• Adobe sees major growth in AI referrals to travel sites
• Rich, structured content is the best way to ensure AI engine visibility
• Hotels lead the way, airlines fall short in being fully accessible to LLMs

Combined traffic analysis and market research has led Adobe to observe a 194% year-over-year rise in traffic to US travel websites, and an even more astounding 2,215% rise since it first started tracking AI referrals in October 2024.

The data implies that AI is being used for much more than research, as its use cases span planning, recommendations, packing and even budgeting.

With 86% of travellers believing that AI has improved their travel planning experience, it's clear that consumers are finding better recommendations, producing more personalized itineraries and getting access to cheaper prices, making it a go-to for financially savvy consumers.

AI traffic to travel sites reveals an important trend

While AI traffic still converts around 28% worse than traditional traffic, Adobe says this is changing and the gap has narrowed by almost 70% since October 2024. Now, AI-referred users spend 70% longer on websites, are 21% more engaged and have 41% lower bounce rates, which could translate to more purchasing intent.

With this in mind, travel websites must capitalize on this new type of traffic by optimizing pages for LLMs. Adobe says "rich, structured content" is to thank for the success levels hotel websites have already seen, but airline websites are falling behind.

Adobe used its own AI Content Visibility Checker metrics to reveal that hotels and car rental companies perform best across both the home page and product pages, but even then, around a third of the content is still unreadable by AI.

"As consumer adoption of AI tools accelerates, brands must ensure their digital presence is not only engaging for humans, but fully accessible to machines as well," the company summarized.

• LinkedIn selected to host Adobe's AI training for marketing professionals
• Completed course will be shown on LinkedIn profiles
• AI literacy job ads are up 113% year-over-year

Adobe has teamed up with LinkedIn to launch its new AI Essentials for Marketers training initiative, in the hope that marketing professionals can stay up to date with the tech and its impacts on their roles.

It's designed to focus on real-world workflows specific to this industry, rather than just offering theoretical knowledge that marketers would have to translate to their own use cases.

But best of all, the training is being made available for free via LinkedIn Learning, with additional content being hosted on the Adobe Experience League.

Adobe to offer AI training for marketers through LinkedIn

It's unclear how long the training scheme will run for, but Adobe says it's committed to continuously updating the program as AI and marketing practices evolve.

Besides utilizing Adobe's expertise in creative software, digital marketing and AI tools, the training was also designed around LinkedIn's labor market data. The Microsoft-owned platform revealed the proportion of marketing job ads requiring AI literacy has increased 113% year-over-year, and AI skills are now the number one focus area for marketing professionals.

"AI Essentials for Marketers is about more than mastering new tools; it’s about reimagining what creativity, marketing strategy, and customer relationships look like in an AI-powered era," Enterprise at Adobe CMO Rachel Thornton said, noting that "training and re-skilling are top of mine for CMOs" in today's economy.

Content creation, audience targeting, campaign development and data and insights will be among the key target areas of the training.

And because the training is being offered through LinkedIn – an increasingly verifiable platform – completion certificates can be added directly to profiles.

• PDF Spaces are like mini cloud storage drives for sharing PDFs and generating visual content
• A new productivity agent helps you to create files from PDFs, and even edit PDFs themselves
• You'll need a pricy Acrobat Studio plan to access PDF Spaces, though

Adobe has declared the traditional email attachment is no longer fit for purpose and has introduced a new style of PDF sharing to support the latest era of human-AI collaboration.

Described as an evolution of Acrobat AI Assistant, Adobe's PDF Spaces is said to be a proactive tool that does more than just responding to prompts, offering up summaries and audio guidance for ease of access.

"We’re introducing a new way to share information," Adobe Document Cloud VP Abhigyan Modi wrote in a blog post.

Adobe reinvents PDF sharing after inventing the PDF

The update comes as PDF usage continues to soar – Acrobat users send more than 200 million of them annually, opening up a staggering 400 billion every year.

The new productivity agent covers a lot of ground, generating images, text and other file types like presentations, podcasts and social media posts from your PDFs, but it can also be used for conversational PDF editing within Acrobat to save having to jump between file types.

At the core of Adobe's new sharing system are "interactive experiences," rather than plain files and links. On top of the generative AI tools we've come to expect in the Creative Cloud suite, a new productivity agent gets to work to "generate summaries, answer questions, provide guidance and tell you who’s engaging." A demo shows the agent generating interactive decks that serve as a first point of contact for recipients before they dive deeper into individual PDFs.

Much like a cloud storage drive, businesses can create their own space with branding, PDFs, documents, links and notes.

Adobe's PDF Spaces functionality is available in the Acrobat Studio plan, priced at $24.99/month on an annual commitment. The productivity agent is also available across all Adobe Acrobat AI Plans.

Speaking with TechRadar Pro in an exclusive interview at Adobe Summit 2026, the company's Chief Legal Officer, Louise Pentland, urged policymakers to resist radical changes, and for courts and companies instead to focus on a more pragmatic approach.

At the same time, Pentland also advocated for tech companies to get involved – not to redefine copyright law, but to maintain authenticity and protect creators in this era of AI assistance.

"We don't want it to stifle innovation," she said, "but at the same time, we can't leave it completely unchecked."

Copyright rules must evolve – but we don't need to rewrite them from the ground up

Our discussion with Pentland comes at a critical moment in AI copyright law. We're shifting from refusal of copyright protection for AI-generated assets, to the consideration of protection for content that combines AI with just the right amount of human interjection. But what's considered 'enough' is still up for debate.

In 2025, the US Copyright Office granted protection to an image that was created with AI assistance, making this the first time anyone has ever been granted copyright protection for AI-generated work.

Pentland was particularly proud of this case, with Kent Keirsey, the artist of 'A Single Piece of American Cheese', now working at Adobe – we suspect this worker is now contributing to copyright conversations within the company, too.

However, the decision was ultimately made by a single human, or group of humans, and it may not have been reflected equally across the world due to the case-by-case nature of copyright protection.

Ultimately, changes need to be made to standardize thresholds for global consistency, but rather than rewriting copyright law entirely, Pentland believes existing frameworks can stretch to accommodate AI – just with clearer guidance.

"The worst thing you could do is rip everything up and start again," Pentland told us, pointing to ongoing court activity where judges are already applying traditional law.

At the heart of Adobe's arguments and the company's general position on AI is that human creativity is irreplaceable. That applies not just to copyright, but also to model training.

"If you disincentivize creators to create content or create images, then what are you going to have?" Pentland asked, warning that failing to protect artists could risk undermining the entire data foundations that generative AI relies upon to exist in the first place.

Her team is advocating for stronger protections for all creators – including those who have given permission for their work to feed training datasets – with the goal of maintaining human creativity.

Policy isn't everything – software developers also have a responsibility

However, rather than placing the burden entirely on regulation, Pentland believes the technology itself must play a central role in governance.

For Adobe, this means pushing Content Credentials, which the company describes separately as "a durable, industry-standard metadata type that acts like a digital nutrition label for content," in a bid to create verifiable content trails.

Adobe sees this type of verification protecting consumers against threats like deepfakes, enabling users to verify authenticity.

To date, the 'Big Five' camera makers (Fujifilm, Sony, Canon, Nikon and Leica) and some Android manufacturers (Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy) have implemented Content Credentials, as have a number of popular platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, Meta and TikTok.

When asked about watermarking, Pentland rejected visible marks as the default solution, favoring options like metadata or QR-style verification to preserve the integrity of an artist's work.

The future of AI copyright and protection isn't uniform, nor is it just on regulators

It's been years since popular generative AI tools gained public traction (we're looking at you, ChatGPT), but courts are still battling to define what copyright looks like in the era of AI.

But with regulators drafting new takes on existing rules, and software vendors trying to inject an element of governance into their own technologies, it's clear that a single, unified solution isn't winning.

The difficulty at the moment is that regions like the US, EU and UK are pushing their own goals. "It's a fallacy to think there would be a universal standard that would apply globally," Pentland said. "but we can dream."

Instead, it looks like we'll be seeing a layered approach that combines existing copyright laws with slight modifications and clarifications, technologies that can verify content authenticity, and better creator protection.

• Anthropic is announcing a series of new creative connectors for Claude
• One single Adobe connector opens up access to 50+ pro-grade tools
• Others include Blender, Ableton, Autodesk, Splice and Canva

Adobe and Anthropic have announced plans to integrate professional creative tools straight into the Claude interface to give Anthropic customers access to the Creative Cloud suite without having to switch apps.

It's part of a broader rollout of Claude connectors being rolled out across the creative space, including Blender and Ableton, to democratize and simplify access to some of the most specialized design apps out there.

The Adobe connector was announced after the company's annual Summit event, which largely focused on the future of marketing, and builds on existing AI links like the Photoshop app within ChatGPT.

Anthropic is going after the creative space with Claude connectors

As for the Adobe connector specifically, Claude gets access to more than 50 pro-grade tools across popular apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, Firefly and more. Users can retouch and enhance photos, create assets for social media campaigns and resize their videos for multiple platforms from within Claude, without having to understand some of the complex workflows of each specific app.

Because the work is being done via Adobe tools within the Claude interface, and not by Claude directly, it means users can pick up inside the actual Adobe apps if they want to deepen their edits and so on.

Available globally, users will need a Claude account to access the Adobe connector. Higher usage limits, access to more tools and the ability to save your work across sessions comes with signing in to an Adobe account, but it seems that signing in isn't necessary for some of the most basic functionalities.

But while Adobe's connector hits the headlines for making powerful editing more accessible to non-technical, non-creative workers, it's not the only creative connector Anthropic is adding to Claude. As well as Abelton and Blender mentioned above, Affinity by Canva, Autodesk Fusion, Resolume Arena, Resolume Wire, SketchUp and Splice are also coming to Claude.

All of this, Anthropic says, without replacing the taste and imagination of creatives. Instead, the company sees these connectors helping them to replace repetitive tasks and manual toil, freeing them up to take on larger-scale projects.

Adobe Illustrator began development in 1985, with its initial release coming out in 1987. 39 years in an eternity in computing terms, and it’s amazing this venerable piece of software is still the ruling king when it comes to design, illustrations and vector-based work.

We've long championed it as one of the best graphic design software apps around - but now I'm taking a look at some of the new features that are being introduced with the latest version, Adobe Illustrator 2026 (I explored version 30.3).

Adobe Illustrator: Pricing & plans

• Subscription-only but the price befits its status as the king of the hill
• Cheaper alternatives available like Canva’s Affinity
• But they lack all the features and integration with other Adobe software

Adobe Illustrator is a professional app, and as such, is part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud Pro subscription. As has been the case for years now, you can’t purchase the software, you can only rent it.

Creative Cloud Pro includes over twenty high end software packages, including Photoshop, InDesign, and of course, Illustrator, and will cost you $35 a month for the first three months on an annual subscription (after that deal, the price reverts to $70 a month for the remainder of your agreement).

If that’s too much for you, you can subscribe to Illustrator on its own for $23 a month. Students and educational institutions can also get it or the entire suite at a steep discount.

Be aware though that every time you use generative AI, you’ll be spending credits. You get a set number every month with your plan, but also have the option of purchasing more separately, either as a one-off, or as part of another subscription.

OK, time to take a look at some of the new features that caught my eye in Adobe Illustrator’s new release.

Adobe Illustrator: Features

• Loads of new features added
• I especially like those focused on interface improvements like color artboards
• Great tools for refining your designs including snapping to tangents

Let’s start with some simple improvements to do with Artboards. Up to now, if you needed them to have colored backgrounds, you’d have to create a rectangle, apply a color to it and use that as your backdrop, which, although doable, was cumbersome.

Now, finally, you can apply different colors to each of your Artboards, right from the Properties panel, through its Fill dropdown menu. By default, it’s set to transparent, but you can also choose either black or white, and if that’s not enough, selecting ‘Custom’ gains you access to a virtually unlimited gamut of colors.

Right-clicking on the canvas offers some handy options to manage your document’s artboards. You’re able to rename, duplicate, or delete them, or even create new ones with ease. There’s also the option to lock a selected artboard, but sadly no option to unlock it - to do that you need to go to Window > Artboards, and click on its lock icon from the popup window. So, I guess 'cumbersome' hasn’t completely gone away.

But it’s still an improvement. And speaking of improvements, the classic Eyedropper tool has been enhanced, and I found it works more reliably than before. A single click, for instance, will now properly copy the color and stroke of a selected object (you can extract more of course, but that depends on what you selected in the Eyedropper options).

There’s also shift-clicking. Press and hold the shift key, and you’ll get a large circle around the eyedropper cursor. The bottom half represents the current color, while the top half is the color it’ll change to once you click.

A color picker that works as advertised and has added functionality, I can work with that.

This leads us to some subtle additions you probably never knew you needed, like how the end of a straight line now snaps to a circle’s tangent, or how one line snaps perpendicularly to another. Those are on by default and will make precise designs much easier.

And speaking of much easier, how about gradients with fewer banding - or no banding at all, even? Depending on how close you get to a gradient, you’ll start to notice lines along it as the one color changes to another. This latest version of Illustrator introduces two options to dissipate those lines, creating a much smoother gradient.

The first one is via a new menu in the gradient Properties called “Method”. By default, it’s set to ‘Classic’, but change it to ‘Perceptual’, and it should look more like it would in real life - at least that’s the intention. The change can be quite subtle depending on the complexity of your gradient, and in my experience, it ranged from no discernible change, to a pleasing improvement.

The second option is a ‘Dither’ tick box. This one works in either ‘Method’, and when toggled, it adds a mesh of subtle imperfections to the gradient to conceal any banding, and I found the results to be very effective.

Adobe Illustrator: AI tools

• Introduces impressive AI-based tools to expand your creation’s horizons

But why do all the hard work when you can let a complex algorithm do it all for you, right? Right? Well… not quite, but Adobe Illustrator now comes with some interesting “AI” tools to broaden your digital creations, like Generative Expand.

Triggering the tool will give you handles which you then drag beyond the confines of your original creation. This will create pink borders, making it clear where Illustrator needs to apply itself. When you’re ready (and you have enough credits), click on ‘Generate’ and the machine will get to work.

It should only take a few seconds but I found the end results, like Generative Expand on Photoshop, to be impressive - and I don’t particularly like AI! The results weren’t perfect, mind, but it should be much easier to manually refine the output as opposed to creating all that expanded area yourself.

Another complex algorithm feature I was impressed by is Turntable. It’s designed to turn a 2D vector graphic into a 3D one. Your results may vary, and the tool itself warns you if it thinks the image you’ve selected might not yield good results. That warning may, or may not be correct - sometimes the only way to know for sure is to spend your credits and try it out.

The objects I experimented with, varied in their success. The globe was… interesting, but then again Illustrator did warn me it might not work as expected, so kudos for the warning. The butterfly was mostly flawless, and the horse’s head (a sketch of a head, not a Godfather triggering nightmare) was perfect.

So yes, your mileage may vary, but when it works great, it’s eye opening (but not in A Clockwork Orange way). Once done, you’re able to rotate your now-3D object 360 degrees using a slider. To the right of it are Up and Down arrows; these allow you to see your design from above or below by a maximum of 30 degrees either way.

All in all, Illustrator keeps getting refined with each update. The improvements are most welcome, and the new features will certainly please a lot of artists. There’s something here for everyone which is always a positive thing.

Should I buy?

Buy it if...
You need a powerful vector-based illustration system with a steady stream of improvements and new features to make the expensive subscription worthwhile

Don't buy it if...
You’re not a fan of the increasing incursion of AI into the software, or despite all its features, the asking price is just too much for you.

We've also tested out the best Adobe InDesign alternatives and the best alternatives to Adobe Photoshop

Adobe After Effects is the juggernaut of motion design and visual effects software. You’d think a tool that’s been around for 33 years couldn’t possibly bring new and exciting features to the table, right?

Well version 26 certainly proves you can teach an old dog some impressive new tricks.

What does After Effects do, I hear you ask? Well, as our pick for best VFX software around, any visual effects you can apply to video, such as animated text, graphics and illustrations, fancy overlays, and so much more, you can create inside After Effects and apply to your film project.

Your creative options are staggeringly vast, and I found go even further with this latest version.

Adobe After Effects: Pricing & plans

• Professional software at a professional price
• Subscriptions aren't cheap but there are two options here
• Free 14-day trial

If you know Adobe, you’ll know you can’t purchase their pro apps: you can only rent them, although you do have a few subscription options available to you.

First off, you could just subscribe to After Effects on its own. This would cost you, as an individual, $38 per month, or $456 for the year (other companies give you a discount when paying for the year upfront, but there’s no such benefit here).

Alternatively, you could invest in the Creative Cloud Pro plan, which includes over 20 of Adobe’s professional software, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and a host of others, and of course, After Effects.

This bundle of powerful tools will set you back $100 a month per user, or $1,200 for the year in advance. Again, no advantage to giving them all your money in one go.

This isn’t cheap, but then again, this is advanced software you’ll be using (students can get it for much less).

If you like the idea of trying before buying, you can get yourself a free 14-day trial, which will automatically enrol you into the monthly or yearly subscription upon completion (your choice), so make sure you cancel before that happens should you decide this isn’t for you.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s take a look at what I feel are some of the most important new features in After Effects 26.

Adobe After Effects: Features

• Seamless VFX creations
• Steep learning curve
• New, useful and long requested featured added, including variable fonts support and native SVG import

By default, After Effects 26 greatly improves playback performance thanks to support for ‘lossless compressed frames’. Behind the scenes, it compresses your clips without losing quality so they take up less space in your disk cache. This means your previews can be longer or you can have more of them before your cache runs full.

Of course, you have complete control over this. Should you wish to disable that feature, you’ll find the relevant tick box in the Disk Settings (look for ‘Enable Compressed Frames (Lossless)’)

After Effects (finally!) fully supports Illustrator files, enabling you to animate your graphic designs. This includes support for Illustrator gradients.

