In its latest effort to compete with startups threatening its core business, Adobe (ADBE.O) announced on Tuesday that it is releasing new image-generation technology that can draw inspiration from an uploaded image and replicate its aesthetic.
The consumer base of creative professionals who use Adobe products like Photoshop has been endangered by image-generating technologies from companies like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.
The San Jose, California-based business has vigorously developed its own version of the technology in response and incorporated it into its software applications.
According to Adobe, clients have used the tools to create three billion photographs, one billion of which were created only last month. Adobe has assured its customers that the generated images will be immune to legal challenges.
The "Generative Match" function will be part of the next generation of tools that were unveiled on Tuesday. It will enable users to create an image from a few words of text, similar to Adobe's prior technology. However, users will also be able to input as little as 10 to 20 photographs to serve as the foundation for the images that are created.
Chief Technology Officer for Digital Media at Adobe, Ely Greenfield, stated that the company aims to allow large brands to upload a small number of images of a product or character and then use generative technology to create hundreds or thousands of images automatically for use on websites, in social media campaigns, and in print advertisements.
"Up until a few months ago, it was still a very manual process to get all those photos—not only to take the photos, but then to process them," Greenfield stated to Reuters.
"A certain percentage of photography will transition to virtual photography, where images are created entirely from scratch. However, a lot of it will also include leveraging generative technologies to perform a lot of adaptation after first doing some traditional photography or creative work.
On Tuesday, Adobe also released tools for creating templates for brochures and other documents, as well as tools for creating vector drawings that can be readily scaled and are frequently used for logos and product labels.
According to Greenfield, pricing will remain unchanged from the September hike disclosures.