Adobe Bridge is a free digital asset management app made by Adobe Inc. and first released with Adobe Creative Suite 2. It is a mandatory component of Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe eLearning Suite, Adobe Technical Communication Suite and Adobe Photoshop CS2[3] through CS6. Starting with Creative Cloud, however, it has become an optional component downloaded via Creative Cloud subscription.

Adobe Bridge
Developer(s)Adobe Inc.
Initial releaseApril 4, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-04-04)
Stable release
CC 2024 (14.0) / September 13, 2023; 14 months ago (2023-09-13)[1]
Operating system
Platformx64, ARM64
TypeDigital asset management
LicenseFreeware
Websiteadobe.com/products/bridge.html

Details

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Adobe Bridge is often used to organize files by renaming a group of them at once, assigning colored labels or star ratings assigned to files from the respective Adobe software suite, edit embedded or associated XMP and IPTC Information Interchange Model metadata, or sort or categorize them based on their metadata. It can use these options through different versions of a file that is part of an Adobe Version Cue project. However, it lacks the photo editing functions of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which are carried out by the Camera Raw plugin, coming with Adobe Photoshop. Image files can be shown in different sized thumbnails, slide shows or lists. Each folder, which can be bookmarked, has a cache file for speeding up rendering time of images when viewing a thumbnail. The cache can be in one central location or in individual folders.[4]

Adobe Bridge can be invoked from within all components of Creative Suite except Adobe Acrobat.[5]

Coupled with Adobe Photoshop, Bridge can execute Photoshop's compatible automation plug-ins, scripts and Adobe Camera Raw filters on a group of images. A plugin for Photoshop called Mini Bridge adds a small file browser to Photoshop, although Mini Bridge can be used only if Adobe Bridge is running in the background.

Adobe Bridge is customizable using JavaScript.[6] The Bridge scripting guide is available online as well as in paperback format.

Adobe Bridge initially allowed for access to Adobe Stock Photos, an online collection of stock photography images drawn from well-known stock photo houses.[7] The service was discontinued on April 1, 2008[8] and reactivated in 2015 by the Fotolia microstock-site acquisition.

Currently, the minimum system requirements are Windows 10 (version 22H2) or MacOS 12 Monterey.[2]

Version history

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Developer Date Icon Version Major features added
Adobe April 2005 CS2 (1.0) First version of Bridge, included with Creative Suite 2

and Creative Suite Production Studio.

March 2007
 
CS3 (2.0) New Filter panel, customisable workspace, image stacking,

and more.

September 2008
 
CS4 (3.0)
April 2010
 
CS5 (4.0)
April 2011 CS5.5 (4.5)
May 2012
 
CS6 (5.0)
June 17, 2013
 
Adobe Bridge CC 2013-2014
CC
June 18, 2014 CC 2014
June 15, 2015
 
CC 2015 (6.3)
November 2, 2016 CC 2017 (7.0) - Adobe Stock improvements
October 18, 2017 CC 2018 (8.0) - Improved scrolling performance

- Added support for CEP Extensions - Added Output workspace

October 15, 2018 CC (9.0)
November 2019 CC (10.0) - Transparency support for PSDs

- Replaced OpenGL APIs with Metal APIs for macOS - Asset conversion using the Export panel

June 2020
 
CC (10.1)
October 2020 CC (11.0)
October 2021 CC (12.0)
October 2022 CC (13.0)
September 2023 CC (14.0) - Keyboard Shortcut Customization

-Multi Window -Compress/Extract files for Various asset types -Place Asset Files from Bridge to Adobe Substance 3D Stager

Supported file formats

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The table below contains the supported file formats that can be opened or accessed in Adobe Bridge.[9]

File Format Definition
.WORKSPACE Adobe Bridge Workspace File
.ABDATA Adobe Bridge Data File
.ADOBEBRIDGE Adobe Bridge URL File
.BC Adobe Bridge Cache File
.BCM Adobe Bridge Cache File
.BCT Adobe Bridge Thumbnail Cache File
.BRIDGECACHE Adobe Bridge Cache Export File
.COLLECTION Adobe Bridge Collection File
.TB0 Adobe Photoshop Thumbnail Cache File

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Bridge Feature Summary (September 2023 release)". Retrieved 2023-09-25.
  2. ^ a b "Bridge system requirements". Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  3. ^ "Adobe Bridge included with the stand-alone Adobe Photoshop". Archived from the original on 22 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
  4. ^ "The cache in Adobe Bridge". Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
  5. ^ "Adobe Bridge is not included with the standalone version of Adobe Acrobat 8". Archived from the original on 22 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
  6. ^ "Adobe Bridge is extensively customizable using JavaScript" (PDF). Adobe Systems. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-08-24. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
  7. ^ "Adobe Stock Photos". Retrieved 2008-02-29.
  8. ^ "The Adobe Stock Photos service was discontinued by Adobe on April 1st, 2008". Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  9. ^ "Adobe Bridge CC 2019 Overview and Supported File Types". fileinfo.com. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
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