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Fine-Tuning Creativity: Adobe Firefly's New Sidebar Controls Are a Game-Changer

Firefly’s Sidebar Complements Text Prompts with Intuitive Controls.

Adobe Firefly is putting a new spin on AI-powered image generation by adding UI controls to complement traditional text prompts.  The newly enhanced Firefly platform includes a control-packed sidebar, providing common tools to refine image generation in real-time.

adjusting settings on an AI generated image of a dog

Common Commands, Collected

Instead of relying solely on detailed, often trial-and-error text prompts, you can fine-tune your designs using sliders and toggles. These controls include choices for portrait or landscape orientation, art or photograph styles, and sliders to adjust the intensity of the effect. There’s also a gallery of style presets (watercolor, neon), lighting options (golden hour, studio light), and camera angles (shot from above, shallow depth of field).  This allows creators to modify key attributes without needing extensive technical expertise or memorization of detailed initial prompts.

new controls for Style, Color, Tone, Lighting, and more.

Matching Style and Composition

Also in the sidebar, Firefly's Reference sections help you generate AI images that match the style, layout, and/or composition of a reference image. Firefly analyzes the shapes, colors, and  positioning of one image to guide the generation of another.

choosing a reference image on the left, to control the resulting image on the right

Why It Matters

Adobe Firefly’s controls make high-quality design achievable by everyone, from professional marketers to casual users. By removing the guesswork of crafting perfect text prompts, the platform emphasizes a hands-on, visual approach to editing. 

We appreciate Adobe’s work in making AI-powered creativity more accessible. Our mission at Alexander & Tom has always been to create digital experiences that are easy to understand and easy to use, making experiences more intuitive and effortless.

Written July 29, 2025 by

Antony Casale

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