SDK – IMG.LY Blog

Comparing the 8 Best Design Editor SDKs: Which is the Right Choice for You?

Vatsala — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 13:28:10 GMT

Choosing the right design editor SDK can define how your product handles content creation. The wrong choice may limit your growth, while the right one can unlock scalable workflows, better user experience, and faster time to market.

We’ll look at their strengths, limitations, and best-fit scenarios, and explain why IMG.LY stands out as the best cross-platform design editor SDK for enterprises.

Updated September 2026.

1. IMG.LY CreativeEditor SDK (CE.SDK)

CE.SDK is built for companies that need more than just basic image or video filters. It’s designed as an enterprise-grade editing platform covering both creative UI for end users and backend automation workflows. It supports photo, video, and template-based editing, so it can adapt as your product’s creative demands grow.

Features & capabilities: With CE.SDK you get multi-layer editing, template systems you can feed dynamic content into, packaged AI tools like background removal or generative design, and a plugin ecosystem that extends the editor and brings your own AI models to iOS, Android, Flutter and React Native.
Platforms & customization: CE.SDK runs on Web, iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Node.js, Electron, macOS and Mac Catalyst. This means whether you’re building a mobile app, a desktop dashboard, or a hybrid setup, the editor behaves consistently. On the customization side, everything is fully white-label. You can theme the UI, adapt workflows, and build custom plugins. It’s designed so your users feel like they’re interacting with your brand, not a third-party tool.
Implementation: Implementation is designed to scale. You can get going quickly with default editors, then ramp up to more custom UX as needed. Because CE.SDK handles both the frontend editing tools and has engine APIs for automation (e.g., templating, rendering), teams don’t need to piece together separate tools for UI and backend workflows.
Use cases: Some of the use cases include: E-commerce personalization, allowing customers to design or customize products, packaging, or visuals. For MarTech platforms, you can create campaign graphics, video ads, and templates. It’s also perfect for social platforms, Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems, and SaaS apps that want rich media editing.
Future‑proofing, support & pricing: IMG.LY ships frequent releases with cross‑platform parity and a clear AI roadmap. Support includes enterprise service-level agreements, onboarding support, and assistance for scaling. Pricing is custom, based on enterprise licensing. That means you pay for what you need.
Who it’s for: CE.SDK is ideal for organizations that need high customization and a white-label editor across platforms. Or companies that want both interactive user editing and automated creative workflows.

Key differentiator

CE.SDK sets itself apart by combining an interactive editor UX with a powerful automation stack in one SDK. It also brings AI features and cross‑platform coverage, making it the benchmark for enterprise‑grade design editing. If your company is expected to scale, CE.SDK will scale with you. And it’s perfect if you care about brand consistency, UX polish, and want to avoid “bolting on” tools later.

Explore our case studies to see how companies in e‑commerce, MarTech, and SaaS have already adopted CE.SDK to scale their creative workflows.

2. Canva Connect API

Canva Connect API (Canva Developers SDK) brings Canva’s editor and templates into other apps. It provides an integration layer that allows third-party platforms to hand users off to Canva’s design environment without investing in building a native editor from scratch. This makes it an appealing choice for teams who want to add familiar design tools quickly, but it also means that the editing experience remains tied to Canva’s infrastructure and branding.

Features & capabilities: With Canva Connect, your users get Canva’s large library of templates and assets, plus Canva’s editing tools and export options. This often means access to well-designed template content, background assets, and photo editing tools.
Platforms & customization: It’s primarily a web-based API, and the actual editing experience is tied to the Canva ecosystem and branding. While this allows stability and ease of maintenance, it reduces the ability for organizations to adapt the editor to their own branding or workflows.
Implementation & use cases: Implementation is relatively simple: connect via API and redirect users to Canva’s editor. It’s beneficial for SaaS apps that want to allow users to design graphics without building an editor from scratch.
Future-proofing, support & pricing: The API is tied to Canva’s roadmap, so the feature availability depends on how Canva evolves. Support is offered via documentation and community. Pricing for Connect API integrations is not documented, and private integrations require a Canva Enterprise plan.
Who it’s for: Canva Connect API is most suitable for teams that want to provide template‑driven design capabilities with minimal development effort. It works well for organizations that are comfortable adopting Canva’s ecosystem and can accept the trade‑offs in branding and customization.

How it compares to IMG.LY

Compared to IMG.LY, Canva Connect provides significantly less control. With IMG.LY, you gain access to a fully white-label solution that allows you to theme and brand the interface, deploy across multiple platforms, and integrate advanced AI tools.

Canva Connect offers speed and convenience, but at the cost of design ownership, UI flexibility, and long-term control. For organizations prioritizing consistent user experience, platform coverage, and automation, IMG.LY remains the stronger choice.

Read more about how IMG.LY is a great alternative to Canva Connect here.

3. Placid Editor SDK

The Placid Editor allows you to embed a customizable editing experience of your templates directly into your application. Its primary strength lies in enabling organizations to deliver consistent, template-driven content creation without requiring significant development resources. By restricting edits to predefined fields and layouts it helps maintain brand integrity while still giving end users the flexibility to customize outputs.

Features & capabilities: Placid provides a curated template system. You define branded templates and control which elements are editable. Users create consistent assets without risking layout integrity. Exports cover common image formats and simple video formats, and Placid’s REST API also generates PDFs from templates.
Platforms & customization: Placid runs on the Web (JavaScript SDK), with native iOS and Android SDKs that generate images from templates on-device. Customization centers on template configuration rather than deep UI theming or plugins. The tool is less about deep custom UI themes or plugins and more about giving non-designers safe, branded content creation workflows.
Implementation & use cases: This SDK offers easy integration via CDN, and the setup tends to be fast. Some of the common use cases include marketing automation tools, campaign content creation, branded content platforms where consistency matters, and cases where development bandwidth is limited but design control is important.
Future‑Proofing, support & pricing: Placid’s roadmap is largely centered on enhancing template management, expanding export options, and simplifying collaboration. Support is vendor‑driven and through documentation. Pricing follows a subscription model, usually linked to template volumes or usage tiers.
Who it’s for: Teams who need branded, template-driven editing, but don’t need advanced customization or deep video timelines. Placid is good for smaller teams, marketing departments, content creators, or SaaS tools focused on content campaigns rather than video editors.

