Making Templates Semi-Editable and Locking Down to a Single Brand

[tonyl46208138]

Hi all,

Looking to possibly use creative cloud express to help marketing users in my org create their own social images.  I want them to only be able to access templates that I create for them to edit that use our branding, fonts, etc.  I don't want them to be able to choose any other templates while in CC express.

Does anyone know if this is possible?  Ultimately I'm looking to preserve brand consistency and "lock-down" cc express so they can only edit a certain set of templates and not choose other random un-branded templates.

Also, is it possible to create templates in which only certain areas are editable (for example they can edit text and a backgtound image but thay can't change the layout / font / colors / etc).  I know brand assets can be added but it looks like they could just decide to pick some other random template willy-nilly.

For templates, I know layers can be locked in PS etc but they could just go in and unlock the layers if they want.

Has anyone out there used CC express for this type of purpose within your org?

Thanks!

[Amitej S]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to us.

I'd like to inform you that with the Creative Cloud Express, the Brand feature, you can include specific colours, fonts or logos as per your requirements. You may also use them to create specific brand-related templates for your user group.

NOTE: Creative cloud express features remain the same for every individual using it; one cannot define or limit its usage for other individuals. 

However,  you can post your suggestion here to get more eyes.

As this release is just the beginning, we welcome your feedback in building this new app together!

Regards,

Amitej

[defaultfdqrwhcm2206]

So you're saying, as my organization looks into templating systems, Adobe is not an option because you have not created a true competitor for Canva (enterprise) and Lucidpress? Both of those allow an organization to create templates which contain locked elements for non-designers to populate while retaining control over brand identity. This is absolutely necessary and an oversight that will cost you the business of longstanding current customers.

[careymerc]

I agree – I'm shocked that Adobe doesn't have this feature. Our organization has been using LucidPress for 5-6 years now. It's fine for what we're using it for but would like to move to Spark/Express one day as it would be easier to integrate adobe stock, etc. But, as you pointed out, it doesn't have the lock feature (which is mind-blowing). We have about 40 active users in LucidPress for creating and localizing social posts, globally. We can't be the only organization that is willing to move to Adobe once that feature exists. That's ludicrus that it's missing such a vital part of the program.

[ls_rbls]

See my recent answer in this topic:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/adobe-express-discussions/pin-lock-elements-layers-in-creative-cloud-...

You can create a layered background, and you can arrange the ordering of how you wish to keep those layers.

You can save that work as a template,  and save that template as a static background that others can add to it without altering the orginal content.

I learned this the hard way trying to send some art work to a print shop to do some printed t-shirt logos.

Long story short, the trick is not to group all the layers in your design.

Doing any alterations to the layered elements while they are grouped will not respect transparency effects and have to be manually readjusted every time.

So save it as an image.

I learned from my experience with that print shop that, when the print technician received my original work, they opened the file in Photoshop and the ordering of my layers was not respected in Photoshop... but worst, the technician didn't have any knowledge of how to ungroup the layers in Photoshop to begin with.

So, again, save your CC Express work as a high resolution image.

See example below, showing editable text on top of a pinned/locked background:

 

[TCurtis91]

Set brand style controls on templates (adobe.com)
This might help but I agree, a more intuitive lockdown UI needs to be considered.

[ls_rbls]

@TCurtis91 ,

Thank you for updating the thread.

[ryana87]

Say the presentation at the adobe keunote this morning about adobe express and can't believe we can't lock down templates. Would be great if it were more like canva