Every version of Photoshop needs to turn heads with exciting, breakthrough technology. Aiming high, however, can’t mean forgetting the “small” stuff*. Each version has to deliver lots of small, solid, impactful changes.
With that in mind, next week the Photoshop team is going to try something new: By and large we’re going to take a break from working on big, long-term projects (Cocoa conversion, etc.), and instead all the engineers will focus on fixing small, irritating things about the program. It’s a short, intensive run at low-hanging fruit.
We’re targeting the kind of stuff that makes you (or us) say, “Man, if only someone took a little time to change X, things would be so much smoother.” They’re the kind of changes that you see listed in our “CS4: Sweating the Details” post.
So, what would you like to see the team do?
We’ve pulled together a list of 30 or so candidate ideas for you to rate. There are of course hundreds, if not thousands, of feature requests on record, and rather than trying to list everything, we’ve tried to whittle down to a reasonable set. You’re of course welcome to write in your own suggestions (and don’t feel like you have to rate everything).
For this exercise it’s good to think in terms of very focused changes. Many times things that seem simple are complicated, but we’ll sort through the ideas & determine which is which. Example suggestions:
- More helpful:
- “Make the layer styles dialog remember last-used settings, or let me set the default values”
- “Give the Info panel a readout for current zoom level”
- “Let me rotate guides”
- “Let me adjust color temperature in Photoshop just like in Camera Raw”
- Less helpful:
- “Let me save all my history states in files” (huge, kind of impossible)
- “Make Photoshop work like Lightroom” (too vague)
- Better: “Provide rule-of-thirds overlays when cropping”
- “Bring back dialogs for adjustment layers” (out of step with the app’s bigger direction)
- Better: “Change X specific things about the Adjustments panel”
- “Quit changing keyboard shortcuts”/”Make everything consistent” (obviously running counter to one another, and both vague & absolutist)
- Better: “Change X shortcut in PS [and maybe other apps]”
Thanks, and looking forward to hearing your thoughts (via comments here and/or the survey),
J.
* As I’ve noted previously, when I started on Photoshop, PS7 had just shipped. The two biggest applause grabbers were the Healing Brush (crazy Buck Rogers image science) and being able to rename a layer inline in the Layers palette (a completely humble change, one that saved literally zero clicks, but one that just felt totally right). It takes both kinds.
PS–In the spirit of sharing, here are the survey responses that have arrived so far.
PPS–Props to the After Effects team for establishing the “JDI” process at Adobe, something they’ve used to make tons of small enhancements.
Here are some very basic, simple ones for me.
1. Let the info palette show tenths of percent for CMYK values.
2. Rule of thirds in crop box (make it a checkmark, whatever 😉 ). I know you wrote that already but I just wanted to second you on it.
3. Put in a checkbox to reverse the clone stamp.
4. Bring back the preference to swap cmd-z and cmd-option-z for undo and step backward. If this exists somewhere else I’d love to know. 😉
5. When the tools palette is docked to the left hand side of the monitor, images for some reason always open up underneath it. This wasn’t the behavior in CS3 and it’s quite annoying.
6. Let us have multiple info palettes or more info in a larger info palette.
7. Let the crop tool have a fixed aspect ratio (no, the width/size boxes do not work that way). It should behave more like LR’s, which has aspect ratio control.
That’s just a few from me. There may be solutions for them already, but they would make my life more useful. 🙂
It’s great to see the Photoshop team trying this approach. I think that it worked really well for us on the After Effects team when we did much the same thing to make lots of minor adjustments to functionality and the UI for After Effects CS4.
Bring back the feature from ImageReady to save slices. This way we can take slices from one PSD and put them on another PSD. It would be very helpful.
Fix the operation of copying an effect from one layer to another. With very, very rare exceptions, the alt+drag and drop just moves the effect from one layer to the other (Vista x64 if it’s a platform specific thing).
[Are you holding Alt down before you start dragging? –J.]
Any chance of getting the incremental up+down arrows to adjust text attributes per Illustrator et al (instead of one arrow drop down and manual numeric editing for precise point size)?
[Have you tried using the arrow keys in PS text fields? –J.]
Make the control to lock transparent pixels work with copy and paste. I often need to select only the solid pixels in an image with a shadow or glow, but I’ve yet to find an easy way to do that. If the transparent pixel lock worked with image selection, I could copy and paste just the solid pixels to a new layer.
[I’m not sure whether I follow you completely, but how about Cmd/Ctrl-clicking the layer to select the opaque pixels, then copying/pasting those? –J.]
That color temp control? Good one. How about a simple way to “Open in Camera Raw” from PS to work on an opened image?
[We’ve talked about that a few times, and it actually wouldn’t be hard to do. The question is, does its value warrant the complexity it adds to the overall Photoshop UI/workflow/set of options? It’s a can of worms, and thus far we’ve said no. –J.]
1. Ability to change the order of multiple layer effects applied to a layer.
2. Ability to add multiple copies of the same layer effect to a single layer.
[These two ideas are sort of one in the same, in that they’re require reworking layer effects to be a more flexible, independently stackable construct. –J.]
3. Text copied in from Illustrator turns into editable text in Photoshop (maintains text formatting, possibly an option to choose point or paragraph text).
[Ah, this already works. 🙂 Click your text in AI to make it active (with a blinking cursor), then copy it. In Photoshop start a new text layer (again with a blinking cursor), then paste. The trick is to copy/paste the *contents* of the text object, not the text object itself. The problem with the latter is that the AI text could have any number of effects & transformations applied that would make it impossible to turn into native PS text, and PS doesn’t have a way to know. –J.]
4. Add tags to layers so you can sort/group by tags automatically.
[We added layer-based metadata support in CS4, so you could use a Flash panel to apply these tags. We just don’t have a built-in way to do this sort of tagging, nor does PS offer a way to search/filter your layer stack. –J.]
Make Photoshop (and all the rest of CS4) play nice with Spaces on OSX.
[We’ve worked very hard on this already, and my understanding is that Apple isn’t going to put effort into making Spaces play better with Carbon-based apps. Hopefully the remaining problems in PS will go away when we switch to Cocoa. –J.]
What usually happens when I open an image from Lightroom (in space 2) to Photoshop (in space 4), is that the tool bars and scroll bar for the image end up in space 4, but the image itself ends up in space 2 floating in the air. Still editable, but alas, all the tools are in the other space…
Just a small suggestion, I was waiting to show up on CS4, but didn’t… I would love a minimum opacity option on brushs. Pretty much like the minimum diameter, but for opacity. It would be awesome!
[Sorry, can you elaborate on how this would be useful? –J.]
Make brush size scrubby.
(So I can use it with a tablet PC and so I can use it without switching to the keyboard.)
[You’re aware of the drag-to-resize feature in CS4, right? As for not doing it via the keyboard, I’m not sure what modifier you’d use to invoke this mode. Suggestions? –J.]
Follow-up. Click-to-drag is alt-right-click-drag (PC) which means I need to access the keyboard. Might as well use [ ] keys.
I’d like to work the tablet (PC, not Wacom) closed and change brush sizes.
As for where, with the brush selected, right under the Edit menu title is the word “Brush”. I’d be delighted if I could click and scrub left-right to change brush size.
1. Layers – Addition of a layer lock that would prevent selection of paths with the direct selection or path selection tools (I use shape layers for most everything in a site design and I hate accidentally selecting the wrong shape).
2. Text – Allow soft returns (shift+enter). I know it’s possible to paste in text from other Adobe apps and have it maintain the soft returns however I haven’t been able to do it within Photoshop without manually modifying the leading and/or space after paragraph.
