fact that its new design platform project, Edge, is touted to work natively with the language.

Rachel King

By for Between the Lines |

Adobe is warming up to HTML5 - so much in fact that its new design platform project, Edge, is touted to work natively with the language.

Basically, Adobe Edge is "a new motion and interactive design tool that lets creative professionals build animated web content using web standards such as HTML, CSS and Javascript," according to Devon Fernandez, a product manager for Adobe's web segment.

The keywords are motion and interactive (or rather, interaction) as the software enables designers and developers to add motion and move around layers quickly yet elegantly using WebKit without disturbing the CSS-based layouts. Users can gain control of and move around parts using the timeline interface, seen in the example below.

From there, the content should be able to be supported on most desktop browsers and mobile operating systems, namely Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer as well as Android, WebOS, and (ever the HTML5 fan) iOS.

Adobe Fellow Mark Anders remarked that Edge is "breaking new ground in productivity for animation because "we’re working on HTML -- not just generating an HTML file later."

Edge has already made a brief appearance once before at Adobe MAX 2010, and it is intended to compliment the rest of Adobe's Creative Suite 5.5, most especially Flash Professional. Adobe reps acknowledged that the "interface is similar to Adobe Photoshop, but designers are really creating HTML."

Adobe Edge will first be available for downloading from Adobe Labs starting on Monday, August 1 at 12:01 AM ET. The public preview is free, and it will be updated routinely over time.

However, Adobe reps could not answer how long the public trial period would last before the full-fledged version is released. They also did not answer how much the official final version would cost. So get your free preview copies while you can!

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  • Photoshop?

    I dunno, doesn't look like photoshop to me. Looks more like Flash or Microsoft Expression Blend
    x21x
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

      @x21x It was right there... "Basically, Adobe Edge is a new motion and interactive design tool that lets creative professionals build animated web content using web standards such as HTML, CSS and Javascript,<br><br>Never was the word "Photoshop" even mentioned on this article....

      Not because it's "adobe" it means it has to be photoshop.. Adobe has several other sets of products... not just photoshop
      zaghy2zy
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

        @zaghy2zy Umm maybe you should read the entire article before you rip someone's comment. Right from the article.

        "Adobe reps acknowledged that the ?interface is similar to Adobe Photoshop, but designers are really creating HTML.?"
        mike.celone@...
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

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    • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

      @x21x - It looks like Premier or After Effects in its overall appearance.
      klockheed
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

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  • Knife the Baby!

    It's ABOUT TIME that FLASH DIES. While Steve Jobs is a BIG BAG OF NOXIOUS ODOR, he is right about Flash being a MEMORY-LEAKING HOG that is the NUMBER ONE SOURCE OF BROWSER CRASHES.

    The SAD THING is that FUGLY, ECCENTRIC JAVASCRIPT is the de facto, ENTRENCHED client-side scripting language.

    Really, WEB GENIUSES...is this THE BEST THAT YOU CAN DO?
    ADOBE FLASH IS INSECURE CRAP
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

      @ADOBE FLASH IS INSECURE CRAP -

      Stop using a TRS Model 1. The caps lock key was invented a long time ago.

      I use Macs and Windows PCs. Often. Flash rarely crashes. Firefox on its own, without Flash content, has crashed on me.

      BTW: How will people disable HTML5-ads, since they usually gleefully state how they disable Flash ads? (including the Apple Store "genius" who fumbled all over that question...)
      HypnoToad72
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

        @HypnoToad72 Adblock can always be updated. It's just a matter of finding signatures of ads made in HTML5 to block them.
        Champ_Kind
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

      @ADOBE FLASH IS INSECURE CRAP

      First off... your CAPS LOCK IS STUCK.

      Next... JabbaTheScript is a fantastic language, it is the browsers that suck (I am talking to you IE). Like it or not JabbaTheScript is going to become the single most important language in computing. And I am not the only person that thinks so.

      http://www.fusioncube.net/index.php/the-world-is-changing-the-new-landscape-for-application-development

      Everything is heading to the web and/or web based UIs (ex: MS Office) and JS is the defacto language for web gui's. Even the next version of Eclipse will sport a web based gui.

      Google has show time after time the power of JS be doing things no one thought possible, Google Maps, Google Docs, Gmail etc. jQuery and Prototype are awesome defined and testament of what can be done with with the language. I can only imagine what marvels Google that can produce when armed with CSS3 and HTML 5.

      Personally I am STOKED.
      Duke E Love
      Reply Vote

  • Sweet

    I love Flash and ActionScript - as with any language, it takes good programming to make a project run stable, without crashing. Crap code is ubiquitous, regardless of platform.

    But HTML5 will supersede Flash in a number of ways. Adobe knows, eventually, Flash will be endangered.

    Adobe's products are steeped in functionality, usability, and fluidity and I can do things on it I can't do with competitor programs. I'm looking forward to Edge.

    Hopefully owners of CS5.5 will get a good discount as well.

    I don't own Adobe stock and don't care for the stock market in general. I just say things as I see them, in the current environment and context.
    HypnoToad72
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

      @HypnoToad72

      Your post is great. You don't have to defend your neutrality by writing the last sentence. Anyway, good post.
      netguyvikas
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

      @HypnoToad72 I completely agree with this - I can do things with Adobe apps that I just can't do with alternatives. However, I think that Edge is going to end up being part of CS6 and the only discount that CS5.x users will get is the upgrade discount (BTW, with Lion, I'm starting a pool that CS5.6 comes along to streamline code).
      Champ_Kind
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

      @HypnoToad72 - Bravo, I've been saying this for years.
      klockheed
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

    IMHO Adobe is giving Flash a blast from the spice weasel with 3D, and it looks like Edge HTML5 is expected to take over the simpler 2D stuff. For complex stuff, we'll still need the performance of Flash.
    spambox@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

      @spambox@... WebGL runs better for me than 3D flash ever did, and (with the exception of Microsoft) it's pretty ubiquitous.
      Champ_Kind
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Adobe Edge debuts in preview mode as HTML5 design tool

    All I can say as I have been saying since the war of words, Steve Jobs is right. Flash need to rest in peace.
    OkeyM
    Reply Vote

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