Adobe announces slate of improvements to Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and Lightroom
Adobe released a bevy of new updates to its flagship platforms ahead of the Adobe Max conference, which starts on Tuesday. Adobe's Scott Belsky explained a slate of changes and additions to Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom and more.
Belsky said Photoshop and Illustrator would be extended to the web so that projects could be accessed anywhere.
"With just a URL, you can invite anyone to view and comment on your Photoshop or Illustrator file - and the reviewers don't need to download any software or have a Creative Cloud subscription. And Creative Cloud subscribers can make light edits to Photoshop or Illustrator files right in their browser. The journey of bringing Creative Cloud to the web starts now with Photoshop on the Web in public beta, while Illustrator on the Web is debuting in private beta," Belsky said.
"Our team at Adobe is so excited to ship these updates and innovations across our entire product line. This year's MAX is also the first step in the journey to bring Creative Cloud to the web and enable a new era of collaborative creativity. We invite your feedback and suggestions as we roll out more capabilities and unlock new possibilities. We are honored to do everything we can to outfit you for the future of creativity."
For Photoshop, Adobe is also making masking easier, allowing users to simply hover over an object while the Hover Auto-Masking -- which is powered by the Adobe Sensei artificial intelligence engine -- automatically picks up on an object.
Neural Filters has been expanded and refined to make it easier for designers to handle complicated edits. There will additionally be a new Landscape Mixer feature that lets you change a landscape image.
"With creative teams spread around the world, multiple people working simultaneously on the same assets, and more stakeholders than ever interested in creative work, creative teams need a better way to collaborate and get aligned. We are addressing this need with Creative Cloud Spaces and Canvas," Belsky said.
"Spaces are shared repositories where everyone on your team can access and organize files, libraries, and links so you can easily manage access and collaborate centrally. A Canvas is a new way to display and visualize all of the creative work within a project, to review with collaborators and explore ideas together, all in real-time and in the browser."
Both Canvas and Creative Cloud Spaces are being tested in private beta but will be released widely next year.
Adobe is also adding cloud-native platform Frame.io to its portfolio of tools, allowing everyone involved in video production to give their input on a project.
For iPad users, changes are coming to Illustrator. Adobe said it is releasing previews for Vectorize, a new image tracing tool that "enables you to convert any image into a crisp, vector graphic with enhanced precision and control."
Multi-frame rendering is being added to After Effects as a way to "dramatically" reduce the amount of time spent waiting for a video to render. Premiere Pro is getting an automated Speech-to-Text feature that cuts the amount of time needed to caption videos. A tool called Body Tracker is being added to Character Animator.
Lightroom is getting a facelift with "completely reimagined" Selective Adjustment tools that help illustrators and photographers make precise selections while also applying specific fixes to parts of an image. There is also a new Community Remix feature that lets users send an image to another photographer to see what they would do with it.
Adobe announced a new effort with Behance to give its 26 million members new ways to make money from the art they produce. Anyone with a Creative Cloud subscription can now give their fans "exclusive access" to a range of features, including livestreams and even source files for certain pieces.
There is even a "Hire Me" button being added to profiles on the site so that Behance users can be contacted directly by people who like their work.
Adobe said it would be rolling out even more changes to some of its platforms throughout the Adobe Max event this week. The company said it has added dozens of new features to its programs that will allow users to save time, expand opportunities to create new things and more. Adobe is even building out its Substance 3D collection as 3D animation grows in popularity.
Belsky added that Adobe is rolling out the ability to attach Content Credentials in apps like Photoshop as part of their larger Content Authenticity Initiative that was designed to "combat visual misinformation and help ensure creators get credit for their work."
Content Credentials "include information like who created an image and when and where a photo was taken."
"NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have also emerged as a way for creators to access a whole new market for their work. Content Credentials can prevent unscrupulous people from hijacking your work and selling it on the NFT market," Belsky said. "We've partnered with the NFT marketplaces KnownOrigin, OpenSea, Rarible, and SuperRare to display Content Credentials."