Full-feature image editing on the web, no app required!

Shelling out hundreds of bucks for Photoshop and clogging up your hard drive with dozens of megabytes of application files is no one's idea of a picnic, but for those people who are interested in creating illustrations, touching up photos, and doing other artistic endeavors, there has really be no alternative than to shell out for such software.

No more: Aviary is a new online service (now in private beta) that lets anyone edit and create images (and more) on the web, no software installation required.

Aviary will ultimately be a suite of 18 media tools, with heavy focus on image editing. Phoenix (they all have bird names) is the centerpiece, a full-fledged image editing system that should be familiar to anyone who's worked with Photoshop. It includes layers, color adjustments, and a host of drawing and selection manipulation tools. I'm hardly an image editing expert, but people are already using Aviary to create some compelling art (primarily in the vein of melding images together). This is powerful software (though, as it's beta, it can be slow to update when you perform complex actions). As Aviary says, "It's not for red-eye removal." (Check the screenshot for sample Aviary art if you don't believe me!)

During the beta, Aviary is free. Pricing has not been announced for the final release. You'll have to sign up using your email address to receive a beta invitation if you want to get in on the action. I got my invite the same day I registered.

Meanwhile, I'm definitely looking forward to the additional apps that Aviary is working on, especially the online video editor, Starling, and its desktop publishing system, Owl. There's even a terrain generator and font editor in the works. Register at the site to get in on the action and watch this Aviary grow!