One feature I found particularly useful is the ability to crop your composition based on a selected asset. Associated with that is a feature I really liked: being able to work with SVG files natively, and even have access to, and being able to, manipulate every vector path that make up the selected illustration. The only downside is the mess that is the naming of the various paths and groups. Still, being able to modify each path over time is a fantastic feature for After Effects to have.

Another cool addition is support for variable fonts. These are fantastic for creating complex animations with ease, as they allow you to make changes to the font’s weight, width, and more, all keyframeable, and you can transform individual letters that way too. These parameters are accessed through an icon to the right of the font’s name in the Text panel.

Variable fonts are a special type of font with various modifiable ‘axes’ - the more a font has the more parameters you’re able to alter. If you don’t have any such fonts in your collection, don’t worry: Adobe has a large collection of them here, and do does Google here.

If you’ve ever needed to work with a flame effect, but have struggled to key out the white or black backdrop, you’ll love the new ‘Unmult’ effect. Just drag it onto the clip’s layer in your composition, and as if by magic, the background’s gone, and the fire has a perfect blend of vibrancy and transparency. You do have some parameters you can control (the most notable one being able to choose between keying out a black or white backdrop) but I found the default options worked fantastically well as is.

There are also additional audio controls with 26, such as gate, compressor, and distortion effects, and you’ll notice the Preferences window has been completely reorganised. OCD people might not like that, but the new layout should make it easier to find what you’re after quicker - once you’ve got used to it.

All this is good, really good in fact, but the biggest tentpole feature has got to be the native inclusion of 3D shape creation…

Adobe After Effects: 3D Shape Creation

• Create, control, alter, and manipulate 3D shapes natively
• All happens within After Effects
• A fantastic and most welcome addition

This is a big one: there’s a 3D shape creation tool (conveniently located to the right of the shape creation icon in the top toolbar). With it, you gain access to 6 basic shapes: cube, sphere, plain, doughnut, cone, and cylinder, but that’s far from the end of it; you also have parameters that allow you to change many aspects of those shapes, the most versatile one seems to be the cone in my experience.

I found the bevel tool to be quite useful - it rounds the edges of your cube for instance, and it affects the cone in interesting ways. Slices is another good parameter - you could use it to add ridges to the donut shape for instance, or turn the cone into a multi-wedged cylinder. The variety and options are generous. You can of course animate these shapes over time, and even light them all natively inside After Effects.

But that’s not all: since Adobe owns Substance3D, you can use that service straight from After Effects. Well.. kind of: it’s certainly not as seamless as it could be, but it’s a fantastic way to apply different and interesting skins to your shapes. Scroll down the properties sidebar until you find the Material section. You’ll find a drop down menu there with the ‘Get Substance Community Assets’ command.

You’ll then be taken out of After Effects for the next part, which is far from user friendly, to a webpage from which you can browse all available materials - and there’s thousands of them - although not all are compatible with After Effects.

Do a search for ‘.sbsar’ and it should filter out those that aren’t. You then download the skins you’re interested in, and drag those into your project. Only then will they appear in the sidebar’s Material drop down menu.

The whole acquiring process feels clunky, but once they’re in your project, all you need to do is select a shape, then choose the right material from that menu, and you’re done. I mean, not quite: you have parameters you can alter to help you get the look you’re after, but at the end of the day, clunkiness aside, it’s a simple enough process to add a skin to a 3D shape.

All in all, it’s an amazing and very welcome addition to an already incredibly powerful application.

Should I buy?

Buy it if...
You need to design and animate graphic design assets - let’s face it, After Effect is the go-to app for such work, and the new features will make this software even more useful.

Don't buy it if...
You don't want another expensive subscription model, and your needs are much simpler than the gargantuan options available with After Effects.

We tested the best video editing apps- and here are our top picks

• Brand Intelligence continually learns about your preferences and how you apply your brand
• It's combined with Firefly production tools to generate assets at scale
• Adobe is tracking huge demand for hyper-personalized content

Among the many new marketing tools announced at the annual Adobe Summit conference, the software giant lifted the wraps off a new Brand Intelligence feature that continues to learn your brand and sub-brand practices over time through verified assets and worker actions.

Described as an AI-powered "brand brain" within GenStudio, it builds on existing pre-defined brand rules with an always-on approach to learning – an important update that coincides with the new agentic capabilities being launched at Summit.

With Brand Intelligence, Adobe is able to turn enterprise context into actionable intelligence because it adds the extra layer of uncodified knowledge (human judgement, feedback and approvals) on top of the codified knowledge (guidelines, briefs, assets) that we've been limited to thus far.

Brand Intelligence understands how marketers move forward with asset generation beyond the 'written rules'

As for how it works, Adobe notes that it trains on review feedback, annotations, approvals and rejections, asset libraries, existing brand standards and interactions from marketers who are creating the content.

"The end-to-end process of delivering marketing campaigns and customer experiences has long been hampered by inefficient processes and broken workflows,” said GenStudio and Firefly Enterprise GM Varun Parmar explained.

What it means for marketers is that they can now generate endless content variants at scale while staying true to brand.

In terms of positioning, Brand Intelligence sits alongside the enterprise context layer and AI agents in an increasingly intertwined relationship, tapping into Firefly production tools to support the actual creation of assets.

Stepping back, one of the biggest pushes this year at Summit has been personalized content, and advertisers are now facing demand for hyper-personalized customer interactions far beyond basic geographies, mapping as closely as user intent and preferences.

Enterprises will be able to access Brand Intelligence "soon" – more details and examples are available on the company's website.

• CX Enterprise is an "end-to-end" platform for customer lifecycle management
• Marketers anticipate needing 5x more content over the next two years
• Openness extends to model choice and partner ecosystem integration

This year at its annual Summit conference, Adobe introduced the brand-new CX Enterprise system, which it describes as an end-to-end agentic solution for managing the full customer lifecycle.

With CX Enterprise, Adobe is putting customer acquisition, engagement, conversion and loyalty all in one place, boosted with AI-induced productivity aids.

What the company hopes to do with CX Enterprise is to encourage businesses to adopt fully agentic operations end-to-end, rather than use AI in isolated use cases, which can often present operational challenges in terms of silos and don't necessarily return the best productivity outcomes.

CX Enterprise layers agentic AI on top of the entire customer lifecycle

At its heart are two core architectural components – an agentic AI system that combines agents, reusable workflows in the form of skills, and MCP endpoints; and a foundation layer with real-time data and customer profiles via the Adobe Experience Platform.

Speaking on stage at the event, David Wadhwani, President of Creative & Productivity Business, highlighted some of the challenges advertisers face: content must stand out even as volume increases; businesses need to stay fresh with ROI dropping off as quickly as it arrives; consumers are wanting more personalized content; and all of this needs to happen ultra-fast while staying on brand.

To give companies a fighting chance, CX Enterprise tackles brand visibility in a world of AI-driven discovery (as if SEO wasn't enough of a challenge), it offers a unified system for real-time personalized journeys, and it also plugs into the content supply chain via Adobe GenStudio. Perfect for the 5x increase in demand for content marketers anticipate over the next two years.

But in an effort to meet users where they already are, the company is committing to a sense of openness that's not typical of Big Tech, offering access to 30+ models on top of its own Firefly models and connecting to the likes of Microsoft Copilot, Slack, ChatGPT and Gemini to put all this insightful, curated marketing data into users' preferred ecosystems.

In terms of a business decision, it's a smart move. Buddying up with other ecosystems prevents the sense of vendor lock-in that business leads are increasingly skeptical of, but Adobe knows users will come back to it for its powerful Creative Cloud suite of asset generation and editing software – in other words, it's a win-win.

We're told CX Enterprise is coming "soon."

Welcome back to another Adobe Summit live blog – in 2026, we spent two days with Adobe catching all the latest announcements in keynotes, breakout sessions and 1:1s.

We've also linked some of the deeper dives below for more detailed insights, live from the ground at Adobe Summit 2026.

• Adobe will continue to learn your brand even after you've established brand guidelines – AI "brand brain" will help cut out 'inefficient processes and broken workflows'
• 'You have to separate the task from the purpose of the job': Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reflects on early AI fears around job displacement, and why we shouldn't be worried
• Adobe wants to help your brand get recognized even when search is getting replaced by AI

Good morning and thanks again for joining us for another year of Adobe Summit. We'll be bringing you live updates as they happen, with the 2pm (PT) keynote being the highlight of today.

Between now and then we'll need to register and there'll be opportunities to hear from company leaders about Adobe's new features and how its tools can be used at the enterprise level.

There's a hive of activity at the resort as people rush to get their badges, grab some breakfast and join this morning's sessions!

The main keynote is at 2pm PT today.

The countdown is on as we prepare to hear from Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen with a special appearance from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

The room's quickly filling up with 14,000 in-person attendees from more than 60 countries as Summit 2026 gets ready for kick-off with today's opening keynote.

First up, it's Customer Experience Orchestration Business President, Anil Chakravarthy, to set the scene for today's session.

'Tools don't create, people do', CEO Shantanu Narayen declares as he reminds us the company's goal is to enable people to tell their stories and to create whatever’s in their minds eye.

"Speed is not enough," he adds, speaking of rising standards. For Adobe, it's as much about customer relationships as creative asset generation. Producing the right content, on brand, on scale, he says.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has joined Narayen on stage to share his thoughts on the future of AI.

For software in particular, Huang sees AI as adding a new UX layer on top of the tools that software provides. “Now I have an agentic system that I can put in front if it... that allows it to fully understand my intentions,” he said after joking that he only knows 7% of Photoshop. For creators, Huang says agentic AI will “elevate your art” – not threaten it.

Referencing concerns over widespread job losses, Huang explained that radiologists were worried about their jobs when computer vision hit the shelves 10 years ago. Concerns rung true – AI affected 100% of radiologists.

But demand for the jobs higher than ever – AI serves to speed up administrative workflows, but the purpose of the job remains the same, and radiologists can now order more scans and study them more quickly.

“We’re going to be busier than ever,” he declares.

As for Adobe, Anil Chakravarthy says the company is tracking three separate trends:

• Consumer adoption of LLMs and AI agents
• Velocity of agentic AI innovation
• Major shifts in advertising

Brand visibility is quickly becoming a challenge as consumers shift their habits. Now we're getting into the cruz of it – this is why we're here this year at Summit 2026.

"The demand for content is skyrocketing", he says. Marketers anticipate content demand to rise 5x over the next two years.

1:1 personalization has also become the expected norm by customers in a landscape that's never been so complex.

"What you need is an end-to-end agentic AI powered system..." Chakravarthy says, that covers all the challenges brands face... "and that is exactly what we're delivering."

This year, the company is lifting the wraps off the Adobe CX Enterprise.

After a quick demo of Adobe's end-to-end enterprise platform, David Wadhwani, President of Creative & Productivity Business, is here now to talk about GenStudio’s role in the content supply chain.

Success comes from these four areas, Wadhwani said:

• Content must stand out, he says, as "AI slop" (yes, he said that) makes more noise
• Businesses need to stay fresh, with ROI falling quicker than ever
• Campaigns are calling for increasingly personalized content
• And of course, they need to stay on brand

Two more product announcements have come in quick succession: Adobe Creative Agent "built on decades of experience" and Adobe Brand Intelligence, which learns in real-time. We'll cover these separately over the course of Summit 2026.

During a live demo, we just saw two new Photoshop features in action. Rotate object lets you turn a flat image into a 3D model (after removing its background) to get the perspective just right, then the new Harmonize feature tidies things up with the right shadows and finder details.

Wadhwani is giving us a quick break from product announcements for a quick chat with Ashish Desai, EVP for AI & Enterprise Innovation at NBCUniversal. Naturally, we'll be hearing about how Adobe's role as one of NBCU's partners.

Jon Gieselman, Chief Growth Officer and Comcast/Xfinity, is on stage for a discussion with Adobe's Chief Marketing Officer Lara Balazs. Of all the third-party talkers on stage, the message is clear – AI is not replacing creativity, but it's accelerating and augmenting it.

And that's a wrap on today's keynote. As a reminder, the company launched Adobe CX Enterprise, Adobe Creative Agent and Adobe Brand Intelligence, which we'll detail further over the coming days.

For the rest of today we'll be attending group briefings for deeper dives.

Tomorrow will be much the same, with opportunities for 1:1s with Adobe execs, further group briefings with Adobe leadership and partners, and a morning keynote with a few more examples about Adobe software in action.

Finally, the evening culminates in Adobe's most exciting crowdpleaser – Sneaks! It's a demo session to see some of the pipeline, beta and pre-production features insiders are working on that may (or may never) make it to market.

Thanks for joining us today – we'll be back tomorrow for the first keynote at 9am PT.

Good morning! It's the second of two days at Adobe Summit 2026 and it's gearing up to be a big one. The day starts with a keynote, then after some briefings we end with Sneaks. OF course, we'll be bringing you live coverage of that this evening.

We're here bright and early to save a seat for the keynote.

Speaking on stage, Procter & Gamble CEO Shailesh Jejurikar deems AI a 'must-have', not a 'nice-to-have', with demand for endless personalized content now unmanageable by humans alone.

As for agentic autonomy, P&G is now rolling out AI at factories to pick up the night shifts, which workers prefer to avoid. Jejurikar said the goal isn't to replace humans, it's to introduce autonomy.

SVP Products for Customer Experience Orchestration Amit Ahuja says companies aren't looking at agentic traffic, and it's completely different traffic to what we're used to. Three "tectonic shifts" are happening simultaneously:

• Brand discovery
• Agentic automation
• Conversational experiences

As for brand discovery in a world where SEO is just the start, Adobe's LLM Optimizer lets brands appear within AI environments (like ChatGPT) while still owning part of the experience with their own branding and interactions.

Agentic automation is also evolving to the next stage – Adobe is now powering generative website content that loads when a customer opens the page, giving them maximum personalisation to keep on top of customer acquisition and retention.

Adobe Experience Cloud SVP Anjul Bhambhri is here to introduce CX Enterprise Coworker, a new user experience layer that sits on top of the intelligence layer (MCP, tools, agents, skills).

To quantify the challenges faced by marketers, we're reminded that 50% of TikTok engagement happen in the first 10 seconds. Staying relevant and fresh, then, is key.

Five of GenStudio's core updates this year include: enterprise context, brand intelligence, AI workflows, agentic orchestration and conversational experience.

Brand intelligence brings together codified rules (briefs, brand kits, design templates) and uncodified rules (human variability) to create assets that are on-brand. We'll cover this in more detail separately.

Additionally this year, Adobe is making the CX AI Maturity Index available for CMOs.

Speaking to a group of journalists in a breakout session, Adobe Express SVP and GM Govind Balakrishnan highlights some of the recent product developments. At Adobe MAX, Express got an AI assistant user interface overhaul... at Summit right here, right now, the company is adding its new brand kit tools to help business owners generate on-brand assets with natural language prompts.

As we jump between sessions, briefings and 1:1s, here's your reminder to tune in this evening at 6pm PT for Sneaks. We'll be bringing you live coverage of all the pre-production and in-development features that Adobe insiders are working on that may or may not ever make it to general availability.

A little over an hour to go until Sneaks – remember to tune in for previews into hidden projects and potential future features.

As for what other content you can expect from Adobe Summit 2026, we'll be exploring Brand Intelligence in more depth, there'll be a deeper dive into yesterday's discussion between Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and we've got a summary of an exclusive interview with Adobe Chief Legal Officer Louise Pentland to follow up with.

And we're here nice and early for the hotly anticipated Sneaks. After two days of hearing about where Adobe's been heading and what's new today, this is our chance to get a peak at some of the more early-stage projects.

Welcoming the crowd at Sneaks is Adobe Evangelist Eric Matisoff and Comedian, Actress, Writer and Producer Iliza Shlesinger, who in true Sneaks fashion, are establishing a high-energy set on stage.

Project Concurrent – create "living canvases" that automatically update exported files when edits get made inside the working document

With Project Concurrent, you can make changes to a document, such as an event flyer, and those changes appear live where that flyer is published online.

Project Face Off – simulate A/B test by plugging in different options and controls, and sharing the goal/intent. AI insights will then explain why one performs better than the other.

Project Page Turner – AI-generated web pages that are assembled as quickly as you can load a page, based off user prompts.

"Your page... your content right away"

As users browse a site, the site observes behavior patterns and user intent to automatically generate a user-specific page without needing to add a prompt.

"This is how websites will look in the future"

Project Wise Wire – AI assistance in email campaigns with full code generation and access to live data

Project Test Kitchen – include user prompts and visual references to generate nine different output options, and then hone in on any of those nine results to see more variants along that particular line.

An additional experimental feature lets users also sketch their ideas to add further context.

Project Asset Amplify – generate websites, social posts and more from a company's assets, based on target audience

Project Tailored Takes – using Firefly Foundry, you can build images by tweaking attributes (eg objects), change camera angles and then create a video by combing a start and end frame with a text prompt.

With the crowd voting for their favorites in real-time, Project Page Turner and Project Face Off are firm favorites this evening!

All seven of today's Sneaks are now available to try at business.adobe.com/events/adobe-summit-sneaks.html

And that's a wrap on our coverage of Adobe Summit 2026! Thanks for joining us on the ground, and keep an eye out for deeper dives soon

• Adobe patches Acrobat Reader zero‑day exploited since Dec 2025
• CVE‑2026‑34621 enabled RCE via malicious PDFs
• Users must update; no workarounds available, defenders urged to monitor traffic

Adobe has released a fix for a vulnerability in Acrobat Reader which was being exploited as a zero-day since December 2025.

The vulnerability is described as an Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes bug, now tracked as CVE-2026-34621. It enabled remote code execution (RCE) in the context of the current user, and its exploitation requires the victim to open a malicious PDF file.

