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_(The people using Photoshop that don't need much of it's power are mostly those that use a pirated copy for some basic home use)._ I disagree. I did pirate a

_(The people using Photoshop that don't need much of it's power are mostly those that use a pirated copy for some basic home use)._ I disagree. I did pirate a copy for home use - I was a youngling, the version was v5.0 (not CS5), and that early curiosity turned into a career full of purchased Adobe products. Along the way I've learned a lot of new tricks, but my core practices are largely similar to what they've always been. I struggle to think of any other tool or skill that's changed less over that length of time - for me, the new useful bits are largely codifying and refining old manual processes. It's precisely because the core has remained so untouched by age that the simplified version can be translated to iPads and web apps - Photoshop is a classic case of 20% of the features are used by everyone, and the rest is deemed absolutely essential by specific groups. This happens to most successful programs over time. Building Photoshop again for other mediums can't help but discard a lot of cruft while discovering a bunch of significantly new things to do - it's actually a pretty exciting time for image editors as they rediscover purpose and set new charters.

batista 15y ago
Along the way I've learned a lot of new tricks, but my core practices are largely similar to what they've always been. I struggle to think of any other tool or skill that's changed less over that length of time - for me, the new useful bits are largely codifying and refining old manual processes. Well, the "codifying and refining old manual processes" is what software like Photoshop is all about. Where do you draw the line? A lot of stuff introduced AFTER version 5 is used everyday by almost anyone. In fact, Layer Styles (version 6) is the number one requested feature for Pixelmator. Other stuff: fully vector text, camera RAW (7), Shadow/Highlight, Match Color, Lens Blur, Hierarchical layer groups, 16 bit per channel, support for files over 2 Gigabytes, type on a path (8), Smart Objects, Smart Sharpen (9), Smart (non-destructive) Filters (10) And other stuff, maybe not visible, but that we couldn't live without AT ALL, like Intel Mac support, and 64-bit support, plus the "how did we work before" GPU support, all introduced in later versions than 10.
- harlanlewis 15y ago
  Good points! I actually don't have much of an argument to make, just the evolution of old+successful software is an interesting topic. It is definitely a fuzzy line between "new thing" and "old but better", and your list has a bunch of must-have-every-single-day features that haven't always existed. I admit I'm glossing over the "invisible" work like Intel Mac support. I'm mostly interested in the interaction. But - that list is fairly short, and things like nondestructive filters, hierarchical layer groups, type on a path, etc are exactly the codifying of manual processes I was talking about. They've certainly replaced duplicating layers and using complicated naming conventions to manage all the bloat. So they're technically "new features", but they're not reinventing what folks can accomplish, or even altering the fundamentals of how one thinks about a task. That's a big accomplishment for software that has to please so many existing+trained users, and I'm looking forward to CS6 precisely because it seems focused on improvements to what people already do every day, rather than cool but rarely appropriate features like magic background fills and bending spoons. We've been given a huge toolbelt to work with - the move from desktop software to web and tablets is going to be pretty awesome as we look at the whole belt through a new lens, and (potentially) significantly improve on everything from palette-oriented UI to how we manage discreet and grouped elements in a complex composition. Even more opportunity as Photoshop begins to acknowledge its expansion of purpose from photos and graphics to quickly comping high-fidelity interactive UIs. Relative to all that's coming, Photoshop hasn't changed much. Exciting times ahead.

batista 15y ago

Along the way I've learned a lot of new tricks, but my core practices are largely similar to what they've always been. I struggle to think of any other tool or skill that's changed less over that length of time - for me, the new useful bits are largely codifying and refining old manual processes. Well, the "codifying and refining old manual processes" is what software like Photoshop is all about. Where do you draw the line? A lot of stuff introduced AFTER version 5 is used everyday by almost anyone. In fact, Layer Styles (version 6) is the number one requested feature for Pixelmator. Other stuff: fully vector text, camera RAW (7), Shadow/Highlight, Match Color, Lens Blur, Hierarchical layer groups, 16 bit per channel, support for files over 2 Gigabytes, type on a path (8), Smart Objects, Smart Sharpen (9), Smart (non-destructive) Filters (10) And other stuff, maybe not visible, but that we couldn't live without AT ALL, like Intel Mac support, and 64-bit support, plus the "how did we work before" GPU support, all introduced in later versions than 10.

harlanlewis 15y ago
Good points! I actually don't have much of an argument to make, just the evolution of old+successful software is an interesting topic. It is definitely a fuzzy line between "new thing" and "old but better", and your list has a bunch of must-have-every-single-day features that haven't always existed. I admit I'm glossing over the "invisible" work like Intel Mac support. I'm mostly interested in the interaction. But - that list is fairly short, and things like nondestructive filters, hierarchical layer groups, type on a path, etc are exactly the codifying of manual processes I was talking about. They've certainly replaced duplicating layers and using complicated naming conventions to manage all the bloat. So they're technically "new features", but they're not reinventing what folks can accomplish, or even altering the fundamentals of how one thinks about a task. That's a big accomplishment for software that has to please so many existing+trained users, and I'm looking forward to CS6 precisely because it seems focused on improvements to what people already do every day, rather than cool but rarely appropriate features like magic background fills and bending spoons. We've been given a huge toolbelt to work with - the move from desktop software to web and tablets is going to be pretty awesome as we look at the whole belt through a new lens, and (potentially) significantly improve on everything from palette-oriented UI to how we manage discreet and grouped elements in a complex composition. Even more opportunity as Photoshop begins to acknowledge its expansion of purpose from photos and graphics to quickly comping high-fidelity interactive UIs. Relative to all that's coming, Photoshop hasn't changed much. Exciting times ahead.