1. Ability to dynamically choose Image Interpolation method with crop tool instead of going back to General tab of preferences.
2. Ability to easily adjust exposure in ACR with left hand hot keys (e.g. Z exp) without having to select exposure with mouse.
3. ACR workspace presets for this time only then return to Default of my choosing. If I want to create 8bit sRGB for web this time, I always forget to change back to 16bit Adobe RGB until it’s too late.
Hey, how about making HDR more discoverable — it’s currently hidden under Image > Mode. Some presets wouldn’t hurt either. Yeah, I know I’m cheating since I work on the team…
Please make it so that when I use Command + Q on my Mac to close Photoshop, that it doesn’t crash and bring up the error report screen.
I would love to have guides at angles – 45 degrees would be a great start, but would like to be able to work in 5 and 15 degree sticky increments, but ultimately have it work at any angle I choose. I don’t want or need it often, but it’d sure be nice 🙂
Since I’m begging, it would be nice to have the rulers “bend” with the guides to help with spacing guides relative to one another, and I’d also want to to be able to set a new guide normal to or parallel to a previous guide. Thanks 🙂
Here’s a few small things:
1. Fuse the the Gradient Fill and the Gradient Editor dialogs into one. Current operation is first the Gradient Fill then then a separate modal dialog for the Gradient preset options. I always disliked having to have to go through two hoops to adjust the gradient. Particularly, when then user has the Gradient Editor active and decides to use the click+drag operation to reposition. This operation only works when the Gradient Fill is active.
Preferred fusion method of the Gradient Fill + Editor dialogs I imagined would be like how the Image > Shadow/Highlights dialog appears. Have the Gradient Fill appear at the top (Basic Options), then a ‘Show more’ option at the bottom (Advanced Options) for the Gradient Editor to appear at the bottom. One dialog (modaless), and the click+drag to reposition will apply for which ever option you use (Basic/Advanced).
2. Expand ‘Place’ option to include Fireworks native composite.png files so that when placed and double clicked it will open in Fireworks much the same way Ps handles native .ai/.eps files.
3. Preserve ‘History Snapshots’ when doc is saved. I love how ACR has this employed.
4. Add an Auto Snapshot when opened in ACR. Current History Panel in Photoshop has a preference for this and is a great timesaver. Often, in ACR I wished I had made a snapshot of the original before making changes.
5. Who uses the Art History Brush? After all these years I have yet to find a reason to use it.
Just a few.
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I’d like for the full compliment of commands to be available when transforming a smart-object.
For example you cannot set a numeric angle for skew when transforming a smart-object.
[Hmm–I’m embarrassed to say I hadn’t noticed that. I’ll investigate. –J.]
Another one would be to add a Convert to ‘ACR Smart Object’option. Meaning convert a Layer to Smart Object, but when double clicked it will open in ACR. Thus allowing for round tripping to/from (Acr/PS) on a Layer basis when it never orignated as a Raw file.
The option to have Adjustment Layers open in their own dialogs.
[Did I not… never mind. –J.]
The ability to paste a hex number into ALL hex color fields, no matter how deep in mode boxes you are.
[Which fields, specifically, do you have in mind? –J.]
Also, let me eyedrop colors even if I happen to be working from a Color or Gradient layer (it wants to select from the grayscale mask of he layer, not what’s visible).
Auto-selecting paths with the Path Select tool — I often have to turn off shape layers to select a path I need to modify because the tool jumps to the nearest path instead of the layer I’m actually on.
“Current & Below” option for Eye Dropper (when opt-clicking with the Brush Tool), so you can paint below Adjustment Layers without turning them off. Please!!!
John, is it possible to make Photoshop backup your current file, maybe once in 15 minutes? It would save a lot nerve cells and people’s lifes all around the world.
You can say the files are too big – I saw 3D Studio MAX making it with 100MB+ files and it works ok.
Some kind of autobackup.
P.S. I have lots of suggestions regarding the UI, but I think I can make it with flash panels in the near future.
I’d like all of my settings/actions/shortcuts/panels to be saved automatically as soon as I create or modify them, so when Photoshop crashes, I don’t lose all of them. Right now, I have to close Photoshop for my settings to be saved.
Allow the ruler tool cursor to sample colors for the info panel, just like every other tool can.
There are some vector/bitmap alignment issues that I would like to see fixed.
1. How about the ability to read color values AND measure distance simultaneously?
2. A crop tool re-tune, please. Why can’t I change screen modes while the crop tool is active? Change Resolution/aspect ratio? Hit tab for tool bar toggle?
3. Apply a clipping mask to a group? Would this be possible? Please?
4. Stackable blending modes on a single layer
5. Edit>Fade is so TOUCHY! I understand that you can’t do any operations inbetween your filter and the fade, but if you forget to fade first, it is annoying to have to undo + redo the filter. Shouldn’t you be able to just undo to the point of the filter, and fade at that point?
6. I am tired of losing recently changed preferences in PS if the app crashes. Shouldn’t PS save preferences to the disk as soon as I set them? (Mac OS)
Thanks for your patience + willingness to listen!
One of my main source of frustration:
Improved interactivity on gradient tool so you can visually edit/adjust the gradient on screen and have it applied only when you click Apply.
Have a look at the aging Corel Photo-Paint – they got it right, it works more like the Illustrator gradient, although it’s bitmap.
Not sure how difficult would it be to change the behavior, but even if you don’t include in the JDI, keep it in mind.
Please please please add the ability to delete more than one path or channel at a time (like layers). Having to delete 20 paths one by one is a crazy waste of time. All of the prepress CMYK operator industry people will thank you! (they are a big group but for some reason have a small voice among the PS community).
How about a way to use the transform tool while zoomed in past the transform handles? It would be very helpful when trying to precisely align multiple images to the very pixel.
THANK You for acknowledging the request for the color temp tool in Photoshop.
How about a way to have Smart Objects linked externally from my file? Files with S.O.s become massive and slow due to all the scratch disk space they eat up. I am reluctant to use them unless unavoidable for certain projects (when the art director wants something bigger, no smaller, no bigger, etc…).
Thanks!! -josh
1. A line tool like illustrator so you can stroke and dash a path…………….I can dream can’t I?
2. Update vector tools to behave like fireworks and illustrator. (I like the easy adjust rounded corners in FW and the magnified nodes in Illi)
3. Seperate special layers for guides and slices
4. Make smart objects behave like symbols in flash. When I double click on a smart object have the entire layout faded in the background with the smart object on top.
5. Adjust fade, blend mode, etc. on multiple non-grouped layers
6. Merge the paths panel into the layers panel, to me they’re all layers.
7. Remove the “effects” sub layer that shows or hides all effects and just list the effects. If you want to turn off all the effects you would click on the fx icon on the layer and a red slash would indicate all effects were off. I would add that toggle feature to all of the lock icons also.
8. If I click on the FX icon on a layer and slide the mouse either way I want it to scale the effect.
9. If I put a layer into a colored folder, I would like the option to have the transform controls match the color of the folder.
Anyways, thats just a few I can think of.
Make the applictaion bar more usefull: There is so much space to fill with “custom” items. (Maybe make a kind of Configurator for the application bar).
Send greatings (from Austria) to the team! They make a great job!
When you make a new group or layer by clicking on icon at bottom of layer’s palette, why is the name not automatically highlighted for naming to something more useful? A good practice to do. What makes this ommision more odd is that you do get the option if doing same thing via shortcuts or drop down menu.
An indication when you last saved the file in the History palette would be very useful.