It was given a severity score of 8.6/10 (high), and affects Acrobat Reader multiple versions:

Acrobat DC versions 26.001.21367 and earlier (fixed in version 26.001.21411)

Acrobat Reader DC versions 26.001.21367 and earlier (fixed in version 26.001.21411)

Acrobat 2024 versions 24.001.30356 and earlier (fixed in version 24.001.30362 on Windows, and version 24.001.30360 on Mac)

Highly sophisticated attack

The company said there were no workarounds or mitigations, and that the only way to fix the issue is to update the app. This can be done either through the app itself (by navigating to Help - Check for Updates menu), or by downloading the Acrobat Reader installer from Adobe’s official website.

Security researcher Haifei Li recently found and warned about a “highly sophisticated, fingerprinting-style PDF exploit”.

"This 'fingerprinting' exploit has been confirmed to leverage a zero-day/unpatched vulnerability that works on the latest version of Adobe Reader without requiring any user interaction beyond opening a PDF file," Li said. "Even more concerning, this exploit allows the threat actor to not only collect/steal local information but also potentially launch subsequent RCE/SBX attacks, which could lead to full control of the victim's system."

A separate report from an analyst with the alias Gi7w0rm says that the PDF lure being used in these attacks references ongoing events in the Russian oil and gas industry, and that it was written in Russian, suggesting who the targets might be.

While Adobe claims no workarounds are available, BleepingComputer noted network defenders could mitigate attacks by monitoring and blocking HTTP/HTTPS traffic with the “Adobe Synchronizer” string in the User-Agent header.

"This zero-day/unpatched capability for broad information harvesting and the potential for subsequent RCE/SBX exploitation is enough for the security community to remain on high alert. This is why we have chosen to publish these findings immediately so users can stay vigilant," the researcher concluded.

Via BleepingComputer

• Adobe's 2024 case soon to be closed, at the cost of a $150 million settlement
• Customers to get $75 million worth of free services as a result
• Adobe disagrees with allegations, but is pleased to close the case

The US Department of Justice has filed a proposed order to settle a lawsuit against Adobe and two of its execs – Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani – over alleged deceptive subscription practices.

The $150 million settlement is split equally into two parts – $75 million in civil penalties and a further $75 million worth of free services to customers.

The allegations (per the Department of Justice) claim Adobe's practices violated the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA), which "generally requires companies offering online subscriptions to clearly disclose important subscription information and to provide subscribers with simple ways to cancel".

Adobe's $150m settlement

The lawsuit alleges Adobe hit key subscription details, including early termination fees, using "fine print and inconspicuous hyperlinks." Early termination fees for Adobe's annual plans could reportedly reach hundreds of dollars.

Besides hiding some details, regulators also claimed that Adobe made cancellations difficult through complex processes, including multiple web pages, phone cancellations and delays.

Besides coughing up $150 million, Adobe must also clearly disclose early termination fees and how they're calculated before signup. The company has also been instructed to remind users before their free trials become paid plans, giving them simpler ways to cancel.

However, the settlement has not yet been confirmed and is awaiting court approval.

"American consumers deserve the right to make informed choices when deciding where to spend their hard-earned money," Assistant Attorney General Brett A Shumate wrote.

"While we disagree with the government’s claims and deny any wrongdoing, we are pleased to resolve this matter," Adobe added in a statement. "We are transparent with the terms and conditions of our subscription agreements, have a simple cancellation process and clearly disclose the details of our plans."

• Adobe Acrobat and Express are coming to the Microsoft 365 Agent Store soon
• Users can make changes to files without opening Adobe's software
• The plugins make creativity more accessible

Adobe has confirmed it will be bringing Express and Acrobat to Microsoft 365 Copilot, putting its powerful productivity tools in the hands of more workers.

The integration means users won't need to open the respective apps to make some of the most common changes, which reduces some of the barriers associated with Adobe's software, often considered to have a steep learning curve.

"The apps will be available in the Microsoft 365 Agent Store in the coming weeks," Adobe Express SVP and GM Govind Balakrishnan said in a LinkedIn post.

Adobe Express and Acrobat are coming to M365 Copilot Chat

Within Copilot, users will be able to browse Adobe Express design templates, adjust text and copy, swap or generate images with AI, add animations and motions, and more. Though Copilot serves as a simplified interface in the first instance, the files will also exist within the Express app if users want to go off and make deeper changes.

On the Acrobat front, users will be able to create, organize and edit PDFs from within the chat interface.

More broadly, Adobe has been going big on AI in two ways – the company has been integrating generative tools into its own apps to make advanced editing more accessible, but it's also been integrating its own apps with third-party AI ecosystems to meet users where they already are.

Balakrishnan said the move is is part of Adobe's plan to "[make] creativity more accessible to everyone."

An earlier integration brought Acrobat, Express and Photoshop to ChatGPT, for example.

While tools like ChatGPT and M365 Copilot have been able to generate image versions of user prompts, they haven't always been that easy to refine without further AI prompts. Adding Express and Acrobat into the mix allows AI to generate a human-editable file format from the get-go.

It’s been a while since I last reviewed Adobe Lightroom, and as always with Adobe, many features have been added and a host of others have been improved, so let’s take a look at Lightroom 9.2 and see what it’s all about.

But before we do, I need to point out that there are two versions of Lightroom: Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic.

Lightroom is a simpler, more user friendly version, whereas Classic is aimed at the professional user or someone demanding a higher degree of control, who prefers to store their media on their local hard drives. I’ll be primarily covering the Classic side of things here.

Adobe Lightroom Classic: Pricing & plans

• Three subscription options
• No perpetual license
• Additional AI credits available

As with most of Adobe's professional software, Lightroom Classic is subscription-only - and here, there are three options available.

Grab Adobe’s entire portfolio with Creative Cloud Pro for US$70 a month. Alongside Lightroom, this unlocks other popular apps such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, the works.

For a less expensive, photo-focused subscription plan, there's the Photography bundle. This brings together both versions of Lightroom as well as Photoshop for $20 a month. Alternatively, you could just limit yourself to Lightroom and Lightroom Classic for $12 a month.

These are monthly costs, based on a year-long contract. They also come with Generative Credits, from 250 a month for the cheapest option to 4,000 for the high end plan. Those credits don’t roll on: if you don’t use them in a month, they don’t get added to your next allotment the following month.

If you’re really into generative AI creation, Adobe has add-on plans to suit your appetite, from an additional 2,000 credits for $10 a month, to 50,000 for $200 a month.

• Pricing & plans: 3.5/5

Adobe Lightroom Classic: What is it?

• Very well designed app
• Easy to organize, alter, and share your work

Let’s start with the basics: what is Lightroom Classic?

Quite simply, it has the dual purpose of storing and cataloging your photos, while also allowing you to make alterations to them and prepare them to share with others. Any change is non-destructive, so the original photos are never altered, and you can go back to the source to make additional tweaks without ever suffering from quality degradation.

I feel the interface is very well designed - and interacting with interfaces is what I do most of the time! You have seven different sections, all accessible through a large menu bar, top right. By default, you’re in ‘Library’, which is where you can see all the photos you’ve imported and worked on.

You can actually do a fair amount of work there, such as rotating an image, adding tags, a star rating, keywords, and even perform some light colour correction. But if you want to get fully immersed in image manipulation, then ‘Develop’ is the place to be.

This is where you get to apply in-depth colour correction, cropping, remove red-eye, correct for lens distortion, completely remove an object from a scene, and mask specific sections to fine tune which part of an image to alter - among many others. You’ll find the tools at your disposal are quite extensive.

But Lightroom Classic goes beyond that. You have the ‘Map’ section where you can see all the photos you took in a specific location (and alter a shot’s metadata should you need to), there’s a section dedicated to designing a ‘Book’, or creating a ‘Slideshow’, ‘Print’ selected photos, or upload them to the ‘Web’. Although, truth be told, this is something consumer software like Apple’s Photos offers too.

All in all, Lightroom Classic makes it easy to organise your shots, make them look their best with a wide range of tools, and share them in numerous ways. But what does its latest release bring to the table? Let’s find out.

• Score: 4.5/5

Adobe Lightroom Classic: What’s new?

• New AI features can save time
• But I found results vary in quality
• And it’s not like you get your credits back if you’re not happy

While the general workflow remains unchanged from previous versions, the big new features are primarily AI-based. This will delight some, and send shivers down the backs of others.

The most useful application of AI is ‘Assisted Culling’. Currently in Beta (Adobe calls it ‘Early Access’), it’s designed to accelerate the photo selection process upon import, by automatically filtering out blurry, closed-eye, misfired images, and more. You’re given a few sliders to determine the intensity of the cull, and can choose which options to filter for. After a few seconds (depending on how many images you’re importing and your computer’s capabilities), the results are ready to be reviewed.

I found the process works very well, identifying with ease any issues it’s designed to look for, and if it made a mistake, you can alter the decision shot by shot. This makes looking through a series of very similar photos a much quicker process (and if you don’t like a machine doing that kind of work for you, you can always disable the feature). As an added bonus, this AI tool is free… Unlike Lightroom Classic’s new ‘Generate using Firefly’ options.

Now why would we want Generative AI in Lightroom? Well, if you’re not well-versed in Photoshop, then it’s a quick way for somewhat clever algorithms to perform relatively complex actions for you… but I admit having a few issues with such technology.

As an example, I asked AI to colorize a black and white photo of my brother and I when I was just a baby. It should’ve been a simple process, and indeed the colours used do look good. However, it added an object on top of a chest of drawers, and changed my brother’s face. In another shot, it cleaned up a tray. Although I can appreciate the virtual maid having tidied up, it’s not what I had asked for. Plus if you’re not satisfied, you don’t get your generated credits back.

To be fair, other results were better, and Firefly didn’t alter the faces of other ancient family members of mine - even my great great grandmother was faithfully updated. The resolution of the resulting version can be set up to a maximum of 2K. Great for older images that have lower resolutions, but not so good for more modern shots.

If you have credits to burn, you can bring a photo to life by turning it into a video. I found this a bit disturbing, although others around me loved it. And it must be said, Firefly did an impressive job of bringing my long-gone relative to life (Dr Frankenstein would be proud).

• Score: 4/5

Adobe Lightroom Classic: Classic vs Lightroom

• Lightroom is much simpler
• Generative Upscale tool is better than Classic’s gen AI features

Before finishing up, I wanted to quickly dip into the simpler Lightroom, as there’s a feature there that’s worth mentioning: ‘Generative Upscale’.

It’s worth mentioning as this AI-based upscaling isn’t actually done by Adobe but in partnership with Topaz Gigapixel instead, and unlike the Firefly option we explored above, you don’t leave Lightroom when using it, which is a definite plus.

The feature not only tells you how many credits you’ll need, but also how many you have left - a useful addition which is sorely missed in Classic’s Firefly. The downside though is, as with Firefly, you have no control over the process. You get what you get, whether you’re happy with it or not.

Overall, Lightroom Classic is a very good image management and manipulation tool, and its new AI-based additions will no doubt please some, but aside from the useful Assisted Culling feature, you have next to no control over the output of AI.

• Score: 4/5

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

You’re looking for a high-end, easy to use and feature rich image management tool, and appreciate the growing proliferation of AI tools within it.

Don't buy it if...

You don’t like subscriptions, and having more and more AI in your software irks you, not to mention that you have to pay extra for those tools.

We tested out the best photo editing PCs and the best laptops for photo editing and these are our top picks.

• Adobe launches AI and Digital Trends Report
• A survey of 3000 executives and 4000 consumers reveals attitudes to agentic AI
• Consumers want the human touch, but are businesses even ready?

Adobe has released its 2026 AI and Digital Trends Report, surveying 3000 executives and 4000 consumers to lay bare the attitudes of both companies and consumers towards agentic AI, business readiness, and the overall experience and expectations.

The report has some interesting findings - for one thing, fewer than half of consumers (43%) said they'd interact with a brand's AI agent when offered the chance. Yet 46% said they had no issues if a brand uses AI - with one massive caveat businesses need to seriously consider: they don't care about agentic AI use - as long as their needs are met.

I'd expect these numbers to grow - up to a point. Because even now, a clear trend is developing.

Report findings

Elsewhere, according to Adobe's report, 37% said they'd cut short engagements with a brand if they were expecting a human contact and got an AI, and 70% believing that those AI interactions need to feel human. So, people don't want robots - they crave the human touch.

But what really stood out to me is the massive disconnect between how consumers and businesses measure AI success.

As you'd expect from businesses, the core measurements of success are cost metrics and efficiency gains.

That's simply not what consumers are interested in. According to Adobe, users are judging AI experiences on "trust, transparency, and whether their needs are met."

To me, this feels like some brands risk putting the cart before the horse. Without meeting users where they are, and delivering on their expectations, all the efficiencies and savings in the world won't stop consumers from finding a business that can meet their demands.

However, in order to do that, businesses are going to have to overcome the widespread difficulties when properly scaling their AI.

The report highlights how readiness to deploy enterprise AI is facing extreme pressures, with the biggest barriers to scaling up being data integration and data quality (75%). Less than half of executives surveyed (43%) believe their data quality and accessibility are adequate enough for AI use. And without those, effectively any AI is doomed to fail.

That may well explain why so few of those companies have launched organization-wide agentic AI for customer support (just 16%) and discovery and search purposes (a miniscule 13%).

But it's not all bad news for brands.

Away from agentic AI, the vast majority of respondents (76%) claimed generative AI (think Firefly or Google's Nano Banana) has improved the volume and speed of content ideation and production. Meanwhile, 70% said it's helped has enabled non-creative teams to produce content.

Regarding the findings, said Rachel Thornton, CMO, Adobe Enterprise, said: “Many organisations are still caught in that tricky middle ground between expectation and execution. As customer expectations shift, brands must evolve to orchestrate Agentic, AI-driven experiences that can act and respond across every touchpoint [...] to deliver meaningful experiences at a global scale.”

• Adobe Animate is now in maintenance mode, which means it will no longer get new features
• Senior Director apologizes for previous message which caused "confusion and angst"
• Unlike yesterday's report, new Animate users are still being welcomed

Adobe has reversed its decision to discontinue its popular Animate platform following huge community uproar.

Less than 24 hours after announcing the move, Adobe Creative Cloud Senior Director for Design Marketing & Community Mike Chambers admitted in a Reddit post that the company failed to "meet [its] standards" and "caused a lot of confusion and angst within the community."

What has now become clear is that Animate is still being deprioritized, but rather it will enter a so-called 'maintenance mode' rather than being fully sunset at this point.

Adobe Animate isn't being discontinued after all

Chambers said Animate is already in (thus, not entering) maintenance mode, which means it will continue to get security and bug fixes.

"Animate will continue to be available for both new and existing users. This is a change from what we communicated in the email yesterday for the status of Adobe Animate, its time-frame, and availability," Chambers stressed.

Maintenance mode is Adobe speak for cutting support for new features, but the app will still get all the usual customer support and security updates to keep it going for potentially years to come.

Responding to community uproar following previous announcements that Adobe Animate was going to be discontinued, Chambers promised to "take steps so that the community continues to have long-term access to their content."

While this is certainly good news for Animate users and a green flag for Adobe as it proactively responds to customer feedback, some are still unhappy. One Reddit user challenged the subscription model behind Animate, suggesting it should become a perpetual license now that new features are no longer being added.

TechRadar Pro asked Adobe whether it would be open to changing its pricing or licensing strategy for the platform – any update will be shared here.

• Adobe says Animate no longer serves users' needs as it used to
• Could its deprecation be making room for new GenAI tools?
• There isn't a direct replacement – After Effects and Express will cover "portions"

Adobe has confirmed it will be discontinuing Adobe Animate with effect from March 1, 2026, citing the rise of newer platforms (read: AI) that "better serve the needs of the users."

A multi-stage phaseout will see users still able to access and download their files for one year, or three years for enterprise customers, after which point the service will be fully deprecated and all remaining files will be deleted.

"Animate has been a product that has existed for over 25 years and has served its purpose well for creating, nurturing, and developing the animation ecosystem," the company wrote in a separate support page, suggesting it's time for the now-dated tool to retire.

Adobe Animate is making way for emerging AI tools

"As technologies evolve, new platforms and paradigms emerge," Adobe wrote, indicating a preference to start from the ground up with newer, more suitable tools rather than trying to shoehorn generative AI into Animate.

The decision wasn't a huge shock, given Animate's absence at the last Adobe Max conference and the lack of any meaningful updates in 2025, however users are still unhappy with the retirement plan, with some urging Adobe to open-source the app instead of cut ties entirely.

However, there isn't one single tool being pitched as a successor. Instead, Adobe, is guiding customers to its comprehensive (and expensive) Creative Cloud Pro plan, which includes After Effects and Express, to replace "portions" of Animate.

Users who still have projects in Adobe Animate that they've forgotten about will have a slightly different experience to download the app, which now resides in the "Show Older Apps (top right, Profile icon > Preferences > Apps > Show Older Apps)" section of the Creative Cloud desktop client.

• Adobe announces new Photoshop updates for creative professionals
• Two new layer adjustments Clarity & Dehaze and Grain revealed
• Firefly AI tools get an upgrade for both the app and Photoshop on the web

Adobe has today announced several major updates to Photoshop, including the introduction of two new adjustment layers and more expansive AI tools.

The changes are chiefly aimed at creative professionals looking for greater control over their work, without spending hours on tasks such as compositing, refining, or cleaning up images.

The headline feature has to be the introduction of the Clarity & Dehaze layer, which is going to significantly speed up workflows. In a blog post, the company stated that the new updates - which features a new beta text tool - will help users "exercise more precision and control, so you can maintain your creative momentum and spend more time bringing your creative vision to life."

What's new in Adobe Photoshop?

I've been yearning for some serious upgrades to Adobe Photoshop that aren't just AI, AI, and more AI.

And while there's plenty of that on offer here, the latest update also includes some significant changes that I think creative professionals are going to love.

Here's what users can expect:

• Clarity & Dehaze and Grain non-destructive, maskable adjustment layers
• The beta version of Dynamic Text is out now
• Major upgrade to Generative Fill, Generative Expand and Remove Tool
• More control over Reference Image for Generative Fill

Kicking off with Clarity & Dehaze and Grain, then. These are two new layer-based non-destructive adjustments that, Adobe says, are based on community feedback for greater precision and control while working with layers.

