Are you struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing complexities of risk management?
Feeling overwhelmed by spreadsheets and manual processes?
You’re not alone.
Many organizations face similar challenges in today’s dynamic business landscape.
But is it truly the best risk management software?
This Extensis Review examines its capabilities in depth to help you determine whether it’s the right fit for your needs.
Ready to streamline your risk management? Extensis Connect boasts an impressive 87% user satisfaction for font activation and 88% for drag-and-drop uploads, saving valuable time.
What is Extensis?
Extensis is a software suite designed to help businesses create, organize, and share their digital assets, especially fonts.
Think of it as a central hub where all your company’s logos, images, videos, and most importantly, fonts, live.
This makes it easier for every employee, from marketing teams to designers, to find and use the correct assets consistently.
By keeping everything organized, Extensis helps businesses present a unified brand image to their customers and ensures everyone is working with the right resources.
Who Created Extensis?
Extensis was founded in 1993 in Portland, Oregon, with the initial aim of creating solutions for creative professionals on Apple Macintosh platforms.
The company’s early focus was on developing plug-ins that enhanced the functionality of Adobe and Quark products.
Over the years, Extensis has expanded its offerings in font and digital asset management.
In late, Extensis was acquired by Monotype, a global leader in type and technology.
This acquisition further solidified Extensis’s position in the creative software landscape and broadened its reach to employees and customers worldwide.
Top Benefits of Extensis
- Enhanced Brand Consistency: Extensis ensures all employees use approved fonts and digital assets, creating a unified and professional brand image for every customer interaction. This consistency strengthens brand recognition and trust.
- Streamlined Workflow: By centralizing asset management, Extensis eliminates the time wasted searching for files. This allows teams to focus on creativity and create more efficiently, boosting overall productivity.
- Improved Collaboration: Extensis facilitates easy sharing and access to assets across teams and departments. This fosters better collaboration and ensures everyone is working with the latest versions.
- Simplified Font Management: Managing a large font library can be challenging. Extensis simplifies font activation, deactivation, and organization, preventing font conflicts and ensuring design integrity.
- Increased Efficiency: With quick access to the right assets, projects can move forward without delays. This improved efficiency can lead to faster turnaround times and reduced project costs.
- Better Organization: Extensis provides tools for tagging, categorizing, and searching assets, making it easy to find exactly what you need, when you need it. This organized system saves time and reduces frustration.
- Control and Security: Extensis offers control over who can access and use specific assets, ensuring brand guidelines are followed and sensitive materials are protected. This helps maintain data integrity and security.
Best Features of Extensis
Extensis stands out with a robust set of features meticulously designed to empower creative teams and streamline their workflows.
Beyond basic organization, Extensis offers unique capabilities that address critical needs in today’s fast-paced creative environment.
Let’s explore some of the key features that make Extensis a powerful asset for any organization looking to create consistently and empower every employee.
And deliver exceptional customer experiences.
Font Management
Extensis excels in simplifying the often complex world of font management. It provides a centralized platform to organize, activate, and deactivate fonts as needed.
This eliminates font conflicts, ensures brand consistency across all projects, and makes it easy for every team member to access the correct typography.
Say goodbye to endless scrolling through font menus – Extensis puts the right fonts at your fingertips, fostering a smooth and efficient creative process.
Extensis Connect+
Extensis Connect+ acts as a dynamic bridge connecting your creative assets with your workflow.
This integration allows seamless access to your organized library directly within your favorite design applications.
Imagine effortlessly dragging and dropping approved assets into Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign without ever leaving your creative space.
This tight integration significantly boosts productivity and ensures that every employee is working with the latest, approved versions, ultimately benefiting the end customer with consistent branding.
Extensis Print
Extensis Print offers a streamlined solution for managing and outputting print-ready files.
It helps ensure that the correct fonts and assets are embedded and that output settings are consistent, reducing errors and saving valuable time in the production process.
This feature is crucial for maintaining quality and accuracy in all printed materials, reflecting positively on the brand and the customer experience.
By simplifying the printing workflow, Extensis Print empowers teams to create with confidence.
Creative Asset Compliance
Maintaining compliance with licensing and usage rights for creative assets is paramount.
Extensis helps organizations comply with the law by providing tools to track usage rights and ensure that all assets are used appropriately.
This feature protects the company from potential legal issues and reinforces ethical practices within the creative workflow.
By managing asset compliance effectively, Extensis safeguards the brand and builds trust with customers.
Creative Compliance
Building upon asset compliance, Creative Compliance within Extensis extends to ensuring adherence to brand guidelines across all creative outputs.
This feature allows administrators to define and enforce rules regarding the use of logos, color palettes, and other brand elements.