How it compares to IMG.LY

To summarize, Placid is simpler and lighter. If you just need templates, safe editing, and minimal dev effort, Placid could get you up and running fast.

But compared to IMG.LY, you lose: broader platform coverage, full white-label UI control, advanced video editing capability, deep automation, and AI features. If you expect your editing requirements to grow over time, IMG.LY gives more headroom to do so.

4. Design Huddle

Design Huddle is an embeddable, white-label editor SDK equipped with automation features. It intends to deliver the capabilities of a Canva‑style editor, but within an organization’s own environment and with greater control over content workflows and branding.

Features & capabilities: Design Huddle offers template editing, asset libraries and management, and dynamic content insertion (for example, personalize templates with user or data inputs). Fully automated media creation via API is one of its three deployment models, alongside a turnkey SaaS product and the embeddable editors.
Platforms & customization: It is web-based, using JavaScript and iframe embedding. The tool offers themeable UI, configurable workflows, and ability to white-label so end users see your brand. There may be limitations in deeper customization compared to a plugin-based system.
Implementation & use cases: You embed the editor into your app or site (often via iframe or JS widget), configure which template sets/assets are available, define edit permissions, then let users create content within this controlled environment. These features are great for MarTech platforms, product personalization workflows, and branded content creation.
Future‑proofing, support & pricing: Design Huddle maintains an enterprise‑focused roadmap. Vendor support is available to assist with integration, onboarding, and ongoing operations, ensuring that large organizations can adopt the editor with confidence. Pricing typically follows an enterprise licensing model, reflecting its positioning toward organizations with higher demands.
Who it’s for: Companies that require a white‑label Canva‑style editor but do not want to invest in building a solution from the ground up. It is best suited for organizations that prioritize branded content workflows, product personalization, and marketing automation use cases, where ease of deployment and controlled editing environments are more important than extensive customization or cross‑platform reach.

How it compares to IMG.LY

Design Huddle and IMG.LY overlap quite a bit for use cases like branded content, template workflows, and marketing automation.

Design Huddle also covers video, along with print and presentation formats, and ships packaged AI design tools of its own. IMG.LY extends its offering with native mobile SDKs, plugin extensibility, and a deeper automation stack. This combination makes it better suited for organizations that need to manage complex, multi‑platform deployments while maintaining consistent user experiences and future‑ready capabilities.

5. Polotno

Polotno is a JavaScript SDK for embedding a white-label, Canva-style image and video editor into your product. It pairs the canvas editor with a programmatic API for generating designs from templates and data, so the same tool covers interactive editing and batch output.

Features & capabilities: Polotno provides a drag-and-drop canvas editor, image and video editing, and a template system. Every design is stored as an open JSON document that you can export, modify, and re-import programmatically. Export covers PNG, JPEG, PDF (including CMYK and bleed for print), PPTX, MP4, GIF, SVG, and HTML.
Platforms & customization: Polotno is web-based and ships as React components rather than a single fixed editor, which gives you control over layout at the cost of assembling it yourself. The UI is fully customizable, and a source code license is available on the enterprise tier. There are no native mobile SDKs.
Implementation & use cases: Rendering runs client-side, self-hosted through Node.js, or through Polotno’s cloud render API, so you can decide where design data goes. Polotno reports use across SaaS products, web-to-print, e-commerce, digital asset management, and marketing platforms.
Future‑proofing, support & pricing: Polotno is actively developed and publishes a public changelog. Licensing is commercial rather than open source, with no free tier for production use. Pricing follows published subscription tiers.
Who it’s for: Teams building a Canva-style editor into a web product who want print-ready output and are comfortable assembling React components, and who do not need native mobile.

How it compares to IMG.LY

Polotno is the closest comparison on this list to CE.SDK, since both are white-label embeddable design editors with template automation and print-ready export. The differences are platform reach and how much you assemble: CE.SDK ships native SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter alongside web, and provides a complete editor out of the box, where Polotno is web-only and expects you to compose its components. If your product is browser-only, that gap costs you nothing.

Read our full comparison of IMG.LY and Polotno for more detail.

6. DesignCombo SDK

DesignCombo is a set of React packages for building browser‑based video and graphic editors. Its core, animation and transition packages build on Remotion, while its design editor is built on fabric.js. It is aimed at teams that want detailed control over a browser editor and are willing to assemble it themselves.

The project looks dormant. Its GitHub organization holds five repositories, none with a commit since April 2025, and designcombo.dev resolves but serves no site, returning a disabled-deployment error. The npm packages were published more recently, the most recent being @designcombo/video in January 2026. Licensing is uneven rather than absent: @designcombo/react-draggable declares MIT, while @designcombo/timeline ships a DesignCombo Commercial License carrying subscription terms and a no-redistribution clause.

Features & capabilities: DesignCombo includes timeline editing, visual effects, and filters. Since it is component‑driven, development teams can assemble the editor experience in a highly tailored way, adding or removing features to suit their product requirements.
Platforms & customization: The SDK is built around Web (React). This provides a high degree of customization but also requires more engineering effort to create a cohesive user experience. Unlike pre‑packaged editors, DesignCombo expects development teams to invest time in shaping the interface and workflows to match their needs.
Implementation & use cases: Implementation generally demands skilled React developers who can integrate the SDK’s components effectively. It is well-suited to SaaS tools where video timelines and browser performance are central. Common applications include online video‑creation platforms, social video editing tools, and advertising solutions that need precise control over video assets.
Future‑proofing, support & pricing: There is no published roadmap, the website serves no content, and licensing is mixed, with a proprietary commercial license on several packages, which matters if you intend to ship commercially. The Remotion‑based packages also inherit Remotion’s terms, which require a paid company license for for‑profit organizations above three employees.
Who it’s for: DesignCombo suits teams comfortable with developer‑heavy builds who want full control over a browser video editor and can accept the maintenance risk of a project whose most recent publish was January 2026.

How it compares to IMG.LY

DesignCombo performs strongly for web‑based video timelines. On the other hand, IMG.LY provides a broader solution, covering images, video, templates, and automation with support for native mobile and desktop platforms. This reduces the need for organizations to maintain separate technology stacks as they expand their creative workflows.

