What You Need to Know About Adobe's New Creative Cloud Express

Adobe's new product Creative Cloud Express provides templates for advertisements, headers, social media posts and other assets. Creative Cloud Express is easier to use than previous software--and best of all, it comes with a free version.

What Are the Benefits of Using Creative Cloud Express?

Anyone can use Creative Cloud Express even if they have no graphic design experience. For the simplest projects, you can choose a template, edit the text and save the asset. Most designers want to make a few more alterations than that, but you don't need any technical knowledge. You can replace images, change colors, add new images and select icons with just a few clicks.

Creative Cloud Express comes with a photo library that you can search through the app. No searching for royalty-free pictures online--you can add them to your image in seconds without breaking copyright laws. Everyone gets access to the photo gallery, but select images are exclusively for premium subscribers. Luckily, Adobe marks these pictures with an icon so you won't have to guess which images you have access to.

Since an increasing number of people have swapped out their laptops for smartphones, Creative Cloud Express offers a mobile version. You can design graphics anywhere--during your commute, at the office or before a last-minute presentation. If you prefer the convenience of a laptop, Creative Cloud Express comes with a web version.

How Much Does Creative Cloud Express Cost?

Creative Cloud Express comes with a free app that anyone can use. The free version offers royalty-free stock photos, thousands of templates and assets, special effects, mobile access and 2 GB of storage. If you're just starting out, use the free version to make graphics and move onto the premium version as your business grows.

When you transition to Creative Cloud Express Premium, you'll pay $9.99 a month for access to 160 million royalty-free stock photos, over 200,000 fonts, premium templates and assets, advanced editing features, PDF conversion, cloud libraries for easy sharing and 100 GB of storage. Adobe offers a three-month free trial if you want to try the features before buying a subscription.

Why Does Creative Cloud Express Stand Out?

Previous Adobe products like Photoshop offered graphic design tools, but they required technical knowledge to use. When you open Photoshop, you see an empty screen with tiny icons and drop-down boxes. If you've never used Photoshop before, you'll need to crack open a guide before you can design basic illustrations. Photoshop templates exist, but they're challenging to install and often come from outside websites.

Before Creative Cloud Express, Adobe launched Spark, which had similar templates and functionalities. However, Creative Cloud Express has a streamlined interface with modern templates and quick access to the photo library. Creative Cloud Express's simple interface makes it accessible to everyone, even people who have never designed graphics before. If you need help, Creative Cloud Express comes with video tutorials that teach you how to make illustrations.

How Do You Use Creative Cloud Express?

Creative Cloud Express offers virtually limitless opportunities. Possible uses for Creative Cloud Express include:

• Product launches, sales and promotions

• Article headers and graphics

• Digital coupons and giveaways

• Business cards

• Print advertisements and fliers

• Email newsletters

• School and work presentations

• Social media posts, graphics and icons

• Video thumbnails

• Logos

• Website graphics

• Online advertisements

• Event calendars and announcements

• Digital and social media videos

• Banners

• Book covers

Since Creative Cloud Express has premade templates for Facebook posts, Instagram posts, flyers, logos and other assets, you can design your graphics in minutes. Social media assets are pre-sized so you won't have to look up the dimensions.

Overall, Creative Cloud Express is a handy tool that makes graphic design available to everyone regardless of their experience level.