Google announced on Monday that it has launched Google Web Designer, a new HTML5 design tool, in public beta.

The tool is geared toward ad creation, but can be used for webpages. It lets you create animated HTML5 creative, view and edit code with a WYSIWYG editor, build creatives for DoubleClick and AdMob (or publish them elsewhere).

It’s free, and must be downloaded. It’s available for Mac or PC. It also receives automatic updates.

This follows another ad creation tool Google launched last week with Ready Creatives, which lets advertisers add their URLs, and generate display ads based on images from their websites. Elements like text, font, color, images, headlines, etc. can then be adjusted and customized.

Google also commissioned a study looking at HTML5 and “the holdup” for adoption. You can take a look at that here.

“By now, it’s evident that multi-screen consumption is the way of the future; mobile and tablet devices are becoming consumers’ first screens, so the content that is developed needs to work seamlessly across these screens,” says Google Web Designer lead engineer Sean Kranzberg. “There are already more end-users in HTML5-compatible environments than there are in Flash-compatible environments, and HTML5 ad spend is expected to overtake Flash spend within the next two years. But until recently, advertisers didn’t have the tools they needed to easily develop content fit for today’s cross-screen experiences.”

“HTML5 is a universal language for building beautiful, engaging content that can run across desktops, smartphones, and tablets,” says Kranzberg. “We think that Google Web Designer will be the key to making HTML5 accessible to people throughout the industry, getting us closer to the goal of ‘build once, run anywhere.'”

There’s a guide for using Google Web Designer available here.

Image: Google