Author: María López

One of the heaviest tasks for any illustrator or designer is the creation of multiple views of the same object. And in most cases, to achieve a good result, you will have to invest a lot of work time. 

With the arrival of the Turntable feature in Adobe Illustrator, this process changes significantly. This new tool allows you to generate multiple rotated views of a vector or raster object from a single illustration, reducing production time and maintaining a consistent appearance across all versions.

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What is Turntable?

Simply put, the Turntable function uses Adobe Firefly technology to automatically generate different angles of an object from a single view. It does not build a 3D model, but from the outside, it might look like it. The function interprets shapes and creates new editable perspectives that closely mimic the original illustration.

By using Turntable, you can explore different viewpoints without having to rebuild the drawing from scratch. It also represents a time saver if you need to work with different views of containers, characters, or other similar elements. 

How to use Turntable 

Using Turntable is quite simple. To get started, open your project in Adobe Illustrator and select the vector or raster object that interests you. 

From here, there are several ways to activate Turntable. If you select the object, a floating contextual menu will appear with various generative AI options, colors, and more. Click on the sparkles icon located all the way to the left and select the Turntable option. If you don’t see this floating menu, go to Window > Contextual Task Bar to make it appear. 

You can also activate the Turntable feature from the properties panel. You can access it by going to Window > Properties. When selecting Turntable, we will have to wait a few moments for Adobe Illustrator to generate the views. When it finishes, we will see a new floating menu below the drawing with a slider and arrows to change the views and rotate the object.

You have to keep in mind that, on some occasions, it won’t work very well. This happens when we deal with objects that are very abstract, as it is not able to generate views that are very reliable. Otherwise, you can be quite calm and be surprised by the results.

Combine with other Illustrator tools

Turntable by itself is a great feature, but it can be even more useful and surprising if we combine it with other generative AI functions within Adobe Illustrator.

One of the newest, Concept to Vector, allows you to convert a simple initial sketch into a vector illustration. If you are someone who usually captures conceptual ideas in notebooks and the like, Concept to Vector can help you vectorize your ideas without needing to invest much time.

To use it, open the image in Illustrator and select it. Once done, the contextual menu we mentioned earlier will appear. There, click on the Concept to Vector option. You can also access it from Object > Generative > Concept to Vector.

Once the main piece is created, Turntable can automatically generate new perspectives of the same object.

Similarly, Generative Expand helps to expand your compositions and adapt them to different formats. From a vector drawing, you can generate multiple views with Turntable and then expand the scene to use it in banners, ads, or social media content.

To use Generative Expand, select the object and then click on Crop Image, an option you will see in the floating context menu. If you don’t see it clearly, look for its symbol, which is located on the right.

Drag the frame limits in the direction you want to increase the image area. You can use the shortcut Shift + Alt (Option on Mac) while dragging with the mouse to move the frame equally in all directions. You can also specify the exact measurements in the Properties panel if needed.

Select Generate in the contextual bar and you will see how an “expanded” copy of the original image is created. You will see three variations with different results in the Properties panel, keep the one you like the most or regenerate others if you don’t like these.

Current Limitations

Although it is a very powerful tool, Turntable is not meant to replace manual work or 3D modeling.

As we mentioned before, Adobe emphasizes that it works best with clearly recognizable objects and may provide less accurate results with abstract shapes, complex texts, or certain advanced effects of Adobe Illustrator. Other features, such as gradients, effects, or complex constructions, still have many limitations.

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Over the past few years, Adobe has been perfecting more and more the tools powered by generative AI within its programs, such as Photoshop or Illustrator. However, the use of this technology has a cost that many users may not be aware of.

That is why we have generative credits. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of them or don’t quite know what they are for: below, we will explain in detail everything you need to know about generative credits.

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What are generative credits?

Although many may not be aware, using generative AI has a cost that is much higher than you might think. Generating images, text, and more involves a significant process behind it, which entails the use of very expensive hardware, a lot of energy, server usage, storage, and a long etcetera that would warrant another article altogether.

In Adobe, generative credits are the currency of the platform we have to generate images, graphics, texts, or apply effects.

