Adobe Edge swells to include Tools & Services, streamlines the designer web

Adobe really wants web designers to kick things up a notch. Not satisfied with where Edge has gone so far, it just released a full-fledged Edge Tools & Services suite to cover the bases for polished desktop and mobile pages on most any modern platform. Motion tool Edge Animate (formerly Edge Preview), automated previewing tool Edge Inspect (formerly Shadow) and mobile app packager PhoneGap Build have all arrived in the suite as version 1.0 releases, and come with both Edge Web Fonts as well as TypeKit to spruce up text. A pair of pre-release utilities, Edge Code (Brackets) and Edge Reflow, are also joining the group to tackle the nitty-gritty of editing web code and layouts. Any of the apps will readily cooperate with third-party software, although they won't always be cheap: while most of the Edge suite is free to use in at least a basic form as long as you have a Creative Cloud membership at any level, Edge Animate is only free during its initial run and should eventually cost either $15 per month or $499 in a one-time sale. For pros that want to burnish their corner of the web to a shine, the result just might be worth the expense.

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Adobe Unveils Edge Tools & Services for Creating Beautiful Web Experiences

Adobe Edge Animate 1.0 Headlines New Tools & Services, Delivering Rich Experiences for Modern Browsers

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sept. 24, 2012 - At its Create the Web event, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today unveiled an innovative set of tools and services to help designers and developers more easily create beautiful websites, digital content and mobile apps using the latest Web technologies, including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. During the keynote session, hosted by chief technology officer Kevin Lynch, Adobe introduced Edge Tools & Services and announced immediate availability of Adobe Edge Animate 1.0, Adobe Edge Inspect 1.0 (formerly codenamed "Shadow"), Adobe PhoneGap Build 1.0, Adobe Edge Web Fonts and a preview of Adobe Edge Code. Adobe also demonstrated a sneak peek of Adobe Edge Reflow in anticipation of a preview release expected by the end of the year.

Adobe also announced that the first release of Edge Animate, normally priced at $499, will be made available for free in order to encourage Web designers to create using the interactive capabilities of the modern Web. Edge Animate has already proved a runaway hit with over half a million preview downloads. Edge Animate and the other Edge Tools & Services are available today with a free membership to Adobe Creative Cloud™. Available with both free and paid memberships, Adobe Creative Cloud is a hub for making, sharing and delivering creative work. Paid members can download and install all Creative Suite® 6 desktop applications, as well as other applications including Adobe Photoshop® Lightroom® and Adobe Muse™. Membership also includes online services for file storage, sharing, collaboration, and publishing to the Web and mobile devices. To learn more about Creative Cloud, visit www.adobe.com/go/creativecloud.

"We are excited to put a powerful new set of HTML5 tools into the hands of Web designers and developers and can't wait to experience the beautiful websites, digital content and mobile apps they'll create," said Danny Winokur, vice president and general manager, interactive development at Adobe. "We are passionate about enabling creative people to do anything they can imagine with Web technologies, which is why we're contributing to the Web platform and making the Edge Tools & Services available for free, including the first release of Edge Animate."

At the keynote, Adobe also outlined a number of recent contributions it has made to the Web platform in cooperation with the standards and open source communities. These contributions are helping to advance the Web by making it a more expressive platform in key areas, including:

· Layout: With CSS Regions and CSS Exclusions, Web designers and developers will be able to create responsive magazine-like layouts on the Web.

· Foundational graphics: The proposed CSS Transforms specification will make it easier for authors to apply geometric transformations to HTML and SVG content consistently. The proposed CSS Compositing and Blending specifications will give Web designers the option to use blend modes they are already familiar with from Photoshop.

· Cinematic visual effects: CSS Custom Filters, now available in Chrome Canary, enables sophisticated visual effects, for a richer, more engaging experience on the Web. Adobe also announced CSS FilterLab, a new experimental tool for Web designers and developers to create their own custom filters, available today at http://html.adobe.com/webstandards/csscustomfilters/cssfilterlab/.

· Typography: Adobe has open sourced two beautiful new fonts used by Edge Code and Edge Reflow – Source Sans Pro and Source Code Pro.

Adobe Edge Signals New Era of Tools and Services for the Modern Web

Built for Web designers who code and Web developers who value design, Adobe Edge is now Adobe's key brand for tools and services that can create beautiful, mobile-ready content and apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript for delivery to modern browsers and mobile devices. The Adobe Edge brand includes intuitive, task-focused tools and services that work well individually, together and with other tools. They are built for professionals who want to create visually compelling content with productive tools that provide direct access to underlying Web technologies and support a choice of frameworks. Edge Tools & Services complement Adobe Dreamweaver® CS6, the market leading tool for all-in-one website production, which today received a subscription update that adds support for Edge Animate, new HTML5 tags and other new features.

Edge Tools & Services include:

· Edge Animate – A motion and interaction design tool that allows users to bring animated content to the Web using HTML, JavaScript and CSS.

· Edge Inspect – An inspection and preview tool that allows front-end Web developers and designers to efficiently preview and debug HTML content on mobile devices.

· Edge Code – A code editor, built on the Brackets open source project, optimized for Web designers and developers working with HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

· Edge Reflow – A responsive Web design tool to help users create layouts and visual designs with CSS, the standard for styling HTML content. A preview release is expected by the end of the year.

· Edge Web Fonts – A free Web font service for using a growing library of open source fonts on websites and in apps.

· Typekit® – A service that gives designers and developers access to a library of hosted, high-quality fonts to use on their websites.

· PhoneGap™ Build – A service for packaging mobile apps built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript for popular mobile platforms.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Edge Tools & Services are available immediately as part of Adobe Creative Cloud free and paid memberships. Following an introductory period, Edge Animate is expected to be priced at US$499 for a perpetual license, US$14.99 per month for a standalone subscription, and included in a paid membership to Creative Cloud. Additional capacity for Edge Inspect and PhoneGap Build is available via standalone subscriptions priced at US$9.99 per month each and included with a Creative Cloud paid membership. Typekit paid plans which include more websites, fonts and page views are available for between US$24.99 per year and US$99 per year, with the US$49.99 per year Portfolio Plan included in paid membership to Creative Cloud.

Paid membership to Creative Cloud for individuals is US$49.99 per month based on annual membership and US$74.99 per month for month-to-month membership. Customers who own an individual license of any Creative Suite edition or single product, version CS3 or later, are currently eligible for an annual membership price of just US$29.99 per month for their first year. Education pricing is also available. For more details, visit www.adobe.com/go/creativecloud.