Adobe Max 2022, the annual industry conference hosted by Adobe, started two days ago (October 18, 2022) in Los Angeles. Since then, the info on new products, updates, and features in the Adobe ecosystem has not stopped coming in!
The event is set to close today, so here is a quick roundup of everything you can expect to find on your favorite Adobe apps, very soon!
AI and Collaborative Features Are The Big Protagonist
Straight off the bat what you need to know is that artificial intelligence is the umbrella over most of the new developments. Machine learning and computer vision technology applied to visual design and image or graphics manipulation are at the core of Adobe’s plans for the present and the future.
Equally important, the corporation is using a creative-centric approach that focuses on collaboration to improve workflows and end results. Interactive capabilities between popular Adobe apps, partnerships with important brands in related industries –like camera manufacturers–, and more, have been announced with the intention of easing creative networking.
Adobe’s Generative AI: Machine + Human Creations
AI-generated images are at the forefront of the visual industry this year, and of course, Adobe is on board.
They’re bringing Generative AI in the form of text-to-image creation tools. In Photoshop, you will find a feature where you can describe a visual idea in a text prompt, and the software will create a synthetic image based on it for you (just like Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, or similar tools do).
However, the interesting bit in this news is that Adobe believes that AI is here to expand creative possibilities yet not to replace human creativity, rather the opposite, they conceive this tool and the human input as a joint collaboration. This is why these AI-generated images will be fully editable with all the power of Photoshop, enabling you to create unique visuals with your signature touch.
For the less-savvy user, they also announced a text-to-image feature on Adobe Express, to create editable templates just from a text description, and to add graphic elements to them using the same technology. This aims at helping the non-designer to achieve their exact vision through a simpler and faster process than before.
Of course, this is just scratching the surface of what Generative AI will be capable of, within the Adobe ecosystem.
Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI)
Adobe has been working on its own initiative to ensure the process of Generative AI, and AI-generated content is as responsible, transparent, and respectful of human artists as possible.
The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) was created in 2019 with the goal of setting open industry standards for AI tools and preventing distorted information or misinformation surrounding AI content and AI-manipulated media.
Right now, the CAI has over 800 partners and offers an open-source technology that lets creators securely attach content provenance data to their work, through a new standard known as the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).
At Adobe Max, it was announced that leading camera brands Leica and Nikon have partnered with the CAI to bring the C2PA standards to their devices in 2023.
This development is very interesting, as copyright and legal protection are among the key concerns regarding the licensing of AI-generated content today.
Note: Soon after Adobe Max 2022, the company announced that Adobe Stock will be accepting AI-generated images from contributors in its library, albeit under strict submission standards to ensure technical, commercial, and legal value.
Adobe Photoshop Updates: AI Functionality
The improvements made to Adobe’s flagship app Photoshop are about making it smarter and easier to use across platforms.
Via Adobe Sensei AI tech, there are a number of new, intelligent functions added:
- Improved selection – You can now detect and select complex objects in an image with one single click, and accurately.
- One-Click Delete and Fill – You can now delete a selected object and automatically refill the area with content-aware fill, with one single action.
- Remove background – One-click background removal is now available in beta
- Photo restoration neural filter – Also in beta, this feature uses machine learning to remove imperfections and small damage to old photos, to bring them back to life.
- Masking and brushing – This beta feature lets you make precise adjustments to your image, faster and easier.
Also relevant is that features that were previously available only on one version of Photoshop (web app, for example) are now being made available across the board on web browsers and iPad app.
In Adobe Lightroom, the latest update has some very useful features such as:
- Select people – Select a specific person or all people in an image, as well as a person’s body parts individually, all from the right panel
- Select object – Roughly paint an object and it will automatically be selected with precision
- Content-aware remove – Roughly select an object, and it will automatically be removed with precision and refilled accordingly
- Adaptive presets – One-click enhancements that apply to selected elements only, to edit images in seconds
- Edit while compare – A feature that lets you work on an image, seeing a different version of it side by side
Most of these functions are available on the mobile version of Lightroom, too.
