Adobe XD Intermediate: Libraries

Name: Adobe XD Intermediate: Libraries
Author: Jessica Henley

Learning how to identify and use libraries

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Course: On-Demand

Hello, my name is Jessica Henley, and in these lessons, I will show you an introduction to libraries, how to publish a library, and how to access a shared library. In this lesson, I want to show you an introduction to libraries. Getting started with our previous file, navigate to the left-hand lower side, here you will see an icon that says library. You can also see the shortcut. On a Mac computer, it's shift, command Y. On a PC computer, you can press shift, control Y. So clicking on the library tab here, we're going to take a look at how to use this library. So here I have colors, and if I click on toggle these on and off, you can see that there's nothing inside of them. So let's add some colors to our library. So if I click on this color here, say if I had multiple screens, and I want to make sure that I'm using this same color, well, I can click on this color, and you have this plus sign, which will then add the color to the library. And then also for this flower, say for the inside. For the inside, I can click on the plus sign, and it will actually add it to the library. And likewise for the stem, I can click on the stem and add that also. Now that's how you can select different items within a screen, but you can also click on the screen's name and add the plus sign. When you do that, it will pull all the colors from that particular screen and add it to the library. Now, say if you want to change the names of these colors, right now we have the hex code, which is the letters and numbers presented, and these letters and numbers represent that color. Now, if I right click, I can go to edit, and say if I wanted to edit this color, I could edit this color, and as you can see from the screen, it's changing. The great news about that is if you have this color on multiple screens, you can update the color on multiple screens if it's using this color here. So when you right click, you can also rename it. So if I put dark green, you can rename your colors. Now let's take a look at character styles. Right now I'm just using one character style. So I have Josie's flowers right here, and I can hit the plus sign. So right now you see the Optima font that I picked out in the 35. Now for components, I want to show you how that works. I'm going to create some symbols at the bottom, and then move that symbol to the screen, but show you how components can be useful. So I'm going to navigate back to my screen number one, and I'm going to head over to design. Under design, I'm going to click on the polygon, or the shortcut, the Y, and I'm going to click and drag to create this design at the bottom. Heading over to appearance, I'm going to go ahead and pick a color that I want to add for the bottom here, and what I want to do now is duplicate this. So with the select tool on, I'm going to right click copy, right click paste, but again you can also use your shortcuts, which is control or command D. When I hit control or command D, I can then quickly pull the design elements over. I'm just going to spread this out. You can add any design that you like. As an example, I'm going to go with this design here, and I'm just going to select these and center them. Now what I want to do is make this a component by clicking and dragging over all four of these design ellipses here, these polygon shapes, and as I click and drag over these polygon shapes, I'm going to right click and make a component. Notice the shortcut is command or control K. Now you can see that the selection has now turned into the screen box and there's a green diamond. Pay attention to this diamond right here. It's important because when I copy and I paste this and move it to this screen or off the screen, you can see that the diamond is not filled in right here, but it's filled in on this one. Why is that important? Well, the one with the colored in diamond means that this is actually the head, this is the tail, or this is the parent, and this is the child. So what that means is when I add and make changes, this one is an aeration of this one and it would follow. So to further explain, let's see what that looks like. So if I double tap and say if I want to move this one, it's following each other because this is the head, the other one is the tail, or the parent child connection. Also so if I even change this one and even this point here, let's see, pull that up. You can see that it changes. Now let's take a look again at the library. You can see the component has been added once I right clicked. Now another place where you can go to add components is object and make components. So for example, if I click on this object and go to object, you can see I can say make components. That's another place where you can go to make an object a component. We're not going to get into videos, but the video option is there as well. In the next video, I will show you how to publish a library. Thanks for watching.

Intermediate Provider : Jessica Henley 3 Lessons · 12m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

With Adobe XD libraries, you’re able to keep the components of your design together for ease of access and design consistency. Libraries can include colors, character styles, components, and videos. These lessons will show you how to add custom colors, edit and change premade colors, and store font styles and sizes as character styles. You’ll learn the behaviors and benefits of using components in designs, as well as how to combine shapes into groups to create components. By uploading to the cloud, you’re able to publish your file as a library and invite people to share it. Premade shared libraries are also available to import into your project, which can potentially save you time and provide you with more options to include in your designs.

In these lessons, you will be introduced to Adobe XD libraries, explore how to publish a library, and learn how to access shared libraries.

What You'll Learn

Create custom color assets and store font styles and sizes as character styles
Add custom colors and edit or change premade colors in your libraries
Group and combine shapes into components to use in your designs
Publish a file as a library to the cloud and invite people to share it
Access and import premade shared libraries into your project
Determine how using libraries can be helpful for design consistency

Key Takeaways

Adobe XD libraries keep the components of a design together for ease of access and design consistency.
Libraries can include colors, character styles, components, and videos.
By uploading to the cloud, you can publish your file as a library and invite people to share it.
Premade shared libraries are available to import into a project, potentially saving time and providing more design options.
Components can be created by combining shapes into groups.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will be introduced to Adobe XD libraries, learn to create custom color assets and text styles, group elements into components, publish a library, and access shared libraries.

What can an Adobe XD library include?

A library can include colors, character styles, components, and videos.

What lessons does this course cover?

The course covers three lessons: Intro to Libraries, Publishing a Library, and Accessing a Shared Library.

How does using libraries help my design work?

Libraries keep the components of your design together for ease of access and design consistency, and premade shared libraries can save you time and provide more options to include in your designs.

What skills does this course relate to?

It relates to Adobe XD, the Adobe Elearning Suite, working with a Graphics Library and Shared Libraries, and Adobe Certified Instructor content.