Adobe Edge: A New Tool for Web Design

Adobe has produced a new product called Adobe Edge, which was created for the purpose of putting together dynamic Web pages using HTML5 and other Web standards. It is worth noting that such a product stands to loosen Adobe’s firm grip on the Flash-based animation market.

Devin Fernandez, Adobe Group Product Manager, comments "This is a motion and interactive tool for designers who want to build interactive Web content using Web standards."

In the past, Web designers have made extensive use of Adobe Flash, or one of Adobe’s many competitors like Microsoft Silverlight, to add engaging and interesting content to Web pages. Examples of such work would include animated home pages, interactive charts, videos, and banner advertisements. A great deal of computers already have the player that’s needed to run Flash files; Adobe estimates it at somewhere around 99% of all desktop computers.

Developing Standards

Over the course of the last few years, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and other entities have worked towards a few projects of their own that could create the same kind of interactivity and engaged content that Flash produces. The companies that create the web browsers that we use are taking these new standards and incorporating them; examples of which include HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS. This, in effect, eliminates the need for plug-ins like Flash.

There have been other barriers to Adobe’s continued success as well. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has criticized Flash in the past for having too many bugs and has asked developers to move to HTML5 instead.

Fernandez doesn’t acknowledge this setback as a defeat, but as an opportunity saying "More workloads that were previously reserved for Flash are now being done with Web standards. We see that as a huge opportunity for the company, to help people take advantage of HTML5."

More on Edge

This new tool makes use of HTML5, CSS and Javascript to place animated Web content right onto to HTML pages. In the same fashion as Flash, this new Adobe tool allows developers to change the attributes of an image or HTML over a pre-set length of time, making the Web page feel animated.

Al Hilwa, an IDC applications development analyst, acknowledges that Adobe has a special place in the hearts of designers. "There are very few companies in tune with designer needs and sensibilities as much as Adobe is, and this tool really shows it. It brings the time-line model familiar to many Flash developers to the new world of HTML5 and JavaScript, while retaining the integrity of the code," Hilwa said.

Adobe isn’t expecting their new technology to completely overshadow Flash any time soon. "Flash technology will remain a key component for specific use cases, such as high-end video or gaming," Fernandez said. "We definitely see HTML5 and Flash continuing to co-exist, and so we'll continue to work on solutions for both at Adobe. Users will decide what technology they will use."

The preview edition of the technology is available to anyone that wants it as a free download. The final product is expected to be released in 2012. Versions will be available for both Windows and Apple computers.

PC World