They are available in almost all Adobe programs, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, In Design, Adobe Express, etc.

Where can I check my credit number?

Any Adobe user can see the number of credits they have in the following way:

• First, you will need to go to the Adobe website and log in with your user account.
• Once you do this, it will take you to the Home of Adobe. Once here, go to the top right corner and click on your user image; it is a round icon located all the way to the right.
• This will open a small window with options, and the Generative AI section will also be displayed. Here you will see the number of credits included in your plan and those you have already consumed in the month.

You can also check it within Adobe programs, as long as they are updated to the latest versions. To do this, you just need to do the same as we described earlier: access the icon of your profile within the program.

Tips for Saving Generative Credits

Within our plan, we have a series of included credits that should not be wasted aimlessly. Credits are consumed when using features powered by Firefly or by other third-party models (Google, ChatGPT, etc). Using Generative Fill within Photoshop, for example, consumes one credit per generation.

Adobe divides the generative AI functions into standard and premium. Within the standard category, there are actions like Generative Fill, Generative Expand, Text to Image, and similar features, all within Photoshop. In Illustrator, for example, they would be Text to Vector Graphic or Generative Recolor. Standard functions generally consume one credit, except for some that consume a bit more.

On the other hand, the premium features encompass more complex and advanced actions, such as those that can create video for example. Features that use third-party models like Google or OpenAI are also considered premium. If you use them, they will cost you many more credits than the standard ones, although the number will depend on what you do.

As you can see, every action has a price and if you want to save the most, you should use your head a little:

• Prioritize manual adjustments before resorting to AI. We know it’s the easiest option, but it’s worth taking a moment to see if there are things we can do ourselves.
• Plan what you want to do before acting. Think carefully about your prompt, review it, and ensure it has all the necessary information, this way you will save yourself from doing extra tests.
• Take advantage of stock resources. There are thousands of resources, both video and photo, that are free and available to you.
• Don’t experiment in vain. Exploring new ideas is fine, but it’s not necessary to make dozens of generations if you don’t have a clear purpose.

How much do generative credits cost?

Have you been excited using AI features and run out of credits? It’s a more common scenario than you think. If your counter is at zero, you can always buy credits through an additional subscription to your Creative Cloud.

Here are several options, depending on whether you are a private individual, student, teacher, or a company. Prices range from $9.99 (€11.17) to $199.99 (€223.68), and you can purchase from 2,000 to 50,000 monthly credits.

From this link you can check each plan, price, and what is included in each of them. Almost all plans also have a free trial period of 7 days, where you can see if the number of credits is sufficient for you or not.

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One of the challenges of layout design in Adobe InDesign is making sure that the text fits in the spaces. The mere act of adding one extra word can throw everything off and require rethinking the design.

In its latest version, InDesign has launched Rewrite, a new artificial intelligence feature designed to solve this problem. With this tool, we will be able to expand, condense, or modify the tone of a text to fit the available spaces we have. Next, we will see how it works step by step.

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What is Rewrite and what is it for?

Generative artificial intelligence has also arrived at InDesign, specifically to help us with texts. Rewrite helps us analyze the content and the space of the text box to make everything fit better in your designs. Thus, instead of editing word by word, we can shorten very long texts, expand them, change the tone, or generate other variants that fit better in the layout.

Changing the tone of a text can be useful for certain situations; in some cases, you may need a more professional approach, or perhaps the complete opposite. In the end, you can generate different versions that maintain the essential information but change how it is communicated.

How to use Rewrite in InDesign

To begin, open your project in InDesign and select any text you want to modify. You can also place the cursor over a text frame to select the entire story.

When you select the text, a floating contextual bar will appear. If you don’t see it, go to Window and click on Contextual Task Bar to make it appear. In this floating bar, select Generate Text; by doing so, you will also open the Generate panel.

There are other ways to access Generate. To start, you can activate the option by going to a text box, right-clicking, and selecting the Generate Text option. On the other hand, you can make the Generate panel appear by going to Window > Generate. From this panel, you have several options, but we will focus now on Rewrite. Below Rewrite, you will see a text box where you will need to write your prompt. Simply describe there how you want the selected text to be modified and click on Generate.

