Get Funding to Build Adobe Express Add-Ons
Discover what features Adobe Express users request the most, and get your creative idea backed by the Adobe Fund for Design.
At Adobe, we’re passionate about creativity — especially yours — and we know that together we can make amazing things. It’s our mission to empower everyone to express themselves creatively and to build experiences that transform the lives of millions of creatives around the world. That’s why we established the Adobe Fund for Design.
By investing in and encouraging innovative ideas that show commitment to enhancing the workflows of the creative community, we make our users more productive and happier. When we first launched the Adobe Fund for Design back in 2018, it was to support teams who were building products and services that helped shape the future of creativity and design through integrations with Creative Cloud.
Since then we have backed hundreds of projects to bring new community-built tools to our users that seamlessly integrate with our apps and improve everyday workflows with extended functionalities. Many of them went on to become household names (e.g. Omata, Attention Insight, ThreeDee, and Brandy to name but a few), and are used by creatives everywhere.
The creativity, dedication, and perseverance of the teams we have supported through the Adobe Fund for Design has been truly inspiring. Now it’s time to start a new chapter.
Empowering Adobe Express innovators with the Adobe Fund for Design
We have reopened the Adobe Fund for Design, and this time it’s entirely focused on supporting talented individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses who are pushing the boundaries of building on the Adobe Express platform and helping to grow our thriving developer ecosystem.
The fund not only provides financial resources as grants, but also time with Adobe, early access to technology, and partnership and marketing opportunities. Fund recipients, in turn, are uniquely positioned to support our vision to give Adobe Express users everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences.
“The Adobe Fund for Design enabled us to bring AI Animation to Adobe Express. As a small startup, the fund’s support was very meaningful in bringing our product to a larger audience through Adobe Express,” said Jhanvi S, CEO of Krikey AI. “The Krikey AI Adobe Express add-on enables the creation of AI Animated, talking 3D Avatars which can be used in lesson plans, social media posts, digital invitations and more.” Krikey AI can be accessed as an Adobe Express add-on here.
So if you’re interested in building an add-on for Adobe Express (also known as a plugin, extension, or integration in other products) within the next 1–2 months, and have an idea that will help the creative community, then this is your chance to get it funded und unlock the creativity of millions of Adobe Express users.
Let’s dive into the creative ideas that are most likely to be successful:
What we’re looking for right now
For the first round of submissions, the Adobe Fund for Design currently prioritizes the below use cases:
Import images
Import bitmap images either from a browsable library or through generating assets from user input in your add-on. Keep in mind that Adobe Express users are interested in a wide variety of styles of illustrations, photos, backgrounds, icons, and other flat-image assets.
Export designs for email
Adobe Express is popular among marketing teams who want to add expressivity to their email campaigns, but they need help completing their workflow. So support them by enabling them to export designs for use in email communication (e.g. in a newsletter, an ad, or an event invitation), for example by converting their design to HTML.
Optimize designs with AI suggestions
Adobe Express is also often used for social media campaigns, and users want a way to optimize their designs to better reach and resonate with their audience. Consider creating an add-on that analyzes an Adobe Express page or document and provides feedback on how to improve the design (e.g. by suggesting font pairings, color combinations, or layout changes).
Improve accessibility
Adobe Express users need help checking color contrast, readability, and other elements of their design for compliance with standard web accessibility guidelines. Your add-on could analyze an Adobe Express page or document and provide feedback to the user to make their design more accessible.
The Fund also welcomes other add-on ideas and will update this list of priority use cases approximately every two months.
7 more ideas for much requested Adobe Express add-ons
Adobe Express is our all-in-one AI content creation app, and it’s used by a wide variety of users from marketers and influencers to small business owners and educators. Popular use cases for Adobe Express add-ons therefore also include the following capabilities:
- Grammar and spell check
- Advanced find and replace text functionality, for example using AI to refine the wording or to ensure it aligns with the brand language
- Import text from copy management, customer reviews, and other platforms
- Generate content for games or fun activities (e.g. bingo cards, connect the dots, crossword)
- Create advanced charts and infographics (e.g. timelines or stacked charts)
- Apply image/video effects to imported assets
- Generate educational content like presentation tools or lesson plans for students
Adobe Express users want to take advantage of add-ons that will add a unique touch to their designs and help them in their day-to-day workflow. For inspiration and to ensure you don’t build something that already exists, browse the add-ons that are currently available on the Behance add-on showcase.
Also make sure you explore what kind of add-ons you can build with the various APIs that we offer, including script-based ones such as the OAuth, clientStorage, and currentUser APIs, as well as our set of Adobe Express Document APIs.
Apply to the Adobe Fund for Design today
Anyone can apply to the fund, including individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. You don’t need to identify as a developer (in fact, we think tech savvy designers can also build add-ons!), and you can even apply if you hire a developer or collaborate as a team. There’s no deadline for submissions but as grants are awarded on a first come, first serve basis, please get your application in ASAP.
To apply, fill out the application with as much detail as possible to convey your add-on idea. We don’t require a detailed technical explanation, but your idea must be technically feasible for Adobe Express. For tips on how to build a great add-on, check out the documentation.