Using Dehaze, you can balance lighting and haze effects, while Clarity - as the name suggests - brings enhancements and crispen your subjects. So, no more cracking open the Camera Raw filter to dehaze an image.

Meanwhile, Grain helps add dimension to your photographs. According to Adobe, this can all be achieved while masking and blending each adjustment. Both layers get a general release.

Now in beta, Dynamic Text is one of those simple quality-of-life additions - so simple, in fact, it's hard to believe it hasn't been there all along. Click a text layer, choose between circular, arched, or bowed shapes, and Photoshop does the rest of the work, fitting and resizing text to match.

Then comes two big changes for Firefly-powered tools, with the introduction of a new Fill and Expand model and Remove Tool 3 model.

Generative Fill, Generative Expand, and the Remove tool are now all capable of outputs up to 2K resolution, with Adobe promising "sharper detail and fewer artifacts."

The goal, the company states, is to create results that match your prompts better than the previous AI models do, with the addition of more natural lighting and depth. Realism, it seems, is the order of the day here.

Alongside that, Reference Image for Generative Fill now delivers more control over results.

What that actually means is that when switching out one object - in Adobe's example, they've switched one handbag for another (see above) - the AI tools are better able to retain the 'identity' of the original product.

This one looks to be a killer update for anyone using Photoshop for ecommerce and marketing, with AI now capable of serving up "geometry-aware results that better match the scene, reorienting to the correct scale, rotation, lighting, color and perspective."

All the updates are available now in the desktop version of Photoshop, while the Firefly updates can be used across both the app and Photoshop on the web.

• Adobe to team up with directors, film studios, and VFX houses
• Filmmakers praise Firefly Foundry's AI content creation tools
• But you'll still need to 'request more information' if you want to try it out

Adobe has revealed new partnerships with a host talent agencies, film studios, directors, VFX houses, and directors like David Ayer of Fast and Furious fame and Black Adam's Jaume Collet-Serra.

First announced at Adobe Max in October 2025, Firefly Foundry is designed to speed up workflows - effectively handing filmmakers the AI tools they need to rapidly produce and polish content that maintains their creativity and vision.

However, creative professionals can't just download the tool like most apps in Adobe's creative suite - you'll need to hit that 'request more information on the website here to get the scoop.

A creative Foundry

But what is Firefly Foundry?

In a world where 85% of films premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival are created using its tools, the Foundry is Adobe's answer to creatives concerned about where AI fits into storytelling. According to the company, the tool, powered by Firefly, lets users build "high-fidelity images, video, audio, 3D and vector outputs with a complete understanding of a brand or franchise’s creative universe."

The Foundry itself is designed to improve the creation of, well, everything. Social media content, digital displays, in-person events, mobile apps, they all receive a shout-out in Adobe's latest blog.

But it's also designed to become central to both pre- and post-production workflows in filmmaking.

During the initial ideation stage, Firefly Foundry delivers tools for directors and storyboard artists to craft unique shots.

On-set, Adobe states the tool can help crews "ensure they are getting the right creative options for their shot list as filming progresses," while increasing the efficiency of processing the dailies (or "rushes", for British readers).

In post, Foundry can minimize the need for reshoots, with editors and VFX artists able to "pick up shots, correct scenes, and polish final frames."

That's where Adobe's new partnerships with the likes of Cantina Creative, Promise Advanced Imagination, CAA, and William Morris enter the fray. These users have been praising the power of the Foundry.

Collet-Serra, who directed Disney's Jungle Cruise, said: "Leveraging Firefly Foundry’s responsible AI models can support us in finding new, efficient ways to operate throughout production - freeing our mindshare to focus on artistry."

And CEO and co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency Bryan Lourd, explained: “Firefly Foundry empowers artists with commercially safe tools that expand the possibilities of creative expression."

Other partners across film and TV, such as B5 Studios and Promise Advanced Imagination believe Firefly Foundry "empowers artists" and "giv[es] our artists the freedom to push ideas further, while giving co-production, client, and distribution partners confidence in how generative AI is being used."

So, it looks like Firefly Foundry's AI tools could be coming to a theater near you soon.

• Adobe launches new AI tools for Acrobat users
• Features include PDF editing using natural language
• Turn digital documents into presentations and audio versions

There are some big changes coming to Adobe Acrobat today - and yes, there's a lot of AI involved here.

Acrobat has long topped my guide to the best PDF editors. Its clean, intuitive to use, and has a feature-set that I'd consider pretty vast.

But it seems Adobe isn't content to just leave it there. Already in recent months, we've seen the introduction of a premium business tier, Acrobat Studio, and PDF Spaces - an AI-powered workspace.

Now, the company has launched a series of new tools for the software aligned

What's new in Acrobat?

There are four big changes for the digital document software in this latest update, based on Adobe's three key pillars of faster AI insights, tailored sharing, and content creation through Adobe Express.

According to Adobe: "Over the last year, AI use across Acrobat saw a four-times increase. And a recent Forrester TEI study found Acrobat’s agentic-powered AI Assistant increases efficiencies for summarizing and analyzing documents by 45 percent.”

With that in mind, here's what users can expect.

• New ways to edit PDFs using AI chat
• Generate Podcast lets you turn PDFs into audio overviews
• Generate Presentation transforms documents into decks
• Improve collaboration via PDF Spaces

Let's start with PDF editing - with the AI companion, you can now make changes to documents using natural language. Want to remove pages, or rotate them? Rewrite passages, generate summaries of entire documents? That's all available via the AI chat box. If you're not sure where to start, the system will also serve up ideas for other changes to make or actions to take.

To me, Generate Podcast is the most interesting update. Don't be fooled by the 'podcast' moniker. This is a lot like the read aloud function already found in Acrobat, where you can create an audio overview of documents, transcripts, and notes. Adobe is also promising the output can be tailored "for how you learn so you retain more information."

Generate Presentation is another AI tool (of course), and does exactly what you'd expect: it turns documents into decks for presenting information to colleagues. Powered by Adobe Express, which has received a lot of love over the past year, users can create decks based on over five-hundred thousand templates, and generate custom imagery to make them more eye-catching.

Finally, the company wants to improve collaboration within PDF Spaces. Not the most exciting update, but a welcome one, with new options for inviting collaborators to add files, leave notes, and make comments.

From the demo videos Adobe showed me, they all look helpful in speeding up workflows, and pretty easy to use - as I'd expect from an AI-infused Acrobat. But I'll be interested see more results, and learn how (or even if) professionals are making use of these tools.

It’s been a big year for digital creativity. As the creative software editor for TechRadar Pro, I’ve spent the last 12 months covering a seemingly relentless stream of updates, beta launches, platform overhauls, and the maturing of AI tools from nice-to-haves to essential for professional workflows. And these are the 8 most exciting updates I've seen in 2025.

From one of the best photo editors becoming completely free to the arrival of generative AI models that seamlessly integrate into existing pipelines, the creative apps space continues to dramatically shift. These new tools mean it's never been easier to ideate, generate, and collaborate on creative endeavours - whether you're a solo content creator or a creative professional working in a team.

The barrier to entry is dropping just as the ceiling for quality is rising. While I can't wait to see what 2026 brings. But for now, these are the stand-out updates for creative software that defined the year.

Affinity goes free

Probably the best news I covered all year - Affinity is now completely free for everyone (and if you're paying a Canva Pro subscription, you get a few more tools, too).

Rumors started long before the reveal, when the site blocked the ability to purchase its apps, followed by making all apps free for iPad users. Then came the news that, yes, all Affinity apps were being rolled into a single platform and that they'd be free for all.

Affinity Photo, Publisher, and Designer have long been one of my favorite alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. It may not be quite as feature-rich as Adobe's own creative software, but it'll tick all the boxes for most creators.

Considering what's on offer - and what I expect to see coming in 2026 - I still can't quite believe it. But it's not one to be missed. Affinity CEO Ash Hewson explained to TechRadar Pro his reasoning for scrapping all lifetime licenses in this article.

Adobe Premiere comes to mobile

Adobe Premiere Pro is the king of the video editing world - and I was over the moon to see a near-fully-featured version hit the App Store, and the promise of an Android version coming soon.

Known as Adobe Premiere, it's easily one of the best video editing apps around, even more so because it's free to use (although, as usual with Adobe tools, a subscription unlocks even more tools). Despite being an app for iPhone and iPad, we found it delivered extensive editing experience that includes multi-track editing, color correction, and a host of audio tools in our review.

Adobe Premiere really does feel like the future of on-the-go video editing for creators, and I can't wait to see what else it delivers in 2026.

Nano Banana Pro arrives

No 2025 round-up would be complete without at least a passing reference to AI. And in the creative space, the stand-out for me this year was the release of Google's Nano Banana Pro. Built for Gemini 3 Pro users, it's leaps and bounds above what the competition does when it comes to AI image generation and editing.

Connecting to Google Search’s knowledge base for real-time information, Nano Banana Pro boasts context-rich visuals, text that's more accurate and legible than predecessors, improved consistency and blending, and studio-quality control over your images.

You can find out more in our article here.

Canva launches its Creative Operating System

Canva had a big year in the content creation space with its World Tour and the unveiling of its Creative Operating System - a space that seamlessly blends design, collaboration, and publishing on a single platform.

The core update saw a redesign of its Visual Suite, a superior video editing tool, and editable AI output trained to understand the complexity of design. When I spoke to Anna Wood, Product Marketing Lead at Canva in this article, she explained the thinking behind the Creative OS.

"This isn’t just a tool to make a single graphic anymore. We’re building something much bigger. We like to see it as this all-in-one platform that enables the entire creative journey, from your first idea all the way to publishing and tracking performance. Whether you're designing, collaborating with a team, running a campaign, teaching a class, or using AI to speed things up, it all happens in one place."

Photoshop comes to ChatGPT

Adobe dominate the creative software space, so, I wasn't shocked to see the tools come to ChatGPT - it's a natural fit for apps already loaded with AI.

Crack open ChatGPT and you can now use Photoshop, Express, and the Acrobat PDF editor directly on the platform. What really struck me here was that you don't need to know the intricacies of using each app. Using natural language, simply describe what you want to achieve and await the results. The AI does all the work for you.

We watched a demo of Photoshop running inside ChatGPT and the results were impressive. Drag an image into the prompt bar, describe the edit you wish to make, and... that's it, job done. You can then use the built-in control sliders and options to further refine the output.

Edit YouTube shorts inside Adobe Premiere

Shortly after launching Adobe Premiere, the video editing app received its first big update - the inclusion of a space specifically for creating YouTube Shorts.

Better still, the update addresses one of the biggest issues we had with Premiere: the lack of transitions.

So, what can you expect with this update? Alongside those extra transitions, there are some exclusive effects, title presets, the option of creating and customizing your own templates, and the ability to easily share your videos direct to YouTube - all within the Premiere app.

You can read more in my article here.

Figma seriously expands its design tools

This year, I attended Figma's annual conference FigJam, where the company launched a series of major expansions to the popular design platform.

You can find out all the details in my coverage here, but key highlights include the inclusion of content ideation platform Figma Make, AI-powered website builder Figma Sites, Figma Draw - a spin on Adobe Illustrator - and Figma Buzz for social media asset creation.

On top of all that, at the end of 2025, in its bid to expand image, video, animation, motion design, and VFX creation and editing across the platform, Figma bought node-based AI editing tool Weavy and renamed it Figma Weave. Same powerful tool, now part of one of the best design tools around.

Freepik Spaces goes live

AI was the order of the day at this year's Freepik's Upscale Conference. it was everywhere I looked. But the big news was the launch of Freepik Spaces.

Rather than a never-ending slew of minor updates to AI models, this was a fully fledged product that lets users create and collaborate on a browser-based infinite canvas. Its node-based workflow is super-simple to use (anyone from creative professionals to non-designers can use the tools), letting everyone generate AI images and videos fit for business.

In an article, I rounded up the 5 key takeaways creative teams need to know about Freepik Spaces.

• Adobe accused of using pirated books to train SlimLM
• The company asserts it used SlimPajama-627B – an open-source Cerebras dataset
• The plaintiff claims sufficient financial resources to "vigorously" pursue this case

Adobe is set to face an AI copyright lawsuit in the US, with a class-action case alleging that the company trained its AI models on pirated books without permission.

Oregon author Elizabeth Lyon filed the case, claiming that the tech giant had trained its AI models not only on her books, but the work of others, too.

The lawsuit focuses specifically on Adobe's SlimLM small language models which are used for document assistance tasks on mobile devices.

Adobe faces AI training data class action lawsuit

The company has denied the allegations, asserting that SlimLM was trained on SlimPajama-627B – an open-source dataset that was released by Cerebras in 2023. However, the lawsuit claims that SlimPajama is a derivative of RedPajama, which allegedly includes Books3 – a dataset of nearly 200,000 pirated books.

In short, Lyon argues that because SlimPajama includes RedPajama/Books3, it contains copyrighted work without consent, credit, or compensation.

Adobe is also accused of having "repeatedly downloaded, copied, and processed those works during the preprocessing and pretraining of the models."

It's not the first time that RedPajama or Books3 have been involved with legal cases, previously appearing in lawsuits against Apple and Salesforce.

Lyon says she's "committed to vigorously prosecuting this action on behalf of the other members of the class," and that she has the "financial resources to do so."

The plaintiff is seeking "an award of statutory and other damages," the reimbursement of attorney fees and a declaration of willful infringement from Adobe.

TechRadar Pro has sought a formal response from Adobe, but the company has not yet responded.

Adobe just launched a whole suite of editing products into ChatGPT, and the best bit is that they are available for free.

I decided to give Photoshop in OpenAI's chatbot a try, opting to see if it's really better than opening up my app just to remove the background from a product image to create a header image at work.

I don't like to exaggerate, but honestly, I'm so impressed with this new addition to ChatGPT that I want to shout about it from the rooftops. And that's not all. OpenAI's chatbot now works with Express and Acrobat, too!

In fact, it's so great that I've decided to write about the best 3 new additions now available thanks to Adobe's ChatGPT integration - and best of all, you don't need to pay a fee.

To enable these features in ChatGPT open Settings, then Apps & Connectors, and enable each Adobe product.

1. Photoshop background removal

I’ve used Photoshop for years, and I still find half the tools confusing, so being able to type “brighten the face” and get a perfect adjustment feels like cheating. ChatGPT taps into proper Photoshop tools, so the edits actually look good, not like AI slop.

You can fix exposure, sharpen details, add effects, or tidy up messy backgrounds. If you want more control, sliders pop up so you can fine-tune things. It’s the sort of quick edit that normally takes five minutes, done in five seconds.

The best bit, however, is being able to remove the background from images in a split second without the need for any extra software. Simply type "Adobe Photoshop remove background", upload an image, and click go. Easy peasy.

2. Express for quick graphics

I’m constantly making quick graphics for articles, and Adobe's Express ChatGPT integration shocked me the most. You can ask ChatGPT to create a design, pull in templates from Adobe Express, and adjust everything on the fly – fonts, colors, images, animations, the lot.

It’s perfect if you want something that looks polished but don’t have the time to mess around in another app. The whole thing happens right where you’re already chatting, which makes the workflow feel weirdly natural.

I followed Adobe's example to create a Christmas party invite, and something that would've taken me a good hour now can be done in a split second – impressive.

3. Acrobat PDF editing

This one might be less glamorous, but it’s easily the feature I’ll use the most. Acrobat tools are now built into ChatGPT too, so you can fix PDF text, edit images, merge documents, extract data, compress huge files, and even redact sensitive info.

It turns all the annoying little work tasks into quick voice or text-based commands. I decided to test it out by uploading a PDF draft of an article I wrote, and thanks to Acrobat, I was able to edit directly from within the PDF, something I've always wanted to be able to do in ChatGPT.

This addition to ChatGPT might be less flashy than Photoshop's inclusion, but I think a lot of people will fall in love with this newfound ability.

• Adobe Photoshop, Express, and Acrobat are now apps inside ChatGPT and are free for everyone to use
• The apps come with sliders and controls inside ChatGPT that let you adjust effects and colors
• You can open your creations directly in the web versions of the apps

Adobe has launched its most popular creativity and productivity apps inside ChatGPT, and yes, that includes Adobe Photoshop. The premier graphic design tool is now an app inside ChatGPT alongside Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Express, and they are all free.

Best of all, you do not need to understand how any of these apps work. Inside ChatGPT, you simply describe what you want using natural language, and the apps do it for you. Instead of generating a single static image or document, the apps give you control sliders and options right inside ChatGPT so you can tweak and adjust the results until you get exactly what you want.

Photoshop is well known for editing images, while Adobe Express is built for fast document creation with templates that let you spin up a party invitation or an invoice in seconds. Finally, Acrobat is its PDF manager and editor.

What is it like to Photoshop in ChatGPT?

We watched a demo of Photoshop running as an app inside the web version of ChatGPT, and it is impressive. Here's how it works:

First, you drag an image into the ChatGPT prompt bar to upload it. You can then ask ChatGPT to perform an edit in Photoshop, such as "Convert this image to black and white using Photoshop." There is no need to know how to use Photoshop at all.

After a brief moment, ChatGPT shows you the image converted to black and white using Photoshop and presents an Intensity slider so you can control the strength of the effect.

But you can keep going. If you type "Adjust the exposure on the image," ChatGPT will again think for a moment and then display Photoshop's exposure sliders so you can fine-tune the result.

You do not even need to know what tools you want. For example, you can upload another image and type "Add some effects to the image," and ChatGPT will show previews of five different Photoshop effects, including Tritone, Halftone Color, Glitch, and Dither. Pick one, and you will get sliders to adjust the look.

Photoshop-level selections can also be controlled with natural language. You can type "Apply a Halftone Color effect to the image everywhere except her hair," and ChatGPT will handle the masking automatically.

