How Adobe Express makes professional content creation possible for everyone
Adobe has been the top dog in creative content creation for 40 years. The American software manufacturer has had to reinvent itself several times to keep up with the spirit of the times: from desktop publishing to digital publishing, from selling software licenses to a subscription model and now from professional tools to applications for everyone.
Under the claim “Adobe for all” the next revolution is taking place: Adobe Express is the answer to the influencer business, a growing number of digital channels, and an increasing frequency of content creation. The tool comes both as a mobile app and as a web application — meaning content can be easily created in the browser. Adobe has managed the huge balancing act of packing its powerful features known from pro-tools like Photoshop or Illustrator into an easy-to-use interface. In no time, you can create appealing Instagram posts or TikTok reels. But also flyers, posters or even simple websites can be created with Adobe Express.
A quick tour of Adobe Express
Let’s create an Instagram post! Let’s start simple and upload a photo first. Here you can directly select for which medium and in which format you want to create a new content.
Now we want to add a logo. To do this, I open my logo library and simply drag and drop the desired logo onto the stage. Here I can directly do things like adjusting the opacity.
Next, I add some text. Here I can access Adobe’s gigantic font library. Besides various effects like shadows, outline, shapes, opacity, etc., I can also pick the font color from the context or background of the project. In my case, I set the picker to the background image and select a suitable color there.
Adobe Express comes with smart AI features like font recommendations, that help non-professionals like me create responsive designs.
Of course, I can also select other design elements, so-called design assets from an almost infinite library and add them to my project.
A big plus over similar tools is the ability to use media from Adobe Stock — Adobe’s media library. Adobe Stock has millions of professional photos, videos, illustrations, vector graphics, etc. that you can use for your design.
As you may have noticed, I’m not a professional designer and my result looks accordingly. Fortunately, there are very handy design recommendations in Adobe Express — the AI says hello ;-) With a click of a button I can put my individual content into a nice format.
When I’m happy with the result, I can simply download my new content or publish it directly. Adobe Express connects to all major social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more. But not enough! Express even has powerful scheduling features that let you conveniently manage your posts in an editorial plan and calendar.
That was our little tour of Adobe Express and the process of creating and publishing an Instagram post. But Adobe Express can do even more!
Powerful Quick Actions in Adobe Express
Express gives you a lot of handy features often needed in your everyday digital life and for which you often lack the necessary tools or have to pay a lot of money for.
With a few clicks in Adobe Express, I can do things as
- Create a QR code
- Remove the background from an image
- Convert an image or video to another file format
- Create a PDF
- Crop an image
- Create a vector graphic from an image
- Trim a video
- Merge two videos
- and much more…
Designing websites and landing pages with Adobe Express
As already mentioned, Express can also be used to create simple websites or landing pages. There are also numerous templates and tools available to make your life easier. Of course, no coding is necessary.
Express desktop app
Since Adobe Express was developed as a so-called Progressive Web App (PWA), it can be used not only in the browser. Power users can install the web app via their browser on their device. Then the application runs in its own window and can be launched from the operating system’s start menu.
Adobe Express mobile app
Of course, Express is also available as a mobile app in the Apple/iOS App Store and in the Google/Android Play Store for smartphones and tablets. Again, it’s extremely convenient to use. Projects and content are, of course, synchronized via the cloud, so you can switch seamlessly from one device to another.
Collaboration and integration of Adobe Express with other Adobe products
Express isn’t just for end users. It’s also great for enterprise use. Marketing teams, for example, can have professional designs created by agencies. These can then be used as templates for Express. The designers create the template with the usual professional tools from the Adobe Creative Cloud such as Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator. The non-designers/laity/marketers can populate this template in Adobe Express with new content for their campaign at hand without breaking anything. The branding remains consistent.
Adobe recently announced at their annual conference Adobe Summit that Express will be integrated with their digital asset management (DAM) system AEM Assets from their enterprise suite Adobe Experience Cloud. This will give Adobe Experience Manager powerful asset editing capabilities.
Outlook
Generative artificial intelligence, or gen-AI, is on everyone’s lips, not least because of hyped tools like ChatGPT. Adobe has now also introduced such a tool called Adobe Firefly. What is currently still available to everyone as a public beta version will soon be incorporated into various Adobe products such as Experience Manager, Adobe Campaign, Photoshop and, of course, Adobe Express. With Adobe Firefly, photo-realistic images, illustrations, artwork, textures, etc. can be generated using artificial intelligence via text input.
Conclusion
Adobe Express is the perfect tool for non-professional designers, influencers, and marketers who want to easily and quickly create compelling content and publish it to multiple digital channels.
