With computing devices getting smaller and demand for storage getting larger, software developers are looking to browser-based applications as the answer to next generation applications.
Among them are three young men from Kharkiv, who have
designed a new browser-based photo editing platform that allows photographers
to edit RAW images on the web, and save their work in cloud storage.
Pics.io already this week has been featured on popular
tech websites TechCrunch, CNET and PetaPixel. News about it also spread through
a number of Ukrainian and other European technology sites, said Konstantin Shtondenko, the startup’s business development manager.
“It’s
been fun to see what stories about Pics.io look like in Bulgarian,” he told the
Kyiv Post.
Shtondenko,
Chief Technologies Officer Vlad Tsepelev and Chief Executive Officer Yevgeniy Shpika
(they often call him John, a nickname given to him while in America), who all
have backgrounds in photography, wanted to develop image editing software “that
would be easier,” Shtondenko explained.
The
idea for Pics.io came to Shpika while working in medical imaging. Shpika found
the process of transferring images too difficult and tedious. “Most of the time
you have to transfer them on discs,” Shtondenko explained. Shpika, who has also
designed two plugins for Adobe’s Lightroom, dreamed of transferring photographs
more efficiently.
The
group doesn’t expect Pics.io to replace Adobe’s Photoshop or Lightroom as the
industry standard, but “more like a compliment tool for photographers who want
to move to the cloud today.”
The group is currently considering offers from eager angel
investors who they hope will help take their working prototype to the next
level.
Those interested in using Pics.io can now add their
name to a waiting list. The startup will open to a small group of users around
the end of June, but the trio plans to release the full product by year-end.
The
number of photos that users will be able to edit with Pics.io each month will
be limited, Shtondenko said. But premium, paid accounts will be offered that
allow for unlimited editing.
As far as editing tools go, nothing will be off
limits.
“You will be able to do everything with (Pics.io) that
someone could do with Photoshop or Lightroom,” he added.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Christopher J. Miller can be reached at [email protected], or on Twitter at @ChristopherJM.