Please, don’t rotate the brush, when you’re using the new rotate canvas in Cs4.
Excellent approach, things like this will greatly improve the PS experience!
I use both PC and Mac and the PC version is better in several little ways.
Visual Feedback when dragging a layer to duplicate or bin, for example.
Intelligent resizing of palettes when switching between different palettes in a vertical group makes for less fiddling around, but then constant faffing and dragging windows around/resizing is all part of the Mac experience I guess! 😉 But overall the Mac version seems far less refined and a bit clumsy in comparison to the PC version. Though the new [and more space efficient] chrome of the PC version cannot be entirely emulated with the Mac’s OS restrictions
Dan V – “4. Bring back the preference to swap cmd-z and cmd-option-z for undo and step backward. If this exists somewhere else I’d love to know. ;)”
Keyboard Shortcuts editor should sort you out.
Cntl/Cmd+Shft+Alt+k
That’s what I use to get the undo/redo keys to work how I want.
* PNG 8/8bit colour/transparency via save to web.
* Allow dithering for gradient overlays in layer styles.
1. Stop document windows sliding under the Options/Applications bars
2. Treat two panel columns as one, so document windows aren’t hidden behind “inside” column.
3. Make option of seeing grid in Lens Correction sticky, so I don’t have to turn it off each time I enter dialog. It’s not needed for Settings. Maybe even turn it on automatically when you apply Transforms (though not so sure about that).
4. Distinguish somehow layers that have had Blend If applied to them. Currently, there is no way of knowing unless you open Blend If.
5. Let me reorder the icons in the Adjustments panel.
6. Separate the Pen and shape tool options, so if I used Pen tool last to create a path, its option isn’t changed to fill because I then used a shape tool set to fill (I know this is a big job but it’s needed sorting since, I think, Photoshop 6).
7. Include a pop-up in the status bar that includes preset zoom sizes (other apps have it and is very useful).
8. Assume user wants to convert Background layer without changing properties, so you need to press Opt/Alt to see New Layer dialog.
9. Assign Shift-double-click to convert layer to Background layer. Some filters change Background to layer. A quick way converting back to Background would be good
10. Let me transform a Background layer without converting it to a layer first. For example, pressing Cmd+T converts layer automatically and then applies transform handles, so it’s one smooth action (enable Transform menus as well, of course, for Background layer)
11. In Apply Image, when multiple images are open, use source image for masking. for example: open images 1, 2, 3. With 3 still the current image, select Apply Image and then Mask. The source for the mask should be 3 while you are working on 3 but Photoshop uses image 1 for the mask. There are times when you may want source to be different but they are rare (I’ve never encountered one).
I put this in the survey buy maybe others would like/hate this idea…
What about new dialog boxes for Image > Mode and Image > Image Rotation (among other flyout menus) that could be triggered with keyboard shortcuts? It would be nice to be able to hit a number key to select the options, as in: Shortcut triggers Image Rotation Dialog Box. 1 selects 180, 2 selects 90 CW, etc. Return/Enter sets choice.
The less mousing, the more productive. The more shortcuts we memorize, the better exercise for our brains!
BTW, it’s amazing how proactive you are, John. I don’t mean to curse you (or lose touch with you) but I hope your rise in the company continues.
Nice Idea, John.
My little fix that would save a me a ton of clicks a day would be a way of turning off the PNG Option dialogue box that pops up each time you save a PNG.
In the font list, Adobe Garamond Pro should appear alphabetically under A not under G. (Adobe Caslon Pro should be under A, etc.)
I would like to be able to get to all the glyphs of OpenType fonts without having to use Illustrator. For example, Bickham Script Pro has maybe 10 different lower case “a” characters available, but I can only get to 2 of them in Photoshop.
The ability to paste a hex number into ALL hex color fields, no matter how deep in mode boxes you are.
[Which fields, specifically, do you have in mind? –J.]>/i?
Save For Web – Gif, PNG or JPG – Matte Color – Other… can’t paste into hex field
(thanks for asking, and and sorry about the Adj Panel thing)
I was just hoping to see spacing between text layers of variable widths work.
Let’s say you’re making a navbar out of 6 text layers of varying widths. Highlight all of them, and try using the spacing to set them equidistant.. nada..
Great idea John!
RC
Scale layer effects when you transform an object.
If you have an object with a drop shadow, bevel, etc and carry out a transformation, the shadow depth stays the same, having to use the flyout menu, (per layer) to scale the effects.
The only way out we have found is to scale using image size, even an option in preferences or transform would be helpful.
A command for auto centered vert and horz. guides.
Not sure this is already being addressed, but one little annoying thing…while using the brush tool, right click opens the brush picker, but the only way to close it is to click on the image, which then requires an ‘undo’ to get rid of the brush mark you just made. How about a close button on that?
Thanks for being so progressive and asking for this sort of thing. Nice to see.
Camera Raw: Add a checkbox/key command to preview changes from all panels at once
Isn’t that already possible in the presets panel? Or is it a a checkbox that’s always available?
[Applying a preset actually changes the settings in your file. It also doesn’t let you get back to the starting point of the current editing session. As for the preview checkboxes, they work on a per-panel basis. That’s useful, but there’s no global “preview” (as there is in LR). –J.]
I would like printer options to actually be remembered in an action.
I am unable to use an action to print a photos from CS4 under XP or Vista/64 when I select the “Size to Fit”, the action crashes CS4. (tried on 3 different computers)
Something else that I would like, but it isn’t a problem, it is a feature. I would like to be able to select photos and print from bridge. (maybe through Image Processor?)
Apply effects to a group of layers?? (maybe too difficult to do)
While I am asking for that, how about being able to clip a group?
A few things I would love to see:
*A more accurate color picker. Sometimes, it’s dead on – a lot of the time, it’s not and typing in codes over and over can get really annoying fast!
*Some sort of way to evenly distribute multiple layers across a canvas. Say you have six layers all of the same circle and you want to space them out evenly – you can’t do that now without taking the time to measure and set up guides. Would love to see something where I could highlight all the layers and then click a distribute button in the move tool and the layers would become evenly spaced either horizontally or vertically.
Thanks so much for asking!
Further to my request for scaling layer effects, rotation of the effects would be helpful too. Say you have a bottle with a drop shadow (even if global light is turned off) the shadow will not rotate with the object.
And a way of turning off global light for the whole document, and a preference where you can set the default to non global light.
please add option to have newly recorded ‘action’ be saved/embeded to .psd file.
that would be very helpful to automate multiple exporting and other workflow “macros”.
Show the blog post adn these responses to other teasm in the company and ask them if they would be so kind as to do the same. Knock-on effect would be to get other great stuff which affects how we work between programmes fixed too. Some of the productivity issues are about what happens to Photoshop stuff when it is used in other Suite applications. e.g. how colour mode translation is set between PS and ID, copy and past of path information, and learning from you about why kjeeping on redrawing a raster drop shadow from an AI file when it is in ID seems like layer redraw USED to be in PS
Please, please, can you make my preferences stick? Adobe Photoshop prefs are notoriously flaky at sticking, they frequently revert back to inches from my setting them at pixels. It is maddening some days to have to reset them.
Duh, how could I forget. Easy export and import of ALL presets and personalisations with a single command.
None of this looking for stuff hidden in a multitude of folders which are also different between Mac + PC to add to challenge.
And as mentioned above [which reminded me of this bugbear], save new tweaks as you go along – Opera has done it for years. Nothing more frustrating than creating a complex action and then PS crashes and you lose it all. In fact PS only crashes after you’ve written a complex action, just to remind you of why programmes should save programme changes as they go along and not require restarting or fiddly manual saving.
