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Adobe Debuts Preview Version of 'Adobe Edge' for Creating HTML5 Web Animations

Monday August 1, 2011 9:52 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Adobe today announced the launch of an early preview version of a new application called Adobe Edge, which is designed to allow web developers to easily create animations and other motion-based content using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.


Calling Edge a "fast and lightweight professional-grade tool", Adobe is positioning the new software as a complement to its Flash and Dreamweaver offerings for Web-based content production.
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.
Adobe is pushing out Edge in a pre-beta version, earlier than usual in order to allow users to offer maximum feedback to help shape the final product. Adobe Edge is free to download during this preview period.


Apple has famously refused to offer support for Adobe's Flash technology on its iOS devices, instead encouraging developers to turn toward newer standards-based options such as HTML5. For its part, Adobe has worked to embrace HTML5 and other standards, introducing a Flash-to-HTML5 converter and building out HTML5 development tools into its other software products.

[ 152 comments ]


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Jelite
98 months ago
I cant wait for the day when im blocking HTML5 ads instead of Flash.
Rating: 21 Votes
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Geckotek
98 months ago
One more step forward in the demise of Flash.
Rating: 19 Votes
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KnightWRX
98 months ago

Better later than never.


Later than what ? Later than HTML5 not even being a finalized standard yet ? :rolleyes:

Some of you guys really need a reality check here.
Rating: 13 Votes
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KnightWRX
98 months ago

Adobe should have done this a long time ago.


How ? It's not like HTML5 is a long-lived standard here... :confused:

Cool. Though I'm a little surprised that it's Adobe & not Apple doing this.


Adobe providing tools for Web design surprises you ? What has Dreamweaver been all this time ?
Rating: 11 Votes
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lifeinhd
98 months ago
Still longing for the day when they discontinue all Flash offerings :rolleyes:
Rating: 10 Votes
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anti-microsoft
98 months ago
Adobe should have done this a long time ago. It would have been much better for them to have just gone "Actually, you're right... Flash is kind of crappy. Let's embrace HTML5". They just chose the hard way. They've ended up going down the HTML5 road anyway.
Rating: 6 Votes
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darthraige
98 months ago
Bout time. Can't wait to use it.
Rating: 5 Votes
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lucidmedia
98 months ago

Adobe should have done this a long time ago. It would have been much better for them to have just gone "Actually, you're right... Flash is kind of crappy. Let's embrace HTML5". They just chose the hard way. They've ended up going down the HTML5 road anyway.


a long time ago? The problem with building an IDE for HTML5 is that Adobe has to build a tool / embrace a standard that is/was in flux. The edge project was started as soon as Adobe felt the standards were finalized enough that they could put major development money behind it without getting burned.
Rating: 5 Votes
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ChrisA
98 months ago

Adobe should have done this a long time ago. It would have been much better for them to have just gone "Actually, you're right... Flash is kind of crappy. Let's embrace HTML5". They just chose the hard way. They've ended up going down the HTML5 road anyway.


Looks like they did exactly that. From looking at this, Adobe must have made that decision in (maybe) late 2009 Do you think they wrote this in a week? Software like this required many thousands of man hours to write.

If they do drop Flash it will only be after their replacement is very mature.
Rating: 5 Votes
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macUser2007
98 months ago

That guy just lies through his teeth. His argument is that apples decision not to use flash is solely based on a business model decision. And that its not a technical issue. BUT THEN HE CANT EXPLAIN WHY FLASH SUCKS ON ANDROID.....


Hm, methinks either you are "lying through your teeth," or you have not seen an Android device.

I am so sick of every fanboy repeating the same "Flash sucks on Android" mantra Jobs feeds them, without actually trying it for themselves.

I have a Nexus S, which is a last generation chip and is hardly the most powerful Android device on the market (it's comparable to the iPhone 4). I can browse through Flash sites without a second thought -- I don't even think about it anymore. It "just works."

Also, if Apple is so hot to trot on HTML5, why doesn't it bring out the developer tools?

Or why doesn't Apple support HTML5 better in Safari, both in Mac OS and in iOS (both Google Chrome and Firefox have better HTML5 support)?

Adobe is the one major company which has invested in providing HTML5 tools.

The reality is that HTML5 will coexist with Flash for the foreseeable future, so Adobe will make money from both. HTML5 is way too primitive to replace Flash for complex animations.

Meanwhile, iOS will not have access to Flash, because Steve Jobs has made a BUSINESS DECISION to keep a competing product from the iOS ecosystem.

If that's O.K. for you, that's fine. But don't delude yourself that it is some sort of a technical problem, or that Steve is leading you to the "future."
Rating: 5 Votes

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