Adobe Stock improves visual search to bring you vibrant, beautiful images

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Adobe Stock has launched a way to find better images for your design project with its freshly updated visual search tools and aesthetic filters.

Unveiled today, Adobe Stock’s new 'Depth of Field' and 'Vivid Colour' filters help you find the right image based on its looks rather than its keywords.

Claude Alexandre, vice president of Adobe Stock, said Adobe had recognised designers’ need for images with high visual impact and for an easy way to find images. He said that the new advanced search "will help creatives solve their most complex visual and design challenges".

The new tools update Adobe Stock’s existing visual search, which debuted in November 2016. Google Images, iStock and Shutterstock also offer visual searches – the difference is that Adobe now offers more advanced ways to find pictures that suit the look of your project, whereas most services just offer basic filters such as colour, size, image type and orientation.

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To use Adobe Stock visual search, click on the camera icon or drag and drop a picture into the search bar, and Adobe's Sensei technology will find images that are similar. In the example Adobe showed us, uploading a picture of two glasses of wine produced multiple images of two glasses of wine. 

The results with the Vivid Colour filter up

Sliding the ‘Depth of Field’ filter right up added people to the scene, and sliding it down focused our attention on the wine. Sliding the ‘Vivid Colour’ filter up revealed images that were naturally colourful, while sliding it down showed pictures with muted colour palettes. Typing ‘sunset’ into the text bar uncovered glasses of wine with a setting sun behind.

New filters will be added in the near future, Adobe said, with a number currently being tested. Facial recognition isn’t currently a feature of the visual search, but Adobe said it's in the pipeline.

Expanded collection

Adobe Stock has added high quality images from Stocksy

As well as this new search technology, Adobe Stock has expanded its collection of images. A premium collection from Stocksy – a stock image service founded by photographers who have rejected traditional stock imagery – brings curated, beautiful images that stand out from the crowd.

Alongside this, a new editorial collection adds 12 million images from the Reuters archive, with new images set to be added as they are taken. More images from USA Today Sports will be added to the editorial collection soon.

Access stock straight from CC and PowerPoint

Adobe Stock's new plugin for PowerPoint

The Adobe Stock library and services will now be accessible from within Microsoft PowerPoint, thanks to a new plugin, as well as from Adobe’s Creative Cloud programs such as Indesign CC and Photoshop CC.

This follows the announcement last week of the free Craft Stock tool from InVision, which enables you to search iStock and Getty Images libraries from within Photoshop and Sketch.

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