Each creation includes an "Open in Photoshop" button that launches the file in Photoshop on the web.

Adobe Express in use

If you need something like a party invitation, Adobe Express can be used inside ChatGPT, too. You can ask ChatGPT to come up with holiday party invitation ideas, pick one you like, and say, "Use Adobe Express to create this theme."

You can then edit the invitation using natural language. If you ask it to change the background color, it will do that and also give you a set of color options with on-screen controls.

Adobe Acrobat in use

Acrobat, Adobe's PDF editor, works just like the other apps. You can use natural language to perform tasks without opening the standalone program. Upload your resume, cover letter, and references, then ask it to merge them into one PDF using Acrobat, and you will get a unified document.

It takes a few moments to complete, but once it is done, you can even make last-minute edits to the PDF directly inside ChatGPT without switching to the full Acrobat interface.

Adobe's arrival inside ChatGPT is a significant milestone. It pushes OpenAI's chatbot into new territory, expanding what is possible and moving it beyond content generation into real editing, design, and document workflows. If this is only the beginning, it is not hard to imagine a future where ChatGPT becomes the place where ideas are not just created but completed without ever leaving the chatbot.

• Adobe partners with YouTube to speed up content creations
• The Adobe Premiere app adds a new YouTube Shorts space
• And includes exclusive effects, transitions, and title presets

Adobe and Google are continuing their love-in with the pairing of Adobe Premiere and YouTube Shorts to deliver more tools for content creators and streamline sharing to the platform.

From today, the free video editing app will feature a new content creation space specifically built for creating, editing, and publishing directly to YouTube. And it also brings with it a host of new tools - including something we found lacking when we reviewed Premiere for iPhone and iPad: more transitions.

In a press release, Adobe said the partnership with YouTube will "accelerate content creation for all creators and make producing and sharing your Shorts easier and faster."

Adobe Premiere + YouTube Shorts

If you're a content creator or using the video editing app to market your business, there's a lot to like about this partnership between two giants of the creative space.

The big change here is the addition of Create for YouTube Shorts. It's a new content creation space accessible from within the app. YouTubers will now be able to use AI-powered video editing tools and instantly publish videos on the platform.

Here's what you'll find in the new creation space:

• Exclusive effects, transitions, and title presets
• The ability to create your own templates or customize pre-built ones
• Simple sharing to YouTube Shorts direct in the app

Templates are getting the most amount of fanfare here, with the Premiere app boasting a YouTube Shorts Templates Gallery that, it promises, will be regularly updated with new options.

Each one features built-in text, effects, and transition presets. There's also the option to create your own templates for others to use during the upload process,

Usefully for creators and teams looking to grow their audience and boost viewing figures, the app now lets you tap into trends to see what's working on your channel, too.

This isn't the first team-up we've seen between Adobe and Google, who owns YouTube. In October, it was revealed that Google’s Gemini, Veo and Imagen AI models would be made available across the Adobe suite. So, this only deepens those ties.

We were seriously impressed when we reviewed Adobe Premiere - we called it "an excellently crafted video editor," that made editing on the small screen a joy.

And it's loaded with tons of pro-grade features like multi-track timeline editing, audio tools, and inevitably AI extras. Even better, most of the tools in the app are free to use. So, we expect this Adobe/YouTube love-in to only strengthen the editing process.

For Black Friday, Adobe has rolled out a set of generous discounts across two of its most popular plans: Creative Cloud Pro for individuals, students and teachers, teams, and Firefly Pro.

With access to 20+ industry-standard apps, Creative Cloud Pro has got you covered with everything you need for design, editing, layouts, photography, and content creation across every workflow. This includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Lightroom, InDesign, Acrobat, and more.

In the UK? Save up to 50% on Creative Cloud plans for the first year.

On top of the CC deals, Adobe's powerful Firefly Pro, a subscription to generative AI tools that lets you turn ideas into images, videos, and audio simply by describing them, is also heavily discounted for Black Friday.

Black Friday US Adobe deals

Black Friday UK Adobe deals

In Australia? Click here

In Australia? Click here

Why do I recommend Creative Cloud Pro and Firefly Pro?

Adobe’s ecosystem remains the industry benchmark for creative software, and for several good reasons.

Among them are Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and InDesign (just to name a few), which have long been synonymous with professional editing and some of the best photo editors, video editing software, and PDF editors out there.

For teams, Creative Cloud Pro adds an advanced admin console, seat management, boosted cloud storage, and professional support.

This is ideal for agencies, marketing departments, and creative teams that depend on consistent output and collaboration.

Solo creators and students will appreciate the individual and academic plans with affordable access to the same professional-grade tools used across design, photography, video, publishing, and digital media.

Finally, the coveted Firefly Pro subscription plan is now available at a significant discount to provide a high-quality generative AI image and video creation toolkit for any creative professional in need.

It’s trained on licensed Adobe stock and public domain images, which means it’s safer to use commercially than most competitors.

As has become tradition at its conferences, Adobe MAX 2025 concluded with what’s become known as ‘Sneaks’ – a hotly anticipated interactive evening presentation designed to showcase what’s next (or what could be next).

Think of them as passion projects, dreamt up by internal staffers in response to customer demand and emerging trends, whereby experimental features could make it into Adobe’s pipeline.

This year in LA, critically acclaimed comedian, writer and actress Jessica Williams took to the stage together with Adobe Senior Creative Cloud Evangelist Paul Trani to host the session, which comprised 10 individual ‘Sneaks’ demonstrated by their creators.

Although the company stressed that not all of these will reach production, we think they may just do that. Not only did the crowd go wild at each and every Sneak, but with seemingly hundreds of new AI-powered features already launched at MAX 2025, we think there’s room for more in the coming years.

We’ve listed some of our favorites below:

Project Light Touch

Ever taken a photo and gone back to the studio (or perhaps just your phone editor) to realize maybe the lighting wasn’t quite right?

This tool allows users to reshape light sources after capturing them, be it moving the source of the light to cast different shadows, turning day into night or even adding a new light source to any part of the picture (such as lighting up a Halloween pumpkin from within).

Project Trace Erase

“Say goodbye to clunky object removal,” Adobe writes in its summary blog post. This tool addresses one of the most common Photoshop actions – cleaning up photos.

The demo sees a new trace erase tool use diffusion transformer models to erase elements associated with the object that has been selected, such as shadows, reflections and environmental distortions – not just the primary object in question.

Project Frame Forward

Moving over to video, Project Frame Forward does away with having to address each and every frame in video edits, making it simpler and quicker to make changes to an entire clip.

Users can annotate and edit one single frame, and this in-development tool will transfer those edits to every relevant frame. Need to remove an unwanted object from a shot? Just make the change to a single frame and those changes will carry through the entire clip. Adobe boasts that this even maintains original quality.

Project Clean Take

Up next, an audio-focused tool that does everything you could ask of it – of course, powered by AI. Podcasters and filmmakers alike would be able to use the tool to make all manner of changes to soundtracks without re-recording.

Besides isolating voices and removing background noises, Clean Take can also correct mispronunciations. Editors can even go into the transcript and swap out words, which then sound like they’re being said by the original speaker.

Special mention: Project Scene It

Scene It is worthy of its own mention, enabling marketers to generate 3D versions of products from a single image to place them in different scenes for promotional activity.

But the best part came at the end of the mini-presentation, when presenter and project lead Oindrila Saha turned an illustrated glass of champagne into a reality, bringing three glasses out on stage to share with Jessica and Paul.

Little did Oindrila know that those glasses of champagne were part of a broader plan to celebrate what came next – her offer of a permanent position at Adobe after joining as a research intern this summer.

Though not all may make the cut, Adobe’s Sneaks session has always been about more than just hinting at what could come next. It’s all about giving dreamers and creatives the chance for their voices to be heard.

“What begins as a bold experiment at Sneaks often becomes tomorrow’s creative superpower,” Adobe concluded. “We can’t wait to see where these ideas go next.”

• One fifth of workers lack creative/digital skills for the AI-shaped future
• Employers and employees are responsible for upskilling, Adobe says
• Adobe wants to train 30 million people by 2030

Nearly two in three (65%) UK job seekers believe AI skills are now essential to them landing their dream role, and yet few prospective employees have the opportunity to gain those skills, putting them at risk of being left behind, new Adobe research has claimed.

It found an alarming one in five (19%) workers now believing they lack the creative and digital skills they need for an AI-shaped future, but Adobe’s research goes one step further to highlight disproportionate AI readiness among the workforce.

The company found that non-jobseekers are twice as likely to feel unprepared for future jobs, potentially with their relative job security stopping them from feeling like they need to continually upskill.

To this tune, one-third of hiring managers now report a significant AI and automation skills gap, but Adobe has grand plans to ramp up its training efforts to plug that gap.

Adobe VP highlights AI’s role in the creative field

By the end of 2025, the company will already have upskilled one million individuals as part of its Digital Academy program, but by 2030 it hopes to have reached 30 million across platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn and Coursera.

Speaking with TechRadar Pro, International Marketing VP Simon Morris explained that participants would gain micro-credentials and LinkedIn badges to help validate their learning as well as access to Behance Pro for job opportunities within Adobe’s fields.

Morris also confirmed that these courses would be free to all, with no background requirements.

“We’re pretty confident that people recognize that AI is going to give them that competitive edge,” he told us.

When probed about who is responsible for the upskilling of teams, Morris explained that it’s a joint effort. Employers should offer training and encourage continual development (he cited Adobe’s regular open Q&A sessions for staff), but employees must also show a growth mindset to take advantage of such opportunities.

Discussing AI’s impacts on the workforce, Morris also detailed his vision for AI, which he defined as ‘augmented intelligence’ – in other words, a tool to amplify human creativity, not replace it.

“We really believe firmly in transparency and protecting the creator’s rights,” he added.

With AI, Adobe has observed a lowering of the barrier to entry for creative fields, but also a raising of the ceiling. That’s to say, companies can produce more and so they’re expecting more from creatives.

Looking ahead, the need for an AI-ready workforce is clear – 45% of UK hiring managers agree AI and automation skills are the most sought-after skills in new hires.

Besides taking advantage of these opportunities, Adobe’s Future Skills research reveals a growth in the importance of building a personal brand, alluding to the fact that a brand could be the future CV.

• Adobe finds 86% of creators use GenAI in their workflows
• Many are preparing for agentic AI, but are still worried about AI models using their data for training
• High costs and unreliable quality are still pain points for some

Adobe has found more than four in five (86%) global creators use generative AI in their workflows, with nearly as many (81%) agreeing it helped them make content they couldn’t have made otherwise.

Of the 16,000 survey participants, 85% agreed AI has positively impacted the creator economy, suggesting there’s minimal fear over job displacement within this field.

Editing, upscaling and enhancing media was found to be the most common use case (55%), with generating new assets (52%) coming in second place. Rounding up the top three use cases was ideation and brainstorming (48%).

Creators are widely using AI to help them get the job done

Although creatives aren’t concerned about job security, they do still share some worries about AI. More than two-thirds (69%) noted concern over their content being used to train AI without permission – something that Adobe stresses it doesn’t do without explicit permission.

High costs (38%) and unreliable quality (34%) were also cited as barriers to adoption.

While generative AI adoption seems to be at an all-time high among creatives, many are already anticipating how agentic AI could help them further. Workers hope that AI agents could help them automate repetitive tasks (51%), brainstorm ideas (50%) and provide performance insights (44%) with even more autonomy.

“Creators today aren’t passively using creative generative AI, they’re intentionally curating the tools they trust,” Adobe VP and Head of Product Marketing for Creators Mike Polner explained at its annual creativity conference, MAX 2025.

However, up until now, two trends have failed to align. Society has become a mobile-first world, and yet the most powerful AI tools tend to be desktop-only. With 72% frequently creating on mobile devices and 75% expecting to use them more over the coming year, Adobe says it’s committed to bringing more powerful and user-friendly tools to the handset.

As we move from generative to agentic AI, it’s clear that accessibility and transparency must remain key focuses for AI companies to remain competitive in the workplace.

• Affinity is now free for all
• One app for Photo, Designer, and Publisher
• Canva's premium subscribers also get AI tools inside Affinity

Affinity is now free. You read that right. No catch, no charge - three of my favorite professional-grade apps for graphic design, photo editing, and desktop publishing are now completely free for everyone.

Alongside dropping the perpetual license (in a sea of subscriptions, that was always refreshing), Affinity has also rolled Photo, Designer, and Publisher into a single app.

According to the company, it brings “professional vector, photo, and layout tools together in one powerful space, featuring everything you need to design, edit, and publish without switching apps or breaking flow.”

Or paying any money, for that matter.

Free - but at what cost?

Since being bought by Canva back in 2024, there were concerns that the software would follow in the footsteps of its owner and introduce subscriptions for users and businesses.

In fairness, Affinity was quick to quash those rumours. At the time, it remained committed to the perpetual license model, promising in no uncertain terms that subscriptions were not on the cards. No way, no how.

After that, there was little news. Until, out of the blue, the Affinity website went dark. Users could no longer buy the software, and were greeted only with a banner promising “ Creative freedom is coming.”

Then, earlier this month, Affinity made all three existing apps free for iPhone and iPad users (I covered the news here).

It turns out the emphasis was not on creative, but on freedom.

And this is the full Affinity experience, too. Not a stripped back version, but all the tools, all the features, everything that made Affinity great is in place. With a few extras.

Users with a Canva premium account will now get access to the platform’s AI tools inside Affinity with the new Canva AI Studio. That means the introduction of tools like Generative Fill, Expand & Edit, and Remove Background, putting Affinity more on par with unspoken arch-rival Adobe.

That’s what I find especially interesting about the move. Affinity already offered some of the best alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Together with the pro-grade software, the pull of a one-off fee compared to Adobe’s ceaseless subscriptions was a big one.

Now, with the removal of any costs whatsoever, I’ll be interested to see how this will shake up the creative software landscape, and whether Adobe users will switch over (I suspect Affinity is keen to see if this will happen, too).

You can get the new Affinity suite from its new website by clicking here.

• Adobe updated its Image Model to version 5 & it’s more powerful than ever
• More third-party AI models are available across Creative Cloud apps
• You can even train your own AI model to stay on brand

At its annual creativity conference, Adobe MAX 2025, Adobe has lifted the wraps off a series of new models including an upgraded version of Firefly to give creatives more control over the model they use.

Speaking at the event, Digital Media President David Wadhwani explained that the creative industry is “going through an incredibly important transformation” powered by GenAI and AI models - but not every model is suitable for every application.

Wadhwani emphasized that the company remains committed to both delivering its own Firefly models and expanding integration for third-party models on the basis that creatives require maximum choice, adding that they can also finetune custom models.

Adobe wants you to be able to use third-party models – not just Firefly

Across the Creative Cloud ecosystem, users can choose between commercially safe Firefly models, partner models from across the industry, and personalized models.

Key to Adobe’s own portfolio is Firefly Image Model 5, now in public beta. Described as Adobe’s most advanced image generation and editing model to date, it promises highly realistic generations with accurate lighting, texture, and anatomy.

Version 5 generates natively into 4MP for more details before any upscaling takes place.

Besides its own models, though, what sets Adobe apart among many other AI tool providers is its use of third-party models – albeit from selected companies, with a notable omission from Meta.

Topaz Bloom and Topaz Gigapixel are new to Photoshop for generative upscale, while Topaz Bloom and ElevenLabs Multilingual v2 are now available for multilingual voiceovers.

Additional partner models include Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (Nano Banana), Black Forest Labs’ FLUX.1 Kontext and others from OpenAI, Runway, Luma AI, Moonvalley, Pika, and Ideogram.

Adobe’s final enhancement, in an ideal development for marketers needing to stay on brand, is the support for Firefly custom models, currently in private beta via a waitlist.

This allows creators to train personalized models to product assets with consistent style and branding, and can be customized by dragging and dropping existing assets (with no need for text prompts).

As Adobe continues to expand its AI tools across the Creative Cloud suite and Firefly portal, the company is clearly positioning itself as an enabler without imposing the vendor lock-in typical of this sector.

By blending its own commercially safe models with partner integrations and easy-to-train custom options, creatives are being rewarded with more choice and control than before, all while maintaining access to Adobe’s deeply powerful apps and workflows.

• Google’s Gemini, Veo and Imagen models are now available across the Adobe suite
• ‘Create for YouTube Shorts’ mode comes to Premiere mobile app
• Google wants to meet creatives ‘where they are’

Adobe and Google have confirmed a deepening of their partnership in a move which will see more of the latter’s AI models become available across different applications.

Announced at Adobe Max 2025, the news means model families including Gemini, Veo and Imagen are now embedded across Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, Express, Premiere and GenStudio, giving creatives access to leading models directly within their Adobe workflows.

Furthermore, enterprise customers can customize them with proprietary brand data using Vertex AI and Firefly Foundry to ensure they remain consistent with brand guidelines.

Adobe customers now have more Google tools

In a sign of true interoperability and collaboration, Google and Adobe will work together on coordinated go-to-market activities to demonstrate how creatives are set to benefit. While the companies’ ads may not be integral to the news, the fact that the two companies are working together to democratize access to AI is.

For too long, vendor lock-in has proven costly for consumers and companies alike, who have been forced to navigate a complex environment of ecosystems.

“Our partnership with Google Cloud combines Adobe’s creative DNA with Google’s AI models to usher in a new era of creative expression for creators and creative professionals,” Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen explained.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said that integrating Google’s models into Adobe’s “trusted creative ecosystem” gives “everyone… the AI tools and platforms they need to dramatically speed up content creation.”

The two companies also came together to streamline Shorts productions for YouTube via the Premiere mobile app.

The ‘Create for YouTube Shorts’ feature enables content creators to jump on emerging and popular trends with quick editing tools, supported by AI-generated audio and visual effects, to post short-form, vertical videos to the social network.

“Our goal at YouTube is to meet creators where they are and give everyone the tools they need to make storytelling easier and connect with their audiences,” YouTube Engineering VP Scott Silver shared.

