Inspiration

Adobe Express empowers creators visually, but text—the backbone of any design—was left behind. Users struggled with generic, uninspired words that didn’t match their vision. I wanted to solve that friction with Rephrasely: an AI-powered tool that rewrites text in seconds, keeping creators in their flow.

As a two-time Adobe Fund for Design grantee and creator of Textify and Codify, I know the platform inside-out and how to ship impactful add-ons. This time, I aimed to tackle a universal pain point—weak text in great designs.

What it does

Rephrasely makes text as powerful as your visuals:

One click: Extract text → rewrite → instantly replaced in your design.
AI-driven: Sharp, tone-matched copy generated by Google Gemini.
Universal: Works on headlines, CTAs, captions, any design text.

It’s not just rewriting—it’s rewriting with intelligence, so every word fits the tone and purpose.

How we built it

Used Adobe Express Add-ons SDK for seamless integration with the Document Sandbox.
Extracted text layers via express-document-sdk.
Built a role heuristic for text type (headline, CTA, body).
Created a structured AI prompt with tone control and formatting rules.
Integrated Google Gemini 2.5 for language generation.
Validated and sanitized output, then updated text via express-document-sdk.

Challenges we ran into

Ensuring rewritten text stayed true to original intent (not just longer or flashy).
Enforcing tone control without breaking context.
Handling multiple text layers efficiently in real time.
Removing AI quirks like Markdown (**bold**) and enforcing brand-safe output.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a working MVP that rewrites and replaces text in one click—inside Adobe Express.
Solved a real user gap with zero context switching.
Delivered clean, persuasive copy that fits any design without breaking flow.

What we learned

Copy is just as critical as visuals in design—and users crave speed + intelligence.
AI prompts need tight guardrails for reliable, brand-safe output.
The Adobe Express SDK offers incredible flexibility for creative workflows.

What's next for Rephrasely

Fine-tune the AI model for even better accuracy and tone sensitivity.
Multi-language support for global creators.
Advanced tone library (luxury, casual, witty, formal).

Rephrasely is just the beginning—I know how to ship it fast, and I’m ready to make this the missing piece that turns Express into a complete creative powerhouse.