Learn what's new in the 2018 releases of Photoshop CC.
The January 2018 and October 2017 releases of Photoshop CC (versions 19.x) roll out exciting new features for designers, digital photographers, and illustrators. Read on for a quick introduction to these features and links to resources offering more information.
For a summary of features introduced in earlier releases of Photoshop CC, see Feature summary | earlier releases.
If you're upgrading from an earlier version of Photoshop CC, see these considerations and tips.
New in the January 2018 release
Select Subject lets you select the most prominent subject in an image in a single click. Powered by advanced machine learning technology, Select Subject is trained to identify a variety of objects in an image—people, animals, vehicles, toys, and more.
Access Select Subject in one of the following ways in Photoshop:
For more information, see Select Subject.
Updated in the January 2018 release
Using the Surface Dial with Photoshop, you can adjust tool settings without ever looking away from the canvas. Use the Dial to adjust size, opacity, hardness, flow, and smoothing for all brush-like tools. Using the Control option, you can also rotate the dial to make dynamic adjustments to settings while a brush stroke is in progress.
Photoshop supports the Surface Dial on bluetooth-enabled computers running Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709) and later versions.
For more information, see Microsoft Dial support in Photoshop.
New in the January 2018 release
On Windows 10 Creators Update and later versions, Photoshop now offers a full range of choices for UI scaling—from 100% through 400% in 25% increments. This enhancement makes the Photoshop user interface looks crisp and sharp regardless of the pixel density of your monitor. Photoshop automatically adjusts its resolution based on your Windows settings.
In addition, Adobe and Microsoft have worked closely to provide per-monitor scaling across monitors with different scaling factors. This enhancement ensures that a high resolution (HiDPI) laptop works seamlessly alongside a lower-resolution desktop monitor, or vice versa. For example, one of your monitors can have a scale factor of 175%, while another monitor can have a scale factor of 400%. So, you can choose either the highest-end 13-inch laptops with 4k screens, the more affordable 1080p models, or tap into the new 8k desktop monitors, and still have an uncompromised experience within Photoshop.
In Windows, select Start > Settings > System > Display. Now, under Scale And Layout, choose a scaling factor for each of your displays.
On Windows 10 Creators Update and later versions, the UI Scaling setting in Photoshop (Preferences > Interface > UI Scaling) still applies to some components, such as the File Info and Camera Raw dialogs. On earlier versions of Windows, this preference applies to all Photoshop components. When the UI Scaling option is set to Auto, scaling defaults to the value closest to the primary monitor's OS scaling factor—100 or 200.
New in the October 2017 release
New in the October 2017 release
Photoshop can now perform intelligent smoothing on your brush strokes. Simply enter a value (0-100) for Smoothing in the Options bar when you're working with one of the following tools: Brush, Pencil, Mixer Brush, or Eraser. A value of 0 is the same as legacy smoothing in earlier versions of Photoshop. Higher values apply increasing amounts of intelligent smoothing to your strokes.
Stroke smoothing works in several modes. Clicking the gear icon (
) to enable one or more of the following modes:
Pulled String Mode
Paints only when the string is taut. Cursor movements within the smoothing radius leave no mark.
Stroke Catch Up
Allows the paint to continue catching up with your cursor while you've paused the stroke. Disabling this mode stops paint application as soon as the cursor movement stops.
Catch-Up On Stroke End
Completes the stroke from the last paint position to the point where you released the mouse/stylus control.
Adjust For Zoom
Prevents jittery strokes by adjusting smoothing. Decreases smoothing when you zoom in the document; increases smoothing when you zoom out.
While using stroke smoothing, you may choose to view the brush leash, which connects the current paint location with the present cursor position. Select Preferences > Cursors > Show Brush Leash While Smoothing. You can also specify a color for the brush leash.
Enhanced in the October 2017 release
Enhanced in the October 2017 release
Working with brush presets is much easier in this release of Photoshop. You can now organize brush presets into folders—including nested folders—in the greatly-streamlined Brushes panel (renamed from Brush Presets in earlier releases).
You can now choose to work with and manage brush-enabled tool presets and their attributes, accessible only from the Options bar in earlier releases of Photoshop, in the Brushes panel. Any brush-enabled tool preset can be converted into a brush preset; all of its attributes—such as opacity, flow, and blending mode—are preserved. Once you've converted brush-enabled tool presets into brush presets, you can choose to remove them from the tool presets list.
The Brushes panel itself incorporates a host of experience improvements in this release, such as the following:
For related information, see:
Kyle T Webster
https://www.kylebrush.com/New in the October 2017 release
You can now access all of your synced Lightroom photos directly from the Start workspace within Photoshop. In the Start workspace, click the Lr Photos tab. Now, select the images you want to open and click Import Selected. If you've made changes to your photos or albums in any of the Lightroom apps while Photoshop is running, click the Refresh button to see the changes you’ve made. Click See More to view a grid of all of your photos organized by date.
Aside from the Start workspace, you can also find, filter, sort, and import Lightroom photos into Photoshop using the in-app search experience.
For more information, see:
New in the October 2017 release
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Photoshop now supports Variable Font, a new OpenType font format supporting custom attributes like weight, width, slant, optical size, etc. This release of Photoshop ships with several variable fonts for which you can adjust weight, width, and slant using convenient slider controls in the Properties panel. As you adjust these sliders, Photoshop automatically chooses the type style closest to the current settings. For example, when you increase the slant for a Regular type style, Photoshop automatically changes it to a variant of Italic.