1) Please, please, please fix the Image Processor. In its current state, it refuses to save out cmyk jpegs. If i wanted it to convert my files, i’d tell it to!
2) How about the ability to rename my layer from the Layer Style window? Do you know how frustrating it is to have to go through 4 clicks to rename a layer if we happen to be a pixel off?
Thanks!
As matter of fact i am quite satisfied with toolset and features of Photoshop CS4 but i think it was immature version. Please make it functional and without bugs. It was horrible experience using it comparing with CS3 which was really stable and without some bigger bugs.
I am really annoyed when i need to drop one layer from one document to another when i am in tabbed view… real nightmare is even 5 seconds can pass it won’t open another document so i can drop a layer in it… For what reason then i need tabbed view when is not functional. I would like to see it snapping. When i hover with layer i am dragging to open in blink of an eye. Open GL still is quirky and when activated makes problems… I don’t know which fault it is… from adobe or nvidia drivers. All seem to be sluggish compared to working speed within Photoshop CS3.
Point is that i don’t need some uber cool and fancy groundbreaking functions that i can’t use effectively. Lifespan between versions is short. When you get use to current version new one is served so all goes again.
So in new version i would like to see same as CS4 but fully working as intended. Mr Bruce Chizen seemed to be a real boss 🙂
I am sorry for my rant but i am sure that you guys at adobe who are doing great jobs are aware of problematic things.
Peace 🙂
‘rotating guidelines’ would be a god send since its the only reason why I have manga studio installed for drawing perspective. I know photoshop is ‘photo shop’ but many illustrators use the program so I wish a few more features was added for us.
In other thing is the option to have the brush tip auto tapper at the end like it does in illustrator. with out the use of a tablet, and more controlled the the ‘fade out’ function. what I mean is, after i’ve drawing the line, it should end in a point and not a blunt round.
Thumbnail previews in Explorer
This is a little annoying thing, but I thought of mentioning it anyway.
When you put the cursor into the percentage window (bottom left hand corner of a document), how about highlighting the percentage right away, instead of having to click another time to highlight it.
Illustrator 8 had that ability, then it disappeared in subsequent version. (Heck, MS Word 2004 for Mac has it)
Let’s say, you open a picture and it opens at 66%, and the type looks jaggy, then you click in that window to change the zoom view to 50% to make the type look better – that’s mostly how I use that window.
Dear Jack,
My request, I request a big thank you to you and all the Adobe staff who helps numb nuts do a wonderful job in image editing…
Remember, Perfectionism is rooted in a fear of not being criticized…so goes the folklore in the hills of Kentucky
My best to you and your family,
Ken in KY
“Duh, how could I forget. Easy export and import of ALL presets and personalisations with a single command”
I have to second this suggestion by imajes
I’d also like to see some more work on dual (or more) monitor support, specifically in ACR (having a full image on one screen and tools on the other is always a good start). Part of that would be easy export and import of such settings without having to dig for them.
Great stuff as always, John 🙂
allowing the user to filter layers based on tag (which would have to be added), or name would be awesome to have in files with a lot of layers. folding/unfolding folders using those arrows is a pain if you have several inside of eachother.
mockup: http://www.grabup.com/uploads/a255fc1ff7803c474f431c36afa7a3a6.png?direct
Multiple instances of effects on a layer. Perhaps with multiple global lights.
Please could I have a preference that switches off panel docking. I have a limited amount of space on my 2nd monitor and when moving panels I don’t want then to dock together. It takes too much work to get them back where I want, sometimes the order I move them matters. (I know I can save / reopen the settings, sometimes that doesn’t help with a oneoff move)
The first thing that comes to my mind: I would love the ctrl+alt drag to control size of the brush (+cmd for softness) in the liquify filter..
A very simple one:
– Make the two keyboard shortcuts for switching the currently selected layer (one layer up/down) customizable. They only work on the english keyboard layout 🙁
Thanks!
Illustrator:
Make it simpler to move a color from an object to another, from a gradient to an object or vice versa.
Photoshop:
Multiple layer effects of the same type (eg: 2 drop shadows).
Switch Cmd-Z and Cmd-Opt-Z shortcuts.
Everything written just above 😉
Allow me to save layer Blending Option presets so I can have all my defaults setup for color overlay, stroke, drop shadow.
PLEASE make adjustments like shadow/highlight and unsharp mask an ADJUSTMENT LAYER ON THE LAYERS PALLET!! 🙂 That way we can go back into those settings and change them. THAT would be AMAZING! 🙂
This one is a bit tough to explain, but has large impacts when doing things like wedding album design, so bear with me.
When you resize an image, it works as expected. However, when you resize a layer using transform, you almost always end up with a 1 pixel wide translucent ring around the transformed layer (I presume this is due to the fact that PS is trying to do a sub-pixel resize on the perimeter).
This is almost always not what is wanted: that is, a solid layer just at different size, and not a solid layer with a translucent ring.
You can test this easily enough by putting a black square on a layer above a white background, and transform the black square to any size that is not a factor of two. Then zoom in on the corner.
An optimal solution would be a checkbox to force opaque edges or something like that.
That’s all I can think of to add.
…Mike
There is an occasional bug that appears when one uses the \ (backslash) key to toggle the layer mask to rubylith mode wherein the foreground and background colors are swapped.
Frustrating and annoying and life would be wonderfuller if fixed.
Another thing came to my mind reading: please don’t rotate the brush using the rotate view feature.. I would add: don’t rotate the selection tools either, so instead of rotating canvas it would be possible to rotate the view and making a straight square or whatever.. It would be very nice, or maybe a flaggable option in the option bar to allow both behaver..thanks
“When you put the cursor into the percentage window (bottom left hand corner of a document), how about highlighting the percentage right away, instead of having to click another time to highlight it.”
I would agree with that. I wish there was a pop-up next to the text field with zoom percentages to choose from.
Did you know if you hold down Cmd/Ctrl you can scrub the zoom values in the text field?
Probably impossible: make it possible to use Photoshop like a spreadsheet for images. Layers are the closest analog currently, but would have to be extended to let a layer switch color spaces (or profiles). This would be wickedly slow if always updated automatically, but making me request an explicit recalc would be fine.
Example: I often edit portraits in RGB, then LAB, then CMYK, then convert back to RGB for output. There’s no way to do that non-destructively.
Probably easy: extend the custom CMYK editor to work on predefined CMYK profiles.
Hello John, I imagine that despite sounding like a broken record, you’d still appreciate hearing about some of the items I feel need to be addressed.
[Indeed, Rod. We’ll see how many responses I can provide before the baby wakes up. 🙂 –J.]
Once a user has made an option change to a tool or in a dialog box setting, it should remain sticky, unless s/he has declared a default, where such presets (possibly multiple) should be presentable as a list. This would cover the really irritating grid setting in Lens Correction.
[I don’t know whether stickiness would be wise across the board (e.g. I dislike having Refine Edge start with my last-used settings; just because I used a big radius one time doesn’t mean I want to start there), but it should certainly work for the Lens Correction grid. –J.]
With the arrival of Lightroom & Aperture, the role of Photoshop has increasingly become the program not only for the application of more sophisticated operations to individual images, but also dealing with combining multiple images; for this reason I think that opening multiple images should not preclude work being carried out on those already opened. So, if I open five images, once the first has loaded, I’d like to see the subsequent ones open in the background, whilst I worked on the first.
[I know. The lack of background processing is a spot where Photoshop’s framework shows its age. It was on our to-fix list, but now Cocoa has to come first. –J.]
