Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Assets is an integral part of the AEM platform. This smooth integration is seen as a major advantage of AEM and ensures consistency in content management and high productivity for content authors.
AEM Assets is an application on the AEM Platform that allows our customers to manage their digital assets (images, videos, documents and audio clips) in a web-based repository. AEM Assets includes Metadata-support, Renditions, the Digital Asset Management Finder and the AEM Assets Administration UI.
The AEM Media Library is a designated part of the AEM WCM content repository where images and other shared resources are stored. The Media Library uses the Digital Asset Management capabilities of AEM WCM.
Unique features that are only available to customers of AEM Assets are:
siteadmin
.dam
im package space.Using these features requires a valid license of AEM Assets.
No. To ease installation and deployment, all AEM Applications and add-ons are delivered in one single package with all functionality included. This does not imply that you have permission to use all features in the package.
If you are planning to edit metadata other than title, description and tags, it is required to license AEM Assets.
No. Resizing and automatic workflow-driven transformation of static images as well as the ability to manage renditions are part of AEM Media Library. These features do not require an AEM Assets license.
The image component is part of AEM WCM. The graphics library that is being used by the image component (but also by AEM Assets) is part of the AEM platform and does not require an AEM Assets license.
You can remove all AEM Assets-specific workflows, components, taxonomies, options and the AEM Assets admin from AEM. Doing so prevents your users from accidentally using AEM Assets features that you did not license.
For this use case it is not required to buy AEM Assets, even the use of the Media Library is not required to use images on a website as the smart image component allows uploading images directly into the page.