In the past 30 days, more than 53 million edits were made to design files stored in Dropbox — so it's no surprise that creative professionals around the world rely on Dropbox as an integral part of their day-to-day workflows. If you've ever sent or received a large design file (like a Photoshop, Illustrator, or PostScript file), you know that every minute spent trying to access or share the file is valuable time wasted. This experience becomes especially burdensome when the person receiving the link doesn't have the right software to view the image — in which case you likely find yourself scrambling to create workarounds and convert file types in an attempt to even just see what the file contains. To help take the pain out of these interactions, we're introducing a new and improved web preview experience for images — so working with design files in Dropbox is faster and easier than ever. Over the next few days, you'll notice a few changes when viewing images on Dropbox.com:
- A new advanced image viewer for web previews. When you're previewing an image (like those ending with .png, .jpeg, .bmp, or .psd) on the Dropbox website, clicking on the image brings up a new image toolbar. From there you can zoom in all the way and pan around in the zoomed view.
- Better support for Photoshop (.psd), Illustrator (.ai), and scalable vector graphic (.svg) files. Previews for these file types will look crisper than ever, with more accurate color matching and higher quality resolutions. Dropbox now also supports web previews for artboards and pages within Illustrator files, so you can page through the entire file and zoom in on any page, without even downloading it.
- New support for PostScript (.eps) files. For the first time, you can now preview PostScript images in your browser, instead of having to download the file to see it.
Essentially, there's no need to have the right design software installed or download a file to see a high-fidelity preview — you and your clients can see the image in its true resolution, right in the browser. These updates are especially useful when you're sending large high-res images, or if you're working with people who don't use design software. You don't have to worry about compressing files to make them fit into an email, or converting them to a universal format like jpeg or png so a client can view them. Just send a Dropbox shared link, and the recipient will be able to see the full resolution image with just a click — even if they don't have the right design software installed, and even if they don't have a Dropbox account. Pro tip: For the ultimate productivity win, try using these new image previews with the Open button and commenting. For example, here's how it might help when collaborating with a client:
Step 1: Send a Photoshop file to a client via a shared link.
Step 2: Later in the day, the client clicks on the shared link and goes to a web preview of the file. In her browser she sees the design in full resolution, even though she doesn't have Adobe Photoshop installed. She leaves a comment on the web preview requesting a small change.
Step 3: You're notified via email about her comment. When you click on the email, you go to the web preview of the design, and see her comment.
Step 4: You click the Open button, and the file opens in Photoshop so you can make the requested change.
This new preview experience is rolling out to all Dropbox users over the next few days. It's part of our effort to make Dropbox the best place for creative professionals to get work done, so stay tuned for even more improvements in this space!
