Design tool Figma has launched new AI-powered image editing features today. These include the ability to remove and isolate objects, as well as expand images.
The company stated these features will save users the hassle of exporting images to other tools for editing and then importing them back. It noted that while generation models are excellent for creating images, users often need granular editing tools that work without any text prompts.
Figma has enhanced its lasso tool for selection. You can now use it to select an object, remove it entirely, or isolate it to move around. When you move the object, the image retains other characteristics like the background and color. Users can also select an object to adjust specific factors such as lighting, shadow, color, or focus.
The company is also introducing an image expansion feature to its design suite. This feature is particularly useful when adjusting a creative for a specific format and needing to fill in the background or other details. For example, it can help create a web banner or mobile banner from a square image. It essentially saves you from constantly cropping an image and readjusting elements.
Beyond adding these features, Figma is consolidating all its image editing tools into a single toolbar for easier access. From this toolbar, you can select objects or parts of images, change background color, and add annotations or text. The company said removing backgrounds is one of the most common actions on the platform, which is why it is getting a prominent spot on the new toolbar.
Rivals like Adobe and Canva have offered object removal features for a few years now. Figma is finally catching up to provide these capabilities.
The company said the new image editing features are available on Figma Design and Draw, with plans to make them available across all Figma tools next year.
Figma’s launch coincides with Adobe making some similar features available to users within ChatGPT. Figma was one of the launch partners for the app, calling on ChatGPT in October. It is not clear if these new functions will be available to users accessing Figma within OpenAI’s tool.