Learn how you can create, share and collaborate, use, and update a corporate style guide using Creative Cloud Libraries for enterprise.
The Library can be created right in your creative application of choice by using the Libraries panel. To create a library, do the following:
Open the Libraries panel:
Select Create New Library in the Libraries panel menu.
Give the Library a name and click Create. Next, you can populate the Library with design components.
Creative Cloud Libraries provide a mechanism to capture design elements from various apps: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, XD, and more. You’re not limited to desktop applications. You can capture inspiration, whenever it strikes, using mobile apps such as Adobe Capture, or download assets from Adobe Stock.
This example uses Illustrator.
Select some artwork in Illustrator, then click the Add Content button [+] and select Graphic to add the artwork to the Library as a graphic.
You can also drag artwork from an Illustrator page into a Library, but clicking the Add Content button [+] provides more control over which properties of the artwork are added to the Library.
Right-click the asset name and choose Rename to change the name to something meaningful.
You can greatly simplify and standardize color communication across your teams by adding swatch colors to a Library. Brand guidelines often specify RGB, CMYK, HEX, and spot color versions of each color. You can either create multiple libraries, one for each color space, or create a single library and organize the colors by groups.
This example uses Illustrator.
Select an object that has a color fill or stroke in Illustrator, then click the Add Content button [+] and select Fill Color or Stroke Color to add the color to the Library.
Hover over the color, and you’ll see the CYMK or RGB value of the color displayed. The color is added to the Library as a CMYK color if it is added from a CMYK document, as an RGB color if it is added from an RGB document, or as a spot color if the added color is a spot color. You can also right-click on a color swatch to add a Note. It can be helpful to provide context for when a certain color should be used.
Standardizing typographic styles is important for maintaining brand compliance. Using paragraph and character styles in your layouts reduces clicks and increases productivity. Illustrator and InDesign support paragraph styles in Libraries, while Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and XD all support character styles in Libraries.
This example uses InDesign.
Select some text in a document, then click the Add Content button. Select Character Style or Paragraph Style to add the text style to the Library.
Right-click the asset name and choose Rename to change the name to something meaningful.
If your document contains named Paragraph Styles or Character Styles in the Paragraph Styles or Character Styles panels, you can add these styles to a Library by selecting one or more styles in the panel and clicking the Add to Library button at the bottom of the panel.
Once assets are saved in Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries, you can reuse them in your designs—in the same file, another project, or another app—without worrying that you’ll grab the wrong versions.
To add a graphic asset to your project, you can drag it directly from the Library onto your Illustrator artboard, Photoshop canvas, or InDesign layout, or into projects in other Creative Cloud applications.
To apply colors, text styles, layer styles, and certain other types of assets, select the object, text, or other item to which you want to apply the asset, and click the thumbnail of the asset in the Libraries panel.
This example uses Photoshop.
In an existing or new Photoshop document, drag a graphic from the Libraries panel onto the canvas. Adjust the transform handles to scale the item, then click the Commit button or press Enter.
Click the icon for a color that you’ve stored in your Library. The color is applied as the current foreground color in Photoshop.
You can invite other Creative Cloud users within or outside your organization to collaborate on individual Libraries you create. Each collaborator that you invite can be given either Can Edit or Can View permission.
When you provide Can Edit permission to a Library, collaborators can use, modify, rename, move, and delete Library content. Can View permission (aka read-only) allows recipients to view and use assets, but not modify the assets or the Library itself.
A Library with Can View access ensures that other collaborators can't change or delete your creative assets stored in Creative Cloud, while still making those assets available for use by your team.
Choose Invite people from the Libraries panel menu.
Your default browser is launched. Type one or more email addresses of your collaborators. After each address that you type, choose Can View or Can Edit, and then click Invite.
Contact your IT Admin if you see the following error while sharing links or inviting collaborators:
"Enterprise Sharing Restrictions Enabled. This user can’t be invited because your organization has enabled sharing restrictions. Learn more."
The potential collaborators receive an email invite. They must click through the email to accept the invitation (or respond to a notification they receive through the Creative Cloud desktop app). Once they have done so, the Library you have shared, along with all of its assets, appears in their Libraries panel.
Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign all have the unique ability to use assets from a Library as either linked or copied (unlinked) assets. It’s important to understand the difference.
Linked assets remain associated with the original asset in the Library. When the original asset is changed or updated, all collaborators receive an alert that the graphic is out of date and they can choose to update it. On accepting the change, all instances of its use in Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign documents are automatically updated.
Copied, or unlinked assets, do not change in the Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign documents where they have been used when the original Library item is changed.
This example uses Photoshop.
In an existing or new Photoshop document, right-click on a graphic asset in a Library and select Place Linked.
A cloud icon appears on the layer in the Layers panel which indicates that the asset is linked to a Library. When a collaborator edits the Library asset, the asset updates in this document.
Right-click on another graphic asset in a Library and select Place Copy.
The Smart Object icon appears on the layer in the Layers panel, which indicates that the asset is embedded in the Photoshop document as a smart object. The asset is not linked to a Library, and will not update in the document if the Library asset is changed.
A collaborator with Can View privileges to a shared Library, places an Illustrator graphic from the Library into an InDesign layout as a linked asset.
You have Can Edit privileges to the same shared library and can change the color of the Library asset used. To edit the asset, double click the asset in the Library. The graphic opens in Illustrator, where you can change the color.
Saves your changes in Illustrator and close the file. The Library item is updated on your local drive and synced to Creative Cloud and to all the collaborators.
The collaborators receive an alert that the graphic is out of date. In the alert, they can choose to accept the changed asset or deny, in which case their asset remains unchanged.
If they accept the change, the revised Library item is updated in their Libraries panel.