7. Creatomate

Creatomate is an API‑first solution with a strong focus on automation. Its Preview SDK renders an interactive preview of a template inside your own web app rather than a full embedded, in‑app editor, and the finished images and videos are generated from templates and structured data through the API. This makes it well-suited for platforms that prioritize large‑scale, programmatic asset creation over interactive editing.

Features & capabilities: Creatomate excels at dynamic rendering. It supports text overlays, data‑driven compositions, and bulk generation, making it effective for producing marketing visuals, personalized campaigns, and video variations at scale.
Platforms & customization: Because it is API‑based, Creatomate can be integrated with almost any environment: web, mobile, or server. Its Preview SDK gives you an interactive preview of a template inside a web app, which is a narrower surface than a complete in‑app editor UX. Customization is handled within the templates and the payloads you define. This gives developers strong control over output, but it also limits end‑user flexibility inside applications.
Implementation & use cases: Creatomate offers simple REST integration. You define templates, supply data, and retrieve rendered media files. It is commonly used for automated marketing videos, social content production at scale, and personalized campaigns where assets need to be generated automatically.
Future‑proofing, support & pricing: The roadmap emphasizes improvements focused on automation. Support is vendor‑led, with documentation designed to help developers set up workflows efficiently. Pricing follows a usage‑based model, aligning costs with the volume of rendered assets.
Who it’s for: Creatomate is best suited for teams whose workflows are automation‑first and whose users need a preview of a template rather than a full editor. It is valuable for businesses building large‑scale personalization engines, content factories, or data‑driven marketing systems.

How it compares to IMG.LY

Creatomate is strong for backend rendering and bulk content generation. IMG.LY extends beyond this by combining a front‑end editing experience with automation and AI. This allows organizations to support both interactive content creation for end users and programmatic asset generation within a single stack.

Read our detailed comparison of IMG.LY and Creatomate for more information.

8. Rendley

Rendley is a video automation platform. The same engine is available three ways: as a browser SDK you embed, as a REST API, and as an MCP server that connects an AI client such as Claude or ChatGPT to a working editor. The SDK renders client‑side in the browser, and Rendley also documents server-side rendering with headless Chromium.

Features & capabilities: Rendley covers video editing and generation, with an editing agent that cuts, captions, reframes and renders from a prompt plus your footage. A prebuilt editor UI ships on top of the SDK and can be embedded or taken as source, so the timeline is available to your end users rather than only to your backend.
Platforms & customization: Rendley is browser‑based, with the SDK embedded in your own web application. Because the SDK renders on the device by default, there is no per‑render fee and user files do not need to be uploaded. Native mobile SDKs are not part of the offering.
Implementation & use cases: You can embed the SDK, call the REST API from your backend, or drive the editor from an MCP client. Typical use cases include browser video editors inside SaaS products, automated video generation from prompts and footage, and AI‑driven editing workflows.
Future‑proofing, support & pricing: Rendley follows a developer‑first roadmap as a SaaS platform. The focus is on improving automation performance and scalability. Support is available from the vendor for developers, and the SDK is priced by team size with no per-render fee, while the API and MCP server are credit-metered.
Who it’s for: Rendley suits teams building browser‑based video editing into a product, particularly those who want an AI editing agent alongside a manual timeline, and who are comfortable with a web‑only footprint.

How it compares to IMG.LY

Rendley and IMG.LY overlap on embedded browser video editing, and both pair an editor with automation. The differences are scope and reach: Rendley is video‑focused and web‑only, while IMG.LY covers photo, video and design in one engine with native SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter, plus server‑side rendering. For teams whose editing lives only in the browser and only in video, that gap may not matter.

Read more about IMG.LY vs Rendley here to make the right choice.

Overview Table

Here’s a quick overview of the tools we’ve discussed.

Tool	Type	Embeddable editor	Platforms	Automation	Licensing	Best for
IMG.LY CE.SDK	Embeddable editor SDK	Yes, full editor	Web, iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Node.js, Electron, macOS, Mac Catalyst	Server-side rendering and engine APIs	Custom enterprise license	Cross-platform interactive editing plus automation
Canva Connect API	Integration API	Redirect out to Canva’s editor	Any environment via REST	Through the API	Not documented	Fast template access, accepting Canva branding
Placid	Template editor SDK	Yes, scoped to templates	Web, plus native iOS and Android SDKs	Template rendering	Subscription	Branded template workflows with low dev effort
Design Huddle	White-label editor platform	Yes	Web	Yes, including a fully automated model	Enterprise licensing	Canva-style editing across digital, print, video and slides
Polotno	Embeddable editor SDK	Yes, as React components	Web	Client-side, self-hosted or cloud render	Commercial subscription	Canva-style web editor with print-ready export
DesignCombo	React packages	You assemble it	Web (React)	No	Mixed, several proprietary	Developer-heavy browser editors, but the project looks dormant
Creatomate	Media automation API	Preview SDK, interactive mode	Any environment via REST	Yes, this is the product	Usage-based, free trial available	Bulk programmatic generation from data
Rendley	Video SDK, API and MCP server	Yes, prebuilt UI on the SDK	Web	Editing agent and REST API	Per team on the SDK, metered API	Browser video editing with an AI editing agent

Canva Connect hands users off to Canva’s editor rather than giving you your own, Creatomate’s editing is a preview-level interactive mode rather than a full editor, and DesignCombo gives you parts to build one from. Everything else hands you an editor you can brand.

Selecting the best fit: Why IMG.LY stands out

Choosing a design editor SDK or API starts with a clear view of what your teams’ priorities are. Here’s a quick summary to help you choose.

Canva API, Placid, Design Huddle, Polotno: These tools are great for teams wanting Canva-like workflows at different levels of control.
DesignCombo, Creatomate, Rendley: Ideal for teams focused on video-first web editors, or on automation-first pipelines where the editing surface can be a template preview rather than a full editor.

But if you want an interactive editor with automation, cross‑platform coverage, and enterprise support, IMG.LY CreativeEditor SDK is the most complete option.

