(Credit: Adobe)
What blew people away about Google Docs was that multiple people could be editing the same document live in real-time. It’s one thing to do this for simple text input, but drawing and image editing are a different story. So, Adobe is bringing that same gee-whiz capability to its category-leading image-editing software, Photoshop, in a beta you can apply for now.
Adobe says the feature was inspired by community input, and it seems like an excellent option for visual arts education as well as professional image-making. Adobe already includes a few collaboration features in Photoshop, such as Shared Libraries and Share for Review, which allows stakeholders to comment on an image.
(Credit: Adobe)This newly announced beta feature, specifically called Live Co-Editing, will take collaboration to the next level, with direct co-editing of a shared image. When using the Share button, the resulting panel now shows a “Turn on Live co-editing” button. As in Google Docs and Microsoft Word, your collaborators appear in badges at the top of the document, and a name marker appears near where your remote collaborator is working (see top image for this story).
We can’t yet comment on the latency or other performance characteristics of the new feature, but look for that to be added to our in-depth review of Photoshop.
How to Get Live Co-Editing in Photoshop
To apply for the beta of Live Co-Editing, go to the Live Co-Editing waitlist link and fill out a short informational form, importantly adding the email address associated with your Adobe Creative Cloud email address. Adobe hasn’t shared specific information as to how many applications will be accepted. Nor has the company committed to any release timeframe, but judging from similar past announcements, it could be many months before Live Co-Editing makes it into the fully released version of Photoshop.