By ensuring that every employee adheres to these guidelines, Extensis helps maintain a consistent brand identity across all customer touchpoints.
And strengthening brand recognition and professionalism in every piece of content they create.
Pricing
| Plan | Pricing | Key Features |
| Connect | $12.5/month | For font license management & creative asset management. Billed annually. |
| Connect + Insight | $16.67/month | Includes all Connect features plus project risk scanning and font risk assessment reports. Billed annually. |
| Extensis for Large Teams | Custom pricing | Tailored plans with dedicated support and usage reports. |
Pros and Cons
Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of Extensis is crucial.
This helps you make an informed decision.
Let’s explore the key advantages and disadvantages.
Pros
Cons
Extensis Alternatives
While Extensis offers a robust suite of features, several alternatives cater to different needs and budgets. Here are a few notable options:
- Adobe Creative Cloud Assets: Integrated directly within the Adobe ecosystem, it’s a convenient option for users heavily invested in Adobe products. It offers asset synchronization and sharing.
- Bynder: A powerful digital asset management platform known for its scalability and advanced features for larger enterprises. It focuses on brand consistency and workflow automation.
- Widen Collective: Another comprehensive DAM solution emphasizing marketing asset management and brand portals. It offers robust search and distribution capabilities.
- Canto: A user-friendly DAM platform popular for its intuitive interface and ease of use, particularly for smaller to medium-sized teams.
- FontBase: A free and paid font management tool focused specifically on font organization and activation, offering a lighter alternative for font-centric workflows.
- RightFont: A streamlined font manager with a focus on speed and efficiency, offering features like auto-activation and cloud syncing.
Personal Experience with Extensis
Our team recently implemented Extensis to tackle the growing challenges of managing our expanding library of fonts and creative assets.
Previously, inconsistencies in branding and wasted time searching for the correct files were hindering our productivity.
Extensis proved to be a game-changer, streamlining our workflow and ensuring brand uniformity across all our customer-facing materials.
Here are some key benefits we experienced firsthand:
- Centralized Font Management: The font management feature eliminated font conflicts and ensured every employee used approved typography, leading to a more polished and consistent brand image.
- Seamless Integration with Adobe CC (via Extensis Connect+): The direct integration with our Adobe Creative Cloud applications significantly sped up our create process. Accessing and using assets directly within our design software saved us valuable time.
- Improved Asset Organization: The ability to tag and categorize all our creative assets made finding the right image or logo incredibly efficient. No more endless folder searching!
- Enhanced Collaboration: Sharing assets with team members became effortless, ensuring everyone was working with the latest versions and fostering better teamwork.
- Ensured Creative Asset Compliance: We could easily manage licensing and usage rights, providing peace of mind and preventing potential legal issues.
Final Thoughts
So, is Extensis right for you?
If your team makes lots of cool stuff and uses many fonts and pictures, it can really help.
It keeps everything neat and tidy.
It also makes sure everyone uses the right stuff so all your work looks the same.
It can cost a bit, so think about if it fits your budget.
If you want to be super organized and make things easier for your team, Extensis is worth checking out.
Ready to get your creative chaos under control?
Visit the Extensis website to learn more and see if it’s the perfect fit for your team!
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly does Extensis do?
Extensis is like a special toolbox for teams that create things like websites, posters, and videos. It helps everyone in the company, every employee, keep all their important stuff, like fonts and pictures, in one organized place. This makes it easy to find what you need and make sure everything looks the same for all your customers. It stops people from using the wrong logos or fonts by accident.
Is Extensis easy for a beginner to use?
Extensis can seem a little tricky at first because it has many cool features. However, it’s designed to be helpful for everyone, even if you’re not a computer expert. They have guides and support to help you learn how to use it. Once you get the hang of it, it can actually make your work much simpler and faster. Think of it like learning a new game – it takes a bit, but then it’s fun!
How much does Extensis typically cost?
The cost of Extensis depends on what you need it for and how many people on your team will use it. They have different plans, kind of like choosing different sizes of pizza. Some plans are for smaller teams and cost less, while bigger teams might need a plan with more features that costs more. It’s best to check their website or ask them for a price that fits your company’s needs.
Can Extensis work with the software I already use?
Yes, Extensis is made to work well with many popular programs that creative people use, like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. This means you can easily find and use your organized fonts and pictures without having to leave the program you’re working in. It’s like having all your art supplies right next to your drawing board, making it super convenient for every employee to create effectively.
Why is managing fonts important for my business?
Managing fonts properly is important because it helps your business look professional and consistent to your customers. If you use different or messy fonts everywhere, your brand can look unprofessional. Extensis helps you keep all your fonts organized and makes sure everyone uses the same approved fonts. This builds trust and makes your brand look polished and reliable.
