The A-Z of DAM – Asset Bank’s Digital Asset Management Glossary

Get your head around essential terms used in the digital asset management space to help you make the most of your software. These aren't just Asset-Bank specific – you'll find terms here that cross multiple platforms.

Activation Date

The date from which an asset is approved and available for use or distribution, often used in campaign planning or rights-managed content.

AI-Powered Metadata

This automatically adds metadata for you – like alt-text or descriptions – when you upload images. It's a huge time-saver, but always do a manual check of the content.

AI Search By Image

An AI-powered search functionality that allows you to drag and drop an image into your Asset Bank to see if you have similar images. Great if you have a low-res version and need the original. We've had great feedback on trials of this feature.

AI Similar Images

This feature surfaces images that look similar to image you’re currently viewing. Good for padding out a campaign with images that have similar components.

AI Visual Search

Using natural language to describe what you’re looking for, letting AI find assets that match.

Append

To add data or text to the end of existing content, such as appending metadata to a filename or adding a new tag to an asset’s existing keywords. Think of it like adding a 'P.S.' note to the bottom of a letter. When you append, you're not deleting or overwriting the original content. You're simply adding to it. (Opposite: See 'Preprend'.)

Asset

Any piece of digital content that has value for an organisation, such as images, videos, documents, audio files, templates, or presentations.

Asset Library

A structured repository where all digital assets are stored, organised and made accessible to users within the DAM system.

Asset Lifecycle

The stages a digital asset goes through from creation and usage to archiving or deletion.

Asset Management

The broader practice of managing valuable items, which in DAM refers specifically to the management of digital files such as images, videos, and documents.

Asset Manipulation

The process of altering or editing a digital file to create a new version, such as cropping an image or converting file types.

Attributes

Specific metadata fields assigned to an asset to describe its characteristics, such as file type, usage rights, creation date, or product category.

Brand Asset Management (BAM)

A subcategory of DAM focused on maintaining, controlling, and distributing brand assets such as logos, guidelines, fonts, and templates.

Brand Guidelines Integration

This means including brand standards within a DAM system to ensure consistent usage of assets across teams.

Some Asset Bank clients create a folder that hosts all brand guidelines for users to visit and review. They may promote this folder on their Asset Bank homepage.

Sometimes it's useful to add brand guidelines metadata directly to each file, such as a specific caption that must be included with a certain image. 

Brand Portal

A customised external interface within a DAM software that allows partners, agencies, or distributed teams to access approved brand assets. Rather than sending files via a third-party file transfer platform, Asset Bank users can send a secure URL or email to a collection of the files they want to share externally.

It's fully branded and maintains all the brand guidelines and access permissions you granted the original files, for a far enhanced brand experience.

Cloud-Based DAM

A digital asset management system hosted on remote servers and accessed via the internet, enabling scalability and remote access. Asset Bank is a cloud-based DAM.

Codec

A software tool used to encode or decode digital files, commonly for audio and video assets, often for compression or playback.

Collections

User-defined groups of digital assets, curated for a particular campaign, project or user access level.

For example, a fundraising team in Ethiopia won't need marketing collateral that relates to a crisis in Haiti, so they don't need access to all the files in the DAM software, just an Ethiopian-specific 'collection'.

Collections reduce errors and incorrect file usage, and make for a far simpler user experience.

Compression

The process of reducing the file size of digital assets to save storage space and speed up transfer, achieved by removing unnecessary data.

Content Tagging

The use of keywords, categories, or labels applied to assets to improve organisation and discoverability.

Controlled Vocabulary

A standardised set of terms used within a DAM to maintain consistency in metadata and tagging. It stops rogue entries or misspellings.

For example, you can set the tag: 'Female', and others have to use that tag rather than, say, 'woman', 'lady', 'girl', etc. This consistency means all images that are tagged 'Female' will appear during a search for that term rather than any incorrectly tagged getting missed.

However, with the roll-out of AI Similar Images search feature, this may be less of an issue in the future.

Creative Operations

The people, processes and technology that enable creative teams to produce content efficiently; DAM supports this by streamlining asset handling.

Custom Metadata Fields

User-defined metadata categories tailored to specific organisational or industry needs.

For an eCommerce client, for example, it might be important to know whether images are from Spring/Summer 2025 collection, or the Autumn/Winter 2024 collection, so we can add in 'Collection' as a metadata field. That field, however, might not be useful in a Professional Services client, so it's not built in for them. 

DAM System

The software platform or application used to manage digital assets, including features for storage, organisation, and distribution.

Data Migration

Transferring digital assets from one system or DAM platform to another, often during upgrades or system changes.

Delimiter

A character or symbol used to separate pieces of data, often seen in filenames, metadata fields, or CSV imports (e.g., underscores, commas, or hyphens). For example: Paris_Eiffel_Tower_2025.img uses underscores as delimiters; Paris-Eiffel-Tower-2025.img uses hyphens as delimiters.

Digital Asset

Any digital file with value to an organisation, including images, videos, documents, audio files, presentations, and more (see Asset).

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

The process and systems for organising, storing, retrieving, and distributing digital assets within an organisation.

Digital Asset Manager

A professional responsible for acquiring, cataloguing, managing, and protecting an organisation’s digital assets using a DAM system.

Digital Content Management (DCM)

A term often used interchangeably with DAM, focusing on media content rather than all data assets.

