Adobe is continuing to make Photoshop smarter, so you can work faster and with less frustration.
Isn’t it any photographer or graphic designers dream to be able to just click on the object in an image you are working on, and having the software be able to automatically be able to detect that object and make an accurate selection? Obviously, this is a pipe dream, but it is one that Adobe is hoping to bring closer to reality with their latest version of Photoshop. In the Photoshop version 19.1 update, Adobe has made the software more powerful by integrating the selection tool with their Sensei AI, thereby allowing the software to make an accurate selection of your subject with the benefit of machine learning to help it get better and more accurate over time. This is really something that anyone who works with composites or graphic design will have see a benefit too.
But the updates to Photoshop don’t end there, also coming in the 19.1 update is the long-awaited (and badly needed) addition of High-Density Monitor Support for Photoshop on Windows 10 PCs. This will allow the Photoshop UI to scale accurately from 100% to 400% in 25% increments, and it will also do so across multiple screens at different resolutions. So for example, if your primary laptop display is 4k but your processing monitor that you connect and use while at your desk at home is only 1080p, you can have Photoshop windows open on both screens and on each screen, the UI will be scaled correctly. In other words, no more issues where one monitor has the correct UI and the other is either too large or too small. This may seem like a small thing, but this will be a huge convenience for anyone utilizing a Windows 10 PC with multiple monitors (especially multiple monitors of varying resolutions).
Additionally, Adobe has improved the Select and Mask tool, adding a ‘decontamination slider’ which will allow users to control the amount of decontamination applied to an image they are making a selection on. This works exactly the same and is, in fact, the same feature that we have seen in the Refine Edge tool, just it has been added to the Select and Mask tool.
Finally, Adobe also improved Photoshop’s built-in support for the Microsoft Dial; adding things like the ability to change brush settings while you are painting them. (previously you could only change the settings between strokes.) As well, you can now also make any dynamic control in the brush settings the active setting for the Microsoft Dial, for example, allowing you to change the opacity of the brush dynamically as you are painting. This isn’t probably a huge thing for photographers except those doing extensive retouching, but it is a pretty sweet update if you ask us.
You can also expect a nice selection of bugs to be squashed in the 19.1 Photoshop update. If you would like to get the full details you can head on over to the Adobe website to get the line by line list of feature improvements for this update. As for the update itself, it should be rolling out through CC today, so be on the lookout for that update notification on your Creative Cloud app.