Adobe Express Updates: Intelligent and Easier Workflow
The user-friendly image and video editor Adobe Express –which concentrates on simplified yet effective versions of Adobe’s set of professional apps– is now also improved with the addition of AI functionality.
The key additions to this tool are:
- Quick actions – Popular actions such as removing backgrounds from photos, refining cutouts, trimming and merging videos, turning videos into GIFs, and more, can now be done automatically with a couple of clicks.
- AI-Driven template recommendations – You will receive accurate collections of templates based on the project you’re working on.
- Content Scheduler – It lets you collaborate, review, plan, and publish your visuals on social media, all within Express.
- Multi-Page capabilities – Design multiple assets across mediums and purposes, with consistent branding for each page.
- Advanced Search Discovery and Recommendation – Receive intelligent guidance on color palettes, font style, and more graphic choices, based on the specs of the project you’re working on.
Adobe Collaborative Features Between Creative Cloud and Document Cloud Apps
As part of the approach to collaboration, there are now ways to further interactions between creatives and between apps and devices on Adobe.
Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator: Share for Review – This new feature is currently in beta, but Share for Review lets you share a version-specific link of your project on Photoshop or Illustrator, and get feedback on it right within the app. This aims at integrating the feedback step –critical for project success– into the creative workflow and eliminating the hassle of jumping between messaging platforms and tools.
Additionally, the new Invite to Edit function lets other designers co-edit a file in real-time.
This new file-sharing system hopes to become to next industry standard.
As for Document Cloud, the updates center around Adobe Acrobat, the leading PDF manipulating tool. They are introducing a new viewer feature that streamlines collaborative access to PDF files: creating, editing, e-signing, and reviewing documents in this format will be easier than ever. Plus, new accessibility features like Read Out Loud and High Contrast are added to grant more users can benefit from Acrobat.
And finally, Acrobat will be landing in the Metaverse next year. Announced this week at Adobe Max, Acrobat for Meta Quest is said to let users use PDF documents inside virtual, augmented reality spaces, including the most popular features such as commenting, highlighting, and drawing.
Adobe Camera to Cloud: New Partnerships
A special mention here for Adobe Camera to Cloud, the new system developed by Adobe on the basis of Frame.io’s technology, which is an industry-first and hopes to become an industry standard over the next decade.
This system lets creators capture and transfer video directly from the camera to the Adobe cloud, where it’s instantly available for post-production using apps such as Premiere Pro and After Effects, and Frame.io folder structures. This way, content goes from the production studio to the editing room right away, saving production costs and time.
The newest integrations in Adobe Camera to Cloud, available for preview right now, are RED Digital Cinema’s V-RAPTOR and V-RAPTOR XL camera systems, and Fujifilm’s X-H2S mirrorless digital cameras.
Adobe Substance 3D Update: New Meta-Ready Features
Adobe’s end-to-end tool for 3D content creation, Substance 3D, has received a considerable boost with features that align with Meta’s Quest platform to produce immersive visual experiences.
For instance:
- Substance 3D Sampler – Substance Capture will now use photogrammetry and AI technology to produce textured 3D models from real-life photos.
- Substance 3D Modeler – Lets you go from desktop to VR set to build and sculpt 3D models. Adobe and Meta are in collaboration to bring this feature onto Meta Quest.
Plus, during Adobe Max they are previewing some exciting upcoming tools like:
Project Artistic Scenes – Turn a 2D image into an immersive, artistic 3D scene mimicking the signature styles of famous artists.
Project Beyond the Seen – Creates immersive 3D VR experiences from a single image.
Project Vector Edge – Visualize and edit designs in real-world environments by compositing 2D images or vectors into 3D spaces.
Overall, there is a lot coming onto Adobe and we couldn’t be more excited about it. Are you?