When I finish processing your request, you will see how the text is automatically replaced in your layout while respecting the paragraph style you have applied. As a detail, keep in mind that the language of the generated text will match the language you used to write the prompt.

You can also see other variations of the text in Results (through the Generate panel) in case the one you see doesn’t fully convince you. Choose one of the three alternatives and select Done to finish. Below you will see other symbols that will help you confirm that the result is good (thumbs up), that it is bad (thumbs down), or to try again (retry symbol).

If you want, you can modify the text with a series of predefined shortcuts, such as Rephrase, Shorten, Lengthen, or Fit Text, for example. These “buttons” will help you perform very specific actions in a short amount of time.

If you want to improve the results of this function, you must consider the length of the text to be modified and ensure that it does not exceed 1500 words. On the other hand, do not lose sight of the cost of generations made with AI. Although the Rewrite and related options are free for InDesign users, the Fit Text function does consume a credit per generation.

Images also receive updates

In addition to Rewrite, InDesign also includes a series of improvements in images. Within the Generate panel, there is also the option of Text to Image. Just like in Photoshop, within InDesign we will be able to generate images from a prompt.

This can help you create images that serve as provisional while you wait for the final ones. Just like lorem ipsum, this way you can visualize how your almost final layout would look. If you click on the Advanced option, you will be able to access a new panel with more options that will help you create more detailed images.

There you can choose artistic styles, the aspect ratio, and even upload a reference image so that the generated output closely resembles the final image.

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Open almost any social network these days and the screen fills up with one thing: video. Short, long, vertical, horizontal. That tidal wave is the reason video editors have stopped being a niche tool and become an everyday essential for content creators.

Among the thousands of things you can do with Adobe Premiere Pro, there’s one that’s pretty much non-negotiable: adding music and sound to your videos. Below, you’ll see how easy it is, and how quickly you can pull it off on your own, even if you’ve never touched Premiere Pro in your life.

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Set up the project

With your videos ready, open Adobe Premiere Pro and create a new project by clicking on New Project. Type the name in Project name and pick where to save it on your PC under Location. You can grab a preset template from Templates, but it isn’t essential.

Now, select the video or videos you’ll lay the music over. From the left panel you’ll see the different locations on your PC, so you can jump straight to the folder where the clips live.

When you’re done selecting, click Import (if you don’t spot it on the first try, the button sits in the bottom right corner). Then drag the music file or sound effect directly onto the timeline. The other route is to go to File > Import. Don’t lose track of your assets: everything lives in the Project panel.

Once imported, drag the audio onto the timeline. All audio tracks sit below the video clips, both the ones you add yourself and the ones that came baked into the video. Premiere Pro displays them as a sound wave, which helps you see where the silences or volume peaks are.

Adjust it on the timeline

Once the music is on the timeline, you can move it, cut it with the Razor Tool (C), or stretch it, the same way you would with a video clip.

You can also add fade-in and fade-out effects so the music doesn’t start or end abruptly. It feels more natural and pleasant in general, though it all depends on the effect you’re going for.

If you want the music to gradually drop in volume at the end until it goes silent, select the audio clip and head to Properties. With that in view, go back to the timeline and, with the audio selected, position the playhead at the point in the video where you want the volume to start dropping. That should be a little before the actual end of the video. Then go back to Properties and click on the small diamond symbol (Keyframe). Return to the timeline, move the playhead to the end of the video, and on the Volume slider, drop it to the minimum.

A good trick is to make the music move with the visual rhythm of the video. If there’s a big shift in the imagery, a title card or a transition, try to line it up with a standout moment in the music.

And if you need something extra… you can always use Adobe Stock

One mistake we all make when adding music to a video is using songs without checking the rights first. If the videos are just for you, nothing happens. If you upload them to social media, that’s a different story: get ready for platform takedowns, copyright claims and similar headaches.