Also having created items that now appear in ‘Open Recent’, it would be really handy to be open several with one visit. Additionally, I would very much like to see the path to these in a tooltip when I hover over each.
[I have a solution in mind. –J.]
As Shangara has already mentioned the Blend If state is hidden, please could we have a badge within the Layers panel that indicates its use.
[We need a proper layer/object Properties inspector, one with plenty of real estate to show these characteristics, allow space for renaming without accidentally launching Layer Styles, etc. –J.]
Also, there are times when Colour Temperature changes are needed after the event, and I have re-imported a TIFF to Lightroom as being more satisfactory than effecting the changes in Photoshop, I would like some way to address this within Photoshop itself.
I have long wanted the implementation of a round trip between Paths to Guides and back to Paths and rotatable Guides and being able to create parallelism of Paths once rotated. Being able to have Guides layer-assigned, such that the user can achieve complexity and simplicity, by the ability to switch these on/off.
At a very simplistic level, it is hard to easily deselect paths when no spare space is left within the Paths panel.
Being able to individually colour code paths would also be useful.
Selecting multiple layers both in selection creation and in path deletion would be very handy.
Creating open paths for the tracking of a brush along a path would be greatly improved if there were a way to deselect the pen tool other than by changing tool, which is what I have to do currently.
Within the Paths panel, please could we rename the path in situ as per the Layers panel; it should not require a separate dialog box!
With the recent ability to Rotate the Canvas, could we not crop in this (LR) fashion? Just a thought.
When a feature is poorly implemented, it is very easy to be fooled into thinking there is little takeup of the facility. Colour coding layers is just such a case. Please could we select and colour code multiple layers.
Layer Comps to PDF would be welcomed if that could be restored.
Although adding the feathering of vector masks is a step forward, I would still like to see the ability to add a second greyscale mask to a layer.
[Agreed. –J.]
When using Free Transform, I would like to be able to select individual or multiple anchors, thereby making it easier to nudge, but also offer greater scope.
Similarly the Warp tool would benefit from such a change, but in its case it should go farther, allowing the user to extend the overall functionality by adding or subtracting anchors and the behaviour, such that parallel or mirrored distortions could take place. Illustrator a vector program allows for greater distortion of bitmaps but we should not have to out of Photoshop for this. The Shear tool has been neglected, yet it provides the means to do things not possible with Warp. Somehow Warp, Liquify and Shear need to be amalgamated and strengthened, to for instance, allow distort to fill a space.
[I need to send you the magnum opus I just wrote on that subject. –J.]
I will not labour my points regarding History/Snapshots and the behaviour of the panel/s, but suffice to say History should always open to the latest full extent with the most recent state visible, and the limit when reached should provide an alert before loss of the earliest, Snapshots should either be a separate pane or panel.
Spring-loaded tools faces a slight problem with multiple tool options, such as using J to go to say the Spot healer whilst within path creation, in that the tool may in fact be the patch tool, what may be needed here is for the user to define the default tool within a group.
When using the Dodge/Burn tools, having sub 1% would be useful.
The bug in expand selection needs addressing where corners get chopped.
There are a few things I’ve been asking for that I have yet to see.
1) Guide sets – the ability to create sets of guides that can be colored differently from one another and that can be hidden and unhidden independently.
2) Better control over aligning objects.
2a) The ability to set a left and right or top and bottom point and distribute objects between the points.
2b) The ability to evenly distribute the spaces between objects, even if they’re different sizes.
2c) The ability to set a specific amount of space between objects.
Good to see this sort of post! Anyhow, not to be a heckler, but I still don’t understand why storing history is such a big issue, and I develop software for a living. If you’re storing it in memory, you can store it on a disk. It doesn’t need to store ALL history – even just the current set would be fine most of the time.
Anyhow, how about the following:
1. An extended ‘save workspace’ feature to dump all open documents + current history states + windows layouts etc so that that I can restore it later.
2. Autosave/autobackup options so that I have an option to backup a duplicate copy of my file every x minutes of work time, or every x history points? (Think this was suggested above)
3. Skip a release cycle and give us some performance improvements instead? Not such an issue on Windows where half the office still runs CS1 or v7, but on Intel Macs that ain’t an option. A lot of us just don’t need or want these newfangled ‘features’, but we don’t have an option but to accept a much slower product.
4. Paragraph styles. I don’t do much text in PS, but changing my text styles over multiple layers at once would be epically handy.
5. Some better visualisations of layers. Maybe outline modes so that I can see exactly what shapes layers are taking on.
6. A better way to deal with out-of-canvas parts of layers. If i resize, but some is out of canvas, I can’t easily find out what it is without moving the layer.
And reiterating others mentioned above:
– Guide sets – dang that would be handy
– Alignment and distribution tools
In the script “Layer Comps to Files” add a check box on the tiff format to save a flattened tiff file rather than the default layered.
A couple of suggestions:
1. Could you please restore the ability to right-click the image border to select Image Size,Canvas Size, and Duplicate options?
2. Could Crop get its own button again (instead of combining it with the Slice button)? I use both features frequently, and I still forget where the crop button is. It’s frustrating.
3. Could double-clicking the image titlebar to maximize it not hide the toolbar and the top menubar? And how about beign able to drag the entire canvas around in full-screen (even if the image is smaller than the screen)?
And a couple of bugs(sorry, if there’s a more appropriate forum for these, I’ll post them there instead):
1. The Gradient Overlay style: every few times that I use it, clicking the color stops to change the color will fire off multiple help windows. This has been there since Photoshop *6*. Any idea when this might be fixed?
2. After about an hour of use, in Full Screen Mode, switching between that and standard screen mode causes the toolbars to disappear, forcing a restart of Photoshop.
(Note: all of this is on CS4 with the latest patches on WinXP Prof. SP3)
Maybe try and have the same shortcut for hiding all of Adobe apps (Command+H)?
Hello again!
Just to clarify… (this was my earlier comment: Camera Raw: Add a checkbox/key command to preview changes from all panels …)
I meant that after making changes in several panels you go to the presets panel and toggle preview (or press p) you can see the before/after of every change you did. Or did I misunderstand the function of said checkbox?
On the vector shapes tool, it would be nice to have a “border option” similar to stroke but allows the user to select which side(s) of the shape the border is applied to.
1. A Dockingpanel for Layerstyle – no dialog! Would offer faster working.
2. An Object concept, to define general objects, that can be resused as instances. Furthermore they can be also extended by modifying some color infos, for example! These concepts are much better esablished in Flash and also partly in InDesign. (Very important for User Interface Design) Those objects might be shapes with styles or whole folder Groups.
3. Layer styles dialog: Change of default settings, especially the global light should be switched off.
4. Dockingpanel for editing Slice values – no dialog. Was better in days of ImageReady.
5. Make a shape snap to pixel raster when using the transformation tool (Ctrl+T).
Welcome initiative, John – thanks for the opportunity.
Perhaps this has been noted elsewhere, I haven’t seen it, so sorry if I’m duplicating; once the brush is put beyond a certain size its contours partly disappear. Would appreciate the functionality being restored so we see the whole contour of the brush at any size.
I’m running CS3 so forgive me if anything has been addressed already.
1) When adding an adjustment layer (hue and saturation lets say) via the button at the bottom of the layers panel, make the adjustment dialogue box pop up like it would if you would go to LAYER –> NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER –> HUE/SATURATION. I almost always use the “use previous layer to create clipping mask” checkbox and this just seems like a weird inconsistency. I know I can alt-click between layers to quickly make it a clipping mask, but again – just feels inconsistent. Like I’m missing something.
