Adobe adds AI tools for content creators in Adobe Express
The mobile version of Adobe Express is the latest of the company’s tools to get an AI upgrade.
Adobe Express is an easy-to-use tool for multimedia creation, capable of producing still images and short videos for use on social media and in print.
The company has been testing an improved version of Adobe Express on desktop browsers since last summer. Now it offers applications for iPhone and Android smartphones in the same beta test.
This means mobile users can take advantage of Adobe Firefly AI tools such as text-to-image conversion (where the software generates images from text prompts), text-to-template conversion (where it creates editable templates for Instagram post or flyer, for example). example) and text effects (where the AI applies a style to the text, such as the word “grass” where the text itself looks like a mown lawn).
Adobe Express AI
I got early access to the Adobe Express beta and the AI tools are both powerful and incredibly easy to use, even on a small mobile screen.
For the flyer below, for example, I was able to remove an image of two dancers that were on the original template and then generate a new image of a solo ballerina. Adobe Express has an AI-powered background removal tool that quickly isolated the ballerina from a dance studio background, and then I was able to colorize the ballerina’s image to match the rest of the leaflet.
AI tools simplify even sophisticated effects
While this seems good at first glance, there are clear signs of AI involvement. The ballerina’s right hand appears to have five (deformed) fingers and no thumb, for example. Generative AI notoriously struggles to render hands correctly.
New AI tools have had more success when adding elements to existing designs. Here, for example, we asked the AI to add a “cute hat” to the top of the dog’s head. Adobe’s tools allow you to drag your finger over the area where you want the generated image to appear, and even though I dragged a rather imprecise area on the smartphone screen, the AI was smart enough to drop the hat in the right place.
AI lets you insert objects into images, like this hat
Beta testing poses a big drawback for existing Adobe Express users: images created in current Adobe Express applications are not accessible from beta and vice versa.
Adobe’s Ian Wang, vice president and product manager of Adobe Express, assured me that all creative assets will be merged into a single library when AI features are added to the full version of the app, but for now, you will be. work in two separate pools if you want to use the beta version. The Adobe Express app for iPad is also not included in the beta test.
Competing with Canva
The addition of AI tools to Adobe Express is part of an ongoing arms war with its main rival Canva, which also offers a (less) selection of generative AI tools.
Both Adobe and Canva operate a credit system for AI generation, in which users get a certain number of credits, but must purchase more if they exceed their monthly allocation.