Beyond offering a polished, white‑label editor, our tool provides a plugin ecosystem, native SDKs for web and mobile, and a strong roadmap for AI features that ensure long‑term relevance. Our enterprise‑grade support model with SLAs and onboarding engineers also makes IMG.LY a reliable choice for organizations with complex requirements.

FAQ

What is the difference between an embeddable editor SDK and a creative automation API? An embeddable editor SDK puts an interface in front of your users, who make the design decisions. A creative automation API takes templates and data and returns finished assets with nobody involved. Creatomate sits mainly in the second group. IMG.LY, Placid, Polotno, Design Huddle and Rendley cover both, which is why they suit products that need users editing and a backend generating. Placid’s editor is the narrowest of those: it is scoped to the template fields you mark editable.

Can you white-label Canva? Not through Canva Connect. The API brings Canva’s editor and template library into your app, but the editing experience stays inside Canva’s environment and branding. If the requirement is an editor that looks like your product, you need a white-label SDK such as IMG.LY, Design Huddle or Polotno instead.

Which design editor SDKs work on native iOS and Android? Of the tools compared here, IMG.LY CE.SDK and Placid ship native iOS and Android SDKs, and CE.SDK alone adds React Native and Flutter. Placid’s mobile SDKs generate images from templates on-device; they are not an interactive editor. Design Huddle, Polotno, DesignCombo and Rendley are web-based, and Canva Connect and Creatomate are REST APIs you call from any environment, so none of those six ships a native mobile SDK. If your product ships a mobile app, that decides the question.

Are any of these design editor SDKs open source? Almost none. Creatomate’s Preview SDK ships under MIT, but Polotno and Rendley carry commercial licenses, and several DesignCombo packages ship a proprietary commercial license of their own. Polotno sells source access on its enterprise tier and Rendley sells the source of its prebuilt editor UI, neither under an open source license. Several DesignCombo packages also build on Remotion, which requires a paid company license for for-profit organizations above three employees. If open source is the requirement, this is the wrong category to shop in.

Which design editor SDKs support print-ready output? IMG.LY CE.SDK and Polotno both export print-ready PDF with CMYK and bleed, which is what a print workflow needs. On CE.SDK, bleed and margins are a web capability today. The automation-first tools produce standard image and video output rather than press-ready files.

Can any of these be driven by an AI assistant? Rendley ships an MCP server, which connects a client such as Claude or ChatGPT to a working video editor, and Canva publishes an MCP offering as well. IMG.LY offers CoDesign, an MCP server that gives an AI client a real design engine and returns editable design files and print-ready PDFs rather than flat images. CE.SDK itself exposes automation through engine APIs and a plugin system that accepts the model of your choice.

We already empowered over 600 innovative startups, government entities, and Fortune 500 companies to streamline their design, video, and photo editing workflows. Get in touch, to see how we can do the same for you.

SDK vs. White Label: Consider These Differences When You Choose a Solution

Klaudia — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 11:53:36 GMT

Enhancing your product with new features and capabilities often brings up a critical question: Should you choose a white-label solution or opt for the flexibility of an SDK? While white-label tools offer simplicity and speed, modern SDKs can combine the ease of integration with the ability to customize and deeply integrate into your product. CE.SDK covers both sides of that trade-off: a white-label editor SDK you can theme, rebrand, and run on your own domain.

In this guide, we’ll break down the benefits and limitations of both options, showing you how they can address different use cases. Whether you’re looking for a solution to launch quickly or a platform that empowers you to create a highly tailored experience, this post will help you make the right choice for your business.

If you’re also considering a fully custom build, be sure to check out our Build vs. Buy Guide for additional insights.

Updated September 2026.

What is an SDK?

A Software Development Kit (SDK) is an extensive toolkit that enables developers to create applications within their own development environment.

It offers a complete package of tools, libraries, and documentation, making it highly customizable to suit specific use cases and easily blend with a brand’s identity. SDKs equip developers with the core components needed to build, enhance, and tailor applications across multiple platforms, including web, mobile, server, cloud, and desktop.

Key Features of an SDK

Flexibility: SDKs provide an option to create a solution that best matches your business needs and branding. Unlike white-label, SDKs can be fully customizable, allowing you to tailor features and capabilities to seamlessly integrate with your use case.
Deep Integration: SDKs typically come with APIs that allow for integration with other software, enabling you to connect with third-party services and facilitate the creation of not one solution but a comprehensive workflow.
Technical control: While the integration and maintenance require the involvement of developers, SDKs come with greater control over the integrated tech that’s not available with white-label solutions. Developers can determine the extensibility of the solution and shape it to fit specific needs.

Many types of SDKs can enhance applications and workflows. If you would like to learn more about a design SDK, have a look at our extensive guide on what a design editor SDK is, its benefits, components, and types. For the mechanics of putting one inside your product, see our embeddable editor capability page.

What is a White-Label Solution?

While SDK needs to be built with the provided tools, the white-label solution is an off-the-shelf and ready-to-use product that can be quickly rebranded and marketed. It allows businesses to get to market faster by utilizing a ready-made platform, eliminating the need for internal development from scratch.

Key features of a White-label solution

Speed to market: White-label solutions are deployment-ready allowing businesses to launch their product quickly, bypassing the lengthy development process. This is especially useful when time is crucial and you need to deploy a solution as soon as possible.
Limited customization: While white-label often offers some degree of customization, like the ability to rebrand or make small adjustments, businesses are mostly constrained to the provided features. This is a considerable limitation if you need unique functionalities or extensive personalization.
Automatic updates: White-label is a low-maintenance solution, with updates being carried out automatically and not requiring a development team to maintain it, a factor especially important to businesses with limited development resources.
Extensibility challenges: White-label solutions often lack the robust APIs or extensibility frameworks found in SDKs, making it difficult to implement complex integrations or custom features.

Which Solution is Right for Your Business?

Choosing between white-label and SDK depends on your use case, here are some of the points to consider:

Choose an SDK if

You have unique requirements
SDKs are the go-to choice for companies building applications with unique needs. By leveraging SDK’s extensive tools and libraries, developers can create use case-specific functionalities that deliver a tailored user experience.
You need full customization
If your app requires specific features or user experience, SDKs provide the flexibility needed for complete customization and create a truly unique application tailored to their needs.
You want to create a seamless workflow
SDKs allow for deeper control over integrations, enabling the addition of APIs, and plugins, creating full workflows, and giving you the tools to create a unique solution.
You have technical resources
An SDK is ideal for businesses that have an in-house development team or the ability to hire technical talent.

