Adobe is expanding the capabilities of Firefly, its suite of generative AI models, with a new feature in Photoshop that enables users to "expand images beyond their original bounds," as described by the company.
This feature, named Generative Expand, is currently available in the beta version of Photoshop. It allows users to enlarge and resize images by clicking and dragging the Crop tool to extend the canvas. Upon clicking the "Generate" button in Photoshop's taskbar, Generative Expand fills the newly created white space with AI-generated content that seamlessly blends with the existing image.
Adobe explains in a blog post, "If your subject is cut off, your image is not in the desired aspect ratio, or a focused object is not aligned with other parts of the image, you can use Generative Expand to extend your canvas and make your image look like anything you can imagine."
Users can add generated content to a canvas via Generative Expand with or without a text prompt. If using a prompt, the expanded images will include any content mentioned in it. The added content becomes a new layer in Photoshop, giving users the option to remove it if it doesn't meet their expectations.
Adobe assures that it has put filters in place to prevent Generative Expand from generating inappropriate content, which is a common issue for generative AI art.
Similar "uncropping" tools have been offered by OpenAI via its DALL-E 2, and platforms like Midjourney and Stability AI's DreamStudio. However, Adobe's strategy appears to be the native integration with Photoshop, an application with an estimated 29 million users worldwide.
One drawback, however, is that Generative Expand is not yet available for commercial use. Adobe plans to change this in the second half of the year.
Alongside Generative Expand, Adobe also announced support for Photoshop's Firefly-powered text-to-image features in over 100 languages, which it claims have been used to generate more than 900 million images so far. Both expanded language support and Generative Expand are available in the Photoshop beta as of today.
