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Adobe Photoshop delivers dark mode, better object selection for 30th anniversary

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Adobe Photoshop has turned 30 years old, and in honor of the milestone, Adobe is releasing new updates to both Mac and iOS versions of the creative software with dark mode support better content-aware fill tools, and more.

Adobe Photoshop has long been the choice for photographers, digital artists, and designers, and has managed to be top in its field for three decades now. In celebration, Adobe has just released a slew of new updates aimed at improving user experience for both desktop and the new iPadOS versions of Photoshop.

Photoshop Desktop updates

Content-Aware Fill Workspace Improvements

Users can make multiple selections and apply multiple fills without needing to lave the workspace. Using the new "apply" feature will allow you to see how the feature will look before you fully commit.

Lens Blur improvements

Image Credit: Adobe Image Credit: Adobe

Lens Blur output has been improved, giving users more control and creating more realistic results. Adobe has shifted Lens Blur to the GPU, which allows for synthetic blurring of the foreground, background, or middle of an image. The feature is also capable of providing better bokeh via the specular highlight option.

macOS Dark UI support

Image Credit: Adobe Image Credit: Adobe

Photoshop now features the ability to match Catalina's dark mode. System dialogs, such as save windows, now match the settings of Catalina by default.

General performance improvements

Adobe has improved the mousing experience for Photoshop. Clicking, panning, zooming, and rolling will feel smooth and responsive, especially when using the hand tool.

Photoshop on the iPad updates

Object Selection tool

Image Credit: Adobe Image Credit: Adobe

Improved Object Selection makes its way to the iPad, with special care to make it work seamlessly with the Apple Pencil. It allows users to quickly select objects within a scene and isolate them from the background.

Type settings

Image Credit: Adobe Image Credit: Adobe

The iPad now gets improved and expanded type settings, allowing many users to avoid needing to switch between the iPadOS and desktop versions of Photoshop when applying type. The update includes tracking, leading, scaling, and formatting.

Earlier this month, Adobe rolled out several updates to Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Raw Classic as a part of their continued efforts to improve the user experience for its macOS and iPad apps. Updates included expanded display options, expanded exporting options, and improved metadata handling.



4 Comments

polymnia 15 Years · 1080 comments

Hooray!

welcome improvement to tools I use all the time. Especially the Content Aware Fill. It’s always seemed like such a black box. Granted, I have not downloaded the update yet, so I’m taking at face value the improvement claims. 

cornchip 11 Years · 1943 comments

Type support in Photoshop has sucked terribly for a long, long time. I've noticed marginal improvements in more recent updates, so I'm not expecting to get my socks knocked off for this one. Also the "Spot Healing" tool has seemingly been broken for about a year now. I have to use the "Patch" too instead. Not holding my breath for a fix on that either.

MacPro 18 Years · 19845 comments

Just installed looking forward to trying all this!

Graphics related... I wish Apple's Photos had its own dark mode that didn't need Appearance Dark for whole macOS.  I use Capture One for serious work but Photos a lot for family and vacation stuff and that white background is just painful.

MacPro 18 Years · 19845 comments

polymnia said:
Hooray!

welcome improvement to tools I use all the time. Especially the Content Aware Fill. It’s always seemed like such a black box. Granted, I have not downloaded the update yet, so I’m taking at face value the improvement claims. 

Agreed