The Benefits of Merlin + Adobe Creative Cloud Integration

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What You’ll Get

  • Access your DAM content in Merlin from inside the UI of Adobe applications (Photoshop and InDesign)
  • Find the MerlinX extension on the Adobe Extension store
  • Easy to get up and running- no technical work required
  • Fast access your whole team can rely on
  • Uses a simplified Merlin UI that allows users to browse, search, use saved searches or collections for easy access
  • Use your Merlin login (or single sign on) credentials
  • No need to learn another piece of software
  • Rights management rules come from Merlin
  • Track usage history
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MerlinOne integrates into two of the most widely used Adobe Creative Cloud products: InDesign and Photoshop. No longer will your designers need to download their assets before placing them into their InDesign or Photoshop layouts. Your teams can easily browse, search, or update any asset from your Merlin library or upload files directly from Adobe CC to Merlin.

How it works.

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Your Merlin DAM becomes a media source from within Photoshop or InDesign making it easy to keep content centralized.

After installing the MerlinX Extension on your local computer, select the MerlinX icon from within Photoshop or INDD, enter the server address and click Connect.

You can also do the below actions after logging in:

  • Browse content
  • Use Merlin’s powerful search capability to find content
  • Utilize Merlin collections to find organized content
  • Open content in Adobe CC or “check it out” for version control
  • Use the same credentials for Merlin & Adobe extensions
  • Track asset usage and leverage Merlin’s versioning process
  • Include comments to items that are checked in to Merlin & view & search these comments in Merlin as well
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Working in InDesign

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  • An INDD user accesses Merlin using the Merlin Extension from within InDesign.
  • Using Merlin’s powerful search or Collections, content is selected for use in an INDD document.
  • Selected content is dragged into the INDD document for placement. The item is cached locally and the original remains in Merlin.
  • Save the INDD file back to Merlin as a new asset or as a version of the original asset. The document maintains the links to the original items in Merlin.
  • If the original items on the page are versioned in Merlin the next time the page is opened, it will reflect those updates.
This keeps content centralized in Merlin with easy accessibility for all users. By accessing source content from Merlin, a user can be assured that the content is the most recent and approved content for use.
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Working in Photoshop

  • Once content has been placed, it may be accessed in Photoshop using the Merlin Extension for Photoshop. Search for content or use collections.
  • Once selected, content may be either opened in Photoshop or checked out and opened in Photoshop.
  • Content may be processed in Photoshop (color corrections, color space change for printing—to CMYK) and either saved back to Merlin as a new asset or as a version of the original asset.
  • If saved as a version, any InDesign files that use the original asset (that has been updated in photoshop) will be updated with the new asset version.
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Under the Hood-Technical Information

The Adobe Creative Cloud control panel manages the installation and updating of the MerlinX extension.

Product Minimum Version
MerlinX 6.0.2
Photoshop CC (2017) 18.0 - (2019) 20.0
InDesign CC (2015) 11.0 - (2019) 14.0
Want to learn more about how you can improve your content development process through Merlin’s Adobe connector?
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