In the Character panel or Options bar, search for variable in the font list to look for variable fonts. Alternatively, look for the 
icon next to the font name.
For related details, see Fonts.
New in the October 2017 release
Goodbye, Quick Share!
With the April release of Photoshop 23.3, the Quick Share option introduced in the October 2017 release of Photoshop CC, will be removed due to low usage, desire to simplify the options bar UI, and redundant functionality to other export functions.
You can now email or share your creations to several services directly from within Photoshop. When you share a document by email, Photoshop sends out the original document (.psd file). For certain services and social media channels, Photoshop automatically converts the document to the JPEG format before sharing.
In Photoshop, select File > Share. Alternatively, click the 
icon in the options bar.
For details, see Quick share.
Your operating system preferences determine the actual list of services appearing in the Share panel. You can tweak these preferences. For example, on macOS, add/remove services to the Share panel by tweaking System Preferences > Extensions > Share Menu. For more information, see this Apple documentation page.
New in the October 2017 release
The Curvature Pen tool lets you draw smooth curves and straight line segments with equal ease. Create custom shapes in your designs or define precise paths to effortlessly fine-tune your images using this intuitive tool. While doing so, create, toggle, edit, add, or remove smooth or corner points without ever having to switch tools.
Access this new tool from the Pen tools group. To learn how to use it, see Use the Curvature Pen tool.
New in the October 2017 release
Path lines and curves are no longer just in black and white! You can now define the color and thickness of path lines to suit your taste and for easier visibility.
While creating a path—using the Pen tool, for example—click the gear icon () in the Options bar. Now specify the color and thickness of path lines. Also, specify whether you want to preview path segments as you move the pointer between clicks (Rubber Band effect).
For related helpful information, see Manage paths.
New in the October 2017 release
You can now copy and paste layers in Photoshop—within a document and between documents—using the Copy, Paste, and Paste Into Place commands.
When you paste a layer between documents with different resolutions, the pasted layer retains its pixel dimensions. Depending on your color management settings and the associated color profile, you may be prompted to specify how to handle color information in the imported data.
For more information, see Copy-paste layers.
New in the October 2017 release
Figuring out what Photoshop tools do is now easier than ever before! When you hover the pointer over certain tools in the Tools panel, Photoshop displays a description and a short video of the tool in action.
You can choose not to view rich tooltips. To do so, deselect the Preferences > Tools > Use Rich Tooltips preference.
New in the October 2017 release
You can now edit equirectangular spherical panoramas, shot using different cameras, in Photoshop. With the panorama asset imported and its layer selected, invoke the panoramic viewer by choosing 3D > Spherical Panorama > New Panorama Layer From Selected Layer. Alternatively, directly load a spherical panorama into the viewer by selecting 3D > Spherical Panorama > Import Panorama.
Once you've opened a panorama in the viewer, you can perform a variety of operations on it:
Enhanced in the October 2017 release
Enhanced in the October 2017 release
New in the October 2017 release
You can now access step-by-step tutorials on basic concepts and tasks directly within Photoshop. These tutorials cover basic photography concepts, retouching and combining images, and graphic design fundamentals.
In Photoshop, select Window > Learn.
Before using some Technology Preview features, you may need to enable them from Preferences > Technology Previews.
For details about these features, see Technology previews.
New in the October 2017 release
Default state: On
Photoshop now features artificial intelligence-assisted upscaling to preserve important details and textures while resizing images without introducing distortions. In addition to skin tones and hair textures, this feature preserves harder-edged details like text and logos. Try it on soups, salads, pizza, and any other subjects that need that extra dash of texture preservation.
New in the October 2017 release
Default state: Off
Photoshop now lets you paint symmetrically while using the Brush, Pencil, and Eraser tools. While using these tools, click the butterfly icon (
) in the Options bar. Choose from the several available types of symmetry. Paint strokes are reflected live across the line of symmetry, allowing for easier sketching of faces, cars, animals, and more.
To enable this feature, select Preferences > Technology Previews > Enable Paint Symmetry.
Available only for Creative Cloud members
Using the new Color and Luminance Range Masking controls, you can quickly create a precise masking area on your photo for applying local adjustments. These new precision masking tools can detect changes in lighting and contrasting edges based off color and tone. You can make quick initial masking selections with Adjustment Brushes or Radial Filter/Graduated Filter. Then refine your selection with the range masks, located under Auto-Mask in the Adjustment Brush tool options.
Color Range Mask
After making an initial selection mask on your photo with Adjustment Brushes or Radial Filter/Graduated Filters, use Color Range Masking to refine the selection mask based on the colors sampled within the mask area.
Luminance Range Mask
After making an initial selection mask on your photo with Adjustment Brushes or Radial Filter/Graduated Filters, use Luminance Range Masking to refine the mask area based on the luminance range of the selection.
For details of new features in Adobe Camera Raw, see New features summary.
To view the list of fixed issues in this release of Photoshop CC, see Fixed issues.
Adobe MAX
The Creativity Conference
Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online
Adobe MAX
The Creativity Conference
Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online