2) When copying and pasting layer styles from one file into another, please actually copy all the properties – even the global lighting property. If I’ve copied an emboss style with global lighting turned off, and paste it on to a layer in a new file, it ignores the specific lighting I’ve used and forces the checked global lighting default. Copy and paste should be copy and paste even if it’s a new file and overrides the new file’s settings.
3) shouldn’t “blending options” really be called “layer options” when you right click on a layer? I know the words “blending options” are there in the dialogue box that pops up, but it seems un-needed. Just have “general blending” and “advanced blending” listed on the right, and “styles” on the left. When copying and pasting layer styles via right-clicking a layer, you CAN just copy and paste only a “screen blend” for example, and no actual layer styles. So even though I’ve copied and pasted a layer style, I really haven’t – just a blending option. To me it just seems there’s some weird terminology used here. Just sort of a confusing thing to new users perhaps. I use layer styles A LOT 🙂
4) yes – multiple layer styles please. I want more than one stroke without duplicating layers or getting crafty by converting outer glows into strokes.
5) I support ideas about making Smart Objects more like Flash. Double clicking them to “enter” them and graying everything out around it would be great. Along this thinking, Flash supports “object level undos” which would be nice for this type of set up. Sometimes I only want to undo something I’ve done in a smart object but I’ve already made changes to the main .PSD so the undos in PS backtrack across the board.
6) I also support ideas surrounding improving the gradient tool in PS. Redrawing a gradient over and over feels very outdated when trying to get it just right. Behavior like Flash would be ideal, though I’m not sure how that might work with raster art. Whenever I want to make an editable gradient now, I make a shape (painted or vector) and add a gradient overlay layer style to it. Frankly I don’t use the gradient tool at all anymore for lack of editable control.
7) How about remembering where I previously saved files to and remembering where I previously opened files from separately? Much of the time, my .PSD files reside in a different location than the “final” output files. So I navigate through dozens of folders on the network to save a file then when I need to open a new .PSD, I need to navigate back to wherever that might be. I have shorcuts setup in Windows, but it still takes a couple clicks to get around. FILE –> OPEN should bring me to the last opened file location, and FILE –> SAVE AS should bring me to the last save location. Jasc Animation Shop (absorbed by Corel?) does this and it’s dreamy…
Thanks much for listening!
I have to agree with Shangara and Rod Wynne Powell
Filter>Distort>Lens correction
Would it be possible to have the grid OFF by default? Or perhaps a way to change its default setting? I’m not in favour of stickiness.
CS4 is fantastic. You keep coming up with things I didn’t know I needed until the feature was there. Thanx.
1) In the Info panel, offer an option to display RGB color numbers with precision up to two decimal points (two decimal points being useful in high-bit spaces, as an alternative to numbers in a 0-32,768 scale).
2)In 16 bit files, please offer the option of entering color values into the file in high-bit space (instead of limiting it to 8 bits).
3) Please bring back the Automate > Contact Sheet function as a default plug-in, the way it used to be, without forcing the user to install it from the installation disc.
Thank you.
How about unifying the option to reset the preferences between Photoshop and Bridge CS4? Bridge allows reset by using the Control/command keys WHILE launching Bridge, but Photoshop requires the cumbersom Control+Alt+Shift key combo (Control+Alt/Option+Shift+Apple key on Mac), AFTER launching Photoshop.
[The combo is already the same: hold Cmd-Opt-Shift/Ctrl-Alt-Shift while launching either BR or PS. –J.]
Sorry for reposting but I can’t think of a better way to reply to your comments. – BJ
Fix the operation of copying an effect from one layer to another. With very, very rare exceptions, the alt+drag and drop just moves the effect from one layer to the other (Vista x64 if it’s a platform specific thing).
[Are you holding Alt down before you start dragging? –J.]
Yes, and it works once in a dozen tries or so.
Any chance of getting the incremental up+down arrows to adjust text attributes per Illustrator et al (instead of one arrow drop down and manual numeric editing for precise point size)?
[Have you tried using the arrow keys in PS text fields? –J.]
Yes, and it works. Just wishing for more interface consistency with the rest of the suite.
Make the control to lock transparent pixels work with copy and paste. I often need to select only the solid pixels in an image with a shadow or glow, but I’ve yet to find an easy way to do that. If the transparent pixel lock worked with image selection, I could copy and paste just the solid pixels to a new layer.
[I’m not sure whether I follow you completely, but how about Cmd/Ctrl-clicking the layer to select the opaque pixels, then copying/pasting those? –J.]
cmd+clicking the layer selects all pixels including the transparent ones. I’d like a way to select only the pixels with no alpha transparency.
That color temp control? Good one. How about a simple way to “Open in Camera Raw” from PS to work on an opened image?
[We’ve talked about that a few times, and it actually wouldn’t be hard to do. The question is, does its value warrant the complexity it adds to the overall Photoshop UI/workflow/set of options? It’s a can of worms, and thus far we’ve said no. –J.]
Is the file/automate list so complex that it couldn’t include the “open with Camera Raw” function? The seven standard items on the menu include some arcane operations. Just say’in…
Photoshop Ideas
instead of filter > other > offset
there should be a canvas offset tool (like the hand tool)
and it should be as easy and responsive as it is in zbrush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkh6m9LEgbI&
Need better brush system. Doesn’t need to be like painter, just take what you have and make it better. And fill in the gaps in functionality compared to other software. For example, it would be great if you had Zbrush’s roller brush and deco brush, improved photoshop’s directional brush quality, and had paint shop pro’s image tubes (they’re like brush tip shapes but with the full color of the original image, or like symbol sprayer in illustrator).
Add zbrush’s drag stroke. It’s like pasting an image, then ctrl+t, then resizing it but it’s simplified down to a single brush tool.
Everything in Image > Adjustments should be moved over to the filters area so I can use ctrl+F to repeat their usage and fade their effect.
If you know any Maya users, have them show you Maya’s 2d paint effects examples. I’m sure they’ll insire you.
All filters that do not have a “live preview” ability or zoom in the filter window should be updated. All filters that are noticeably slow on 200ppi or higher images should also be updated to be faster.
There are 3 photoshop-wanna-be programs out there (can’t remember their name at the moment.) They’re nowhere near photoshop but they have a few features that I’d love to see in photoshop. For example: multiple stroke effects (like illustrator), and the ability to re-order the layer-effects like they were actual layers.
Some people (those who don’t like keyboard shortcuts) might like the option of having 3d-software-like move/rotate/scale interaction tools to work with instead of just the plain old move tool. I know I definitely would love that in Illustrator. Did I ever mention to you just how much the 3d sofware world NEEDS to learn from illustrator AND vice-versa?
Add an optional color wheel/slider like Painters.
http://z.about.com/d/graphicssoft/1/0/e/Painter8_UI.jpg
DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE the UI for working with MASSIVE collections of brushes. Every brush should have the option of containing meta-data about the brush’s creator to make it easy to track down or give credit to the people who made the brushes used in your artwork. (deviantart.com members make a big deal out of brush credits sometimes.) Maybe add .abr file previewing and testing to bridge.
The new keyboard shortcut for drag resizing the brush is too complex. Other apps do it much simpler with Hold B, click & drag.
Resizing a custom brush should show the outline of the actual brush instead of reverting to a circle (make this a checkbox option somewhere).
Add multiple ways ov viewing the same data. For example, in maya there’s the Outliner, scene graph, and hypershade, and they’re all capable of showing you every object in the scene. It would be nice to have multiple ways of viewing all your layers. I’d like an optional/additional layers panel that looks/works more like the one in after effects.