To avoid all of that, you can use Adobe Stock Audio, Adobe’s own library of royalty-free music and sound. From there you can search tracks by style, duration, mood or tempo, preview them, and pick the one that fits your video best.

You’ll find it especially useful for commercial pieces, branded content, ads or social media. Instead of wasting time hunting for music on third-party sites, you can find any track without leaving Premiere Pro. To use it, go to File > Search Adobe Stock….

You’ll see that, alongside sounds, there are templates, videos and images. From the official Adobe Stock page you can check the different pricing tiers, all depending on the material you end up using.

Set the volume and export your project

Making sure your video has the right volume balance is critical. Select the audio clip and adjust its volume from the Effect Controls or directly on the timeline. A practical rule: if there’s voice, drop the music until the narration is easy to follow without strain.

Listen to the video on headphones and through speakers, because what sounds great on one device might not on another. Keep in mind: when the sound is bad, you notice straight away; when it’s good, nobody complains.

Adobe Premiere Pro is available through Adobe’s Creative Cloud, with a free trial that lets you test the full editor before you commit. You can grab it on its own as a single-app plan or as part of the All Apps bundle if you also work with Photoshop, After Effects or Adobe Stock. Check Adobe’s official pricing for current rates.

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Let’s be honest: a pricey phone with a great camera won’t stop you from ending up with blurry shots. Shaky hands, low light, a split-second of movement, any of these can turn a good moment into a detail-free memory. The good news is that Adobe Photoshop can fix most of these problems with the right approach.

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What Photos Can You Actually Fix in Photoshop?

Before diving in, it helps to know which photos are worth the effort. It all comes down to the type of blur you’re dealing with.

Images with light motion blur respond best to correction. The classic shaky-hand shot, where everything looks just slightly out of focus, can improve a lot.

Low-resolution images also benefit from Photoshop‘s AI tools, which can rebuild textures and recover a surprising amount of sharpness. Photos with noise or heavy compression are also worth trying (anything you’ve downloaded from a social media chat, for instance).

What you can’t easily save are photos with extreme blur, the kind that’s nearly deformed or where you mostly see smudges. Even AI won’t get you far there. Push it too hard and it’ll start inventing details rather than recovering them.

Here are the main tools inside Photoshop to rescue most of your photos.

Use Smart Sharpen

Smart Sharpen is one of the most effective tools for dealing with soft or blurry images. With your photo open in Photoshop, go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. You’ll see three main controls: Amount, which sets how intense the sharpening is; Radius, which determines how far the effect spreads from edges; and Reduce Noise, which tones down any grain the sharpening introduces.

In the Remove drop-down, you choose which type of blur to eliminate. Out-of-focus blur and motion blur aren’t the same thing, and the tool handles each differently. For motion-blurred shots in particular, Smart Sharpen delivers excellent results. That said, don’t go overboard with the sliders. Push them too far and you’ll end up with an artificial halo effect that looks worse than the original.

Reduce the Noise

If your photos have too much noise, you can smooth things out quite a bit. This tends to happen when shooting in low-light conditions, and it makes images look less sharp than they actually are.

Open your image in Photoshop and go to Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise. Work the Strength, Reduce Color Noise, and other sliders until you’re happy with the result. Make sure the Preview checkbox is on so you can see exactly what each adjustment does in real time.

Improve Your Images with Generative Upscale

Photoshop has some genuinely powerful AI tools, and Generative Upscale is one of the most useful for resolution problems. It lets you enlarge low-resolution images while keeping the detail intact, which is a lifesaver for old photos that never looked great or any downloaded image that’s too small to work with.

With your image open, click Image > Generative Upscale. You’ll need to choose the scale (2x or 4x) and which AI model to use. Firefly Upscaler is built specifically to restore low-res images. Topaz Gigapixel focuses on preserving fine detail and handles a wide range of photos well. Topaz Bloom takes a more creative approach, adding texture where there wasn’t much to begin with.

For most photos, Topaz Gigapixel is the one to go with. In most situations, it delivers sharp, natural-looking results with plenty of detail.

Photoshop or Lightroom: When to Use Each

You might be wondering whether Lightroom could work better for some of this. Both tools have their place. It really comes down to what you need.

