Adobe Express
The Real Deal
I find the term "Content is King" to be relative. If you are standing anywhere on the marketing playing field and are not a graphics designer your mantra might be more sublime, "Content is a necessity". I am a technologist and entrepreneur focusing mainly on helping folks communicate. This usually requires simplifying technology for my clients to allow them to leverage the greatest value on their investments (both time and money).
To this end, I wanted to take a few minutes to share some insight on the newest iteration of Adobe software, Adobe Express. Adobe has revamped an older product (Spark) into what I consider to be one of the best multipurpose software tools available today.
Every day, I manipulate some graphics or video content. I might be creating a slide deck for a presentation, building out some signage, creating webpages, or posting to social media. I have been a Creative Cloud subscriber for several years. I routinely bounce in and out of software tools like Acrobat, Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro (or recently Rush), and Illustrator. I have investigated solutions like Canva but never found anything to replace all those high-end tools. I can honestly say, "Adobe Express, where have you been my whole life"?
Okay, I know that sounds cheesy, and no, I have not gone hardcore affiliate marketing. I will spend a few minutes reviewing the highlights of this software and plan to follow up with a brief instructional video specifically for my signage clients who need to support their networks after I have moved on to the next install.
Adobe Express is a "one-stop shop" for building and managing assets. I can easily create new asset graphics for backgrounds and web pages with engaging animations. There are hundreds of templates available that you can easily search for when you need a little creative help getting started. You can build out and save Brand kits that include your individual colors and fonts. If you haven't nailed down your style yet, browse the templates for inspiration, and Adobe will help suggest color palettes and font styles for you (it's like AI Magic).
Upload your assets (pictures and videos), and Express will help you scale them to the perfect size. Inside the "resize" tool, you will find a massive list of size presets for web, print, and social media applications. You can also specify any custom size by pixels or inches. I found it a bit cumbersome as it will resize the canvas without affecting the image. It's up to you to scale or crop the picture, and if you're looking to rotate the image and canvas simultaneously, MS Paint might be faster. You also can't unlock the aspect ratio when scaling; the nerdy picture folks at Adobe couldn't understand why anyone would ever want to do that. I know both are suggestions that are on their "to-do" list. All these shortcomings aside, let me tell you what you can do: Work in layers, scale images, and add text, shapes, frames, and textures. This is the same tool that lets you adjust the opacity and provides "blend" presets. I am usually in a hurry and often forget to perform some postproduction on my pictures. Never fear; Express lets you adjust contrast, brightness, and color temperature. You can also sharpen or blur on the fly. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the AI tools for removing backgrounds or adding generative fill. I might use this tool once a day to remove backgrounds and creating PNGs.
This is a one-stop shop; Express also offers simple video editing that easily lets you layer video, graphics, and audio into a single presentation. I love that I can work natively with all my assets in one application and export in multiple formats (MP4, JPG, PNG, or PDF). There is access to royalty-free content of every type, and you can post directly to numerous social media platforms from within the app. To take things a step further, you can schedule your posts and push your content anytime in the future with an integrated calendar (very hot).
Initially, the primary functionality of this software tool was transcoding between file formats and resizing assets. Initially, the project files were limited to a single page, but updates to the software now support multipage presentations. I can keep all my assets in one place with online access from any PC. The drag-and-drop UI's simplicity and little tools like an eye-dropper color picker make this software easy and fun. I genuinely feel Adobe Express has helped me focus less on the quantity of my content and the creative quality of my work. Adobe Express isn't just a utility for scaling and formatting my assets but for creating personalized CMS-ready content.
If you're interested and need a little help getting set up, just let us know. As stated earlier, I am a Creative Cloud subscriber, and Express is included in my subscription. There is a free version that doesn't include the stock content and a premium Adobe Express subscription for $9.99 a month. Please share any helpful information regarding subscriptions we might have missed here.
Additionally, one final shout-out on the topic of "useful information." Adobe Express features a "Share" option designed for collaboration with friends and team members. You can share a file for review, save it locally or on the web and even convert it to a Template. This is an excellent way to share formatted content with our clients and colleagues.
