A new AI feature in Adobe Illustrator instantly recolors vector graphics

Adobe is releasing a new feature for its Illustrator graphic design software that allows users to quickly modify the color scheme of vector-based images through generative AI. Users can upload their own Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files to Vector recoloring in Illustrator as welll Generate different colors and palette shapes in a matter of seconds, either by writing a text description or choosing from a list of sample prompts.

Illustrator Vector Recoloring — which Adobe claims is the first-ever AI-powered recoloring tool to hit the market — is offered as the next phase of Adobe Firefly, a set of creative AI templates that the company recently launched in public beta. Vector Recoloring will be available for testing as part of that Firefly beta Today, though, Adobe did not say when we can expect a full version of the tool to arrive.

Judging by a video presentation of the feature, textual descriptions can be relatively loose: the writing in “Underwater Corals” sets an example image to various shades of blue, pink, and… well, coral orange. Example prompts have similarly interpretable names like “Salmon Sushi” and “Mud Desert,” which can be distinguished visually by the icons provided.

For those unaware, vector graphics or SVG files differ from other image formats like JPEG or PNG in that they can be resized to any size without affecting the quality. This makes vector graphics a great choice for graphic designers who create company logos or illustrations that need to be resized frequently and applied to a range of different products.

To be clear, unlike other generative AI products, the feature does not produce images but only provides new ways to switch up the color palette of existing vector files. Having a wide variety of options to select a final design from is nice, but I can attest that having to manually create different versions of images isn’t the most exciting part of any graphic design process.

Many of the recent features released across various Adobe applications have also used AI to simplify complex or labor-intensive tasks in an effort to save creative professionals time when working on their projects. Photoshop and Lightroom both received updates after last year’s Adobe Max conference that improve automatic object selection by, for example, removing the need to manually select or hide the subject when editing photos.