Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge CC 2024 running on macOS Ventura
Developer(s)	Adobe Inc.
Initial release	April 4, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-04-04)
Stable release	CC 2024 (14.0) / September 13, 2023; 6 months ago (2023-09-13)[1]
Operating system	Windows 10 (64-Bit) 22H2 or later macOS 12 or later [2]
Platform	x64, ARM64
Type	Digital asset management
License	Freeware
Website	adobe.com/products/bridge.html

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.

Details

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

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		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

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