Ahead of this year’s Adobe MAX conference in Los Angeles, Adobe has announced the 2019 releases of its Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements applications. Today’s updates focus on streamlining the process of creating new projects, enhancing feature discoverability, improving performance, and expanding features powered by Adobe Sensei.

Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements are applications that distill popular and essential features from Adobe’s Creative Cloud applications into easy-to-use, more affordable software. Last year, Adobe adapted tools from its mobile apps and intelligent time-saving features to boost the capabilities of the Elements applications. This year, automation powers the new Elements Home Screen, which you see every time you open either app.

Adobe Sensei, the company’s AI technology, provides suggested Auto Creations on the Home Screen. Photo and video slideshows are curated for you to preview and share if you wish. Beyond the Home Screen, each application includes new features of its own. Adobe offers a summary of what’s new:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019

  • Redesigned Photo Collages – Create collages with fewer clicks and quickly choose from stylish new templates that look great as Instagram posts and more.

  • Guided Edits – Four all-new Guided Edits, bring the total to 53 step-by-step photo editing guides to help you quickly edit and create.

  • Multi-Photo Text – Design visual text that features a different photo inside each letter.

  • Memes – A Guided Edit that walks you through the process of typing in text, adding filters, borders and more to turn your photos into memes that are perfect for sharing on social media.

  • Photo-To-Sketch – Make a unique artistic statement by turning part of a favorite photo into a sketch by brushing on the medium of your choice, including colored pencil, old paper, or an aged photo look.

  • Text And Border Overlays – A Guided Edit that teaches you how to embellish photos with borders and text.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2019

  • Redesigned Quick Edit Mode – A new, user-friendly editing interface that makes creating movies easier than ever. Smart Trim automatically finds your best footage and walks you through a series of steps for trimming a video. A simplified Sceneline combines clips, photos, titles, music and more into a unique production that you can then share on DVD, the web or social media.
  • Guided Edits – Two all-new Guided Edits, bringing the total to 20 step-by-step video editing guides in Premiere Elements that help you get started.

Quick Edit Mode

  • Glass Pane Effects – Make the action in your scene appear like its taking place behind the glass.
  • Luma Fade Transitions – Add a professional looking dramatic scene transition, which walks you through the process of fading in the colors from darkest to lightest in your video creations.

Both Elements applications also now include support for editing HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) photos on macOS. Premiere Elements adds support for VFR (variable frame rate) and HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding. HEIF and HEVC were introduced alongside iOS 11, so many modern iPhones and iPads are capable of shooting media in this space saving format.

Full notes for 2019’s releases will be available on the Adobe Elements website. Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements are available for $99.99 each on macOS and Windows, or $149.99 for a bundle deal. Discounts are available for users upgrading from previous versions.