Adobe Libraries and the Working Artist

One of the coolest features in Photoshop CC 2015 is the arrival of Adobe Libraries. For the first time ever, you can now store commonly used digital assets for quick access directly from any Adobe CC 2015 app.

I use a wide assortment of digital media in my work, including fonts, textures, custom color swatches, logos and the like. In the past, I’d have to hunt for my favorites on my desktop – open the file, then select the specific image. With Adobe Libraries, these commonly accessed items can be placed in the Libraries panel in Photoshop. The big benefit to libraries comes into play if you have multiple computers running Photoshop CC 2015. Your commonly used assets can now be accessed from each of your machines.

Adding an item to the library requires dragging the layer onto the Library panel. I would suggest making different libraries to facilitate organization. I have a specific Library for textures and another for Illustrator items. Items in the library synch across Adobe’s “cloud”. You can store up to 1000 digital raster or vector assets in your Library, which is pretty generous.

To use your Library assets, simply drag them out to your desktop. The objects will be placed on your current layer.

If you have an item on your background layer in Photoshop, you will not be able to directly drag it into your Library panel. The workaround is to make a duplicate (Command-J on Mac) of your background layer and drag the contents from the new layer into the Libraries panel.

Adobe Libraries is a huge boon to my workflow. With it, I can save time and have all of my common assets accessible from both my desktop and laptop. If you’re still rocking an old version of your Adobe apps, the new Adobe Library feature makes the upgrade to CC 2015 even more compelling.

-Krishna

Krishna June 24, 2015 Adobe libraries, Adobe Photoshop CC 2015, cartooning tips, digital asset management in Photoshop