Lightroom shines when you’re making general adjustments across a large batch of photos at once. It’s the go-to for photographers who want to fix exposure, color, and basic corrections quickly, without getting into complex edits.

Photoshop is a lot more involved. It’s the right choice for compositing, very specific corrections, and the targeted fixes we’ve covered in this guide. That said, you don’t have to pick just one. Try handling the basic adjustments in Lightroom first, then bring the image into Photoshop for the detail work. You’ll get the best of both.

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If you’ve been generating images with AI tools for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed the pattern: everything starts to look the same. The same compositions, the same color palettes, the same visual language. Generative AI has made image creation accessible to anyone with an internet connection, and that accessibility has produced a flood of content with almost no personality. Impressive at first glance, increasingly generic once you’ve seen it a few dozen times.

Adobe has taken a different approach with Adobe Firefly, its generative AI model. One of its newest features, Custom Models, lets you train an AI model using your own images, so what it generates actually reflects your visual identity. If you want to know how it works, here’s what you need.

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Custom Models in Adobe Firefly: What They Are and How They Work

Custom models are AI models trained on your own images. Instead of generating content from Adobe’s general dataset, Firefly learns from the patterns in your work: your color palettes, your visual style, the kind of compositions you typically use.

The difference in output compared to a generic model is significant. When the model is trained on your content, the images it generates look like yours. And since Firefly’s underlying technology is used throughout, everything you create is commercially safe.

If you’re working in an organization, you can share and manage custom models across your entire team. That means faster workflows and visual consistency from the start, instead of everyone generating in different directions.

How to Create Your Own Custom Model in Adobe Firefly

On the Adobe Firefly main page, you’ll find a list of sections in the left sidebar. Click Custom models to get started.

First, you’ll choose a training method. There are three options: photos, illustrations, and characters. Photos is the right pick if you want the model to generate realistic, detailed imagery. Illustrations and characters are more focused on stylized and artistic output.

Once you select a category, you’ll see the requirements for best model performance. You’ll need to upload between 10 and 30 images, each with at least 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution and a consistent aspect ratio. The images should share a distinctive visual style and include enough open space for product compositions. Make sure every image is the best quality you have.

Select Start adding images and upload your files. Firefly will analyze each one. When it’s done, every file gets an automatic description based on what appears in the image. On the right, you’ll see tags you can use later when generating new images.

You’ll also see a Model Score, where Adobe rates the quality of the data you’ve uploaded. Keep in mind it’s a guide only and still in beta.

When you’re ready, click Train and grant Adobe permission to use your images to build the model. You’ll receive an email from Adobe when it’s done. You can track the training process from Model Inventory by selecting your project.

Training a custom model currently costs 500 credits. In Adobe, credits are the currency for advanced generative AI features. Depending on your subscription plan, you get a set number of credits per month. If you run out, you can purchase more through this link.

Is My Content Safe Inside Firefly?

If you’re wondering whether it’s safe to upload personal or company material to Firefly to build custom models, the short answer is yes.

Adobe confirms they don’t use your data to train Firefly’s commercial models, the ones available to the general public. You also get control tools to manage who can view the training data and use the models.

You can upload your material without concern. Content Credentials are added to every generated asset, showing how the image was created, which tools were used, and whether generative AI was involved. Adobe’s goal is that anyone can identify whether something was AI-generated or not.

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Changing the color of an object is one of those Photoshop tasks that looks different every time. Same goal, different image, different result. Suddenly you’re not sure which tool actually fits. Adobe Photoshop gives you several ways to approach it, each suited to a different situation, and the one you reach for first should depend on the image, not just habit.

You don’t need to be an advanced user to handle most of these. With AI tools now built into the app, even complex color swaps are more accessible than they used to be.

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Three methods stand out. Which one you use depends on how precise you need to be and how much you want to preserve the original.

Apply Hue/Saturation adjustments

For subtle or broad color shifts, the classic adjustment tools are still the fastest path. Hue/Saturation handles exactly that: hue, saturation, and brightness in one panel. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation to open it directly.

