What it does
Spectrum is Adobe’s design system, with foundations, tokens, patterns and implementation guidance. Its hub offers React and Web Components areas and component playgrounds for exploring properties. The public hub is free to browse, and Adobe’s React Spectrum implementation is open source under Apache 2.0.
Spectrum’s hub begins with foundations and then separates components by implementation. Choose See all components to explore a control and its available properties, states and behavior. The hub currently labels its React and Web Components areas beta, with native platform areas still forthcoming.
Adobe’s implementation libraries serve distinct jobs. React Spectrum supplies styled components following Spectrum; React Aria provides unstyled components and behavior for a custom design system; React Stately handles component state. React Spectrum supports themes, dark mode and right-to-left language layouts.
The React Spectrum repository uses Apache License 2.0. Reading the hub or obtaining its public code does not require a Creative Cloud subscription. The implementation library and the broader collection of Adobe brand assets are different resources, so check the terms attached to any separate asset you plan to reuse.
Strengths
- Interactive component playgrounds expose available properties and configurations.
- Foundations and tokens support work beyond the supplied components.
Watch out for
- The hub labels React and Web Components documentation areas as beta
- Native-platform areas are described as forthcoming
Best for
- Teams designing interfaces aligned with Adobe’s system
Sources
- Start with Spectrum (Oct 27, 2026)
- Adobe React Spectrum libraries (Oct 27, 2026)
- React Spectrum Apache License 2.0 (Oct 27, 2026)