Adobe Express at MAX 2023: The Next Step for Our Open Developer Platform

Adobe Express add-ons are now out of developer beta, and we’ve added more integrations to our growing partner ecosystem.

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Adobe Tech Blog

7 min readOct 10, 2023

The Creative Cloud Developer Platform team is excited to be back at Adobe MAX, and this year we’re sharing some exciting news about Adobe Express.

As a recap, the new version of Adobe Express brings the power of Adobe’s photo, design, video, document, and generative AI tools into a new all-in-one editor. Adobe Express makes it fast, easy, and fun to design and share stand-out social media posts, video content and images, enhance PDFs to create visually stunning documents, and more.

Now we’re giving developers the opportunity to make Adobe Express even more versatile and meet users right where they’re already working. Developers can extend Adobe Express with add-ons, or add powerful Adobe Express capabilities to web apps with the Embed SDK.

Adobe Express add-ons: Now available for all developers

A few months ago, we announced the beta launch of Adobe Express add-ons for developers, which extend the functionality of Adobe Express to unlock new capabilities and more efficient customizable workflows for users.

This was the first step to opening up the Adobe Express developer platform, and we collaborated closely with members of our developer community to listen, learn, and better understand how Adobe Express is used and what you would like us to add next.

Now, we’re delighted to announce that Adobe Express add-ons are out of developer beta and as of today anyone can start building their own add-ons, without a waiting list, and submit for review and approval.

Our streamlined developer experience seamlessly integrates with Adobe Express and is fully web-based, allowing developers to use familiar web technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Spectrum to build native-feeling, dynamic user experiences for their add-ons. From development and design to debugging and distribution, you can find everything you need for your add-on journey right within Adobe Express.

The advantages of developing directly for the web are now clear: It simplifies the development process, eliminating the need for external tools or platforms, and it makes add-on updates a breeze — no more asking users to install anything new. A simple page refresh is all that’s needed to receive the latest updates.

Our first set of APIs enabled importing and exporting of content and integrating with multiple services in a variety of formats. Now add-ons can also import audio files to documents, so users can take advantage of audio clips and generate music to add to their projects. And we’ve released experimental APIs that enable more control over edits to the document, for example for presentations and data visualizations. More capabilities will be added soon.

“For years, the digital content landscape has grappled with the connection between creation and distribution processes,” said Joe Hyrkin, CEO of Issuu. “Our new Issuu add-on for Adobe Express is a revolutionary next step in providing more seamless workflows. By merging the robust design tools of Adobe Express with the publishing, hosting, and sharing capabilities of Issuu, users can elevate their content while also tracking and monetizing their efforts. Through this exciting collaboration, we’re crafting a unified process that redefines the way creators navigate the entire journey – from idea inception to global distribution – with unprecedented ease and effectiveness.”

What’s new on the Adobe Express add-ons marketplace

Our growing add-on marketplace includes storage integrations that enable users to quickly add assets straight into their Adobe Express projects and save to their favorite provider (e.g. Dropbox, OneDrive, and — new! — Google Drive and AEM Assets), add design elements such as 3D illustrations and artwork (e.g. Wannathis and UnDraw), and leverage marketing optimization and accessible design tools (e.g. Attention Insight and Color Blindness Simulator).

We’ve also added a range of brand new add-ons that enable you to preview social posts (Social Previewer), create mockups (Mockuuups.studio), make and distribute flipbooks (Issuu), and access brand style guides (Brandy — in addition to Express’ native integration with Creative Cloud Libraries), and render high-quality voiceovers with a text description with WellSaid Labs.

The latest add-ons available now in Adobe Express:

Discovering add-ons in Adobe Express

We’ve also improved the discoverability of Adobe Express add-ons by offering users two options to find new and featured add-ons: within the add-on panel in the Express editor, and as part of an add-on carousel on Express Home.

And there’s more to come. We’re working on a way for users to discover and use add-ons more contextually — so they’re presented at the right moment while they’re working.

Plus, we’re giving add-on developers a chance to showcase their add-on with a short video that we share with our Adobe Express users on YouTube and on Behance.

To get started, explore our comprehensive documentation and guides on the Adobe Express developer site, and don’t miss our How to Create Add-ons in Adobe Express series on YouTube, presented by developer advocate Hamza Habeeb.

Add powerful Adobe Express capabilities to your web app with the Embed SDK

An additional developer tool for our partner ecosystem is the Adobe Express Embed SDK, which is also available to all developers. This easy-to-integrate, customizable JavaScript library empowers developers to bring Adobe Express capabilities to their own web applications and simplifies common creative tasks wherever creators work.

As a developer, you can enjoy access to the full Adobe Express editor, unlocking thousands of templates, fonts, stock images, and videos right within your web app. You can take advantage of Adobe Firefly generative AI-powered features like Text to Image and new Generative Fill which lets you add, remove, or replace objects, people, and more in any image with just a description. These powerful features remove barriers between creative vision and a blank page by increasing the speed of work and discovery so creators can be more imaginative and productive. Or, you can pick only what your users might need via quick actions — contextual and streamlined editing tools that match the ways users might create. By integrating the Embed SDK, your users never have to leave your web app, and you gain powerful editing capabilities without custom development.

“The Adobe Express Embed SDK empowers users to create and place new or existing Adobe Express assets in Brandy,” said Ryan James, CEO of Brandy.
“Now with our new add-on, the integration will become bidirectional allowing users to quickly create a style guide from Adobe Express or place assets from Brandy into their design.”

New Adobe Express integrations made possible by the Embed SDK

At Adobe, we’re using the Embed SDK in our own applications. Express with Firefly is now also directly integrated into AEM Assets as a beta (powered by the Embed SDK), enabling teams to generate beautiful, ready-to-share content, democratizing creativity across the entire Enterprise.

Resize an image using the Adobe Express Google Chrome extension

There’s also a new Adobe Express Chrome extension, which users can use to open the Adobe Express editor right inside Google Chrome. This means they can complete quick actions like removing a background, editing images they’ve saved from the web, or creating unique new designs with generative AI, powered by Adobe Firefly, within their browser.

To get started with the Embed SDK (fully up-to-date with the latest version of Adobe Express, including mixed media export and quick actions like trim video), check out our new developer site, especially the demo which enables you to customize and test end-to-end workflows and assess whether or not the SDK meets your specific needs.

Join our growing Adobe Express developer community

Interested in learning more? Join us on these channels:

New! The Adobe Express Developer Community: We launched a brand new community page on our Adobe Express developer site with links to many resources to get started.
Discord: Chat with Adobe Express users and the Adobe team. Add-on developers receive a special role and access to a private developer channel.
Embed SDK Forum: Ask questions, get help, and read all about the Embed SDK in one place.
Adobe Developers on YouTube: Get started building your first add-on with Hamza Habeeb’s tutorial series.

Unlock creativity anywhere

The Adobe Express developer platform is evolving based on our users’ needs, and we’re working closely with the developer community to ensure you can do even more with Adobe Express.

The goal of our open approach is to extend Adobe Express’s functionality as an all-in-one creative solution and unlock new capabilities so Express users benefit from the innovation of our developer community.

We’re excited about what’s still to come, and we’ll be adding more functionality and capabilities soon.

Visit the Adobe Express developer site to learn more, and follow @adobedevs on X for news, updates, and the latest thought leadership aimed at Adobe’s developers.