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Adobe accidentally released its cloud-based photo editor

Lightroom-powered 'Project Nimbus' reportedly has a refined UI and 1TB of storage.

It's ever more important to be able to edit your photos on the go. Adobe has stripped-down versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and Lightroom apps available in both mobile and web-based formats. You manage your photos through Adobe's Creative Cloud system, though, which can be a bit cumbersome, especially when you forget to sync your files. Adobe announced "Project Nimbus" last year, an app that helps simplify the complex interface of Lightroom. According to French site, MacGeneration, the app was just mistakenly made available to Creative Cloud users. The error was caught and remedied soon after by Adobe, but not before some users took screenshots.

Nimbus isn't exactly Lightroom, though it apparently uses some of the same tools, including those for basic light and color adjustments, refraction, brush and gradient correction. Nimbus also standard options, like copy and paste, a way to see the original photo easily and a histogram display. What sets the cloud app apart, though, is that the photos and the modifications are both stored in the cloud, which obviates any need to sync photos and rely on your Lightroom installs having the same setups. The cloud-based editing app reportedly has an automatic image tagging system, too. Both of these features are similar to those in Apple's iCloud Photo Library.

According to the screenshots, Adobe's upcoming app, with a beta due this year, also seems to have a non-destructive workflow, letting you edit your images without worrying about losing the initial image. The interface is closer to the iPad version of Lightroom, reports MacGeneration, and seems to includs 1TB of cloud storage — quite a bit more than the standard 20GB that current Creative Cloud users have access to.

An Adobe spokesperson sent us the following statement. "We mistakenly shared Project Nimbus with a small group of Adobe Creative Cloud customers. As you will recall from MAX in October 2016, Project Nimbus is next-generation photo editing technology that we have been exploring as part of our Lightroom and Photoshop ecosystems. We cannot share any further details at this time but will keep you posted on future developments."