Choose a White-label solution if

You need a fast launch
If speed to market is a priority, white-label solutions offer pre-built features that can be quickly deployed with minimal development. This is ideal for businesses aiming to establish a swift market presence.
You are working with a tight budget
White-label products are generally more affordable, making them a good option for startups or businesses looking to minimize development costs, reduce initial costs, and avoid the resource demands of building a product from scratch.
You don’t need a tailored solution
As an out-of-the-box solution, white-label is a good fit for companies looking for a standard or generic use case that doesn’t require deep customization or seamless integration with the rest of the application.
You want to focus on marketing and sales
Companies with limited access to developers can benefit from white-label solutions, as these don’t require much technical involvement. You can dedicate more time and resources to customer acquisition and retention rather than technical development, allowing you a more strategic focus on market growth and sales efforts.

IMG.LY: Your Partner in Both White-Label and SDK Solutions

At IMG.LY, we understand that every business has unique needs for enhancing their applications with creative tools, hence, we try to combine the best of both worlds by providing both pre-configured, turn-key solutions while also giving you the opportunity to customize and extend the SDK flexibly. Whether you’re looking for a plug-and-play option with a white-label solution or the ability to build highly customized creative experiences through an SDK, IMG.LY empowers your application with world-class design, video, and photo editing tools that scale with your business.

Ready to discover more about our products? Test our demos or learn more about our plugin system.

Core Functionalities of IMG.LY Products

Cross-platform compatibility: Our technology runs on the web (JavaScript, React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, Next.js), on mobile (iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter), on the desktop (macOS, Mac Catalyst, Electron), and server-side through Node.js, ensuring your users enjoy a smooth editing experience on every client platform, with most capabilities shared across platforms. Moreover, with the server-client processing, users can edit on mobile or web and you can run automation workflows on the server.
Regular updates and feature development: We constantly update our solution to stay compatible with the latest operating systems and the fast-paced design editing industry. This guarantees that your application is secure, up-to-date with the latest technology, and performing at its best.
One solution, multiple use cases: Our creative engine is a powerhouse that can enable a variety of applications, from automating and scaling design and video creation for social media, marketing, and print to templating and jumpstarting users’ design, the UI can be adapted to match a specific use case perfectly.
Developer-friendly documentation: Our documentation includes clear, detailed examples, API references, and tutorials, making it easy for developers to start integrating and customizing right away. For white-label users, we provide guides that outline the steps for rapid implementation.
Extensibility: We built our products for extensibility and modification, making sure our customers don’t need to rely on our roadmap. With our Plugin API, you can implement custom editor functionality such as background removal, or the vectorizer on the web, giving you the autonomy to create a fully custom solution.
Technical support and assistance: Both white-label and SDK clients have access to our support and solutions team who can assist with integration, answer questions, and provide recommendations to help you make the most of our tools. Our team can also assist you in designing custom solutions that align perfectly with your goals.

Customization and Flexibility

Built for developers, our SDKs allow you to create an entirely customized design and editing experience that goes beyond standard white-label features.

Customizable UI: The SDK comes with a fully customizable UI, providing options for adaptation of existing components or creating an interface from scratch. With adjustable theming, styling, and translation, businesses can create a UI that perfectly matches their unique use case and becomes a native part of their brand.
Advanced editing features: Our products come with extensive features and capabilities, ranging from simple photo editing tools to extensive workflow automation. You have full control of which ones you want to integrate and how advanced or simple you want the design process to be.
Plugins and third-party integrations: Outside of the core design, video, and photo editing features, our SDK is designed to seamlessly blend with other software ecosystems to create complex workflows, with both our own plugins and external APIs. Explore our plugins.

White-Label solution: Quick and Seamless Integration

Designed for simplicity and speed, our white-label solutions make it easy to integrate professional-grade editing features into your application with minimal developer setup needed.

Ready-to-deploy editor suite: Our white-label editor comes pre-built with UIs for design, photo, and video editing, allowing you to integrate a professional-grade editor with just a few lines of code. Explore our demos to find the UI that best matches your use case.
Brand customization: You can easily customize the appearance of the editor to align with your brand’s identity. Change colors and configure default settings to create a cohesive user experience that looks and feels like a native part of your application. Our white-label editor page covers what that involves, from theming the UI to running the editor on your own domain.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a startup aiming to launch quickly or an established brand looking to create a unique user experience, IMG.LY offers flexible, powerful solutions that can be tailored to fit your use case. Our white-label options provide a straightforward way to integrate editing capabilities, while our SDK offers the flexibility and depth needed to build a fully customized creative experience.

From rapid deployment to complete customization, IMG.LY provides the tools, support, and scalability to help your business excel. Start with a free trial or contact our sales team for personalized guidance.

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FAQ

What is the difference between an SDK and a white-label solution? A white-label product is finished software you rebrand and deploy. An SDK is a toolkit your developers build with. The white-label route trades customization for speed, and the SDK route trades setup time for control over features, integrations and the user experience.

Is a white-label editor cheaper than an SDK? Usually it costs less to start, because there is little development work involved. The comparison changes over a longer horizon. If the off-the-shelf product cannot do something your business needs, the workaround costs and the switching costs belong in the calculation alongside the license fee.

Can one product be both an SDK and a white-label solution? Yes, and that is how CE.SDK is built. It ships with a prebuilt editor UI you can rebrand and deploy quickly, and the same product exposes APIs and a plugin system when you need to change how the editor behaves. You are not required to choose one path at the start.

Do I need developers to use a white-label editor? Far fewer than an SDK integration requires, though rarely none. Embedding the editor, authenticating it and connecting it to your asset storage are engineering tasks. What you avoid is building the editing interface and maintaining it as platforms and browsers change.

Can I remove the vendor’s branding from the editor? That is what white-labeling means, and CE.SDK supports it. You can theme the interface to your own design system, remove IMG.LY branding, and run the editor on your own domain so it reads as part of your product.