You can also create an adjustment layer from the Layers panel if you want to apply changes non-destructively. Once it’s open, you’ll see three sliders: Hue, Saturation, and Lightness.

At the top of the panel, Presets let you apply a color shift style with a single click. Below that, the eyedropper targets specific tones. Quick and global.

There’s also a Colorize option. It replaces all the colors in your image with a single unified tone, which is useful for a monochromatic look. The three sliders control the hue, saturation, and lightness of that unified color.

Use Replace Color

When you need more precision than the classic adjustments offer, Replace Color is the next step up. Find it under Image > Adjustments > Replace Color. This one is destructive. Duplicate your layer before you start if you want to keep the original intact.

Opening it gives you a small black-and-white preview of your image. White areas are the ones Photoshop will modify; black areas are ignored. Click on the color you want to replace with the eyedropper and the preview highlights the affected zones in white.

If the selection is too narrow, the + eyedropper adds more zones. The Fuzziness slider controls how much tonal variation gets pulled in. Check Preview to see your changes in real time as you work.

Change colors with Generative Fill

Generative Fill does what the other methods can’t: it rebuilds the way light falls on the object, not just the color. Powered by Adobe Firefly, it handles shadows and texture automatically so the result doesn’t look retouched.

To use it for a color swap, select the object you want to change first. The Magic Wand, Magnetic Lasso, or any selection tool works. If you’re working with a person, click Select Subject for a faster and usually more accurate result.

With your selection active, click Generative Fill in the contextual toolbar at the bottom of the canvas. If the toolbar isn’t visible, go to Window > Contextual Task Bar.

A text field appears. Describe the color change you want. If you need an exact color, include its hex code in the description.

To find the hex code for a specific color, open an image that contains it in Photoshop, sample it with the eyedropper, then double-click the foreground color swatch to open the Color Picker. Both the RGB values and the hex code are there.

Select Firefly Image 5 as the generative model and click Generate. The results adapt lighting, shadows, and texture on their own. The color change integrates cleanly.

Use each method when it fits

Classic adjustments are fastest for broad changes. When you need to nail a specific tone, Replace Color is what you want. And Generative Fill is in a different category entirely: it doesn’t just change the color, it rebuilds the way light falls on it. Try all three on the same image and you’ll know quickly which situation calls for what.

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For years, if you wanted to create anything that looked remotely professional, you either had Photoshop skills or you hired someone who did. The rise of social media changed all that. Suddenly everyone needed polished visuals on a daily basis, and most people didn’t have three weeks to spare learning layer masks.

That’s the gap Canva stepped into when it launched in 2012, and it’s been the default for non-designers ever since. Adobe came back with Adobe Express in 2021, its own answer to the same problem. So which one actually serves you better in 2026?

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Adobe Express: simple enough, but with real depth

Don’t let the clean interface fool you. Adobe Express isn’t a watered-down Photoshop. It’s a fully capable design platform that works on both mobile and desktop, covering most of what non-designers actually need day to day.

Its biggest advantage over Canva comes down to ecosystem. If you already work with Photoshop, Illustrator, or Acrobat, Express slots right in. You can sync your PSD files, pull assets from your Creative Cloud libraries, and if a project turns out to need more power than Express can handle, you can pick it up directly in Photoshop without starting over.

Express also includes Adobe Firefly, Adobe’s own generative AI, and it’s a lot more capable than what Canva offers. Generate images, remove objects, make AI-driven edits. The practical difference from other models: Firefly is trained on licensed content, so you can use it commercially without the legal gray area most AI image tools drag with them.

And it’s not just images. Express includes basic video editing tools: automatic caption generation, clip editing for social media. It stops well short of Premiere, so don’t expect a full post-production workflow, but for quick social content it does the job.

When you open Adobe Express, you get a search bar front and center. Type what you want to create and templates come up immediately. Below that you’ll find quick access to start from an existing image, build from scratch, edit photos, create videos, or generate images with AI.

