Creative Automation

Scale creative content within your app.

Run our SDK on your servers for a fully-fledged creative automation solution. Let users design on the client and generate variations on your servers.

Step by step

How to Integrate Creative Automation into Your Workflows

Step
1
Integrate our SDK with a few lines of code

Easily integrate our NodeJS SDK with your workflow, whether you use your database and backend or your favorite no-code tools and serverless backends.

Step
2
Create adaptable design templates

Say goodbye to design bottlenecks and make asset-creation accessible to anyone.

Create smart templates on the client and generate infinite variations on the server with 100% consistent rendering.

The server output will always match the client eliminating the need of manual QA or risk of false designs.

Step
3
Define constraints and variables

Text variables, placeholders and lockable designs make it easy to define modifiable content while ensuring staying on-brand.

Step
4
Automate asset creation

Empower your users to create on-brand content variations for multi-channel print or digital output in minutes.

Whether review or product visualizations – display ads for different channels or social media banners.

Use easily adaptable templating to generate creative assets at scale dynamically.

Step
5
Enable mass-personalization

Connect template to a data source and generate countless personalized assets within seconds.

The engine will automatically adjust font sizes and spacing to ensure all files are ready for publishing or printing.

Everything you need

Key Capabilities

Extensive features to serve any use case and enable a smooth and enjoyable creation process.

Templating

Design Templates

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Web
Mobile

Create role based design templates to jumpstart users’ creativity.

Text Variables

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Web
Mobile

Enable mass personalization and creative automation by embedding variables.

Placeholders & Lockable Designs

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Web
Mobile

Constrain templates to guide your users’ design and ensure brand consistency.

Configurable Presets

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Web
Mobile

Enforce a consistent aesthetic across all creations by using preset filters, adjustments, fonts, and crop ratios.

Editing

Transform

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Web
Mobile

Crop, flip, and rotate with ease. Preset crop ratios to common formats.

Trim

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Web
Mobile

Set the start and end time of videos.

Filters

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Web
Mobile

Over 60 state-of-the-art filters allow users to control the style and mood of their creations.

Adjustments

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Web
Mobile

Fine-tune designs with an exhaustive set of adjustment operations such as brightness and contrast.

Effect & Blur

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Web
Mobile

Add a unique mood to designs with effects & blur.

Element Snapping

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Mobile

Snap stickers and text to control points for more precise placements.

Blend Modes & Grouping

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Web
Mobile

Define the blending behavior and grouping.

Undo & Redo

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Web
Mobile

Allow users to undo and redo all editing operations.

Printing

Cutout Lines

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Web
Mobile

Create and customize cutout shapes for web-to-print.

CMYK/ Spot color support

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Web
Mobile

Integrate CMYK and Pantone color spaces, customized color libraries, including your brand's colors.

Composition

Timeline

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Web
Mobile

Arrange videos and elements on a timeline.

Asset Libraries

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Mobile

Add custom assets for filters, stickers, overlays and frames.

Split

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Web
Mobile

Split video into multiple clips.

Merge Video

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Pick, edit and merge several video clips into a single visual sequence.

Video Collage

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Mobile

Arrange multiple videos on a single page for immersive video collages.

Timed Elements

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Web
Mobile

Add a dynamic elements such as stickers and set their duration on the timeline.

Overlay Audio

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Web
Mobile

Add audio files to videos and set the mood through music or narration.

Customizability

Build Custom UIs

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Web
Mobile

Use the headless API powering all creative operations to implement an entirely custom UI.

Theming

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Mobile

Change the editor theme to fit seamlessly with your app.

Media Libraries

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Mobile

Set up custom libraries that are easily sortable.

Toolbar Customization

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Mobile

Reposition toolbar elements, change icons, or rename tools to fit your use case.

Internationalization

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Add support for additional languages, and customize any button label.

Export Options

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Export designs in JPG, PNG, or PDF with custom quality, page ranges, and dimensions.

And there’s more

Check Out Other Use Cases

Learn more about related solutions.

More from IMG.LY

IMG.LY for Brands & Agencies

Automate design processes and generate on-brand marketing materials with ease.