When should I build a creative editor from scratch instead? When the editing experience is the product itself and no existing engine matches what you need. For most teams the editor supports the product, and the maintenance burden of a rendering engine, a format pipeline and cross-browser behavior outweighs the control gained.

Plugins Part 2: Custom Panels

Jan — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 12:53:27 GMT

In Part 1 of our series, we introduced a plugin system for customizing UI elements and quick actions within the CreativeEditor SDK.

Now, in Part 2, we’re introducing Customizable Panels, a new feature that gives developers even more control over the editor. These panels can handle tasks like guiding users through complex workflows, interacting with external APIs or gathering detailed user input, allowing for anything from simple tweaks to fully custom workflows.

Let’s take a quick look at where panel plugins fit within the CE.SDK Web UI. To dive in instead, consult the documentation or explore one of the examples below.

Extension Points in the UI

Before customizing the UI, it’s important to understand the user experience that makes the editor intuitive for creating and editing designs. Below are the key areas of the editor UI where your plugins can be integrated:

The quick actions we introduced in part one are used to implement simple one-click actions to edit canvas elements, primarily inside the inspector bar and canvas menus. This release opens up the panel as additional UI element to facilitate more involved features requiring UI interactions beyond a simple click.

New Possibilities with Panels

Panels serve as customizable UI elements that provide plenty of room for your plugin’s unique requirements. Here’s how developers can utilize them:

Guide Users Through Workflows
Implement panels to assist users in navigating workflows or controlling specific plugin settings, tailoring the editor experience to meet individual needs.

Complex Interaction with External AI or Services
While it’s possible to connect to third-party service using quick actions, some use cases require more user interaction. To support these cases you can now create panel UIs that connect with third-party APIs to gather data or trigger processes, such as AI-driven design tools or content generation.

Collect Detailed User Input
Use panels to collect more complex input from users, such as advanced export options, template customization, theming or batching design adjustments.

These new capabilities round out our goal of empowering developers to shape CE.SDK themselves, tailoring the user experience to fit perfectly with their particular use case.

Example Plugins

To demonstrate the potential of panels, we’ve developed three example plugins that showcase different approaches to extending the CreativeEditor SDK’s functionality.

Plugins can be grouped into two categories:

Functionality-Enhancing Plugins: These integrate external services, assets, or custom code. For example, the QR embed plugin adds a feature by interacting with a third-party API.

Custom Editor Behavior Plugins: These plugins interact directly with the CE.SDK Engine API, enhancing the SDK’s existing functionality by introducing new modes of interaction or extending the user interface.

QR Code Embed Plugin

The first category of plugins is exemplified by this QR plugin, which add the ability to embed a QR code directly in the canvas. The plugin interacts with a third-party QR code generator API and displays a panel where users can enter a URL and customize the color of the QR code.

The next two examples illustrate plugins from the second category, which interface with the Engine API to enhance CE.SDK functionality:

Export Options Panel

This showcase provides a reference implementation for a panel that allows users to configure export options including export formats and file types, such as PNG, JPEG, or PDF, which pages to export and at what quality and resolution. A corresponding showcase is also available for video scenes, allowing users to control resolution and quality of the exported video file.

Template Adaptation UI

In this example, we add a panel that collects user input via a form, which is then used to dynamically adapt a design template. Users can input text, select colors, or upload images, and the template is modified based on these choices. This demonstrates how panels can streamline workflows, making it easier for users to customize templates to fit their specific needs.

Outlook

With the release of panels, we are advancing our mission to empower developers to fully customize and extend the CreativeEditor SDK. These new features for creating sophisticated, interactive plugins will unlock exciting opportunities for innovation, whether integrating external services, designing dynamic user interfaces, or automating complex workflows.

We encourage you to explore the power of panels in your own projects. Visit our plugin documentation to get started, and let us know what you’re building! As always, we’re here to support your journey in redefining creative editing.

Stay tuned for more updates, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need assistance.

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CE.SDK v1.7.0 Release and Roadmap

Malte — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 12:07:47 GMT

Today, we are thrilled to highlight the best new features and changes in CE.SDK since our v1.6.0 Release. We have also published our Product Roadmap for CE.SDK to share our vision and direction for upcoming releases. This roadmap will let you know ahead of time what features you can expect from us and accelerate your product planning and development. We are excited to hear your feedback and suggestions to build more powerful features for your application!

CE.SDK v1.7.0

This release includes:

Auto Close Option in Web UI Configuration for Asset Libraries
Custom URI Resolver
Improving Mobile Touch Support
Rotation of Groups and Hierarchies
Custom Asset Source UI
Disconnecting UI Variants from Roles
Asset Source ApplyAsset API
Blur API
Effects API
Image Fills API
Image Straighten API
Improved Group Selection and API
Scopes API
Shadows API
Zoom API

Auto Close Option in Web UI Configuration for Asset Libraries

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions for the behavior of asset library panels after an action was triggered. It depends on the use case and might vary between the panels and the available screen space. Thus, this is now configurable.

Custom URI Resolver

Custom URI Resolvers give you full control over how URIs should be resolved. You can create custom storage backends and even resolve different resolution images in different instances. Find more information in our documentation.

Improving Mobile Touch Support

Input handling was streamlined to handle both touch and mouse input efficiently. On touch devices, all handles maintain the recommended minimum size for touch input and are intelligently hidden to minimize overlap. Thanks to this mechanism, resizing and rotating are always a breeze.

Rotation of Groups and Hierarchies

The engine and user interface add options for rotating groups and design blocks with children. This allows changing the rotation of multiple elements at once quickly.

Custom Asset Source UI

Instead of fixed entry points such as “Images,” “Stickers,” or “Shapes,” we want to enable custom and flexible entry points. Until today, we tied them to a block type, which is currently only relevant when users add an asset to the scene.

Moving from Roles to Abilities: Disconnecting UI Variants from Roles

Before the change, the Advanced UI was tied to the creator role and the Default UI was tied to the Adopter Role. This is now no longer the case. The scopes and editing options are still controlled by the abilities of the current role.

Shadows in Advanced UI

With this update, we roll out the long-awaited ability to apply shadows to elements in our Advanced UI. Realistic drop shadow effects add more depth to your designs with a few clicks – no other editor is needed.

