Adobe previews Flash alternative Edge

Adobe

Adobe today announced a preview release of its Flash alternative Edge, an HTML5 design and animation tool.

Flash has been seen by some as a dying piece of software, in particular by Apple, which prevented the tool from working on iOS devices.

Adobe has chosen to release the HTML5 tool on the Labs website earlier than normal for a development cycle as it wants as much user feedback as possible.

Edge will work with browsers in iOS devices, as well as with other modern browsers.

"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 at Adobe.

"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."

Farhan Mirza, principal at consulting firm AT Kearney, said Edge would be important for Adobe to keep it "in the new world."

"Although Edge has been under public review for almost a year, the launch of v1.0 has come a bit earlier than expected. Which is good because developers need certainty on the products and tools they will invest in and use," Mirza added.

"Edge is an authoring tool that creates a Flash like environment for animation - something that developers will recognise and adapt to quite easily. And which plays to Adobe's strengths from its Illustrator and Photoshop products."

Tom Brewster

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.