Adobe today announced the first public preview release of Adobe Edge, a new HTML5 web motion and interaction design tool that allows web designers to bring animation, similar to that created in Flash® Professional, to websites using standards likes HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Because of rapid changes around HTML5, the company is adopting an open development methodology for Adobe Edge and is releasing the software on the Adobe Labs site much earlier than normal in the development process – before it even reaches beta – in order to allow user feedback to help shape the final product.
While in public preview, Adobe Edge will be a no-charge download that web designers are encouraged to explore and provide feedback on, to help shape future preview releases.
Adobe Edge, first shown at Adobe MAX 2010, is for designers who want to leverage Web standards like HTML to create Web content with motion and transitions. Adobe Edge is being designed as a fast and lightweight professional-grade tool that complements Adobe’s existing Web tools, such as Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5, Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5 and Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 software.
“Over the last year Adobe has delivered on several significant HTML5 milestones including contributions to jQuery, submitting code to WebKit, and enhanced HTML5 output in Creative Suite 5.5,” said Paul Gubbay, vice president of Design and Web Engineering, Adobe, in the press release. “Now, with Adobe Edge, we’re taking our HTML5 tooling to a whole new level and look forward to getting some really useful feedback from the community over the next few months, as we refine the product.”
The Adobe Edge preview works natively with HTML. It enables users to add motion to existing HTML documents without hampering design integrity of CSS-based layouts, and it also enables users to easily create visually rich content from scratch, using familiar drawing tools that produce HTML elements styled with CSS3. Users can import standard Web graphics assets such as SVG, PNG, JPG and GIF files and style them using CSS3. The design stage utilizes WebKit to enable design, preview and manipulation of content with incredible fidelity. The innovative timeline feature is both familiar for creative professionals and breaks new ground in animation productivity to enable users to define and customize motion applied to HTML elements with extreme precision. Content created with Edge is designed to work on modern browsers including those on iOS and other smartphone mobile devices as well as Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 9.
This Adobe Edge public preview is available today on Adobe Labs as a free download for anyone wanting to explore adding motion and animation to their HTML workflow or HTML animation to their skill set. The Adobe Edge preview is expected to be updated regularly as new functionality is added.
This summer Adobe is sponsoring the Expressive Web Tour HTML5 Camps in cities that include San Francisco, Tokyo, New York City and London to continue providing further support to people interested in HTML5. In addition, Adobe has launched a new online resource showcasing some of the newest and most expressive HTML5 and CSS3 features being added to the modern Web. The new site, which was released today in beta, was created using new HTML5 and CSS3 features.
Adobe Edge is immediately available worldwide for Mac and Windows platforms via a free download on Adobe Labs. For more information including system requirements, visit www.adobe.com/go/edgepreview.
Source: Adobe Systems Incorporated
MacDailyNews Take: Good to see Adobe is now seriously following Mr. Jobs’ advice instead of quixotically fighting it:
New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind. – Steve Jobs,April, 2010
Flash is dead.
Related articles:
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Adobe releases Creative Suite 5.5 with HTML5 authoring – May 3, 2011
Adobe capitulates to Apple, releases Flash-HTML5 convertor – March 8, 2011
Adobe’s Flash on Android is ‘shockingly bad’ (with video) – September 1, 2010
Adobe Flash hobbles Android use of BBC iPlayer versus iPhone – August 29, 2010
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen believes his firm doesn’t need Apple or the iPad – August 16, 2010
Apple marginalizing Adobe’s proprietary Flash as companies, designers shift to open HTML5 – May 21, 2010
H.264 has already won, makes up 66% of online videos, and Adobe Flash encoding plummets – May 02, 2010
Steve Jobs posts rare open letter: Thoughts on Flash – April 29, 2010