A separate ‘Create for YouTube Shorts’ section will be coming to the Premiere mobile app “soon.”

• CVE-2025-54236 is actively exploited to hijack accounts via Magento’s REST API
• Over 250 attacks in 24 hours; most stores remain unpatched six weeks after fix
• Attackers upload PHP backdoors using fake sessions; Sansec urges immediate patching and scans

A critical-severity vulnerability recently found in Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source platforms is being actively exploited in the wild to attack e-commerce sites and take over accounts, experts have warned.

Researchers at Sansec said in less than 24 hours, they observed more than 250 attacks leveraging CVE-2025-54236, a critical-severity flaw (9.1/10) described as an “improper input validation” vulnerability.

It is being abused to take over customer accounts through the Commerce REST API.

Patches, WAF, and more

The attacks are dubbed “SessionReaper”, and although Adobe has released a fix for the bug, Sansec says the majority of Magento stores (almost two-thirds, 62%), are still vulnerable - six weeks after the patch was released.

Sansec identified five different IP addresses from which the attacks originate, suggesting either multiple threat actors, or a single actor using VPNs, proxy servers, or compromised machines to hide their real location (which is a more common occurrence).

In the attacks, they droop PHP webshells or probe phpinfo in an attempt to extract PHP configuration data. "PHP backdoors are uploaded via '/customer/address_file/upload' as a fake session," Sansec said.

Given that the flaw is being actively used in the wild, and that a patch has been available for weeks already, Sansec urged all users to secure their assets immediately.

That includes testing and deploying the patch as soon as possible, activating Web Application Firewall (WAF) protection (for those that cannot deploy the patch at this time), and scanning for compromise.

“If you delayed patching, run a malware scanner like eComscan to check for signs of compromise,” Sansec explained.

TheHackerNews notes this is the second deserialization vulnerability found in Adobe Commerce and Magento platforms in the last two years. In July 2024, the company patched a 9.8/10 flaw nicknamed CosmicSting, which was also abused in the wild.

• Adobe reveals new AI Foundry service for businesses
• Platform will allow customized AI models designed around a company's IP
• Adverts and campaigns can be easily adapted, changed, and transferred

Adobe has launched a new service offering businesses the chance to train customized and bespoke AI models on their own corporate IP and branding.

The new AI Foundry service looks to offer unparalleled customization when it comes to AI models, particularly as companies look to differentiate themselves in this new age.

The move should also help companies and AI model makers alike avoid potentially damaging legal issues that come out of corporate IP being misused by LLMs or other services.

Adobe AI Foundry

Foundry’s custom models, which can produce text, images, video, and more, will be built off Adobe’s own Firefly AI models, with the added bonus of extra personalization.

The company says its launch was driven by enterprise customers wanting more sophisticated custom versions of Firefly. Adobe will work with its customer before launching a model, to ensure all parameters are being met and no boundaries are being crossed.

This will set it apart from those firms which choose to work with LLMs from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google models, as you can simply connect to them via an API.

For example, the company can use the model to adapt an advertisement for a range of different markets or languages without needing to begin from scratch each time.

The adapted advertisement will be able maintain a consistent "look" from the company, and will be created much faster. It can then also be adapted to fit in different channels, allowing a much smoother marketing campaign, saving time and money.

Adobe has already signed up Home Depot and Walt Disney Imagineering, the research and development arm of Disney for its theme parks, as early customers - with the latter proving a potentially intriguing use case moving forward.

• Three Affinity apps now free on the App Store
• There's no official announcement and might not last
• Removing prices comes ahead of a secret announcement on October 30

Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher are free on iPad right now. I’m not sure how long this will last, so I’ll cut to the chase - you can grab them all from the App Store by clicking here.

If you want to try three of the best creative software you can get, you’ll want to jump on this while you can. Seriously, these apps are phenomenally good, rivalling Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign for features and workflow.

The price drop from $19 / £18 down to absolutely nothing comes ahead of a mysterious announcement from Affinity and Canva, who owns the company, set for October 30.

Affinity is up to something, I can feel it in my bones

I’ve been a big fan of the Affinity suite for a long time. Not only do they offer one of the best alternatives to Adobe’s apps, but I love the pricing model. Pay once, own it forever. In a sea of subscriptions, it’s refreshingly simple, accessible, and consumer-friendly.

So, what’s on offer here?

Affinity Designer 2 is the company’s answer to Adobe Illustrator for graphic designers and artists. Available on the App Store by clicking here.

Affinity Photo 2 is a Photoshop alternative that lets you edit images at pro-grade quality. See on the App Store by clicking here.

Affinity Publisher 2 is my clear favorite alternative to InDesign for page layout designers. It's on the App Store by clicking here.

In our reviews, they all received an Editor’s Choice award - and the iPad and desktop versions offer creative parity, with the added bonus of using touch on the Apple tablet.

But something strange is afoot.

It started back in 2024, when Canva bought the company, and confirmed that - unlike the Canva platform - Affinity would keep the perpetual license model.

Then, several weeks ago, Affinity’s website went dark. No way to purchase the desktop apps, no possibility of even seeing what they do. Nothing, in fact, except a single promise: “Creative freedom is coming.”

Well, it seems that freedom has come early for iPad owners, with the current V2 versions of Designer, Photo, and Publisher available to download via the App Store without cost.

Of course, some Adobe creative apps, like the lighter weight design app Express, are free on mobile, but still have subscriptions attached for the likes of assets and AI credits. What you’re getting from Affinity is full-suite professional creative tools for the princely sum of…nothing.

Grab all three while you can right here.

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• Adobe announces Premiere for iPhone
• Mobile video editing app boasts end-to-end editing
• Android version is in the works

Adobe Premiere for iPhone is here - and from what I've seen of it so far, it's promising to deliver professional-style post-production tools on Apple's phone.

Now, I have a confession to make: I was always a fan of Adobe Rush. For me, it was one of the best video editing apps around. Simple to use and free, too. But there was always something lacking with it when compared to the likes of Premiere Pro (or even Premiere Elements). Think of it as the difference between Express and Photoshop.

So, I was delighted to see the company finally launch a true video editor for mobile devices. Taking some of the best bits from Rush and Premiere Pro, this suped-up app brings a host of critical editing tools I think content creators will love, including multi-track timelines, generative AI, and studio-quality audio tools.

What to expect from Adobe Premiere for iPhone

Want the highlights? Here are the top tools I think are worth a shout-out...

• Multi-track timelines
• 4K HDR editing
• Animated captions
• Visual effects
• Background removal
• Enhance Speech and genAI sound effects
• Commercially safe assets
• Simple sharing to all major platforms

As a mobile editor, Premiere for iPhone works in the portrait orientation, the top of its interface being for the Viewer, and the bottom, for your Timeline. You can resize the two sections to see more or less of either of them.

Based on the demo I saw, working in the Timeline, and seeing how existing clips move around across multiple layers to make way for new additions, reminded me a lot more of Apple’s Final Cut Pro X than Premiere Pro - which is not a bad thing at all. It seems that frame-accurate editing is also entirely possible with this app.

Selecting a clip in the timeline reveals a series of tools at the bottom of the screen which you can swipe through. You’ll find the usual editing features you’ve grown to expect from a video editor, and of course, there are the now-customary AI options, such as ‘Expand Image’, to allow you to fill the screen with an image without having to zoom into it.

Perhaps the most impressive AI feature is Generative Sound Effects. You know how this works by now: use the text prompt to describe what you’re after and the app will create it for you.

Here, however, you’ve also got the option of using your voice to record the cadence you’re seeking, for instance, and the AI tool will use that along with the text prompt to better give you what you want. The demo of this was impressive.

The editing, the advanced tools, and the fact the non-generative side of the app is free, is all very enticing. Users will only need to pay for additional storage and AI credits.

However, I'm left with a few unanswered questions.

I'm now wondering whether, like Resolve, it also works on iPad. Is there support for landscape editing? How many layers does the timeline support? Can you import Adobe Rush projects? Does the option to export your project to Premiere Pro on the desktop work with AirDrop, or does it require uploading to the cloud?

I hope to be able to answer these questions, and more, in my upcoming review. For now, you can download the app by clicking here.

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Google's popular new Gemini 2.5 Flash Image model, better known as Nano Banana, has a new home in Adobe Photoshop. Those with access to Photoshop’s beta app can produce images with Nano Banana, best known for making viral 3D figurines from photographs, directly within the Generative Fill tool, alongside Adobe’s own Firefly model.

Nano Banana is joining the platform along with a new contextual model from Black Forest Labs, the developers of the AI image-maker used by Grok on X, called FLUX.1 Kontext [pro].

It's a notable expansion for Adobe's AI strategy, which has largely relied on Adobe-built models until now. But now, Photoshop users can generate a dreamy, stylized background using Nano Banana, refine it with realistic shadows via FLUX.1, and polish the whole thing using Firefly, all within the Generative Fill feature. Adobe seems to want Photoshop to serve as a hub for multiple AI models to compete for your creative attention.

Adobe still encourages users to consider the Firefly model as the go-to for commercial-safe results. Firefly is built for higher-end images in terms of quality, consistency, and reliance on a database that Adobe has permission to use for training its models.

Nano Banana and FLUX have their own strengths, of course. Google's contribution is known for its stylistic flourishes and eye-catching visuals, which are based on text, while Black Forest Labs pitches its model as ideal for more realistic and coherent images.

Now that they're swappable inside the same prompt window, users will be able to test those strengths out very quickly. For instance, if you have an idea for a fantasy story illustration, Nano Banana could add some magical effects, while FLUX realistically lights a cave setting, and Firefly cleans it all up.

AI image imagination

Adobe opening up to third-party providers will likely help the company as it battles to keep Photoshop atop the list of high-end visual platforms. Making it easy to switch among the models will streamline a lot of projects, both professional and personal. Speeding up the sometimes tedious process of editing images is going to appeal to plenty of creators.

For instance, a designer making social content can generate stylized backgrounds in seconds and tweak them without toggling between tabs. An inventor could run the entire product imagery and marketing launch campaign entirely within Photoshop, and even someone making a funny greeting card image will find the process a lot easier.

You still need taste and direction. However, the burden of drafting and editing might be significantly lighter. If you want to try mixing Photoshop and Nano Banana, you’ll need to opt into the Photoshop beta via Creative Cloud. Adobe says more improvements are coming as they optimize the back-end systems and introduce finer controls over each model’s output.

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• Adobe Stock is 10 years old
• Company is rolling out new Missions and bonus pay for contributors
• Creators will finally gain access to Adobe Stock content inside apps like Photoshop

Adobe Stock is about to hit its 10-year anniversary - and to celebrate the milestone, it seems the company has some big surprises in store for the platform’s contributors, creators, and users.

Outlined in a blog post, the company has taken a retrospective look at just how far the platform has come since its initial launch and its plans for the future.

We had a lot of compliments to give in our recent Adobe Stock review, noting how impressively easy it was to add media to the site and start earning money.

Now, it seems, Adobe is prepping more ways for contributors to earn with the stock photo site and improving workflows for users of the site.

What’s new in Adobe Stock?

For contributors to Adobe Stock, there are two main features that caught my eye.

More ways to make money is the big one as Adobe Stock turns ten. The platform already supports individual licenses, bonus pay for Firefly contributions, and Missions - the latter of which will shortly be expanding. It’s an interesting idea, with contributors able to earn more for delivering specific types of content that Adobe requires.

Alongside this, the platform will be introducing the third Firefly bonus pay-out. Effectively, it means those contributors who let the company train its Firefly AI on their media over the past year will find a little extra cash in their portal from tomorrow.

Improved integration across Adobe apps is the second notable update. This is something the company typically excels at - you only have to look at how tools such as Express and Firefly are now readily available inside the likes of Photoshop to see how the implementation is handled.

That means anyone using Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects, XD, Dimension, Dreamweaver, and Express will be able to preview and license that content. Adobe reckons this will provide “unparalleled content visibility and exposure.” The real surprise for me here is how long it’s taken to get this done.

For creators and users of Adobe Stock, the main features to look out for are the expanded integration, where Adobe is already looking at new ways to use Stock content as part of existing workflows.

It's also promising new content types, with Adobe saying it’s “rapidly expanding our offerings to include photos, illustrations, videos, vectors, generative AI content, audio, templates, 3D assets, GIFs.”

The company also suggests that this is just the beginning - although I’m struggling to think of a medium that isn’t already included in that list.

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• Adobe launches six new AI agents across customer support, product and data
• Enterprises will “soon” be able to customize their own agents, too
• Most customers are already interacting with AI chatbots

Adobe has made its AI agent technology generally available in a bid to help workers build, deliver and optimize customer experiences and marketing campaigns.

The agentic platform promises context-aware and multi-step actions, response refinement and ROI-driven workflows thanks to its AEP Agent Orchestrator underpinnings, meaning that businesses can tailor the AI to their own unique goals.

Adobe expect the technology to be a huge hit, with over 70% of AEP customers already using the AI Assistant conversational interface – an extra layer of automation will only serve to further boost output.

Adobe’s AI agents hit the market

From launch, the tech giant has curated a series of out-of-the-box AI agents within its apps, including: Audience Agent (personalization initiatives for audience optimization); Journey Agent (designing and optimizing multi-channel customer journeys); Experimentation Agent (analyzing experiments and predicting conversions); Data Insights Agent (for forecasting and visualizing insights); Site Optimization Agent (to monitor websites, flag performance issues and assist fixes); and Product Support Agent (to streamline customer support).

Enterprises who need more from agentic AI can go ahead and configure their own within brand guidelines and policies through the Experience Platform Agent Composer, coming “soon.”

The news comes after Adobe first announced its Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator at its annual Summit even in March 2025, positioning it has a hub to connect data, workflow and third-party AI ecosystems.

“Our agentic AI innovations are elevating customer experience orchestration by reimagining processes, unlocking productivity for marketing teams and delivering personalized experiences at scale to drive growth,” Adobe Experience Cloud Engineering SVP Anjul Bhambhri said.

Adobe also promises to be working with Cognizant, Google Cloud, Havas, Medallia, Omnicom, PwC and VML to make its AI agents more powerful across multiple platforms.

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• Adobe patched a critical Web API flaw in Commerce and Magento
• The bug, dubbed SessionReaper, scored 9.1/10 and affects multiple versions
• Researchers warn the leaked hotfix may aid attackers

Adobe has patched a critical vulnerability in its Commerce and Magento Open Source platforms that could lead to full account takeover.

In a recently published security advisory, Adobe said it fixed an Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) vulnerability affecting the ServiceInputProcessor component of the Web API.

In other words, it allows malicious, improperly validated API requests to bypass security controls. Researchers dubbed it SessionReaper.

Most severe flaw ever

The bug is now tracked as CVE-2025-54236 and has been given a severity score of 9.1/10 (critical) on the National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

Vulnerable versions include 2.4.9-alpha2, 2.4.8-p2, 2.4.7-p7, 2.4.6-p12, 2.4.5-p14, 2.4.4-p15 and earlier, the NVD page says.

“A successful attacker can abuse this to achieve session takeover, increasing the confidentiality, and integrity impact to high. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction.” Adobe Commerce on Cloud customers are protected by a web application firewall (WAF), the company confirmed.

The company says it is not aware of any exploits in the wild but, according to BleepingComputer, describes it as “the most severe” flaw in the history of the platform.

A patch was released on September 9, and customers are urged to apply it without delay. "Please apply the hotfix as soon as possible. If you fail to do so, you will be vulnerable to this security issue, and Adobe will have limited means to help remediate,” Adobe warned.

While there is no evidence of in-the-wild abuse, security outfit Sansec said the initial hotfix for SessionReaper was leaked a few days ago, which could allow malicious actors to reverse-engineer it and find additional holes to exploit, BleepingComputer reported.

At the same time, some researchers believe deploying the fix could break some external code breaking, since it disables certain Magento functionalities.

Via BleepingComputer

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• Adobe Acrobat Studio announced
• New hubs for managing, understanding, and creating documents
• Platform fuses Acrobat Pro, Adobe Express, new specialized AI assistants

Adobe has unveiled its new Acrobat Studio, which aims to become the nerve center for productivity and creativity tasks - and a life-saver for anyone drowning in documents.

The platform fuses the full Acrobat Pro experience with extra AI tools, Adobe Express, and new spaces that the company says “transforms PDFs into conversational knowledge hubs that enable people to use customizable AI Assistants to unlock and share insights, answers and recommendations.”

That’s business-speak for saying Acrobat Studio’s AI should make it easier to understand document contents. Adobe’s Abhigyan Modi, senior vice president, Document Product Group, gave me a demo of the new tools. Here’s what you need to know…

What is Adobe Acrobat Studio and what’s new?

Adobe Acrobat Studio effectively attempts to solve some of the issues faced by those managing or accessing documents. Namely, file storage, collaborative or communication breakdown, content creation, and information overload.

On the launch of Adobe Acrobat Studio, Modi said: “We’re reinventing PDF for modern work, so whatever you need to get done, you can do that with Acrobat.”

Use-cases highlighted by Adobe include centralizing client insights, creating polished, on-brand proposals, grabbing key metrics for secure sharing, and reviewing resumes. Effectively, if it's a document, Acrobat Studio can probably do something with it.

Acrobat is already home to an AI Assistant, Firefly, and - in an interesting use of the technology - a contract explainer that helpfully summarizes jargon-heavy legal documents. Those constant updates are one of the reasons why I rank it as the best PDF editor around. But Acrobat Studio ramps that integration up to eleven.

• PDF Spaces

PDF Spaces is the headline addition. It’s also the area Modi told me he’s most excited about with this launch, keen to see how users benefit from them.

These are AI-driven hubs for up to 100 files (format support goes way beyond PDF). Upload a file, and PDF Spaces generates what Adobe dubs “an AI-powered workspace,” loading in suggested goals, actionable insights, citations.

