Despite the pros and cons that surround the decision, the real question is whether this new technology has what it takes to at least stand on the same ground with Flash. For the time being, the answer might still be “not yet”. However, a new online photo editor from Aviary called Feather shows us that we can definitely expect great things from HTML5.
The Photo Editor
Aviary is the maker of the online photo editor suite. Feather, its latest creation, is the simplified version (with HTML5 twist) of Phoenix, Aviary’s Flash-based online photo editor. But being the simplified version doesn’t mean that Feather is less powerful than Phoenix. Feather collects the most popular tools of Phoenix, and packs them into one light and simple tool. Feather is perfect for everyday users who will never use advanced image editing tools to re-touch their images – and who could use extra system resources while doing so.
Anybody can use the tool without any obligation. Just visit the site and click on the “See it in Action” tab.
Then you can upload your image to edit.
Or you could also point Feather to an online image location by providing the image’s URL. Feather will download the image to its server.
The image will be opened along with a bunch of image editing tools such as Rotate, Flip, Resize and Crop. There are also quick effect tools that you can use, like: Instant!, Toy Camera, Old Photo and Retro.
More options of a specific tool will be available after you select that tool. There’s also Undo and Redo buttons.
Feather allows you to add text to your images, but the options are very limited. You can’t change the font type nor add effects. All you can do is change the color and size of the font.
To delete a text group, select the text and click on the “X” button on the top right corner of the text box.
To get fun effects quickly and effortlessly, use the quick effect tools. Below is the result of “Instant!” tool.
After you are done, click the save button and wait. You will be given a URL and a download button to download the image.
On The Mobile Side
Out of curiosity, I tried to open Feather using iPhone’s Safari. Even though the site could be opened just fine, I couldn’t upload any image from the phone to the editor. The only option left was to use an image URL.
So I opened my blog, then tapped and held on an image. I chose “Copy” from the pop up buttons to copy the image.
I went back to the editor, tapped on the URL field and chose “Paste“. The image URL was pasted inside the URL field, I clicked “Go” and the image was opened along with the editor and I could edit the image as if it was done on an ordinary browser.
This little experiment showed us that this free, light and powerful image editing tool is also accessible from iDevices (and other smart phones) as long as they can connect to the internet. The best method is to edit images that are already on the web, something like Flickr photos or pre-uploaded personal photos.
Embedding The Tool To Your Site?
The developer mentions that you can also embed the online photo editor to your site. After a few failed attempts to use the embedded tool as a personal online image editor, I contacted the developer asking whether I made mistakes in the process. It turned out that the current version of the embeddable image editor doesn’t support image uploading and will only add an Edit button below specific images on the page where the code is embedded.
The developer also said that an image uploading feature might be added in the future. But until then, we’ll have to stick to the online editor on the Aviary site.
In conclusion, I think Feather is a very useful light, simple and powerful image editor. The tool could be a good alternative to heavier online (and offline) image editors.
Have you tried Feather? What do you think of the tool? Share your opinions using the comments below.
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