In a world that thrives on visual content, finding efficient ways to seamlessly integrate images into your projects has become more crucial than ever.
Enter ClipDrop, the latest breakthrough in visual technology that promises to transform the way we process images with its cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools.
Whether you’re a designer, marketer, or content creator, ClipDrop has something for you. Here’s an overview of the main features it offers.
1. Stable Diffusion XL
Stable Diffusion is an AI text-to-image model that turns written descriptions into photo realistic images that are prefect for websites, blogs, social media, slide decks, and more.
ClipDrop includes Stable Diffusion in its suite of image generation tools. All you need to do is type what you would like to see a picture of, and let AI take care of the rest.
Four images are rendered for your approval. If you don’t like any of them, you can regenerate all four images for a new take on your description.
My go-to demo for a tool like this is, “Tom Cruise drinking coffee in a field with cows.” It’s random, I know, but I like it, and I am sure you will think of something a lot more creative!
In the image below, Tom is wearing two watches, (one on each hand!), but if you ignore that for a minute, it’s actually a decent representation of what I asked for.
2. Uncrop Images
Adobe’s Photoshop has helped pioneer the idea of “uncropping” an image. It uses artificial intelligence to look at the key characteristics of a photo and extends the canvas to create additional content that was not there at the time the original image was captured.
I’ve seen a lot of these on Twitter recently, where people will take popular images like the distracted boyfriend meme, and zoom out to see what else he could have been looking at.
However, sometimes you just need a square image to fill a rectangular frame, or, as in the example below, you want to turn a portrait image into a landscape image while retaining the main subject.
3. Reimagine XL
The Reimagine tool is an interesting one. It uses Stable Diffusion to give you multiple versions of the same image.
For instance, if you uploaded an image of a bedroom, it would generate different angles of the bedroom scene. Landscape pictures may be flipped, or zoomed in or out, for different perspectives, while portraits get an HDR effect with different angles and backgrounds.
When designing websites or slide decks, it is common to find an image that is almost what you need, but not quite. The Reimagine tool can help with that and does produce some appealing alternatives.
Here are a couple of example images. As you can see, it is not the exact same bedroom, but it’s definitely the same vibe, and you get a slightly different view with each image.
4. Image Cleanup
This is another tool that has been popular in image editors like Photoshop and Lightroom for a while. So if you are familiar with content fill aware, or even the clone brush, then this one will make immediate sense to you.
Once you upload an image, you can use the Image Cleanup tool to paint over areas on the photo that you would like to remove.
You can adjust the size of the selection brush, and zoom in and out of the image for more control. Undo and Redo buttons help with fine-tuning your edits, while the preview button shows you a before and after shot.
Sometimes you need to take two or three passes at something, but as illustrated by the images below, the results are pretty good.
5. Remove Background
Tools like remove.bg were an instant hit when they effortlessly removed the background of an image. You didn’t have to spend hours outlining objects with a selection tool, you just clicked a button, and the magic happened.
ClipDrop has its own implementation of a background remover, and as you can see below, it is an effective one. It deals with the hair on this model very well, and it took seconds to complete.
6. Replace Background
One of the reasons for removing a background is to use the image as a transparent PNG. But, another reason is to replace an existing background. Well, with ClipDrop, you can remove and replace with one tool.
The Replace Background option lets you upload an image and replace the background with one of your choosing. Of course, when I say a background of your choosing, what I actually mean is an AI background of your choosing.
After you have uploaded your base image, the background is removed, and you will then be prompted to type a description of the scene you would like to use. Stable Diffusion will then generate a background for you.
7. Relight Images
If you’ve played with the camera settings on a recent iPhone, you will have seen features like Portrait Lighting. They allow you to apply different lighting effects to a photo in real time.
ClipDrop’s Relight tool offers similar functionality but with more control. You are given four virtual lights by default, but you can add more as needed. They allow you to relight photos and drawings in seconds, and give you control over color, positioning, and more.
Admittedly, some of this can be done in a dedicated image editor, but it is fun to move the lights around and see the effects you can create by lighting an image yourself.
If you want to make your social media profile pictures stand out from the crowd, this is a great place to start.
8. Image Upscaler
If a client is constantly sending you low-res images that just don’t cut it on a PowerPoint or large screen device, the ability to upscale an image is a useful thing to have access to.
ClipDrop lets you upload images up to 6000×6000 px in size and will upscale, denoise, and enhance your image so that it is more usable.
The difference is subtle at lower magnifications, but ClipDrop allows you to increase the resolution by up to 16x.
9. Text Remover
Need to remove text from a billboard or sign? The Text Remover tool may be what you are looking for. I say “may” because I had mixed results with this one, but on the right image, it has some potential.
Text Remover is like an automated version of the Image Cleanup tool. It does a decent job of finding and removing text, but as you will see below, they weren’t all keepers.
The first pair of images represent some of my better attempts at removing text from images. This was a pretty clean example that shows how well it can work on the right image.
However, some images just didn’t work very well with this tool. If that happens, you, like me, may just find you have better luck removing text manually with the Image Cleanup tool.
The examples below show one of my less successful attempts with the Text Remover tool. Image Cleanup saved the day.
Pricing and Availability
ClipDrop is available online at clipdrop.co. There are no desktop or mobile apps at this time.
The free plan lets you try a lot of these tools out, but is often limited by the size of image you can upload or the number of exports you can perform. Still, it’s a great place to start and get a feel for the tools.
For more flexibility, you can unlock a Pro account for $84 a year or $9 a month if you prefer to pay monthly.
Final Thoughts
Apps to perform all of these tasks already exist as separate apps.
However, there is no denying the convenience of having them all in one place if these are the kinds of tasks you perform on a regular basis. Plus, ClipDrop is fast, and easy to learn.
The AI means that you don’t need to be a graphic designer or a professional photo editor to get good results. You just need some patience and a willingness to be flexible with some of your image needs.
Try it out today at clipdrop.co.
