Digital Brand Templates help users to create visual materials, such as social media visuals or campaign posters. Because the templates have a predefined layout, behavior and style, users can immediately start creating without having to start from scratch.
At the same time it allows the Digital Brand Template manager to decide which template items are customizable and which ones are locked. By letting creators only adjust certain elements, such as the logo or background image, you can make sure that all created documents align with your branding. Read more about creating and managing Digital Brand Templates below.
Note
Digital Brand Templates are not compatible with Internet Explorer 11 yet. Use another browser instead.
Skip directly to
There are three roles available in Digital Brand Templates. Read more about these roles below.
Manage templates
The manager role is intended for portal administrators. Managers can upload, configure and modify all portal templates. Also, they can access all the documents that users created.
Approve documents
The approval role is intended for content or brand managers. Approvers can approve documents or reject a document because it needs changes before it can be approved. Normally approvers are people within an organization who safeguard that all created documents align with the company branding. They are able to provide users with feedback when documents need changes. Read more about how to approve documents here.
Note
If you want to make use of an approval process, make sure you set up the approval role for one or more user profiles in Permission Management.
Create documents
The creator role is for users who can create documents based on a Digital Brand template. Normally creators work in the marketing department and are responsible for creating digital content.
Before setting up the permissions, make sure you have read about the different roles in the section above. Outline how those roles can meet your requirements regarding template management and document creation. Decide which permission profiles should manage the templates. In case you want to make use of an approval process, decide which user profiles can approve documents. Lastly, think about the user profiles that should be able to create documents based on a Digital Brand template.
Manage documents
-
Go to
Settings > Users & rights > Permission Management. -
Select the user profile for which you want to set up the manager role.
-
Enable the following permissions Approve documents, Create documents and Manage templates.
-
Click Save to save the user profile.
-
(Optional) Repeat the above steps to enable the manager role for other user profiles as well.
Approve documents
-
Go to
Settings > Users & rights > Permission Management. -
Select the user profile for which you want to set up the approver role.
-
Go to the Digital templating section and tick the permissions approve documents, create documents.
-
Enable the following permissions: Approve documents and Create documents.
-
Click Save to save the user profile.
-
(Optional) Repeat the above steps to enable the approver role for other user profiles as well.
Create documents
-
Go to
Settings > Users & rights > Permission Management. -
Select the user profile for which you want to set up the creator role.
-
Enable the following permission: Create documents.
-
Click Save to save the user profile.
-
(Optional) Repeat the above steps to enable the creator role for other user profiles as well.
Font files and font colors cannot be retrieved from the PSD or Sketch files and therefore need to be uploaded manually. When a font is not uploaded to Bynder, the editor will default to the font 'Source Sans Pro'. As an admin you can configure which font colors should be available. This way, the users can select one of the available colors when they customize the text of their document.
-
Click Fonts & Colors in the left sidebar.
-
Make sure that all the font files and colors used in your template files are uploaded and configured.
To upload a missing font, click the + Upload font button in the Fonts & Colors tab and select one of the missing font files. If necessary, repeat this step to upload all other font files used.
Click + Add color if you want to add a font color used in your template file that is not listed yet. Alternatively, you can also add additional colors that are not used in your template file.
Campaigns allow you to better categorize your templates and the documents users create. When you have templates with common objectives but targeting different channels you can group them under a campaign. Read more about Digital Brand Template campaigns.
You can upload a new Digital Brand Template by using a Sketch or Photoshop file. Once your file is uploaded, you can configure the template and upload the font files that were used inside. The font files are not included in the template file and therefore need to be uploaded to Bynder separately.
You can upload a file with multiple artboards. When using the advanced version of Digital Brand Templates, the various artboards will be available as one template after a successful upload.
Note
-
The maximum supported file size for uploading a template is 500 MB.
-
Layers with the same name will be linked.
-
The multiple artboards will be uploaded as individual templates when using the basic version of Digital Brand Templates.
-
Make sure your template file meets the requirements.
-
Make sure on or more campaigns are set up for your portal.
-
Make sure that all the font files and colors used in your template files are uploaded and configured.
-
Click the New template button. A popup will open.
-
Click the Select template button and select the .SKETCH or .PSD Digital Brand Template file. By default the filename will be used as name for the template.
Tip
Include the name of the channel in your filename to automatically categorize it under the right channel, for example Instagram Story or Adwords banner.
-
(Optional) Change the name of the template in the Name field. Open the Campaign dropdown and select the campaign you want to assign the template to.
-
Open the channel dropdown and select a channel.
-
Click Create template to upload and create the template.