Blur API

We introduce new APIs to modify the blur for images and other blocks. This change allows programmatic access to add blur effects in automation cases and when building your own UI.

Effects API

We introduce new APIs to modify the effect stack for shapes and other blocks. This allows programmatic access to effects like adjustments, LUT filters, and many more.

Image Fills API

Currently, you can only access and use images with the image block. However, pages or vector shapes could use more than just a color or gradient fill. Therefore, we broaden the concept of fills by allowing every block to have an image fill, e.g., pages. This change will enable building a more natural photo- or video-editor experience. Documentation.

Image Straighten API

We are extending the Image Crop API to allow straightening, flipping, and rotating images during cropping. This change allows more fine-grained control.

Improved Group Selection and API

There are multiple options to select blocks inside a group:

selecting a group first and with each click select one block deeper in the hierarchy
selecting an element under the cursor directly, neglecting the hierarchy

Previously, we defaulted to different behaviors depending on the user’s role. Now, this is configurable and also customizable during runtime via APIs. Therefore, it’s up to the implementor how the selection should work.

Scopes API

We introduce new APIs to modify the scopes for blocks. This update allows programmatic access to change the scopes for users and allows control over the possible edits a user can make to a scene.

Shadows API

We introduce new APIs to modify shadows for images and other blocks. This change allows programmatic access to add shadow effects to be used in automation cases and when you build your UI.

Zoom API

We introduce new APIs to modify the current zoom level. This allows programmatic access to change the current zoom easily for automation use-cases or for building your own user interface.

Product Roadmap

As mentioned before, we are happy to publish our Product Roadmap to let you in on our new features and enhancements for CE.SDK. This way, we can elaborate our decisions and plans for the product and how you can benefit while allowing you to give us feedback and indicate the importance of particular features.
Now that you know what’s coming down the pike, you can prepare for the release of significant improvements and new features such as Video Support for Web or Native iOS Support well in advance.

Make it pop - introducing Animated and Smart Stickers

Michael K. — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 18:31:18 GMT

Our latest release: brand-new sticker types for iOS and Android

We are always on the lookout to improve our editor tools to engage users to be creative and add beautifully designed content.

Our latest release for both mobile PhotoEditor SDK and VideoEditor SDK takes our stickers to the next level: With animated and smart stickers, we added popular features best known from apps like Instagram and TikTok – making editing more dynamic, expressive, and engaging. You can now capture your favorite moments by adding more context to your photos and videos. Maybe you finally landed that kickflip on a warm Monday morning, so you add the date and weather information. You can now also add your animated logo.

Our animated stickers not only provide you with a set of premade assets that come with the latest version of the editor but also let you integrate your custom ones tailored to your company and brand.

Smart Stickers on the other hand open up a whole range of new possibilities, visualizing dynamic information like weather data, location, or dates. Like our text design feature, it’s the ease of use that makes these stickers special – simply cycle through different variations with a tap.

Take a look at all updates and assets on our Mobile SDK page.

PS: Do you have feedback or suggestions for new smart stickers you want to see from us? Let us know in our Quick-Survey. We’re happy to hear from you!

Announcing PhotoEditor SDK HTML5–v 5.0

Priyanka — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 12:00:00 GMT

Meet PhotoEditor SDK 5.0

Last year we decided to meticulously rebuild the PhotoEditor SDK HTML5 from stem to stem. There’s a saying that great software is constantly evolving for the better. PhotoEditor SDK 5 does just that, it is now **smaller**, **faster and easily** **maintainable.**

Rethinking UI Design for a Better User Experience

The User Interface (UI) of the PhotoEditor SDK is visually and conceptually revised taking specific usability and platform guidelines into account. This has resulted in an even more consistent and intuitive UI than before.

In the course of refactoring, we have standardized the UI structure and arrangement of the individual tools. The UI controls are now displayed according to their context to create a minimalist, clear, and appealing overall image. Find more information on the design improvements here.

Let’s talk metrics

The average TTI (Time to interactive) changed from 96.8s to 5.5s

That makes it “fast enough” on mobile networks

These massive speed gains were mainly enabled by our major rewrite and re-architecting of the codebase. Since it has been untouched for years, we have now reconstructed it completely focusing on performance and scalability.

Configurations and Customizations

UI is now supercharged with even more customization options.

Layouts

We will be supporting two UIs as before, but we are now moving away from the terminology Desktop UI and React UI. Instead, they are now called Advanced UI and Basic UI, sharing one and the same code base.

Themes

Light theme was one of the most sought out features for the PhotoEditor SDK HTML5. The UI can now be integrated even better into existing systems, thus transitioning seamlessly from the PhotoEditor UI to the rest of the UI. End users are offered an improved holistic experience. With the major version, dark and light themes are supported by default. Moreover, themes can be customized on three levels colors, typography, and shape. More on that here.

Component Customization

This has to be the most exciting feature for the major release. You could simply provide a React Component in the configuration and it will be rendered instead of PhotoEditor SDK HTML5 built-in Component. This can help you transform the UI to match the design style of your application. More on that here.

And More

This is just the tip of the iceberg. This release includes numerous user experience and performance improvements. Moreover, PhotoEditor SDK supports differential serving i.e., we **serve** different bundles to different browsers, and provides typings.

Deprecations and Breaking Changes

If you’ve read the post up until to this point, you should be able to notice that there will be breaking changes. Although we have tried to minimize the number of breaking changes and make it backward compatible as much as possible, we believe that some breaking changes in the configuration will be required.

Hitherto we supported two rendering engines for PhotoEditor SDK UI i.e., WebGL and Canvas. Considering browser support we will here-forth be supporting only WebGL.

You can find out more about the release, try out some demos, check our migration guide, or simply get started here.

We’re looking forward to exploring the new capabilities the PhotoEditor SDK V5 starts to unravel, and we’re excited to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in UI libraries and sharing it with you.

Ask us anything here.

PS: Yes, most of the images used in the blog post are edited using the PhotoEditor SDK, #That’sSoMeta

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Why our SDK is not Photoshop or Lego.

