Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator gain AI-generated patterns and vector graphics

In a nutshell: Adobe has been steadily adding generative AI functionality to its content creation suite over the past year. The latest update features tools that help users automatically generate vector graphics while editing patterns and shapes, and the company is also aiming to speed up the early stages of production design.

Adobe has demonstrated new generative AI features for quick designs now available to Photoshop and Illustrator users. The update that introduces this functionality also includes various other enhancements.

Generative Shape Fill allows users to draw simple outlines and automatically fill them with detailed vector graphics. Options include choices for tone, level of detail, and other factors to create different variations on the same outline. One video shows four possibilities for filling in a simple outline of a bird, ranging from highly detailed to flat and geometric.

Other clips showcase Enhanced Text to Pattern, which can generate artistic patterns from text prompts. One example demonstrates a floral pattern filling a butterfly shape, which the artist applies to the side of a handbag using the new Mockup tool. Meanwhile, the Dimension tool can properly scale design concepts to visualize how a final product or package might appear.

Users can also precisely edit patterns and vector graphics using Style Reference. The videos demonstrate the ability to easily shift, copy, and paste colors. Other additions include an OCR-like text manipulator called Retype. Tools for typing prompts, selecting elements, and magnification have also been improved.

Unsurprisingly, Adobe continues to stress its commitment to the ethical use of generative AI to avoid copyright-related controversies. The company has promised never to train its AI on user content.

This update comes just weeks after users caught Adobe trying to sneak a clause into its Terms of Service that they claimed gave it ownership over AI-generated creations. The company swiftly backtracked, reiterating its promise that designers own their creations.

Generative Shape Fill, Text to Pattern, and other new features are part of Adobe’s Firefly suite, a collection of AI libraries that have added multiple features to Photoshop, Illustrator, and other Adobe programs over the last year. The company has advertised the ability to automatically extend images (which many humorously used on famous album covers), manipulate individual elements, edit videos, and separate audio elements.