Adobe launches Creative Cloud Express, a new app that simplifies its powerful editing tools

Adobe knows there's a bigger audience of creators out there than full-on professionals, so it's launching a new app that attempts to open up some of its more powerful tools to amateurs. The app, called Creative Cloud Express, offers basic versions of image and video editing tools, allowing users to work with layers, AI effects, and a vast font library, all with a simplified interface that provides easy-to-use features. Makes it easy.

“Many people are in need of something simpler and more accessible, and these customers are increasingly content-first and more focused on results,” Scott Belsky, Adobe's chief product officer, told The Verge. Creative Cloud Express is designed so that new users don't have to endure the "learning curve" of Adobe's more capable tools like Photoshop and can quickly create something that looks great.

The app seems to have been designed for social media managers, small business owners, and anyone else who has something to promote but isn't a pro at graphic design.

When starting it up, you'll be able to choose from pre-designed templates created for different purposes: a flyer, a Facebook post, an Instagram story, a YouTube thumbnail, a restaurant menu, a book cover, and so on. Like. Once you have chosen a template, you will be able to adjust all the features within it. In a short demo video sent to The Verge, an Adobe product manager demonstrated how you can adjust text, import new assets from Adobe's stock image library, and add animation. One particularly clever feature automatically removes the background from a stock image, leaving the image focused only on its subject.

The app is free to start, but additional features — such as access to Adobe Stock images — are available for a $9.99 per month subscription (they're also included for existing customers of several Creative Cloud plans). It launched today and is available on iOS, Android and the web.

Belsky sees this launch as a step toward creating accessible versions of all of Adobe's most powerful tools. “I hope I can tell my teams… everything you do is wonderful for After Effects or Premiere Pro,” Belsky says, “Find a lightweight and accessible version of this that is accessible to everyone. Be accessible and start providing innovation that anyone can access, unlike only creative professionals.”