Adobe strikes again: buys Topaz Labs

The news that Adobe has agreed to acquire Topaz Labs has hit the creative community with a collective “what the f….”. For anyone who relies on tools like Gigapixel, Photo AI, and Video AI, I’m sure this news is a bit of a worrying development, especially if you’re one of those creators who had exited the Adobe ecosystem (”you fool … there is no escape!”).

Some of the more cynical among the critics have pointed out that this is Adobe’s way of getting up to speed with technology it can’t build in-house:

“If in doubt, buy them out!”

My reaction upon reading the news was one of begrudging acceptance: “Yeah, that sounds about right”

Topaz has been around for quite a while and has a very loyal following in both the photography and video spaces. I never really used the photo software myself, but I’m always getting readers telling me to try it out. Their video upscaling and processing software is legendary and has become an indispensable tool across many post-production houses. And I’m not talking about influencers and youtubers either, I’m talking broadcast and film post houses. Many of those are based on Avid and Davinci Resolve, so I’m sure they’ll be wondering what this all means.

when it comes to their photography software, Adobe has been integrating Topaz AI models into its apps and firefly for some time now. Some are available as third-party model options inside the various AI tools in Photoshop or online in the Firefly web app. They recently added Topaz processing directly inside of Lightroom desktop, too. So in one respect, maybe we should have seen this coming.

While it might mean that, down the line if you use Lightroom or Photoshop you will get even more access to Topaz’s AI software, or maybe even fewer AI credits should you use Topaz models, it raises questions about what happens for users of non-adobe software, given Adobe’s history when it comes to acquiring companies. I know some people who are still bitter about Macromedia Freehand and that was years ago. While they have said that they will still be available as stand alone tools for now, this is Adobe we’re talking about.

Topaz’s Video Tools are indispensable for some

While photographers know Topaz for upscaling and sharpening, the professional video community considers Topaz Video AI an industry essential. Walk into a post-production house and somebody will probably have a copy of Topaz Video AI installed. If you need to up-res HD to 4k it’s one of the best software solutions, outside of dedicated hardware. I even know several 3D artists who use it to render at a lower resolution and then upscale the results to 4K for delivery when turnaround time is tight. It’s that good.

Crucially, a large portion of video pros who rely on it do not use Adobe products as their primary creative tools. They are colour grading in DaVinci Resolve or editing in Avid. They use Topaz as a dedicated, standalone utility because its local hardware rendering engine works locally, without having to upload to the cloud or use a credit system. This is very important when working on client work under an NDA.

If your workflow is built around DaVinci Resolve or even Final Cut Pro, and you rely on Topaz, this news naturally brings some trepidation. As I mentioned already, Adobe doesn’t have the best of track records when it comes to buying developers of popular software.

According to the official Adobe Press Release, the company plans to maintain the Topaz apps as standalone offerings on its website, and CEO Eric Yang is staying on to lead the team. Of course, just because they say that now doesn’t mean that will remain the case forever.

If you use non-Adobe software, you can likely keep using your current Topaz apps for the foreseeable future. The real concern is what happens in the long term.

If Adobe builds native, Topaz Video AI straight into Premiere or After Effects for example, will they eventually kill the standalone software? Hopefully not, but it wouldn’t be unprecedented. The standard practice when companies buy others for technology like this is to just leave the applications alone for several years without substantial updates, and then kill them, saying no one was using them anyway.

I’m being very cynical here, and I really don’t mean to be. I mean, it’s not all potentially bad news. If you are an Adobe subscriber, you may have access to more of Topaz’s tools with your subscription (unless they charge more - which let’s face it, they probably will). If you can get access to Topaz Video AI’s upscaling and denoising for the current Creative Cloud subscription, I will be happy. If you have to go through Premiere or After Effects, it’s not ideal, but not the end of the world. Having said that, the current Photoshop/Lightroom integration of Topaz’s tools doesn’t offer nearly the level of control that you get on the standalone software. If this means that you get more of the actual Topaz apps included with Creative Cloud, then that’s a good thing, right?

What Happens to Existing Topaz Owners?

If you already own perpetual licences or active subscriptions to Topaz products, nothing changes immediately. The transaction is not expected to close until the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approval, so this isn’t finalised yet. Both companies have stated that Topaz apps will remain available separately, although that doesn’t mean that they will continue that way forever. It’s not hard to see that this deal is primarily about the underlying technology and intellectual property including the AI models. The applications are undoubtedly secondary in Adobe’s mind.

As for how Adobe will integrate the software into its existing offerings, I guess time will tell. As I mentioned earlier, they are already offering the Topaz models as part of their AI tools in Photoshop, so that will likely continue with even more integration. Perhaps future versions of Photoshop will include Topaz’s local AI processing. Will they include the current Topaz tools as part of the Creative Cloud subscription, or keep them separate as they do with Substance Painter and Designer? What happens to current Topaz subscribers once the deal goes through? What happens to tech support? Adobe’s tech support is kind of infamous, so I’m sure that’s not going to sit well with current customers.

For now, not much will change initially. But unfortunately, it’s yet another chapter in the unending consolidation of technology, where big tech companies that take a great independent developer and suck it into the void of a huge corporation.

But the AI zealots would have you believe that your job will be gone soon to our AI robot overlords anyway, so in the end, it’s all a moot point.

Right? Right?