Img Crafter: When Adobe Believed in Our Vision
Sometimes the best outcomes aren't the ones you expected. We entered the Adobe Express Hackathon with Img Crafter, an AI-powered add-on that brings Generate, Edit, and Mimic workflows into a single sidebar. We didn't win the competition—but something even better happened. Adobe saw the potential in our project and funded us to bring it to life.
That vote of confidence pushed us to go beyond a hackathon prototype. We polished every feature, squashed every bug, and shipped a working product that now runs inside Adobe Express. This is the story of how Img Crafter came to be.
The Hackathon Journey
After we settled on the idea of Img Crafter, our first step was researching whether it could actually work as an Adobe Express Add-on. Once we confirmed the technical feasibility, we spent a week writing, editing, and polishing our three-minute pitch video.
When the video was ready, we still had extra time and were eager to bring the idea to life. We sketched out mockups, mapped the user interface, and chose our tech stack. Then, thankfully, Adobe extended the deadline by a week—the perfect opportunity to start building.
We dove into coding each feature: Generate, Edit, Mimic, and building a responsive front-end interface. We spent the final days on deployment, faced errors along the way, but worked through every single one. Now we have a working prototype running in Adobe Express.
What Is Img Crafter?
Img Crafter is an AI-powered add-on for Adobe Express that brings three powerful workflows—Generate, Edit, and Mimic—into a single sidebar. With clear controls, instant previews, and built-in versioning, you can:
- Create new artwork from text descriptions
- Refine existing images with simple instructions
- Apply and extract artistic styles
All without ever leaving Adobe Express.
How It Works
1. Generate Tab
The Generate tab turns plain-language descriptions into original images. No design experience needed—just type what you want, tweak a few settings, and let OpenAI's GPT-Image-1 API do the rest.
Features:
- Prompt Input: Natural-language description for any image
- Style Selector: Photographic, digital art, vector illustration, and more
- Aspect Ratio: Square, landscape, or portrait
- Variations Slider: Generate 1–3 unique versions
- Add to Canvas: Insert directly into Adobe Express
Example: Type "whimsical birthday card with balloons and cake," choose Vector Illustration, and get colorful greeting card designs ready to use.
Built-in Edit Mode
Click Edit to open a clean editing interface. Describe changes like "change background to red" or "make the guitar black"—each change creates a new version instead of replacing the old one (branching), so you never lose earlier work.
2. Edit Tab
The Edit tab is your all-in-one tool for improving or transforming any image.
Normal Edit
Describe adjustments in plain English—"remove the background," "add brighter highlights"—and receive a freshly edited image.
Upscale
Increase resolution and clarity for printing or large-format displays while preserving sharpness.
Extract Text
Uses Gemini 2.5 Pro Flash API to read printed or handwritten text from images. Perfect for menus, documents, or handwritten notes.
3. Mimic Tab
The Mimic tab helps you apply or recreate artistic styles effortlessly.
Transform Image
Transfer the look of one picture—colors, textures, art style—to another. It's like painting your photo in the style of any reference artwork.
Example: Upload Van Gogh's Starry Night as a style reference, add any landscape, and get a swirling, painterly version.
Generate New
Combine a style reference with a fresh prompt to create entirely new images that match both the visual mood and your description.
Example: Upload a Studio Ghibli frame, type "A floating library in the clouds," and get a dreamy illustration in that animation style.
Color Palette
Extract dominant colors from any image with typography suggestions for headings, subheadings, and body text.
Behind the Scenes
AI Models Used
- GPT-Image-1 (OpenAI) — Powers all image generation across Generate, Edit, and Mimic tabs
- Gemini 2.5 Pro Flash — Handles accurate text extraction from images
Deployment
Img Crafter is fully deployed as a private Adobe Express Add-on. All features—Generate, Edit, Mimic—are functional and being refined based on real usage.
What We Built
With Adobe's funding, we went all the way and shipped a complete product:
- Credit-based system for quality tiers (Low/Medium/High)
- User authentication and persistent settings
- Monetization through credit packages
Adobe's support gave us the runway to build something real. We didn't win the hackathon—but we shipped a fully functional, production-ready product. And that feels like the real victory.
"We entered to compete. We left with a shipped product."