The web based creative suit provider Aviary, has released a new web tool called “Raven” for creating vector based graphics. Raven is not as powerful as Adobe Illustrator, but it provides all the basic requirements needed for creating a complete vector graphics piece as can be seen from the demo video below.

I tried using Raven and I was surprised by how smooth it runs. The entire Aviary suite is built on Flex, so it is very snappy and responsive. Working on the browser means that you might not be able to create heavy graphics though. Raven also does not import or export AI or EPS file formats and only supports the open vector format SVG.

Raven is currently in public beta and will probably be a pro paid-only service when it officially comes out. You can try it out for free now at Aviary. Make sure you check the really nice video below to see it in Action.

[via TechCrunch]

 Aviary web based creative application suite finally came out of beta minutes ago. Aviary for those who do not know about it is a web based application suite built on the Flash platform that lets you carry out various creative tasks such as image editing, drawing, color palette creation, and filter editing without the need to install any special software on your machine by using their web applications.

Aviary has also uncovered its paid Pro service which lets users have unlimited storage space and access to additional applications such as Raven (Vector drawing tool).

I have tried Aviary in the past, but I thought that was too much of a hassle for doing simple tasks such as cropping an image and adding some text to it to use for a blog post (I prefer Picnik) , yet it was not powerful or fast enough to replace my beloved offline Fireworks application. However, some of your might still have a place for it in your workflow. You can try out Aviary and use its basic service free of charge by visiting their official website at Aviary.com.

 Looks like we will not have to wait for the 23rd of September (or the 24th of September if you are on this side of the world) to see Adobe’s CS4 Event because all the information on the new Crative Suite is now available on Adobe’s website! CS4 has new version of Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Fireworks, After Effects, InDesign, and other members of the Creative Suite. New features of the suite include 3D painting in Photoshop and Bones and Inverse Kinematics in Flash. The demos of the applications are still not available nor are the actual release dates but they are expected to ship next month. The Suite is available in the same Design, Web, and Production bundles (Premium and Standard) that were introduced in the last release. Check out all the details on Adobe’s website.

Digital Web Magazine posted a nice article comparing Photoshop to Fireworks through a debate by two groups of designers each supporting one of the programs. Photoshop has always been the industry standard for digital image editing, even though it was primarily made for creating print material, while Fireworks on the other hand was specifically made for creating web friendly graphics. It is possible in theory to do almost everything you do in one of these in the other, so which one should you use?

I have personally been a Fireworks user for years, I had never gotten into Photoshop and Fireworks never gave me a reason to force myself to go and try and learn Photoshop seriously. Fireworks was in fact made just for web design and it does that one thing extremely well. In addition to this, the introduction of CS3 has provided tighter integration between all of Adobe’s Creative Suite, so it is now easier than ever to juggle from one program to the next so you do not need to use Photoshop just because you are working on a project with other people using Photoshop.

What about you guys, do you use Photoshop or Fireworks, and why?

Red Gaint’s the producers Knoll Light Factory has developed a new software called Radium Glow which produces sophisticated glimmer and glow on a whole new level, unlike the normal blur glow filters. Radium Glow 1.0 gives its users pinpoint control over the glow, with editable shapes that can generate precise outlines or create glimmering points. Its highlight features include Intelligent area selection, Genuine glow plug-ins and Shape library. You can read more about Radium Glow here. It is also up for sale here for $99.99.

[Via CGIndia.org]

Adobe Photoshop Express now supports flickr, which allows PX’s users now to be able to pull their pictures off their Flickr accounts, crop or modify them and finally put them back up there on flickr in a very convenient way. Photoshop Express also introduced the Save As feature in its long list of breaking features, as well as the Embed button which always you to create slideshows with your pictures to show them off on facebook and myspace. You can give Photoshop Express a try from over here.

[via Downloadsquad]

Adobe released yesterday the public beta version of its web based Photoshop Express – a free simple image tuning Flash application that lets users edit and store their images on the web. This program does not provide much functionality in comparison to the desktop based Photoshop or even in comparison to other free web based image editors such as Aviary’s Phoenix or Picnik, although it must be admitted that Photoshop Express is directed at mainstream consumers looking for a simple method to tune their photographs and not professionals looking for a serious image editor.

Photoshop Express offers free 2GB of web space for users to host their images and share them with others. You can join the public beta to try the application yourself here.

Aviary is a set of web based applications for creating all sorts of media. The concept of this suite of creative content creation tools is similar to Picnik, Google Docs, and Adobe Kuler, all of which are rich internet applications (RIAs) to be used within your browser. RIAs provide the possibility to run the application on any machine that has a proper browser and an internet connection without the need to carry your data along with you or even install the applications on the computer you work on. The nature of web applications creates unlimited opportunities for collaboration at real time as featured in Google Docs.

Aviary takes RIAs one step further by providing relatively more powerful applications than what we have seen before, these applications include an image editor, a vector editor, a 3D modeling tool, a video editor, a music generator and other creative tools that make up its 14 application-suite. The video below illustrates the capability of Phoenix, Aviary’s image editor:

I personally use many web applications and Google Docs and Picnik are some of my favourites. I find Aviary’s project very interesting and think that it shows us a glimpse of how the future should be.Aviary is currently in private beta and invitations are floating around the internet. You can submit your email to the invitation queue and learn more about Aviary from their official website.

Adobe released yesterday the latest issue of Adobe Magazine, its free quarterly online publication on visual communication. The latest issue that could be downloaded in PDF format explores the expansion multimedia onto cellular screens, the merger of technology and biology through photography, adding interactivity to print, and creating high quality videos on a limited budget. You can download this issue of the Adobe Magazine and check out previous issues as well from the Adobe Magazine website.

Reuters is reporting that Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe, said in a Q&A session during the Web 2.0 Summit in San Fransisco that Adobe sees a full shift of its applications from the desktop to the web within a period of ten years.

More and more applications are being made for the web so that they are accessed directly through a web browser without the need to install the application itself on the computer of the user. Such applications include Google Docs (for word processing, spreedsheets, and presentations) and Picnik (for simple image editing). These applications make it possible to save work data on the servers of the application provider so that the user can continue working from any machine without the need to install the applications or carry his data along with him. An additional feature of web applications worth noting is the possibility to share files and collaborate to work on the same file simultaneously.

Adobe announced several months ago its intention to release a lite version of Photoshop as a web application to be called Photoshop Express. Adobe said that this will not be a replacement of the desktop Photoshop, but it will be a much simpler version to target casual Internet users and not professionals. This recent report of Adobe’s CEO reflects Adobe serious consideration of migrating of applications from the desktop to the web, though a significant number of people think that while web applications do provide new opportunities and benefits over desktop, they will never be a total replacement due to the dependence of web applications on an active Internet connection to work, for which reliability will always be an issue.

We have ten years to see if Adobe could pull this off, while waiting for those ten years to pass, you can test drive and read about Aviary’s web creation project, an online suite created in Flex for creating all sorts of content that includes an image editor, a 3d modeling application, a vector drawing application, an audio editing application, and many others all available as web application or AIR applications. Check out their website for more info.

[via Download Squad]