It’s a space, Adobe says, where users can use AI to question, compare, and summarize information in documents. A “conversational knowledge hub,” if you like.

• Specialized assistants

One of PDF Spaces’ biggest strengths is that it expands on the familiar AI Assistant already found in Adobe Acrobat for more tailored responses.

Three specialized AI assistants are baked into the workspace, with the option to create a custom one. The Analyst, the Instructor, and the Entertainer each approach information differently in ways that should, in theory, be more helpful to users.

This is a core element, Modi explained, of Adobe’s focus on the needs of different users. Where the Entertainer toys with language and creativity, the Analyst studies and uncovers new thoughts; the Instructor makes complex topics accessible.

• Adobe Express integration

Adobe Express has been getting a lot of attention lately, with an expanded toolset and integration with a host of Creative Cloud apps. So, perhaps it was just a matter of time before it joined fully with Acrobat.

The popular, free online design tool is a core part of Acrobat Studio. With the full-fat Adobe Express Premium tools, users can create (or generate) professional templates, presentations, reports, and social media posts.

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Adobe has joined in the back-to-school sales with a massive 40% price-cut on its Creative Cloud Pro plan for the first year.

In the US, save 40% off a year's subscription to Creative Cloud Pro was $70, now $42 a month. The Adobe deals cut right across Individual, Business, and Student & Teacher subscriptions, with Creative Cloud Pro for Teams dropping by 40% from $100 a month per license down to the $60.

In Canada, a Creative Cloud Pro plan has dropped from C$92 down to C$56 a month.

In the UK, get 50% off for three months on the Creative Cloud Pro plan.

The CC Pro subscription plan bundles together over 20 top apps including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. So, if you're going to use more than two Adobe apps at around $20 a month each, then this 40% off deal is going to save you money right away.

You can check out the full range of deals below.

• See all Adobe deals in the US
• See all Adobe deals in Canada
• See all Adobe deals in the UK

Today's top Adobe discounts & deals in the US and Canada

In Canada? Click here

Today's top Adobe discounts & deals in the UK

Why I think this is a great deal

There's no denying that Adobe has set the industry-standard when it comes to creative software. There aren't many software houses whose products become everyday verbs the way Photoshop has.

Having extensively tested out pretty much the full suite of apps on offer, I know they rank as some of the best photo editors, best video editing software, and best PDF editors around. If you want pro-grade tools for design and content creation, there's not much that can beat Adobe's line-up.

However, recently, the company raised the price of its Creative Cloud Pro plan (formerly known as Creative Cloud All Apps) - which went down like a lead balloon with users. So, I welcome this current discount for students, teams, and individual users, particularly as minds are turning to back to school thoughts.

Nvidia has announced a sweet deal for anyone with an Nvidia Geforce RTX graphics card: a free subscription to a host of Adobe’s best creative apps, including Photoshop and Premiere Pro.

Given Adobe has recently ramped up subscription prices in the US - and I’d expect the rest of the world to follow at some point - a month or two of free access is to be welcomed. A monthly subscription to Creative Cloud Pro already costs $69.99 a month on an annual contract, so already that’s a big saving.

Adobe and Nvidia have a long-standing partnership, collaborating on a whole range of projects from unlocking GPU acceleration in Premiere Pro to training LLMs on PDFs (no, really).

So, giving away Adobe apps free won’t come as a massive surprise - but there are a couple of catches if you want this deal.

How to get the deal

There are two things to note before jumping on this deal. It’s only available to new subscribers, so if you’re already enjoying life in the Creative Cloud ecosystem, you can’t sign up. And you’ll need to own an Nvidia RTX GPU.

Not all deals are created equal, either. If you own an RTX 40- or 30-series card, you get one month of Creative Cloud. If you’re rocking an RTX 50-series, you can sign up for two month’s access, which also bundles in Substance 3D.

To sign up, you’ll need an Nvidia account and download the Nvidia app. From there, head over to the rewards section. If you have a supported graphics card, you’ll see the offer here.

Signing up will mean setting up a payment plan with Adobe, so get that credit card ready and if you’re planning on only using the apps while they’re free, remember to unsubscribe before the trial period ends.

You can download the app by clicking here. This offer is available now and runs until June 2028.

Don’t have a supported GPU (or just don’t want another subscription)? I’ve rounded up the best alternatives to Photoshop and the best Premiere Pro alternatives to skirt Creative Cloud plans.

Subscribe the old-fashioned way

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• Adobe wants to help decide how your brand shows up inside ChatGPT and other AI bots
• LLM Optimizer promises SEO-like results in an internet where search engines no longer rule
• Your FAQ page could now influence what AI chatbots say about your brand to customers

Popular AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are increasingly replacing traditional search engines in how people discover content and make purchasing decisions.

Adobe is attempting to stay ahead of the curve by launching LLM Optimizer, which it claims can help businesses improve visibility across generative AI interfaces by monitoring how brand content is used and providing actionable recommendations.

The tool even claims to assign a monetary value to potential traffic gains, allowing users to prioritize optimizations.

Shift from search engines to AI interfaces

With a reported 3,500% increase in generative AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites and a 3,200% spike to travel sites between July 2024 and May 2025, Adobe argues that conversational interfaces are no longer a trend but a transformation in consumer behavior.

“Generative AI interfaces are becoming go-to tools for how customers discover, engage and make purchase decisions, across every stage of their journey,” said Loni Stark, vice president of strategy and product at Adobe Experience Cloud.

The core of Adobe LLM Optimizer lies in its monitoring and benchmarking capabilities, as it claims to give businesses a “real-time pulse on how their brand is showing up across browsers and chat services.”

The tool can help teams identify the most relevant queries for their sector and understand how their offerings are presented, as well as enabling comparison with competitors for high-value keywords and uses this data to refine content strategies.

A recommendation engine detects gaps in brand visibility across websites, FAQs, and even external platforms like Wikipedia.

It suggests both technical fixes and content improvements based on attributes that LLMs prioritize, such as accuracy, authority, and informativeness.

These changes can be implemented “with a single click,” including code or content updates, which suggests an effort to reduce dependency on lengthy development cycles.

It is clear the best SEO tool tactics may need to adapt, especially as AI chat interfaces do not operate with the same crawling and ranking logic as standard web browsers.

For users who already rely on the best browser for private browsing or privacy tools to avoid data profiling, the idea that businesses are now optimizing to appear inside chatbots could raise questions about how content is sourced and attributed.

Adobe insists that the tool supports “enterprise-ready frameworks” and has integration pathways for agencies and third-party systems, though the wider implications for transparency and digital content ethics remain to be seen.

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• Adobe Express for Ads is now live - I spoke to Express SVP to find out more
• Content integration with Google Ads, LinkedIn, TikTok
• Includes Social Safe Zone to refine ads for each platform

Adobe Express has introduced a new tool designed to help small businesses create and monitor online ads across popular social media channels.

Since Adobe Max London, the design platform has seen a host of new AI updates like Clip Maker and Generate Similar for spinning out new content based on existing images. Now, Express for Ads brings even more options for marketers and small businesses to scale up content production and track performance.

In an exclusive TechRadar Pro interview, I spoke to Adobe Express SVP Govind Balakrishnan to find out what users can expect from the new ad platform - and what else we can look forward to in the coming months.

What’s new in Adobe Express and what is Express for Ads?

This isn’t the first foray into social media content creation for Express, which has long offered the ability to create ad templates, and schedule and publish directly to platforms.

But the platform is giving users a jump-start of scaling up ad creation across core advertising platforms. You can check out the new Express tools by clicking here - but here’s what you can expect.

• 1. Ad platform support

What this new update adds is the ability to create content workflows specifically for Google, LinkedIn, Meta, TikTok, and later down the line, Amazon, too.

As Balakrishnan told me, “What we have now done though is also bring in the tools and capabilities to make it incredibly easy for you to create content that performs well for the critical or prominent ad platforms like Google Ads, LinkedIn, Meta, and more coming in the not too distant future. We've essentially made it easy for you to start with the template or even generate a template, and create content using the best in class tools that we have available in Express.”

• 2. Better best practices

Alongside expanded ad platform support, users can now also use what Adobe’s calling a Social Safe Zone.

This is effectively a set of best practices to prevent the dreaded rejection of ads - and it’s currently supported for Facebook Stories, Instagram Reels, and LinkedIn Videos. There are plans to support additional formats soon.

“We've added a capability called Social Safe Zone,” said Balakrishnan. “It’s essentially a set of guidelines or guard rails that are incorporated as you're creating your content to ensure that the key visual elements that you have in your content are not obstructed by the various social media platforms. So, it helps you essentially create content to ensure that the visual elements that you care most about are front and centre, and are optimized to be best-performing for each of the social media platforms that you're targeting.”

• 3. A one-stop shop for ad creation

In a bid to improve the creative workflow, Adobe is now letting users play in the Express sand-box without having to move out to other apps.

Balakrishnan calls it a one-stop shop, adding: “We have made it incredibly easy to publish straight to the ad platforms, so we have made it. Express can establish a connection with Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Tiktok. You can go from Express directly to each of these ad platforms.”

Of course, Adobe Express has long offered the option to resize templates, but in this latest update, the company has gone further.

“We have now ensured that [Resize] works for these ad platforms,” Balakrishnan told me. “Essentially, you start with the template, you have Safe Zones to ensure that your content looks great for each, and now you have the ability to publish straight into these ad platforms. So, Express becomes this one-stop shop where you start with an intent, you create your content, you publish to various platforms, and you get your insights back right there. You don't have to jump between various tools, various platforms.”

It’s an area that Balakrishnan is most excited for, telling me, “I am most excited about the fact that you can create for a specific ad platform and resize seamlessly for other platforms. As we all know, most marketing marketers are trying to reach multiple platforms and struggle to do that because they have to recreate a lot of their content over and over again for multiple app platforms. The fact that they can fairly quickly and easily create the best possible content for each of those ad platforms, I think, is incredibly exciting.”

• 4. Improved metrics and tracking

One of the best updates, I think, coming with Express for Ads, is the ability to now monitor ad performance across supported platforms, delivering much-needed feedback to refine future ideation and creation. With that in mind, Express now has included Metricool and Bitly add-ons.

Expanding on this, Balakrishnan said, “We've added the ability to get metrics and analytics on the content and how the content is performing through integrations with Metricool and Bitly. These are two recent integrations that we have launched where, once you post your content to these platforms, you now have the ability to get feedback on how your content is performing, in addition to obviously seeing how it maps to current trends and current fads that may be in play.”

And it turns out Adobe might’ve underestimated just how many users are welcoming this update.

Balakrishnan said, “I'm finding that a number of our users are excited about the Metricool integration. I don't know if we had fully realised how compelling this could be, but as we have gotten deeper into the integration and as we have engaged with more of our user base, it has become clear that it is an integration that a large number of our users are incredibly excited about because they then get the insights from how their content is performing right there in the tool without having to leave the tool and go somewhere else.”

• 5. The future of Adobe Express

As Express continues to evolve, I couldn’t resist finding out what users can expect later down the line. Here, Balakrishnan teased a couple of future updates.

“The next stage that we are incredibly excited about, and I know it's not necessarily related to the ads creation scenario today, but it will be relevant in the not too distant future is the ability to completely reimagine creativity or the opportunity to completely reimagine creativity through agentic AI. The idea there would be that you just enter a prompt and you get you start with a blank screen, you enter a prompt, and you interact through a prompt to essentially generate full-fledged designs from scratch. We are now making it even easier for anyone to come in and describe what's in their mind's eye and have that show up on a digital screen in seconds.”

That will come as little surprise for followers of Adobe, where agentic AI is fast becoming de rigueur across the company’s apps. But it’s not the only area where Balakrishnan envisions AI advancements. He confirmed he’d like to see “more advancements in the realm of generative AI” for Express users who don’t want to see a lowering of the barrier to entry via agentic AI.

And, as you’d expect from a platform that integrates across the Creative Cloud suite, the team is looking at further integrations with Adobe Acrobat.

Balakrishnan explained: “We are seeing an increasing trend, so to speak, where creativity and productivity are coming closer together and we see some incredible opportunities to leverage the very broad base of Acrobat users and give them the tools and capabilities to add more richness to PDF and Acrobat documents. And we're doing that by building seamless integrations and workflows from Acrobat into Express, where you're if you're in Acrobat, if you're in [Acrobat] Reader, if you're viewing a regular PDF document, we are now giving you the ability to edit images, generate images to stylize your document all from within Acrobat.”

You can find out more in Adobe's latest blog.

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Adobe Firefly is a generative AI platform built for creatives – whether you're a designer looking to speed up mock-ups or a casual user wanting to experiment with text-to-image tools.

Unlike some AI image generators that come with complex prompts or licensing concerns, Firefly focuses on simplicity, safety, and seamless integration with the Adobe apps many users already know.

What sets Firefly apart is Adobe’s emphasis on responsible AI. It’s trained on content Adobe owns or has licensed, so the outputs are cleared for commercial use – making it a compelling option for professionals who need AI tools they can actually rely on.

Even better, it runs in your browser and doesn’t require a full Creative Cloud subscription to get started.

Today, we're going to look at what you can achieve in just 30 minutes with Firefly, including the basics of generating images and video, using effects, Adobe's Generative Fill feature, and more.

What is Adobe Firefly?

Adobe Firefly is Adobe’s generative AI engine, designed to help users create images, text effects, and even video content using nothing but natural language prompts.

Firefly launched in 2023 as part of Adobe’s broader push into AI-assisted creativity and now sits at the core of many Adobe tools, from Photoshop to Illustrator and Express. Essentially, if you use Adobe tools, you'll use Firefly.

At its heart, Firefly offers a web-based interface where users can type prompts like “a cinematic forest at sunset in 4K” or “text made of glowing lava”, and instantly generate visuals, similar to rivals like Midjourney.

Adobe's tools include Text to Image, Generative Fill, Text Effects, Vector Recolour, and experimental features like text-to-video – all powered by AI trained exclusively on licensed Adobe Stock images, open content, and public domain material.

That training data is key to Firefly’s appeal: unlike some rival AI tools, Adobe has focused on producing commercially safe outputs ideal for business use.

Anything created in Firefly is clearly marked with Content Credentials, providing traceable attribution and transparency – which is crucial if you're using the assets for business, marketing, or editorial work.

Getting started with Firefly

To start using Adobe Firefly, all you need is a free Adobe account and a web browser like Chrome or Safari. Head to the Adobe Firefly site by clicking here and sign in or create an account – no need to install anything or subscribe to Creative Cloud, though you’ll get more options if you do.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll be taken to the Firefly homepage, which presents a range of AI-powered tools. The most prominent is Text to Image, which lets you generate visuals from natural language prompts, and Text to Video.

Alongside them, you’ll find options like Generative Fill, which lets you add, remove, or extend parts of an image, Text Effects, which turns written words into stylised graphics, and Generative Recolour, aimed at adjusting colour schemes within vector artwork.

Depending on availability, you might also see more experimental tools such as 3D to Image or Extend Image.

For the purposes of this guide, we'll start with Text to Image. It’s the most intuitive entry point and a quick way to understand how Firefly interprets your instructions to create images from scratch.

Each creative module opens in its own clean workspace, complete with customisation tools for styles, lighting, aspect ratio, and more. You can dive deep into the settings or let Firefly handle the heavy lifting – it’s designed to give great results even with minimal input.

Generating your first image

Once you’ve opened the Text to Image tool, you’ll be greeted by a simple interface: a prompt box, a Generate button, and a range of customisation options. This is where the magic happens.

Start by typing a short, descriptive prompt into the box – something like “a cyberpunk cityscape at night” or “a photorealistic portrait of a golden retriever wearing sunglasses”. Anything works to get started.

You don’t need to write like a novelist, but the more specific your request, the better the result. Mention key elements such as the subject, setting, mood, or style. For example, “watercolour painting of a treehouse in spring” will produce very different results to “3D render of a futuristic treehouse at sunset”.

Below the prompt field, you’ll find style presets to shape your output. Options include Photo, Art, Graphic, and 3D, and you can also adjust the aspect ratio (square, landscape, or portrait), lighting style (natural, dramatic, soft), and colour tone (black & white, cool, and so on).

These extras are optional, but they’re helpful if you’re aiming for a specific use case, such as a desktop wallpaper or a blog header.

When you’re ready, hit Generate.

In just a few seconds, Firefly will create four variations based on your prompt. You can click on any image to view it in more detail, download it, or use it as the starting point for further editing with tools like Generative Fill.

Don’t worry if your first result isn’t perfect: iteration is part of the process. You can tweak your prompt (perhaps by adding more detail), select a new style, or hit Generate again to see a fresh set of images.

Firefly encourages experimentation, and even subtle changes to your wording can produce radically different results.

Text effects, recolouring, and Generative Fill

Once you’ve created your first image, Firefly makes it easy to explore more advanced tools – without getting overwhelmed.

• Text Effects lets you turn words into artwork by applying visual textures like lava, clouds, or gold foil to your text. Just type the word and describe the style you want (e.g. “ice made of shattered glass”), and Firefly generates options instantly.
• Generative Recolour is ideal for Illustrator users working with vector art. Upload your design and use prompts like “summer palette” or “vintage look” to re-theme the colours.
• Generative Fill helps you edit an image by adding or removing elements. Simply brush over the area you want to change, type a prompt (like “add a mountain in the background”), and Firefly gives you smart suggestions.

These tools build on your first image and open up more creative possibilities – all without needing to leave the browser.

Generating videos

While Firefly’s core tools focus on still images, Adobe is also experimenting with AI-powered video features through its Creative Cloud apps.

Firefly for video is currently in beta and accessible via Premiere Pro and After Effects for Creative Cloud subscribers.

These early tools include AI-powered text animations, style transfer, and B-roll generation based on scene context or prompts.

For example, you can ask Firefly to generate a cutaway of a city skyline or apply a specific artistic style to a video clip.

Adobe has also recently added Firefly video generation to its website for select users, although most of the features are limited to paid accounts. Free users do get two free credits to experiment, and the tool worked well in my (brief) testing.

