Photoshop turns 30 years old today, and it's been a long ride, from its pre-release use for James Cameron’s 1989 film The Abyss, the CS2 innovation of the healing brush, and whizbang content-aware features, to Sensei AI tricks and last year’s debut of Photoshop for iPad.
Adobe is marking the milestone with a few sweet additions to the image-editing software of record, including improvements to the Content-Aware Fill and Lens Blur tools, and faster performance for common operations. Photoshop for iPad also gets some big additions.
Content-Aware Fill and Blur Improvements
In the Content-Aware Fill workspace, you can now make multiple selections and fills by hitting Apply rather than the OK button after each change. This lets you fill a complex area with multiple fill needs without going back and forth in the interface. The tool now also samples all layers.
The old Lens Blur (left) and the new, GPU-enhanced blur, with hexagonal bokeh (right)
The Lens Blur tool has been improved to give more realistic blurring, color, and bokeh, all with faster performance. The tool now takes advantage of your computer’s GPU and takes the properties of light and 3D simulation into consideration to deliver these improvements.
Some basic operations get speed boosts, too, including panning and zooming in large images. Windows stylus users no longer need to install the temperamental WinTab driver to use their input devices.
Photoshop for iPad Improvements
When the long-awaited Photoshop for iPad debuted, many were disappointed with how limited the first release was, despite Adobe’s reassurances that features would be continually arriving. The company has made good on this, adding Subject Select in less than a month after the initial 1.0 realease. Object Select, like Subject Select, takes advantage of Sensei AI to determine prominent elements in the photos. You simply draw a selection box, and the program selects the objects.
Object Selection in Photshop for iPad
The app already brings the advantages of getting intimate with your image by using touch input and the Apple Pencil, and already supports layers along with compositing, masking and retouching.
With this update, Photoshop for iPad also gets new type tools, including tracking, leading, scaling, and case controls. Kerning isn’t yet an option, but it’s on the product roadmap.
Further Reading
- Lightroom Gets Support for Huge Images
- Adobe Lightroom Lands on the New Mac App Store
- Adobe's New AI Detects Photoshopped Faces
- Lightroom Adds Pro Learning Tools, Texture Slider
- More in Photo Editing