Los Angeles — Adobe has unleashed a new multimedia authoring tool for education, dubbed Project Rome, a new all-in-one content creation and publishing application targeted to consumers, small businesses, and educators, the hosted service unveiled for public preview Sunday morning.
Adobe said it is looking for schools to participate in pilot programs using the software, especially those schools that have adopted Google’s Apps for Education or the open source learning management system Moodle. Designed as an easy-to-use application for non-professionals, it provides a way for the general public to create rich multimedia documents without having to purchase or learn complicated desktop publishing, design, Web creation, or multimedia applications.
Initially, Adobe has unleashed two versions of Project Rome: one for the general public for home and business use and the other, called Project Rome for Education, targeted to K-12. Common features to both versions include working with a full range of media types and a full range of formats and projects.
This novel program empowers users to produce printed, electronic, and Web-based documents by utilizing integrated graphics, photos, text, video, audio, animation, and interactivity. In addition, the cross-platform application is available both as an Adobe AIR desktop program and as a browser-based Web service. Project Rome offers output in formats such as PDF, SWF, JPG, PNG, SVG, or FXG or Web files for either an Adobe or third-party-hosted Website.
Adobe visualizes Rome being used in the workplace for presentations, marketing materials, online advertising, and Websites. Individuals and families can use Project Rome for vacation updates, family Websites, party invitations, digital scrapbooks, CD and DVD covers, and other personal projects. Educators can use a special version of Project Rome in classroom settings to help convey complex topics visually.
The hosted version of Project Rome for Education running in Safari.
Some other features include:
- Support for embedding videos from YouTube;
- Templates for creating presentations (as well as support for creating projects from scratch);
- Output to print, PDF, Flash, JPEG, interactive PDF, and other formats; and
- Cross-platform collaborative workflows and file sharing via Moodle and Google.
The consumer version needs Adobe ID log-in, Web hosting, and Community Exchange. Project Rome for Education requires the organization to have Google Apps for Education and/or the Moodle learning management system previously installed.
Project Rome for Education also supports Internet content protection and IT infrastructure requirements. Its layout engine, which mirrors the one found in Adobe’s professional page layout tool, InDesign, provides a full range of typeface and formatting controls, as well as paragraph controls, text flow from one text box to another, and text wrap for automatically wrapping copy around images and other page elements. It also offers drawing tools and a Flash-like timeline for animating elements based on various parameters, such as opacity, position, rotation, and other transformations.
Project Rome supports cloud-based computing and the ability to share files via Adobe Acrobat.com, Google Apps, or via the Project Rome Template Exchange. Users can also publish links to their creations directly via Facebook, Twitter, and Google buzz. Project Rome does not currently work on mobile phones and devices.
Project Rome for Education is currently up and running as a public preview as both a hosted application and a desktop application. A release date for the final version has not yet been set. Also, it is currently available only in English in the United States. Pricing for the shipping version has not yet been determined. However, when it is released, Project Rome will be offered as a paid subscription service for individuals and institutions alike. Further information can be found here.
The installed version of the program works on Intel Core Duo or faster Macs running OS X 10.5 or higher with a recommended 2GB of RAM or more. Users also need Flash Player 10.1.x or higher for the Web application and Adobe AIR 2.0.3 or higher for the desktop application.