IMG.LY for Marketing Tech

Scale and automate any creative workflow.

Camera SDK

Make in-app recording easy with our Camera SDK.

Photo Editor SDK

Bring beautiful photo editing to your applications.

Creative Editor SDK

Empower your users with an easy-to-use design editor.

IMG.LY for Social Media

Unleash your users' creativity & leverage user generated content.

IMG.LY for DAM

Empower users to create, collaborate , and automate design tasks in your app.

Video Editor SDK

Powerful video editor for your iOS, Android, and web applications.

More to discover

Explore Our Showcases

See how IMG.LY looks and feels.
Check out our
showcases

What Our Clients Say About Us

IMG.LY’s solution engineers did a deep dive on our business case and helped us implement a custom print kiosk UI

André Albrecht
Digital Solution Manager
 @ 
Brother

Our customers create over a million personalized postcards each year choosing from over hundreds of templates with IMG.LY’s SDK. It’s the only solution that allows us to build our own specialized, on-brand UI that integrates seamlessly with our platform.

Jeanine Zaalberg
Product Manager
 @ 
Swiss Post

Our app has photo-editing at the very core of its experience and the editor has been invaluable in making that vision happen. There are no other tools on the market up to the quality of PE.SDK.

Toby Green
Lead Developer
 @ 
Elbi

Ready to Connect?

Reach out to our sales team or start a free trial.

FAQs

What is the difference between creative automation and variable data printing?

Creative automation refers to the general process of programmatically creating or editing designs, all aspects of a design are subject to change whether colors, fonts or element position. In addition a data source can be used to update dynamic elements of the design.
Variable data printing refers specifically to using data to create variations of a specific design template. The designs thus created are then further processed in a down-stream printing workflow producing physical prints.

Can I implement roles and permissions using the SDK?

While there is no functionality included with the editor that allows implementing roles and permissions you can use any backend technology or framework to control access to the editor. Furthermore our SDK features are extendible allowing for hooks where permissions can be checked and the editor behavior customized accordingly.

Can we integrate our own assets (Sticker, Frames, Overlays)?

Yes, absolutely! Please refer to our documentation for more information on that topic.

Can I decide on which features to implement?

Yes, you have full control over which features you decide to use. You can configure the toolbar on mobile and on web you can interface with the API directly to build the exact feature you need.

Which platforms/ frameworks are supported?

Our IMG.LY SDK is suitable for web and mobile (Android & iOS). Supported frameworks are React-Native, Flutter, Ionic, and Cordova for mobile and React, Angular, Svelte and Vue.js for web. For more information, please visit our Guides.

Can I import existing designs files into the SDK?

You can always import individual elements as PNG, JPG or SVG, we are currently working on importers for PDF and the most common design file formats.

Which export file formats for print do you support?

All CreativeEditor SDK scenes can be exported in PNG, JPEG, TGA, BIN, and PDF. See the export guide in the documentation for more information on exporting scenes.

Can I enable/ disable a function by default?

Yes, you have full control over the Editor’s UI and functionality. You can also take full control over the editing process with smart templates, lockable designs and placeholders.

Do you offer integration support?

Yes, apart from accessing our complete CreativeEngine documentation you can also contact our support team. We offer different levels of support based on your license type.
To explore your use case and potential solutions with us simply get in touch.

Which frameworks do you support for building custom UIs?

You can use any Javascript framework to implement a custom UI on top of our headless CreativeEngine API. You can find dedicated getting started guides for React, Vue, Angular and Svelte in our documentation.

Which server-side technologies do you support?

You can run the CreativeEngine in a Node.js environment and deploy it on any platform with Node.js support. See this guide on how to deploy on AWS for reference.

Can I try your Editors to see how it works?

Yes, we offer a free trial for all our products. You can get your free trial right now.

Can my users edit their photos using IMG.LY SDKs when they are offline?

As the editor works client-side, a permanent internet connection isn't necessary for the editor to run properly. Once the device reconnects, available updates can be installed and the export tracking will be communicated. However, if you require the SDK to work in a purely offline environment please contact our sales team to request an offline license.

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