Find a template you want, click it, and select Customize template. The editor shows you the dimensions and lets you save it to favorites or share it with teammates. Everything you need is right there on the same screen.

When your design is ready, Download is in the upper right corner. You also get a Share option, which is useful for collaborating but particularly handy for content creators: from Share you can also schedule posts directly to your social channels without leaving the platform.

Canva: the fastest path from idea to finished design

Canva’s real edge is how little it asks of you. Someone with zero design experience can put together a poster in under five minutes and have it look decent. Express is straightforward too, but it follows Adobe’s design philosophy, which means panels, configuration layers, and options you’ll need to feel your way around, at least at first.

That accessibility is why teachers, small business owners, and content creators have made it their default tool. The template library is enormous and organized around real situations: need an Instagram post? There’s a template for it. Need a class schedule? There are hundreds, all fully customizable.

Collaboration tools are solid too. Multiple users can edit the same project at once and leave comments as they go. Canva is immediate, low-barrier, and delivers results that work for most use cases. That’s exactly why it became so dominant.

Let’s take a quick look at how it works.

Like Express, the homepage gives you a search bar for templates: posters, flyers, social media images and plenty more. If you want to start from scratch, Custom size lets you set your own dimensions before you begin.

Canva also has its own generative AI, Canva AI, accessible from the left panel. Describe what you want to create and it starts generating. It gets the job done, though if you push it you’ll notice it’s not quite at Firefly‘s level.

Saving and sharing works the same way as in Express. Share in the top right lets you add collaborators, generate a shareable link, or Download the file directly to your computer.

Which one is right for you?

If you work in education, Canva will likely become your go-to. It’s built for fast, low-friction creation, and it shows. But it’s not just for teachers: anyone putting together social content or presentations regularly will find it fits naturally into their workflow.

Adobe Express makes more sense if you already have some history with Adobe products, or if you need your output to look polished and professionally finished. It’s also the stronger choice for video editing and short-form clips.

Both platforms are free to access. You’ll hit a paywall once you want deeper template libraries or more AI generation credits, and that’s true for both. Out of the box, Canva gives you more in its free tier than Express does, but Express pulls ahead on tool quality. Firefly is in a different league from Canva AI, especially if you need AI-generated images for commercial use.

Canva wins on volume and ease of use. Adobe Express wins on professional depth. Neither choice is wrong. Pick the one that fits how you work.

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You’ve sent a PDF to a client and heard nothing back. You have no idea if they opened it, if they read past the first page, or if it got buried under fifty other emails. The proposal you spent three days polishing might as well have gone into a black hole.

That disconnect between sending a document and knowing what happens next is something Adobe Acrobat is trying to close. The latest update introduces two features that go well beyond editing and signing: an AI Assistant that works as a conversational layer over your documents, and PDF Spaces, a workspace that turns collections of files into interactive, branded experiences you can track after you share them.

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The AI Assistant: your documents, working harder

Acrobat’s AI Assistant sits inside the application and works as a conversational interface for your documents. You can ask it to summarize a 40-page report, flag changes between two versions of a contract, reorganize pages, or convert a file to a different format. The kind of tasks that eat up an afternoon when you do them by hand.

But it goes beyond document housekeeping. The AI Assistant can take what’s in your files and generate new content from it: presentations, podcast-style audio summaries, blog drafts, and social media posts. Need to turn a dense quarterly report into something a stakeholder can absorb in five minutes? Upload the document, tell the assistant what you need, and it builds a first draft you can refine.

Want a presentation? Go to the presentation creation page inside Acrobat, click Create a presentation, and select Add files to upload your source material. Write a prompt describing what you want (or pick from Adobe’s suggestions if you prefer a starting point). Choose how many slides, pick a template, add any specific images, and select Generate. From there, Adobe Express editing tools let you adjust colors, graphics, layout, and structure until it looks the way you want.

The AI Assistant also produces audio overviews from your documents. If you or your team don’t have time to read a full briefing before a meeting, an audio version gets you up to speed on the go. The script behind the audio is fully editable, so you can adjust the message before it reaches anyone.

The final decisions are still yours. The assistant accelerates the mechanical parts so you can focus on the judgment calls.

