Adobe updates Creative Cloud with deep Stock integration, content-aware crop for Photoshop CC and more

Adobe on Tuesday released a set of substantial updates to its Creative Cloud family of products and services, including tight Adobe Stock integration and advanced technologies like facial recognition and content-aware photo cropping.

Continuing on its quest to offer creative professionals an all-inclusive suite of desktop and mobile tools, Adobe's June 2016 CC updates focus on incorporating new and existing features to a growing stable of software properties.

Adobe is touting deep Adobe Stock and CC Libraries integration as one of the more significant additions to its latest set of enhancements. Introduced last year as a standalone service, Adobe's online marketplace for images and video content has become an increasingly important facet to user workflows.

Stock is now a "One-Click Workflow," meaning users can quickly browse, license and integrate image assets directly from popular tools like Photoshop and Illustrator. In practice, Stock assets show up in an interactive CC Libraries toolbar pane through which users can search for, browse and purchase assets. Adobe is also rolling a one-click in-app purchasing feature into Photoshop.

The process of sharing assets with coworkers has also been simplified. Now, users can set CC library permissions to "view" or "edit" when inviting colleagues to collaborate on specific licensed images and video. The Collaborate menu function is available in Adobe's flagship apps which links to permissions controls on the CC web interface.

Additionally, Adobe today debuted the Adobe Stock Premium Collection, a sampling of more than 100,000 images from noted artists and photographers.

Looking ahead, professionals will be able to monetize their work through Adobe Stock directly from desktop and mobile apps including Lightroom CC, Bridge CC, Photoshop Fix and Photoshop Mix. A related service called the Stock Contributor Portal will feature handy monetization tools like automatic asset tagging for keyword-based search discovery.

As for new app technologies, Adobe is introducing a content-aware crop tool in Photoshop which automatically fills in blank areas of a canvas when an image is expanded or rotated beyond its original borders. The software can also recognize and modify facial features as part of the Liquify tool. Font menus are four time faster and content-aware is three times faster than previous versions.

Finally, Photoshop sports a font detection capability that recognizes typefaces in a variety of file types, including flattened JPEG images. The tool then suggests a similar font from a user's preinstalled library or searches online for an alternative Typekit download.

Other CC software enhancements include a character animator preview in After Effects CC, which matches animated assets to an actor's movements. Adobe Premiere Pro CC introduces a set of virtual reality features including a "field of view" mode for content previews, while Illustrator CC gets fast export capabilities for one-click exports into multiple formats and resolutions.

Adobe XD Preview also receives a minor buff with expanded support for German, French and Japanese.

Existing Creative Cloud subscribers can download the updates from Adobe today.

Pricing for new members depends on the application or software suite being purchased. For example, the Creative Cloud Photography plan, which comes with Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC, starts at $9.99 per month on an annual plan, while single-app subscriptions come in at $19.99 per month. Adobe offers an annual plan with access to all apps for $49.99 per month, while the step-up membership with a month of Adobe Stock access and 10 free Adobe Stock images is priced at $79.98 per month.