Microsoft is testing a new feature in its Edge web browser currently that allows users to edit images before they are saved to the local system.
Spotted by Reddit user Leopeva64-2, the new feature enables basic image editing functionality, including the ability to crop, add mark-up, make adjustments or apply filters.
The new capability is tested in Microsoft Edge Canary currently, but only select Edge instances have it enabled. There does not seem to be an experimental flag at this point to unlock the feature.
Edge users who have it enabled in their browser see the new option when they right-click on an image or hover over it. The right-click menu displays the “edit image” option as a new entry, and the mouse hover option a new icon under the “visual search” icon. Activation of the icon displays a menu with the edit image command and others, including an option to hide it on the active site or all sites.
Windows users who look at the image editor may notice that it resembles the editor that Microsoft baked into the Windows Photos app. The interface looks similar, with just a few changes here and there.
The four main editing options, crop, adjustment, filter, and markup are in the same location. Save and undo swapped places with zoom, and the bottom control bar with its rotate and other image editing options looks identical.
Even the submenus of the available editing tools like similar. A click on Adjustments displays the same sidebar to edit light and color related parameters of the image. When you select markup, you will notice that the available markup tools are displayed on the left and not on the bottom. Other than that, the tool still gives you options to use the pen or highlighter directly on the image.
Do web browsers need image editing functionality?
Edge users who wanted to edit images that they found in the browser had two options up until now: save the image and open it in an image editor, or, use the built-in web capture tool. The latter is very basic, as it supports only drawing on images.
Image editors are more powerful than what the Photos app or Microsoft Edge offers, but they may not be needed at all times, e.g., to quickly highlight part of an image or crop it. Still, most Edge users may not have any use for editing images that they download.
Some might say that Microsoft is adding too many features to Edge, which bloat the browser. The feature can be turned off on the other hand, so that it won’t get into the way anymore.
Now You: image editor in the browser, yay or nay?
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