-
A new template thumbnail with the message Importing file will appear. Wait for the upload to finish.
-
Click the new thumbnail to configure your template.
-
Go to the Templates section in the left sidebar and click the template you want to configure.
-
In the Components sidebar you will see all the elements (layers) that are part of the template. The Text or Image tab in the right sidebar lists all the available properties and customizations for the selected layer.
By default, the image source of an image layer is set to All files. This means that users can use all images they have access to in the Asset Bank. You can restrict this selection by linking the image to a collection. Another option is to select Allow personal uploads, which will require users to upload their own personal image when they want to replace the placeholder image.
Masks
If a template contains images with transparency they can be used as a mask. When users replace the default image, the new image will respect the transparency of the original image. By default, the mask option is not enabled. Follow the steps below to use an image as a mask.
Note
Image masks don't work with linked layers. Make sure the image isn't linked before setting up a mask.
-
Click the image that you want to make a mask in the left sidebar.
-
Click the Mask button in the right sidebar.
-
Open the dropdown and select the Use image as mask option.
-
Click Update template(s) to save the changes.
Collections
-
Click the image that you want to link to a collection in the Components sidebar.
-
Open the Properties tab in the right sidebar.
-
Open the Image source dropdown and click Collection.
-
Click the Choose collection button.
-
Hover over the collection you want to select and tick the
button. -
Click Choose collection to select the collection.
-
Click Update template to save the changes.
Right below Text Style you'll find the font that is used by default for this text frame. By default, users creating documents can't change the font.
Toggle the Allow font change switch if you want to allow users to select another font when creating documents. Click the dropdown and select the fonts they should be able to choose from. You're only able to choose from the fonts that are uploaded to your Digital Brand Templates environment. Read more about fonts here.
By default, all the brand colors set up in Fonts & Colors are available to users in a text field. Alternatively, you can decide to only make specific colors available for a text field.
-
Click the text layer for which you want to configure the font colors in the Components sidebar.
-
Switch the Brand colors toggle in the right Text sidebar.
-
Tick the colors you want to make available to users.
Note
Make sure the color used in the source file, which is displayed below Color, is ticked. If not, users will not be able to switch back to the default color.
-
Click Update template to save the changes.
Are your users writing in different languages or do they sometimes need to use more text than anticipated? Sometimes text just requires more space. With the auto-shrink feature you can set up a minimum font size. When the entered text becomes too big for the text field, the font size will be reduced to make it fit within the text box. When the font size becomes smaller than the minimum configured value the text field will turn red.
-
Click the text layer for which you want to configure the minimum font size in the Components sidebar.
-
Switch the Shrink text to fit toggle in the right Text sidebar.
-
Select the minimum font size you want to apply in the Minimum font size dropdown.
-
Click Update template to save the changes.
You can show and hide image and text elements and also decide whether users creating Digital Brand Template documents can show and hide these elements. By showing or hiding elements in a template document creators will have more flexibility to create document variations without the need of multiple templates. Elements that are set to visible are indicated by the 
icon in the left sidebar. Elements that are hidden are indicated by the 
icon.
There are different scenarios that have impact on what users can do when creating a document.
Shown and Show/Hide toggle On
When an element is shown and the Show/hide switch is set to On users will see the element when creating a document. Optionally, they can hide it by switching the toggle. If the element is locked users won't be able to replace the image or text and they can't make any other modifications.
Shown and Show/Hide toggle Off
When an element is shown and the Show/hide switch is set to Off users will see the element when creating a document. They can't hide it by switching the toggle. If the element is locked users won't be able to replace the image or text and they and can't make any other modifications.
Hidden and Show/Hide toggle On
When an element is hidden and the Show/hide switch is set to On users by default won't see the element when creating a document. Optionally, they can make it visible it by switching the toggle. If the element is locked users won't be able to replace the image or text and they and they can't make any other modifications.
Hidden and Show/Hide toggle Off
When an element is hidden and the Show/hide switch is set to Off users won't see the element when creating a document and they can't make it visible it by switching the toggle. The element will be completely invisible and unusable in the document.
By default, all layers are unlocked, which means that users can modify the default text and images. You can choose to lock layers if you don't want them to be customizable. Locked layers are indicated by the 
icon. Select the layer and click the Lock button in the right sidebar.
To unlock a locked layer, select the layer and click Unlock.
Save your changes by clicking Update template.
By default, approval is enabled for a newly uploaded template and all approvers are selected.
All approvers will receive an email notification with a link to audit the template. Read more about the approval process here and find out how you can manage the approvers below.
-
Go to the template for which you want to select approvers.