What you can and can't do in 30 minutes

Half an hour with Adobe Firefly is enough to explore just how quickly AI can accelerate your creative process. Even without any design experience, you can generate high-quality images, apply eye-catching text styles, and edit visuals using generative tools – all from your browser.

More than anything, Firefly shines as a fast ideation platform.

You can sketch out visual ideas, explore moods and aesthetics, or prototype content like social media graphics, blog images, and poster concepts – all in a fraction of the time traditional tools require.

It’s a particularly handy option for content creators and marketers who need to turn around visuals quickly, without opening a full suite of software.

Still, Firefly has limitations worth noting.

Its outputs often struggle with precise text rendering in images, and it occasionally fumbles complex details like human faces, hands, or realistic body proportions. Results can also feel a little generic when using highly stylised or niche prompts – a side effect of Adobe’s more cautious, rights-cleared models.

Firefly also prioritises simplicity over granular control, which makes it beginner-friendly but may frustrate advanced users wanting to fine-tune image generation.

That said, its automatic use of Content Credentials is a standout feature – adding visible attribution and ensuring everything you create is safe for commercial use.

FAQs

• Is Adobe Firefly free to use? Yes. Firefly is free to access via your browser with an Adobe account. Some features may be limited without a Creative Cloud subscription, but the core tools like Text to Image and Text Effects are available to all users.
• Do I need Photoshop or Illustrator to use Firefly? No. Firefly runs entirely in your browser and doesn’t require any other Adobe apps.
• Can I use Firefly images commercially? Yes. Firefly is trained on licensed and public domain content, and all outputs come with Content Credentials. This means the assets are cleared for commercial use under Adobe’s terms.
• What kinds of prompts work best? Clear, descriptive prompts tend to yield the best results. Include details about the subject, style, mood, and lighting if relevant.

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PDFs are everywhere – from forms and contracts to manuals, design proofs, event tickets, and more. If you want to get something done, chances are you'll be loading a PDF.

The file format is ideal for preserving layouts and formatting, but tricky to edit without the right tools. Adobe Acrobat is the standard choice – but here’s the good news: you can make basic edits without paying a penny.

While Acrobat Pro offers advanced features, Adobe also provides free tools that cover more than many users expect, putting it among the best PDF editors.

With Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe’s online PDF editor, you can add comments, fill out forms, insert text, and even sign documents – all for free.

Today, we're taking a look at how to make the most of free Acrobat on both Windows and macOS. Apple provides its own PDF reader in the Preview app, but Acrobat does still have some advantages.

What you can and can't do with free Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat Reader is the free desktop version of Acrobat, available for both Windows and macOS. You can download it by clicking here.

While it doesn’t offer full document editing like its paid counterpart, it still provides a range of useful tools for working with PDFs, especially when it comes to annotations, forms, and signatures.

With Acrobat Reader, you can highlight text, underline or strike through content, and leave comments or sticky notes throughout a document, all of which are useful features.

It’s also ideal for filling out interactive forms, ticking checkboxes, and typing into designated fields. The Fill & Sign feature makes it easy to add your signature or initials without printing anything out.

However, there are clear limitations.

You can’t use the free version to edit the original text in a PDF, rearrange pages, replace images, or insert entirely new paragraphs.

Things like converting PDFs to Word or Excel, combining multiple PDFs into one, or removing watermarks, are also restricted to the paid Acrobat Pro.

It’s worth noting that the free desktop version offers identical functionality on Windows and macOS, though macOS users often default to Preview for basic annotations.

Still, if you’ve already downloaded Acrobat Reader or prefer Adobe’s ecosystem, it can serve as a reliable tool for most surface-level edits.

Using Acrobat online

If you don’t want to (or can't) install any software, Adobe has an online PDF editor here, and it's one of the easiest ways to make quick edits for free.

Available directly via a browser, it lets you upload a PDF, make a few changes, and download the result – all without paying or starting a trial. Pretty neat.

To get started, head to Adobe’s online editor, click the Edit PDF button, then upload your file from your device or cloud storage.

Once the PDF loads, a selection of tools appears, including options to add text, highlight areas, draw with a freehand pen, or insert shapes and annotations.

The experience is streamlined and beginner-friendly. You can drag elements into place, type directly onto the page, and highlight or underline existing content. Once you're finished, simply download the edited PDF or share it via a link.

There are a few limitations to be aware of. For larger files or repeated use, Adobe may prompt you to sign in with an Adobe account, and some features, like exporting to other formats or reorganising pages, are locked behind a paywall.

How to edit PDFs

If you’ve installed Adobe Acrobat Reader on your Windows PC or Mac, you’ll find several built-in tools that allow for light editing and document interaction, particularly through the Comment and Fill & Sign features.

These don’t let you rewrite the original PDF content, but they do offer a practical set of functions for marking up and filling out documents, which can be useful for singing contracts.

To start, open your PDF in the app. From the toolbar, click on Comment to access a range of markup options. You can highlight text, underline or strike through words, add sticky notes, and draw shapes or freehand lines.

The Fill & Sign tool is where Acrobat Reader becomes especially handy, letting you add text to empty fields, check boxes, and insert your signature or initials using a trackpad, mouse, or stored image.

It’s worth noting that while the interface differs slightly between Windows and macOS, the tools themselves work the same way.

Mac users might prefer Apple’s built-in Preview app for simple annotations, but Acrobat Reader offers a more consistent cross-platform experience, especially when working with forms or collaborating.

Just keep in mind that these tools don’t let you delete or replace text, adjust formatting, or insert images as those features are reserved for the paid version.

Acrobat alternatives

If Acrobat’s free tools don’t cover your needs, there are several solid alternatives that can help, especially for editing text or rearranging pages.

Windows users can use Microsoft Edge’s built-in PDF reader to highlight text, add comments, and draw directly on documents, while on macOS, the Preview app offers similar tools for annotation and signing, and comes pre-installed by Apple.

For more control, LibreOffice Draw (available on Windows, macOS, and Linux) can open PDFs and treat them more like Word documents – useful for editing or repositioning content.

Online tools like Sejda and PDF24 also offer free PDF editing, page reordering, and merging, though they usually come with daily limits or file size caps.

Do I need Acrobat Pro?

Anyone looking for some heavy duty PDF editing likely won't be satisfied with Adobe's free version of Acrobat.

If you need to edit text and images, convert PDFs to Word or Excel, combine multiple PDFs, reorder pages, or apply watermarks, then you'll be looking at getting the Pro version.

At the time of writing, Adobe offers a seven-day free trial of Acrobat Pro. During the trial, you get full access to all tools across desktop and web, with the option to cancel before any charges apply.

Just be aware that you’ll need to sign in with an Adobe account and provide payment details upfront.

FAQs and troubleshooting

You don’t need to pay for Adobe Acrobat Pro to make useful changes to a PDF.

With Adobe’s free tools, either through Acrobat Reader or the online editor, you can comment, highlight text, fill out forms, and even sign documents with ease.

For most light edits, that’s all you need. But when it comes to modifying the actual content, combining files, or converting formats, you’ll run into Pro-only features, which come at a cost.

To close out, let's take a look at some Acrobat FAQs that you might have.

• Can I delete or reorder pages in a PDF for free? Not with Acrobat Reader or the free online tools, which requires Acrobat Pro. However, some third-party tools like PDF24 or Sejda offer limited free options.
• Can I edit scanned PDFs using free tools? Only partially. Acrobat Pro includes OCR (optical character recognition) for making scanned text editable. Free tools generally let you annotate or overlay content, but not edit the original scan.
• Why is Adobe asking me to subscribe? Some features, like editing original text, exporting to Word, or combining PDFs, are locked behind a subscription. Adobe may prompt you to upgrade even if you're just previewing a file.
• Can I edit PDFs on mobile for free? Yes, the Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app allows you to comment, fill forms, and sign documents. For deeper edits, though, you’ll need a Pro subscription.

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Adobe Photoshop is a powerhouse when it comes to image editing, but with so many tools available, knowing how to highlight your subject effectively can make the difference between an average image and a striking one.

One particularly useful skill is learning how to “focus” on a specific object – isolating your subject while subtly blurring the background to mimic a shallow depth-of-field effect.

Knowing how to use this technique is especially helpful in product photography, headshots, marketing visuals, and social media assets, where drawing the viewer’s eye to a single focal point is key.

Thankfully, Photoshop offers more than one way to do this.

The built-in Focus Area tool helps you quickly detect and isolate in-focus subjects, while manual options like Select Subject combined with Lens Blur provide more control for complex edits.

Whether you're using Photoshop on Windows or macOS, we're here to walk you through each method step-by-step, ensuring your photos look polished.

What does "focusing on an object" mean?

In photography, focus refers to the sharpest part of an image – usually the subject – while the background appears softer or blurred.

Photoshop replicates this effect digitally, helping you draw attention to a specific object or person (or even people) by isolating it and subtly blurring the rest.

To focus on an object, Photoshop has two main approaches:

• Automatic detection with the Focus Area tool: Photoshop scans your image to detect and select in-focus regions, which is ideal when your subject already stands out from the background (like headshots).
• Manual selection and background blur: You define the subject using tools like Select Subject or Quick Selection, then apply Lens Blur or Gaussian Blur to everything else.

Both methods can be done non-destructively using layer masks or Smart Filters, letting you adjust the effect at any point.

Let's get into how to actually achieve these effects in Photoshop.

System requirements and setup

Before diving in, make sure you're using a recent version of Photoshop – the Focus Area tool is available in Photoshop CC 2014 and later.

Adobe regularly updates the app through Creative Cloud, so both macOS and Windows users should install the latest version to ensure access to all features.

The steps we’ll cover are nearly identical across operating systems, though some interface elements may vary slightly. If you're working on mobile, the Photoshop iOS app offers a more limited set of tools – we'll cover that separately later on.

Method 1: Using the Focus Area tool

One of the quickest ways to highlight your subject in Photoshop is by using the built-in Focus Area tool, which automatically detects the sharpest areas of your image – usually the subject – and creates a selection based on that.

The tool works best on photos with a shallow depth of field, where the foreground is clearly in focus and the background is soft or blurry, like a headshot of a person.

To start, open your image in Photoshop and duplicate the background layer (Cmd + J on Mac or Ctrl + J on Windows) to make sure you're working non-destructively, a useful way to avoid mishaps.

Then, go to the top menu and select Select > Focus Area and a new dialog box will appear. Photoshop can then immediately begin analysing your image.

You’ll see the selected areas highlighted as a live preview. If your subject is fairly well defined, Photoshop often makes a surprisingly accurate first guess, likely due to its AI smarts .

Use the Focus Range slider to fine-tune how much of the image gets included – moving it to the left (towards 0) selects less, while moving it to the right broadens the focus range.

You can also adjust the Image Noise Level if your photo is grainy, helping Photoshop separate the subject from the background more accurately.

If the automatic selection isn’t perfect, you can manually tweak it using the Add and Subtract tools in the preview window.

Once you're happy with the selection, look at the Output To dropdown at the bottom of the dialog. Choose New Layer with Layer Mask – this is the safest option, as it preserves your original image and gives you a masked version.

Adobe has a detailed breakdown of these steps.

Method 2: Manually creating depth of field

If the Focus Area tool doesn’t give you the results you want – especially in images with complex or flat backgrounds – a manual approach can offer more precision.

Start by opening your image and duplicating the background layer. Then use Select Subject (found under Select > Subject) to quickly isolate the main object.

Photoshop’s AI does a good job of identifying people and prominent objects, but you can refine the selection using the Quick Selection Tool.

Once your subject is selected, invert the selection by going to Select > Inverse to flip the selection to target the background instead. Now, go to Filter > Blur and choose either Lens Blur or Gaussian Blur, depending on how natural you want the effect to look.

As a general rule, Lens Blur tends to create a more realistic depth-of-field look, while Gaussian Blur is faster and easier to adjust.

While this manual method takes a bit more time, it works on virtually any image, giving you control over how and where the focus is applied.

Photoshop for iOS

The Photoshop app for iOS is a streamlined version of the desktop app, and while it’s powerful for basic editing, at the time of writing it doesn’t include the Focus Area tool or advanced blur filters like Lens Blur.

That said, you can still create a similar effect using the tools available.

Start by opening your image and using Select Subject – this one-tap feature works well for isolating people or objects.

Once selected, you can invert the selection and apply a Blur adjustment to the background using the Adjustments > Blur slider.

While the result isn’t as precise as desktop Photoshop, it’s quick and effective for on-the-go edits. Just keep in mind that the iOS app is better suited for light retouching than complex masking or layered effects.

Tips, troubleshooting, and common mistakes

To get the best results when focusing on an object in Photoshop, start with a high-resolution image and make sure your subject stands out clearly from the background.

Strong contrast, good lighting, and shallow depth of field all help Photoshop’s selection tools perform more accurately.

If the Focus Area tool selects the wrong regions, try adjusting the Focus Range slider or manually refining the mask using the Add/Subtract brush options. For manual methods, always feather your selections slightly – a hard edge can make the blur effect look artificial.

One common mistake is over-blurring the background. A subtle effect usually looks more realistic and professional.

Finally, if a tool seems to be missing, check that you're using an up-to-date version of Photoshop – older versions may not include features like Select Subject or Focus Area.

Exporting the image

Once you’re happy with the result, it’s time to export your image.

For most uses, JPEG works well for web and social media, while PNG is ideal if you need transparency to add other layers later. If you plan to make further edits later, save a PSD copy with all your layers intact.

Before exporting, you can resize the image via Image > Image Size or use File > Export > Export As to control format, quality, and resolution in one place.

For the best results on the web, aim for a balance between file size and sharpness — typically 70% to 80% JPEG quality works well.

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• Includes AI tools alongside traditional design features

Top website builder Wix has announced the release of Wixel, an AI-powered visual design suite that’s effectively an alternative to the likes of Canva and Adobe Express.

According to the company, Wixel aims to “democratize visual design” - in other words, designers and non-designers will now have the tools to create professional-grade content and assets.

Interestingly, Wixel is a standalone product, so even those who don’t use the website builder will be able to sign up to the design tool. And, much like Canva and Express, it’s free to use with an optional upgrade for premium features.

What is Wixel and what can users expect?

When it comes to visual design suites, it’s a pretty crowded market right now, an area notably dominated by Canva.

It may not have been the first to market, but it’s the one that captured the imagination of marketing teams and businesses, letting even non-designers spin up professional-grade images and videos. So popular is it that even Adobe upped the ante and brought much-needed improvements to its Express platform.

Given the popularity of these suites, I’m not completely surprised to see Wix get in on the action. But what can users expect to get from Wixel?

Wix has offered an insight on this. Armed with just a single product photo uploaded to the platform, users can now remove or add backgrounds, crop, convert, and edit images, include text, and customize the layout within a template.

Alongside this, Wixel is capable of AI-generating images across different styles that can better suit the user’s brand guidelines. And voila, a user has a post fit for social media posting or adding to their online store. According to Wix, the entire process can be complete in minutes.

Discussing the launch, Avishai Abrahami, Wix CEO and co-founder, said: “AI is the foundation of Wixel. Design is in our DNA, and simplifying complex experiences is what we do best. We’re now determined to revolutionize design by democratizing access to powerful and creative tools for everyone, regardless of their design expertise.”

I toyed with Wixel and, yes, if you’re familiar with either Canva or Express, you’ll have a pretty good idea what to expect. An intuitive interface that’s easy to navigate, customizable templates allowing users to swiftly edit designs and create assets, and, of course, AI tools for enhancing and generating on-brand content.

The company also confirmed that future tools are in the works, including story creation and video. Given trends, this is an absolute essential that can’t come quick enough.

You can check out Wixel now by clicking here.

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Freepik, the creative design suite, has unveiled a new plan aimed at attracting large B2B teams to its platform - and comparisons to Adobe’s own approach to AI tools for business users is hard to miss.

Dubbed Freepik Enterprise, the plan offers a range of benefits to business users, including rights over their AI-created assets, third-party integrations with the likes of Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Adobe Creative Cloud, and that all important legal indemnity.

On the face of it, this looks to me like the company is starting to park its tanks on Adobe’s lawn. As adoption of Adobe Firefly rises, Freepik will be keen to move some of its 64 million users over to the new enterprise plan with a host of business-centric features and benefits.

What can users expect from Freepik’s enterprise plan?

According to Freepik, this new tier is designed for those who need “secure, scalable creative tools,” with the company aiming to attract teams across media, marketing, and technology who want to integrate AI into the wider workflow.

With this in mind, users are being offered, among other things, free reign to create on-brand assets, training AI with internal assets, single sign-on (SSO), and greater legal protections. Centralised management is also part of the package, with the company claiming this will help streamline account and asset administration.

Arguably, the most attractive benefit is the unlimited aspects, where users will have full access to the AI suite for generating images, video, and content. Expect no user limits here, as Freepik states this plan is “built for real teams.” Firms will also own the rights over AI-generated content, with the option to use and modify what they create across the board, covered by legal indemnity, protecting users against possible lawsuits when deploying them in a commercial setting. What I especially like is the guarantee that neither Freepik, nor its third-party providers, will re-use enterprise subscribers’ AI-generated assets or data for future AI training.

Support forms a large part of the offering. The company says it intends to deliver guidance, training, and legal assistance around IP and copyright - one of the chief concerns around AI usage in the workplace.

Given this is targeting corporations, security and compliance are also topping the bill, where GDPR, ISO/IEC 27001 and 27002, SOC 2 Type II are built into the service.

Speaking about the new plan, José Florido, Chief Market Development Officer at Freepik, said: “It’s no longer just about downloading visual assets. Large companies are looking for solutions that help them integrate AI across all their processes, offering scalability, legal compliance, and deep customization of their resources. Freepik Enterprise directly addresses that need.”

You can check out Freepik Enterprise by clicking here, and the company is currently giving users a three-month trial before an annual subscription is required.

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