Adobe Illustrator gets its first Firefly AI tool

Adobe Illustrator infused with Firefly's AI capabilities
(Image credit: Adobe)

Adobe Illustrator is the latest app to get Firefly capabilities, with the update aimed at letting designers rapidly experiment with colors using simple text prompts. 

Generative Recolor is the first example of an Adobe Firefly-powered tool inside the popular graphic design software. Designers can use text prompts to create and save custom themes for recoloring vector artwork, so there’s no need to spend time altering individual elements of a commercial design. 

The move comes days after rolling out Adobe Express and Firefly for Enterprise, as the company ramps up integration of its AI art generator.  

Setting Illustrator alight 

If there’s one thing we learned at Adobe Summit 2023, it’s that the firm is keen to push its AI as a co-pilot for creators of all experience levels, at every level of an organization. The latest Firefly-powered tool is no exception, with the company highlighting diverse uses from marketing graphics to mood-boarding.  

Still in beta and built directly into Illustrator, Generative Recolor lets designers capture the mood of a piece based on text prompts - the examples used by Adobe include “noon in the desert” and “midnight in the jungle”. Users can then quickly experiment by swapping out colors, palettes, and themes, and produce multiple color variants for a wide range of uses, like seasonally appropriate advertising.  

Adobe Illustrator infused with Firefly's AI capabilities

(Image credit: Adobe)

“Adobe Illustrator is the tool behind many of the world’s most iconic designs, from brand logos to product packaging. Firefly will help customers accelerate their creative process and save countless hours, while facilitating rapid ideation, experimentation and asset creation," said Ashley Still, senior vice president, digital media at Adobe.

But it’s not the only new update to the digital art software, which also added the font tool Retype, new Layers functionalities, and improvements to Image Trace.

As we reported last week, Adobe reconfirmed future plans to let businesses train Firefly with custom assets to create brand-aligned content. Enterprise users will soon be able to get an IP indemnity from Adobe to guard against copyright claims and help make the AI-generated content “commercially safe” for businesses.

Steve Clark
B2B Editor - Creative & Hardware

Steve is TechRadar Pro’s B2B Editor for Creative & Hardware. He began in tech journalism reviewing photo editors and video editing software at the magazine Web User, where he also covered technology news, features, and how-to guides. Today, he and his team of reviewers test out a range of creative software, hardware, and office furniture. Once upon a time, he wrote TV commercials and movie trailers. Relentless champion of the Oxford comma.