PDF Spaces: not a shared folder, but an experience

This is the feature that changes how you think about sharing documents. PDF Spaces isn’t a place to dump files so other people can download them. It’s an AI-powered workspace where you bring together PDFs, links, notes, and other documents into one environment, shape how recipients navigate the material, and turn what used to be a static file drop into something closer to a guided, interactive experience.

Think of it as the difference between emailing someone a zip file and walking them through a curated presentation of your work. When you create a PDF Space, the AI Assistant automatically generates a summary of the contents and an audio overview. From there, you can add context, reorder files to emphasize what matters most, rename documents to make the structure clear, and write your own summaries where needed. If you update a document after sharing, the Space updates too, so recipients always see the latest version without you having to resend anything.

Branded sharing

This is where it gets interesting if you work client-facing. You can add your company logo and color palette to the PDF Space before sharing it. Your recipient doesn’t open a generic Adobe interface; they open a branded, interactive experience that looks like it came from your organization. For agencies, sales teams, consultants, or anyone who sends proposals and reports externally, that kind of visual ownership over a document environment didn’t exist inside a PDF workflow before.

Personality modes

When you share a PDF Space, the AI Assistant comes along with it and can answer questions from anyone who accesses the space. But you don’t just flip a switch and hope for the best. You choose how the assistant behaves with that specific audience.

Adobe ships three prebuilt personality modes. Analyst keeps things tight: factual, citation-heavy, no filler. You’d use it for a Space full of financial reports or technical documentation where the person on the other end just wants the numbers.

Instructor is the opposite of that. It breaks down complex ideas, asks follow-up questions, and walks the recipient through the material the way a teacher would. If you’re building an onboarding package or a training module, this is the one.

Then there’s Entertainer, which goes looser and more conversational. Think marketing decks or internal comms where you need people to actually read the thing.

If none of those fit, you can create a custom assistant with specific instructions: what tone to use, what topics to focus on, and how to handle ambiguity in the source material. It stands in for you when you’re not there to answer questions yourself.

Engagement tracking

This is the part most people will wish they’d had years ago. Once you share a PDF Space, you can see who opened it, when, and whether they forwarded it. Total views, named recipients, individual activity, forwarding details, per-recipient view counts.

For a sales team, that means knowing which stakeholder actually read the proposal before the follow-up call. For HR, it means seeing whether employees engaged with the new policy update or ignored it. The data is at the Space level (not page-by-page), but it’s specific enough to make your follow-ups informed instead of blind. Branding, a conversational AI, and engagement data in one place: that’s what turns a shared document into an interactive experience.

Setting up a PDF Space, step by step

Go to the main page of Acrobat and select Create a PDF Space. In the dialog box, you can add files from Adobe cloud storage, third-party platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox, plus links and text notes. Click Add, and your PDF Space appears with an AI-generated summary on the right and the uploaded files listed on the left panel.

From here, customize the experience: reorder your files, edit the summary, add your logo, set up the AI Assistant and choose its personality, and add any context you want recipients to see up front. When you share, you pick whether recipients can only view or also collaborate by leaving comments and adding their own files.

Recipients don’t need an Acrobat Studio account to interact with the Space. They open the link, explore the material, and chat with the AI Assistant directly.

Plans and pricing

Adobe Acrobat has a free tier for viewing PDFs, but the features covered in this article require a paid plan.

If all you need is basic PDF editing, signing, form filling, and file conversion, Acrobat Standard starts at $14.99/month (annual billing). Acrobat Pro at $19.99/month adds the heavier tools: redacting sensitive content, comparing document versions, embedding images and video inside a PDF.

Neither of those includes the features this article is about. For PDF Spaces, the AI Assistant, branded sharing, engagement tracking, and the personality modes, you need Acrobat Studio at $24.99/month (annual billing). It bundles everything in Pro plus PDF Spaces, Acrobat AI Assistant, and Adobe Express Premium.

Adobe also recently launched Acrobat Express, a lighter plan that gives you the AI Assistant and PDF Spaces.

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