Magnus — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 23:00:00 GMT

PhotoEditor SDK (Software Development Kit) or more general white-label editor solution might sound like big words. And of course, we’d love to tell you that we are a jack of all trades. However, while our standard is to provide you with the most sophisticated editor solution possible, there are challenges to be faced on that path. Now, while I’d be more than happy to talk about all the reasons in favor of using our SDKs, I’m convinced you’ll get the clearest image of whether PhotoEditor SDK is the right solution for you when I tell you what we can’t do. So, let’s jump right in.

We are no Photoshop

First of all, it has to be said that image editing is a quite flexible concept. It relates to everything that alters the appearance or content of an image. From applying a black & white filter and adding text to make your Instagram-stories more epic, over cutting out undesired aspects of an image like an ex-boyfriend or altering ratios up to the point where the image does not display what was originally captured, for sure, some Tinder profile pictures.

Now, tools like Photoshop are built for professionals to edit images and polish them in hours of detail work. In other words: it’s an extremely powerful solution you can do ANYTHING with. And while this is its main appeal, its complexity is also why non-designers who don’t want to spend a lot of time learning how to use it, simply don’t.

However, that isn’t to say that these users don’t have a need to edit images for different purposes. This is where we come into play, making image editing and design accessible for everyone at the tap of a finger. While our PhotoEditor SDK doesn’t do everything, it delivers the set of tools your users really need and want to see in your app (no matter if it’s a social network, a printing service or a marketing tool) at a very high quality.

We are no Lego either

I guess many of us remember the joy of playing with Lego when we were little toddlers. No matter how crazy the idea, we put it together brick by brick eventually ending up with a quite colorful but yet solid plane, car or spaceship, thanks to Lego’s incredible modularity.

Can you approach using PhotoEditor SDK in the same way? No.
Is that a bad thing? No, again, actually quite the opposite. While freedom of design is often viewed as one of the greatest goods to strive for, it adds tons of complexity when building applications. However, right at the top of the must-have list is a smooth and intuitive UX. Hence, not every part of the editor can just be re-attached to any other place within it. Our designers created a well thought out UI that makes operating the editor simple and enjoyable.

You can think of it as a Lego building instruction. Sure, you could try to assemble that recently bought Lego product without it, by trial and error. However, as you didn’t purchase just a handful of randomly selected bricks, I’m convinced you’d love to successfully complete that flashy Millennium Falcon to proudly place it somewhere in your living room. Therefore, following the steps of the enclosed booklet is similar to editing your way through our well thought out UI.

Also, back then Lego seemed compatible with almost every other toy we owned, or at least, we didn’t mind mixing them up. However, when it comes to coding, not every brick attaches to any other brick per default. For instance, there used to be only rudimentary demos for the integration of our SDKs with a handful of frameworks available. Thus, making the standard integration as explained in our docs the best way for the implementation. That is, until now.

With our React Native wrapper, we have released the first in a row of framework integrations for PhotoEditor SDK. Feel free to check it out here. In addition, you should read the corresponding blog article my colleague, Alex, published a few days ago. The good news: our development team doesn’t stop there and will add more wrappers during the coming months. So, stay tuned.

If you’re interested in implementing the editor into your app or website using a framework, you should let us know which framework you’re interested in.

So, what exactly can you expect from us?

In essence: an editor solution that provides you with…

**·** a well-balanced feature selection serving a wide variety of use cases,

**·** a degree of customizability ensuring that no one will ever notice that your editor is a third-party library, and

**·** ongoing maintenance and support at an easy to calculate price over time.

To sum things up, ideally, you already know what you expect from a third-party editor solution. So, instead of telling you that we are the best choice for your use-case, I’d like you to be the judge of that.

We are happy to discuss any and every question you might have. Also, as qualitative feedback is always appreciated, we’d love to talk to you. Don’t hesitate to reach out.

Until then, cheers and keep it up
Magnus

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SDK – IMG.LY Blog

Comparing the 8 Best Design Editor SDKs: Which is the Right Choice for You?

1. IMG.LY CreativeEditor SDK (CE.SDK)

Key differentiator

2. Canva Connect API

How it compares to IMG.LY

3. Placid Editor SDK

How it compares to IMG.LY

4. Design Huddle

How it compares to IMG.LY

5. Polotno

How it compares to IMG.LY

6. DesignCombo SDK

How it compares to IMG.LY

7. Creatomate

How it compares to IMG.LY

8. Rendley

How it compares to IMG.LY

Overview Table

Selecting the best fit: Why IMG.LY stands out

FAQ

SDK vs. White Label: Consider These Differences When You Choose a Solution

What is an SDK?

Key Features of an SDK

What is a White-Label Solution?

Key features of a White-label solution

Which Solution is Right for Your Business?

Choose an SDK if

Choose a White-label solution if

IMG.LY: Your Partner in Both White-Label and SDK Solutions

Core Functionalities of IMG.LY Products

Customization and Flexibility

White-Label solution: Quick and Seamless Integration

Conclusion

FAQ

Plugins Part 2: Custom Panels

Extension Points in the UI

New Possibilities with Panels

Example Plugins

QR Code Embed Plugin

Export Options Panel

Template Adaptation UI

Outlook

CE.SDK v1.7.0 Release and Roadmap

CE.SDK v1.7.0

Auto Close Option in Web UI Configuration for Asset Libraries

Custom URI Resolver

Improving Mobile Touch Support

Rotation of Groups and Hierarchies

Custom Asset Source UI

Moving from Roles to Abilities: Disconnecting UI Variants from Roles

Shadows in Advanced UI

Blur API

Effects API

Image Fills API

Image Straighten API

Improved Group Selection and API

Scopes API

Shadows API

Zoom API

Product Roadmap

Thanks for reading! Let us know what you think on Twitter! To stay in the loop, subscribe to our Newsletter.

Make it pop - introducing Animated and Smart Stickers

Announcing PhotoEditor SDK HTML5–v 5.0

Meet PhotoEditor SDK 5.0

Rethinking UI Design for a Better User Experience

Let’s talk metrics

Configurations and Customizations

Layouts

Themes

Component Customization

And More

Deprecations and Breaking Changes

Why our SDK is not Photoshop or Lego.

We are no Photoshop

We are no Lego either

So, what exactly can you expect from us?