Happy Birthday, Adobe Bridge: One of Adobe’s Most Essential Products Turns 15

In “product years,” 15 is a big number. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce that Adobe Bridge, our powerful creative asset manager for organizing, editing, and publishing multiple creative assets quickly and easily, is celebrating its 15th birthday. The product, and its user base, have grown considerably over this time, but what has never changed is our commitment to creatives – to provide the best solution to accelerate your asset management workflows.

And, just like any milestone birthday, we’ve received some great birthday greetings too! Read on to hear from a few of our favorite users from around the world, on what Bridge has meant for their creative workflows, and learn about a few milestones in Bridge’s development along the way.

“During my 14 years leading photography at Scripps Networks (the parent company of HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network), Bridge was (and continues to be) the daily go-to tool for all things photo management. Bridge’s native feature to access images at their source was crucial because we worked across shared enterprise servers.” – Crystal Martin, digital asset manager, project manager, and photographer.

Creating Adobe Bridge: Overcoming challenges to harmonize creative asset management

“Has it been 15 years already,” reflects Seetha Narayanan. Seetha is one of Adobe’s principal scientists, and has worked on Bridge since the beginning. The seeds for Bridge were first sewn in 2002, when the “File Browser” was created for Photoshop 7.0. Bridge, as we know it, truly came into its own though in Photoshop CS. Seetha says users were clamoring for an asset manager, similar to what they could find in Premiere and Illustrator, and Adobe’s move to a “suite” of products made it crucial to provide a consistent experience.

“Many users would have a more complicated work life if it wasn’t for Bridge. Bridge is a bit like coffee, once you start drinking it, you are hooked.” – Mai Enevoldsen, IT marketing analyst at BESTSELLER

But the development of what would later be called Bridge was anything but easy. “We had to ship a cross-platform product from start to finish in 18 months. We had to form the teams (across business units, no less), define features, implement them, test them, and get them certified within that time span,” says Seetha. After overcoming many initial hurdles, the team came out victorious.

“I thought what we achieved in Bridge 1.0 was nothing short of phenomenal. We implemented support for virtual file systems, shipped a feature called ‘Adobe Stock Photos,’ made Bridge 1.0 fully scriptable, added support for PDFs and video formats among others.”

“Bridge allows us to quickly make selects and organize and transfer assets between users in bulk. What’s more, we feel heard and respected by the Bridge team as, when we raise an issue or offer a suggestion, they are quick to offer help and guidance.” – Tighe K. McGillivray, creative operations manager at Smashbox Cosmetics (Estée Lauder)

The continued success of Bridge is a source of joy and inspiration for many of its designers and developers, despite the challenges they’ve faced along the way. It “holds a special place” in the heart of Seetha, who also recognizes the work of his colleagues Betty Leong and Steve Guilliahmet in making the 1.0 release happen. “I am glad we have worked hard and keep this product alive.”

“I use Bridge all day every day. Bridge has been the hub of my workflow since it was launched.” – Peter Moloney, PM Photography

Since its initial release, 15 years ago, Bridge has grown into a highly performant, scalable product that forms the backbone of many creative and design teams’ workflows. Bridge now works seamlessly with other products in Creative Cloud, thanks to its integration via Creative Cloud Libraries.

Learn how Adobe Bridge can help you optimize your digital assets workflow.