The color profiling shit still confuses the hell out of me. Adobe needs to make a color management for dummies dvd or somethng. As a matter of fact, make 5 of them, each with completely different styles of presenting the same info so at least one version will finally successfully explain this crap to someone.
[You’re aware of the drag-to-resize feature in CS4, right? As for not doing it via the keyboard, I’m not sure what modifier you’d use to invoke this mode. Suggestions? –J.]
Check out autodesk sketchbook pro:
http://img.brothersoft.com/screenshots/softimage/a/autodesk_sketchbook_pro-175056-1.jpeg
[I’m aware of Sketchbook Pro, and I like their pie menus. I still don’t know how, precisely, you want brush resizing to be invoked without touching the keyboard. (I’m not saying it’s impossible. I just want to know what you want.) –J.]
In some ways it’s 9,000% more tablet friendly than anything from adobe.
You guys should really spend more time looking at the competition.
forgot to add a link
http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2008/issue30-sketchbook.html
I think it’s about time we move these discussions to a proper forum where people can quote and reply to relevent text. It would also be nice to set it up sort of like a bug tracker where members can vote for features, mark feature requests as duplicates, vote down and remove obviously dumb/uninformed/inexperienced feature requests, collect thos dumb requests in another thread where we provide the already-existing solution and can direct other inexperienced users to the prewritten information instead of repeating ourselves.
Someone mentioned gradients, have a maya user show and exlain the improvements maya recently made to its gradient editing interface.
Add pathfinder panel to photoshop (FIREWORKS HAS IT, WHY CAN’T WE?)
http://michaelsoft.net/ak/2.png
“Current & Below” option for Eye Dropper (when opt-clicking with the Brush Tool), so you can paint below Adjustment Layers without turning them off. Please!!!
— I second this request.
Autosave at 5, 10, 15, 20 minute intervals.
There are lots of little options in right click menus on windows that aren’t on the mac. For example, right clicking the name of the image gives a menu to resize document, resize canvase and other stuff.
On the mac, allow the layer blending mode (ALL select boxes actually) to retain focus so I can quickly go through them all with the up/down arrow keys. Yes I know about shift & -/+ already.
For new users, add MASSIVELY HELPFUL TOOL TIPS TO EVERYTHING like in Zbrush.
“Apply effects to a group of layers?? (maybe too difficult to do)”
— behind the scenes merge the visibilty of the groups contents and apply the layer effect to that. I won’t mind if editing a member of the group disables the group level effect and I have to wait a second after my edit for it to be re-rendered.
Fix dragging from layer panel to tab.
I have this horribly bug with the brush in opengl windows.
If I make the brush a few hundred pixels in size and start painting, I get large unpainted squares right in the middle of where I paint. They don’t get filled in with the paint that should be there until I click to begin my next stroke or switch to another tool. I’ve tried 2 nvidia and 2 ati cards and tried old and new drivers!
“Duh, how could I forget. Easy export and import of ALL presets and personalisations with a single command”
I don’t want to overwrite my co-workers presets. How about an option to have photoshop work with a presets/preferences folder on my usb key drive (this includes brushes, swatches, shapes, etc…). Would come in really handy when i go back and forth between linux and windows on my pc and OS X and windows on my macbook and the other machines in my office if my laptop battery dies.
Everyone posting here should provide mock-ups or screenshots whenever possible.
This is related to the wedding album post earlier.
When you resize using the left/right/top/or bottom handles they snap to horizontal/vertical guides/pixels/layer borders. But when you resize with the corner handles they don’t snap and you wind up with that “1 pixel wide translucent ring around the transformed layer”. And there’s a similar problem with drawing vector shapes. Make that ‘snap to pixel’ option turned on by default.
“Although adding the feathering of vector masks is a step forward, I would still like to see the ability to add a second greyscale mask to a layer.”
— and if you add more than 2 masks then they all get shown below the layer like layer styles would (this is where having that after-effects-like layer inspector comes in handy)
Expand/contract selection should be available in the upper bar when selection or lasso tool is active. (consider merging selction and lasso tool buttons)
Allow draging the canvas around in normal screen mode (even if the image is smaller than the screen).
Have an option for outer-stroke layer effect to mimic the way borders in css look (hard pixels all around instead of the soft corners photoshop creates.)
“I think it’s about time we move these discussions to a proper forum where people can quote and reply to relevent text.”
Do you mean http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop/photoshop_feature_requests this one?
Not quite a bug tracker, but at least it can be tracked and commented on (and feedback provided for the “already in there” cases).
Of course, it *would* be nice to have a database where users could track all these feature requests over time (just in case they don’t make the current version). And where engineers and marketing could look for low hanging fruit as needed. And where engineers could get idea for bigger features based on different requests.
Even more amazing would be if the team could use it internally to track their development, and slippage – but not let it get so out of hand that project management takes over and turns it into a big project-plan-o-saur.
[We’re working on just what you describe. We’ll also soon get threaded commenting on this blog. Stand by. –J.]
John,
I scrolled (literally) all the above and didn’t see the following – either I missed it or I’m the only one with this issue. Since I repaired the brush problem with many thanks to Dave Dobish, something else has cropped-up, perhaps unrelated: when I print in CS4, AFTER I do the first print, the following ones don’t spool and the Epson Print Preview is BLANK, and when I go into the Printer file, the driver info shows very little data on the page sent to print, confirming why it is blank. If I shut Photoshop, re-open it and click print, it spools correctly for the first print again, but then fails again. Set-up: WINXP SP2, Epson 3800 using Epson driver version 5.5.1.
Has anyone else had this or similar issue? Any recommendations?
Cheers,
Mark
John,
Further to my post above (12:31 June 18th)about the image not spooling to my Epson 3800, I think I may have detected the source of the issue. I need to do more testing to prove this one because it’s kind of elusive and arcane. I think Photokit Sharpener and an aspect of my workflow with it are involved. If Jeff Schewe sees this it would be interesting to have his feedback. Here is what MAY be happening (though how systematically needs more testing): Because I print under softproof in PS, I do my output sharpening there as well, using Photokit Output Sharpener. Then I flatten the whole image to send it to print. Now here’s the rub: what seems to be happening is that if I click “Flatten” while the Sharpener overlay is still selected (from having just run the Photokit script) and send it to print, I get a blank page on the Epson driver Preview. But if I re-select the Background layer before flattening and then send the image to print, the whole image spools to the printer and comes into the Epson driver Preview.
I’ll advise if any exceptions to this observation occur after further work on it.
Cheers,
Mark
Additional observation on spooling to the Epson 3800 when printing from PSCS4. It is not only Photokit Sharpener. It seems that if the image has ANY layers and if one likes to flatten the image before sending it to print and it is not flattened with the Background layer selected, this spooling problem occurs.
Mark
On the mac, when editing text in Photoshop, hitting the enter key finishes the edit and deselects the text. Hitting escape cancels the edit and reverts the changes.
In Illustrator, hitting enter inserts a carriage return, while hitting escape finishes the edit.
This inconsistency is very frustrating, as my muscle memory for these actions is constantly wrong. It’s especially infuriating when I’ve spent several minutes tweaking character settings and kerning and getting everything just right, only to wipe it all out with a mistaken tap of the escape key because Illustrator has trained me to do so.
[Try hitting Cmd-Return/Ctrl-Return in either app, as that will commit your changes. –J.]
How about improved tonemapping tools for us HDR fans?
