Adobe's not exactly been winning over creatives recently, but today's announcement of new tools in Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator show it still leads the pack when it comes to continually expanding the features of its creative software. The two Creative Cloud apps have added a new AI-powered capabilities and plus productivity features designed to save users' time.
New tools include a Selection Brush tool in Photoshop and Mockup, Generative Shape Fill and enhanced Text to Pattern in the beta version of Illustrator. Read on read on for an overview of everything that's new in Photoshop and Illustrator today, and see our guide to Adobe Creative Cloud discounts if you're new to the software.
New features in Adobe Illustrator
New in Illustrator: A World of Creative Possibility | Adobe Creative Cloud - YouTube
First up, Adobe's industry-standard vector design software has added a range of new features in beta. It now has Firefly AI-powered Generative Shape Fill, a Dimension Tool, Mockup and enhanced Text to Pattern (see the video above). Meanwhile the Contextual Taskbar and performance enhancement tools are designed accelerate productivity.
Generative Shape Fill in Illustrator empowers designers to add detailed vectors to shapes in their own unique style for concept ideation or more detail in existing artwork and designs. Enhanced Text to Pattern allows users to scale customised vector patterns across design projects using text prompts, and Style Reference helps designers quickly edit and scale vector graphic creations, including subjects, scenes and icons.
Mockup (demonstrated by designer Michael Fugoso in the Instagram post above)delivers the ability to easily create high-quality visual prototypes of art on objects like product packaging, apparel and more by automatically adjusting the art to fit the curves and edges of the real-life object. Meanwhile, the Dimension tool helps designers plot precise sizing to projects in a few clicks for packaging design, architectural drawings, fashion patterns and more.
Retype helps designers convert static text to live, editable text and identify the perfect font for projects, while enhanced selection capabilities, including the new Enclosed Rectangular Marquee Selection aim to help designers select objects with more precision, which should be especially useful in intricate and crowded designs. Finally, Enhanced Pan and Zoom capabilities deliver faster and smoother performance for navigating highly complex documents (Adobe says up to 10 times faster with scalability from 3.13% to 64,000%).
New tools in Photoshop
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An opaque and feathered selection is applied to cat using the new Photoshop Selection Brush Tool(Image credit: Adobe)
Here, Gaussian Blur Filter has been applied to the inverted selection area in the background to create a depth of field effect with the cat as the focal point(Image credit: Adobe)
Photoshop has introduced a new Selection Brush Tool and has made Generate Image via Adobe Firefly Image 3 and the Adjustment Brush Tool now generally available.
The Selection Brush Tool aims to make selecting, compositing and applying filters more intuitive, while the Adjustment Brush enables users to easily apply non-destructive adjustments to specific portions of images. Meanwhile, Enhance Detail in Generative Fill delivers greater sharpness and detail in large size image formats and the Type Tool now provides faster and less-manual ways to create bulleted and numbered lists. Improvements in the Contextual Taskbar introduce popular settings for working with shapes and rotating objects to avoid having to wade through the menus.
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Adobe will be hoping the new additions demonstrate its commitment to keeping Photoshop and Illustrator ahead of the best Adobe alternatives following the recent controversy over the Adobe terms of use. Photoshop and Illustrator are available via subscription as individual apps or as part of Adobe's Creative Cloud package. See the best prices in your region below.
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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