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Tools and rules to manage usage rights and permissions of digital assets to prevent unauthorised use.

Duplicate Detection

A feature in DAM systems that automatically identifies and flags identical or near-identical files to reduce storage waste.

Encryption

A security method that encodes data to protect digital assets from unauthorised access, often used in DAM for secure storage and transfer.

Expiry Date

The date when an asset must no longer be used, which might be due to licensing restrictions, model release forms expiring, outdated branding, or campaign deadlines.

Faceted Search

A powerful filtering mechanism that allows users to narrow search results using multiple metadata fields such as date, format, tag, or location.

File Format Support

The range of digital formats a DAM tool can manage, including images, video, audio, documents, and design files.

File Management

The organisation and control of digital files, often a core feature of DAM systems.

File Sharing

The process of distributing digital assets to users or teams, either within or outside the organisation. You can share files:

• Via email (directly from Asset bank – no file downloading necessary!)
• By URL (again, directly from within Asset Bank, whereby a public-facing download link is created, which you can set access permissions for, and which expires in 30 days)
• Through Lightboxes within Asset Bank 
• Or via Portals, which are most often used for sharing files with external parties

File Typology

The variety of file formats the DAM system supports, such as 8K video, CAD drawings, 3D files, PDFs, and high-res images.

Governance

A framework of policies and procedures to ensure DAM programme goals are met, risks are managed, and assets are used appropriately.

Headless DAM

A backend-only DAM that delivers assets via API, enabling seamless integration with other platforms or websites.

Hosting

Refers to where digital assets are stored, which may be on-premises or on vendor-managed servers in the cloud.

Image Renditioning

The automatic generation of resized or reformatted versions of an image to suit different channels or use cases.

Integrations/API

DAM connections to external systems (CMS, Adobe CC, Salesforce, Figma, etc.) via prebuilt connectors or open APIs. For example, the CI HUB Connector allows users to access files in Asset Bank directly from Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, etc. 

Intelligent Search

AI-powered or semantic search capabilities that improve discoverability by interpreting user intent or recognising visual content. See also AI Visual Search.

Keyword

A descriptive word or phrase assigned to digital assets to aid in search and organisation within a DAM system

Keyword Search

The process of locating digital assets in a DAM system using assigned keywords or phrases

Lightbox

A feature in DAM systems that allows users to curate and temporarily group collections of assets for review or sharing

Media Asset Management (MAM)

A system for managing rich media content, often used in film, broadcasting, or entertainment; similar to DAM but with a stronger focus on video/audio workflows

Metadata

Descriptive information about a digital asset, such as title, author, copyright, keywords, and creation date, used to organise and retrieve assets.

On-Premises DAM

A DAM system hosted on a company's own servers rather than in the cloud, offering full control over security and data residency. Asset Bank no longer supports on-premise, as it can reduce access to new features, updates and scalability.

Permissions Management

Controls within a DAM system that determine who can access, edit, download, or share specific assets.

Portals

Public- or partner-facing interfaces within a DAM system that provide controlled access to selected collections of assets, often used for press, agencies, or distributors.

Prepend

To add data or text to the beginning of existing content, for example prepending a project code to asset names to improve searchability or organisation. (For opp: see 'Append'.)

Preview Generation

The ability to view thumbnails or low-res versions of assets within the DAM software before downloading.

Repurposing

Reusing an existing digital asset for a different project, format, or channel, often enabled by a DAM system. 

Search (Traditional/Visual/ AI‑Powered)

Methods ranging from keyword and faceted search to natural language or image-based search using AI. Literally, it's what you type into your Asset Bank homepage search bar to surface the content you're after. 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Metadata

Metadata that includes SEO elements like alt text and meta titles, used for digital assets published online. The SEO uplift is only really applicable to public-facing DAM software.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

A user authentication method that allows individuals to access a DAM system using their existing login credentials (e.g., company email), streamlining access and improving security across platforms.

Single Source of Truth

A central, authoritative repository where the most up-to-date and approved versions of assets are stored and accessed. 

Tagging

Adding descriptive terms to digital assets to aid in categorisation and search.

Taxonomy

The classification system used to organise digital assets within a DAM solution, often including categories, tags, and folders.

Templating

The use of pre-designed, brand-approved templates stored in the DAM platform for fast content creationUsage Analytics – Reporting features within a DAM tool that track how assets are used, by whom, and where.

Usage Rights

The permissions or licensing terms that define how, where, and for how long a digital asset can be used, shared, or published.

User Roles

Predefined levels of access within the DAM, assigning different capabilities such as viewing, editing, approving, or downloading.

Version Control

The ability to manage and track different versions of digital assets as they are edited or updated over time.

Video Asset Management (VAM)

A specialised subset of Digital Asset Management (DAM) focused on the storage, organisation, retrieval, and distribution of video content. VAM systems are designed to handle large file sizes, multiple video formats, and complex metadata specific to video, such as frame rate, resolution, and codecs. These systems often include tools for video previewing, transcoding, version control, and integration with editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro.

Watermarking

The addition of visible or invisible marks to assets to identify ownership or prevent unauthorised reuse.

Workflow Automation

The use of automated steps in asset review, approval, and distribution processes, improving speed and consistency.

Workflow Management

Tools and processes within a DAM system for managing the review, approval, and distribution of digital assets.

Have we missed any? If you think there should be something else on this list, drop as a note on LinkedIn.