I always process photos using a fixed sequence of tasks – lens correction > crop > highlights/shadows > color corrections > retouching > sharpening > (or so). I’d love to have an empty panel into which I could drag tools or menu option in the order in which I use them. For each picture I could then go through that sequence, which each tool being greyed out as soon as it is used. ACR more or less guides you through a sequence of things that need to get done but I’d like to have a similar structured approach in Photoshop itself.
John,
Further to my above three posts on the subject of print spooling to the Epson 3800 using PSCS4, this is an on-going issue. Further work has demonstrated it was not a quirk occurrence. I’m wondering whether you would refer this to the engineers to see whether they can replicate the issue and if so, repair it. If they need further detail and would like me to perform various kinds of tests on my system, I’m willing to help.
Cheers,
Mark
John,
Seems as if I’m writing to myself on this problem of layered images not spooling to the Epson 3800 Driver in CS4. Regardless, after considerably more experience with this issue, I can now say reliably that in order to spool a layered image it needs to be flattened, “Saved As” say to the desktop, closed, re-opened and then printed in that state. I do not need to go through this added routine in CS3 with the same images using the same printer driver (Version 5.5.1).
I have been researching the idea of upgrading the Epson driver to version 6.5, but there is reported evidence of this being a complex and problem-prone procedure (unlike how it used to be), with no clear indication that the newer version has different functionality relative to 5.5.1. – i.e. the problem I’m having may not be a driver update issue, but I have no way of knowing for sure – your engineers would have the more valid insight into this.
If you are still actively monitoring this blog it would be good to have some feedback about whether this is a known issue, or one your engineers are willing to tackle.
Best regards,
Mark
Further observation on the Epson 3800 spooling issue:
John,
This may be important for the engineers looking at this matter to see.
After yet more observation about the circumstances in which this problem occurs, it seems to happen primarily if I’m sending to print a composite image for which the Background exceeds the paper dimensions that the printer will print.
Explaining further, my Epson 3800, like most other printers, needs a margin (unless doing borderless printing where allowed). So if I use a paper preset of Super A3, and set the image size in Photoshop to 13*19 inches, from the point of view of the Epson driver, the image exceeds the printable area and one gets a warning about that which I dismiss, because it doesn’t matter to my print.
I would use this preset when I’m layering say a couple of images on this Background (leaving at least a one inch white border around them) to print the sandwich as a composite. So I make the composite, sharpen it with PK Output, flatten it all, and send it to print using CS4 with Photoshop managing colour. I get the page size warning, dismiss it and proceed. It is this set of conditions in which the spooling messes up. I observe that when I flatten a layered image whose dimensions fit within the printable area and there is no such warning from the Epson driver, it all spools fine.
One may be inclined to think therefore that this is an Epson driver issue; that could well be, except for the fact that I never had this problem using PSCS3.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Mark
My minor peeve with Photoshop is that the eyedropper is always the default, and the tool I use most is the measure tool (in combination with the arbitrary rotation). I suspect for most photographers, straightening photos is much more common than spot sampling colors. The lightroom method is better, though.
Hi John. I’m a bit late on this, and forgot to add it to the survey, but i never wrote it down, so it’s now or never 🙂 (and i may fill a feature request)
I always have the move tool set on automatic selection, so i can reach any layer I need with command-click
… except the background layer.
I found no way to automatically click-select this layer, so is it just me, or is it missing ?
Thank you very much. (and congrats for Nack#2)
1 – Universal Smart Objects. 1 externally referenced file that is common to multiple PSD files
2 – Dragging a layer from file to file (lets say it’s a photo DSC69) then the layer automatically names itself DSC69.
3 – Hitting return allows you to move a selected layer via a coordinate pop up box – a la Illustrator.
1. REALLY REALLY REALLY want a live search feature inside of the layers box (so I type backgr…and it takes me to the background layer instantly) like right clicking on a layer but even more helpful if the layer is not turned on.
2. AUTOSAVE or a history recovery system for when photoshop CRASHES like what MS WORD does with document recovery.
3. A way to flatten a layer that has blending options applied to it and turn it into a flat raster that can then have more blending options applied to it.
4. Easy way to adjust rounded corners on objects or on rounded rectangle after its drawn.
5. Pixelmator has a really great magic wand tool where you click and drag and you can see it increases the range you wanted to select until you get it perfect. You can probably perfect this.
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Hello.
I’ve stumble upon this one today so is it still time to submit it here ?
when exporting multiple paths from Ps to illustrator, Ps doesn’t separate them as layers in the illustrator file
i have : “myBluePath, myRedPath…” and they all become “transparentPath 1, transparent Path2…” all under layer 1.
Quite unusable, so i have to export myBluePath, then myRedPath, and then reconstruct the document.
I might just fill in a FR
In Camera RAW it is very unconvienient to have universal “sticky” information in the workflow options menu. If you change the setting for one file it will automaticaly apply to teh next image you open – and you need to change settings all the time. Why not make a default, and make it possible to create your own settings! It can be a sticky information for each file! As long as the settings does not apply to everything there after…
I have the same problem with PS CS4 as I had with PS CS3. The crop tool causes Photoshop to crash. It worked when first set up for a month or more, and but stopped working and cannot adjust.
On a MAC OS 10.5.8
When I paste “#33ff44” into the hex field of the colour picker: instead of throwing a “Cannot insert more characters” error here, please strip the hash and paste in the final 6 characters. I bang up against this all the time.
When I paste “#33ff44” into the hex field of the colour picker: instead of throwing a “Cannot insert more characters” error here, please strip the hash and paste in the final 6 characters. I bang up against this all the time.
Allow to adjust curves for different color space than the current image color space.
Example: I edit an image in RGB. I would add curves adjustment layer, choose LAB curves and adjust the L,a,b curves without the need to convert the whole image to LAB and back. Right now, I need to flatten the image when converting between color spaces. And this is a destructive change.
Allow to adjust curves for different color space than the current image color space.
Example: I edit an image in RGB. I would add curves adjustment layer, choose LAB curves and adjust the L,a,b curves without the need to convert the whole image to LAB and back. Right now, I need to flatten the image when converting between color spaces. And this is a destructive change.
I just filed this FR :
> Brief title for your desired feature:
merge layer shapes (JDI)
> How would you like the feature to work?
select a couple of layers with vector masks on it and right clic to “merge vector masks”
> Why is this feature important to you?
I sometimes draw a lot of vector shapes on different shape layers, move points, adjust shapes, etc.
And it often happens that i realize that all of those should nicely stay on one single layer.
So, 3 or 4 layers, i select the vector path, copy, paste on the next layer, but more, it soon gets long and repetitive.
1. Diagonal guides
2. An circle/elliptical tool that draws circles from the centre to the edge.
The live docs version of PS CS5 doesn’t seem to be accepting comments, but when I pointed this out on the live docs for PS CS4 (a few days ago) my comment disappeared. So I thought maybe it would be appropriate to post it here, since it’s a tiny issue with lots of potential for confusing people:
The “About Pixel Dimensions…” section (for CS4 or CS5) states:
“Unless an image is resampled (see Resampling), the amount of image data remains constant as you change either the pixel dimension or resolution.”
I’m sure that what was meant is “… as you change either the Document Size (Height and Width) or Document Resolution.”
Clearly, if Resample is unchecked, pixel dimensions are read-only. Or, obviously, the amount of image data absolutely must change if you alter the pixel dimensions.
BTW, I recommend this slight emphasis on “document,” since what confuses most users seems to be the idea that pixel dimensions are the same as (or confusingly similar to) the hypothetical printed output dimensions.
Allow me to choose whether or not to precompute the transparency of an image with Alpha, or, open the Old School way – with color layer and Alpha stored in a separate channel.