-
Click the
button and click Settings. -
Click the Edit button in the Send for approval section. By default, approval is enabled for a newly uploaded template and all approvers are selected.
-
(Optional) Disable the the approval process for this template completely by toggling the Send for approval switch.
-
(Optional) Remove users as approver by clicking the — button next to their name.
-
Add approvers by searching their name in the Reviewers field . Click one of the returned results to add that person as an approver.
-
Click Save changes to save your changes.
By default, documents will use the standard background color as set up in the artboard of your template file. You can decide to let your users change the background color when they create a document. They can then change the default color to one of the available colors set up in the Fonts & colors section.
Artboards with the exact same background color (hex code) will be automatically linked during upload. This means that when you apply a background color to one of the linked artboards the same background color will be applied to the other linked artboards as well. You can set up one set of allowed background colors for a multiple artboard template. The allowed colors will then be available for all artboards. The colors cannot be configured for each artboard individually.
Follow the steps below to set up the allowed background colors for a template.
-
Click the title of the template, open the Template tab in the right sidebar, switch the Allow brand colors toggle and select the colors you want to make available to users when creating a document. When editing a multiple artboard template the selected colors will automatically be available for all artboards.
-
Click Update template to save the changes.
Users that create a document based on this template can now change the background color to one of the allowed background colors.
Note
The background color needs to be set up in the artboard of your template.
Configure the output options of the template. Click the title of the template, open the Details tab in the right sidebar, click the Output options dropdown and select one of the available options.
Save only
The created template can only be saved to the asset bank. Users will not be able to download their creation directly from the template editor.
Download only
Users can only download the template directly from the template editor. The created template cannot be saved to the Asset Bank.
Save & download
The created template can be saved to the Asset Bank and can be directly downloaded from within the template editor.
Send to waiting room
This will send the created documents to the waiting room, where a portal administrator can audit and upload them to the Asset Bank. You may use this option if you want to the created documents to end up in the Asset Bank tagged with metaproperties and/or other metadata.
Are you working with multi artboard files? Save yourself the time of having to configure the same layers for each artboard individually by making use of linked layers. Once your layers are linked, configuring one of the linked layers will automatically apply the configuration to the other linked layers as well.
Let's say your brand logo recurs in every artboard of your multi artboard file. Instead of having to configure each logo layer individually you can link it, so that you only have to set up the layer once. The configuration will be applied to all the other linked layers automatically.
Linked layers are indicated by the 
icon in the left sidebar. Also, when you click a layer the Linking status in the right sidebar will tell you whether linking is On or Off.
Note
Image masks don't work with linked layers. Make sure your image layer is not linked when you want to apply a mask to it.
Layers with the exact same name are automatically linked when uploading to Digital Brand Templates. You can manage the name of your layers in Adobe Photoshop or Sketch. For example, all layers with the name logo will be linked.
Tip
Are your layers not linked?
Make sure that the names of the layers you want to link are exactly the same in your editing software. Only layers with an exact match will be linked.
The following configuration will be linked:
-
Locked layers
When you lock one of the linked layers all other linked layers will be locked as well. Read more about locking layers here.
-
Allowed Font Colors
When you set up the allowed font colors for one of the linked layers all the other layers will have the same set of allowed font colors. Read more about setting up brand colors here.
-
Image Source
When you set up the image source for one of the linked layers all the other layers will have the same image source applied. Read more about setting up the image source here.
-
Text
When you add text to a layer the text will be displayed in the linked text layers as well. Read more about text here.
-
Text Auto-shrink
When you apply text auto-shrink to one of the linked layers the text of the linked layers will be auto-shrinked as well. Read more about auto-shrink here.
-
Text Color When you apply a text color to text in a text layer the same color will be applied to all the other linked text layers.
When you unlink a layer the layer becomes an individual layer. Once unlinked, any changes you make will no longer be reflected on the previously linked layers and vice versa. Follow the steps below to unlink a layer.
-
Select the layer you want to unlink in the left sidebar.
-
Toggle the Linking switch in the right sidebar, so that it wil change to Linking: Off.
-
Click Update templates to save the changes.
The layer is no now longer linked.
-
Go to the Digital Brand Templates section of your portal and click Templates in the left sidebar.
-
(Optional) When editing a template with multiple artboards click the dropdown in the top of the left sidebar to select the template you want to edit. The template will be placed in the center of your screen.
-
Click the template you want to edit.
-
Make the necessary modifications and click Update template to save your changes.
Note
You cannot edit the default text inside text layers or change the default images of image layers. These changes need to be made in the .SKETCH or .PSD Digital Brand Template file. The modified template file will then have to be reuploaded as a new template.
Updated