Adobe Introduces One of Its Most Significant Photoshop Updates Ever

At its MAX event in London, Adobe unveiled an all-new beta version of Photoshop built on the advancements made in the Adobe Firefly Image 3 Foundation Model, also revealed today.

Adobe is introducing significant advancements to its AI-powered Generative Fill feature. Users can augment the feature using a reference image, promising more realistic and accurate results with enhanced control.

Generative AI technology goes far beyond Generative Fill. Much like Adobe Firefly enables users to create something from scratch, turning a blank page into a rich canvas, Photoshop’s new Generate Image offers the same option. Adobe’s new Firefly Image 3 Foundation Model is now available natively within Photoshop, where it powers Generative Fill, Generative Expand, and, of course, Generate Image.

Photographers can use a reference image when using Generative Fill, and they can also use a reference image for Generate Image and Generative Expand. In a similar spirit, the new Generate Similar feature enables creators to iterate AI-created content using selected variants.

AI-powered tools go beyond outright content creation. Much like Adobe recently implemented new-and-improved noise reduction in Photoshop, Adobe Camera Raw, and Lightroom, the company is also putting an AI spin on sharpness with Enhance Detail. The new feature promises to improve the apparent crispness of images through tweaks to sharpness and clarity.

There are also new tools that AI doesn’t power. In the new Photoshop beta, Adobe is adding an Adjustment Brush that enables users to apply non-destructive adjustments to specific areas of an image, similar to tools already available in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw.

Another Lightroom-inspired feature is Adjustment Presets. These allow creators to quickly change the appearance of images inside Photoshop with one-click filters. Users can tweak these filters and save changes as new presets as well.

Adobe is also implementing an improved font browser, with real-time access to Adobe’s 25,000-plus fonts in the cloud.

“This massive new update to Photoshop takes creativity to unprecedented levels — whether you are a professional or brand new to Photoshop,” says Ashley Still, senior president of the Creative Product Group at Adobe. “Through new Firefly-powered features in Photoshop, we are bringing ideation and creation closer together and making images both more powerful and approachable so everyone can realize their creative vision.”

Since Adobe introduced Generative Fill and Generative Expand to Photoshop last May and July, users have adopted the former at a 10 times greater rate than the average new Photoshop feature. The company believes that thanks to its new, much better Firefly Image 3 Model, Photoshop users will benefit from the company’s AI advances more than ever.

Photoshop users won’t have to wait long to try out the new features for themselves. The brand-new Photoshop desktop beta version is available now. The complete public release is expected to arrive later this year.

Image credits: Adobe