Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital art, especially in raster graphics editing, and its name has become genericised as a verb (e.g., to "photoshop" an image, "photoshopping", and "photoshop contest")[6] although Adobe disapproves of such use.
Photoshop can edit and compose raster images in multiple layers and supports masks, alpha compositing and several color models. Photoshop uses its own PSD and PSB file formats to support these features. In addition to raster graphics, Photoshop has limited abilities to edit or render text and vector graphics (especially through clipping path for the latter), as well as 3D graphics and video. Its feature set can be expanded by plug-ins; programs developed and distributed independently of Photoshop that run inside it and offer new or enhanced features.
Photoshop's naming scheme was initially based on version numbers. However, in October 2002 (following the introduction of Creative Suite branding), each new version of Photoshop was designated with "CS" plus a number; e.g., the eighth major version of Photoshop was Photoshop CS and the ninth was Photoshop CS2. Photoshop CS3 through CS6 were also distributed in two different editions: Standard and Extended. With the introduction of the Creative Cloud branding in June 2013 (and, in turn, the change of the "CS" suffix to "CC"), Photoshop's licensing scheme was changed to that of subscription model.[7] Historically, Photoshop was bundled with additional software such as Adobe ImageReady, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Device Central and Adobe Camera RAW.
Alongside Photoshop, Adobe also develops and publishes Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom, Photoshop Express, Photoshop Fix, Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop Mix. As of November 2019, Adobe has also released a full version of Photoshop for the iPad, and while initially limited, Adobe plans to bring more features to Photoshop for iPad.[8] Collectively, they are branded as "The Adobe Photoshop Family".
Early history
Photoshop was developed in 1987 by two brothers, Thomas and John Knoll, who sold the distribution license to Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1988. Thomas Knoll, a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan, began writing a program on his Macintosh Plus to display grayscale images on a monochrome display. This program (at that time called Display) caught the attention of his brother John, an Industrial Light & Magic employee, who recommended that Thomas turn it into a full-fledged image editing program. Thomas took a six-month break from his studies in 1988 to collaborate with his brother on the program. Thomas renamed the program ImagePro, but the name was already taken.[9] Later that year, Thomas renamed his program Photoshop and worked out a short-term deal with scanner manufacturer Barneyscan to distribute copies of the program with a slide scanner; a "total of about 200 copies of Photoshop were shipped" this way.[10][11]
During this time, John traveled to Silicon Valley and gave a demonstration of the program to engineers at Apple Computer and Russell Brown, art director at
File format
Photoshop files have default file extension as .PSD, which stands for "Photoshop Document".[20] A PSD file stores an image with support for all features of Photoshop; these include layers with masks, transparency, text, alpha channels and spot colors, clipping paths, and duotone settings. This is in contrast to many other file formats (e.g., .JPG or .GIF) that restrict content to provide streamlined, predictable functionality. A PSD file has a maximum height and width of 30,000 pixels, and a size limit of two gigabytes.
From the beginning, Photoshop could save files in other formats, including TIF, JPEG, and GIF. These files are smaller than PSD files because they lack the editable features of a PSD file. These formats are required to use the file in publications or on the web. Adobe's discontinued program PageMaker required TIF format.
Photoshop can also create and use files with the extension .PSB, which stands for "Photoshop Big" (also known as "large document format").[21] A PSB file extends the PSD file format, increasing the maximum height and width to 300,000 pixels and the size limit to around 4 exabytes. PSD and PSB formats are documented.[22]
Plugins
Photoshop functionality can be extended by add-on programs called Photoshop plugins (or plug-ins). Adobe creates some, such as Adobe Camera Raw, but most are developed by third-parties. Some are free and some are commercial software. Most plugins work with only Photoshop or Photoshop-compatible hosts, but a few can also be run as standalone applications.
There are various types of plugins, such as filter, export, import, selection, color correction, and automation. The most popular plugins are the filter plugins (also known as a 8bf plugins), available under the Filter menu in Photoshop. Filter plugins can either modify the current image or create content. Below are some popular types of plugins, and some well-known companies associated with them:
Cultural impact
Photoshop and derivatives such as Photoshopped (or just Shopped) have become verbs that are sometimes used to refer to images edited by Photoshop,[34] or any image manipulation program. The same happens not only in English but as the Portuguese Wikipedia entry for image manipulation attests, even in that language, with the trademark being followed by the Portuguese verb termination -ar, yielding the word "photoshopar" (to photoshop). Such derivatives are discouraged by Adobe because, in order to maintain validity and protect the trademark from becoming generic, trademarks must be used as proper nouns.[35]
Version history
Photoshop's naming scheme was initially based on version numbers, from early pre-release builds and version 1.0 (February 1990) through version 7.0.1. Adobe published seven major versions before the October 2003 introduction of version 8.0, which brought the Creative Suite branding.
Notable milestone features included filters, colour separation, virtual memory (1.0), paths, CMYK color (2.0), 16-bits-per-channel support, availability on Microsoft Windows (2.5), layers, tabbed palettes (3.0), adjustments, actions, freeform transform, PNG support (4.0), editable type, magnetic lasso and pen, freeform pen, multiple undo, layer effects (5.0), Save for Web (5.5), vector shapes, revised user interface (6.0), vector text, healing brush, spell check (7.0), and Camera Raw (7.0.1).
Pre-release versions
Version 0.87 (March 1989) was the first publicly available version of Photoshop, distributed commercially under the name "Barneyscan XP".[36]
Version 1
Photoshop 1.0 was released in February 1990.
Version 2
Adobe Photoshop family
The Adobe Photoshop family is a group of applications and services made by Adobe for the use of professional image editing. Several features of the Adobe Photoshop family are pixel manipulating, image organizing, photo retouching, and more.
Current applications
- Bridge is an image organizer and digital asset management app. It features limited integration with other Adobe apps but has no editing capabilities of its own.
- DNG Converter is a tool used to convert DNG files into other file formats.
- Elements Organizer is the digital asset management app for Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements.[77] It is able to organize photos and video projects in one place.
- Fresco is a mobile drawing and painting app, developed initially for iOS and marketed by
See also
- Creative Cloud controversy
- Comparison of raster graphics editors
- Image editing
Further reading
- (Asks: "How does media authoring software shape the media being created, making some design choices seem natural and easy to execute, while hiding other design possibilities?")
External links
- PSD files on Adobe Creative Cloud site
References
- Photoshop system requirements Adobe Inc., retrieved December 16, 2022^
- System requirements, Photoshop on the iPad Adobe Inc., retrieved December 16, 2022^
- Adobe Photoshop on mobile technical requirements retrieved 2025-02-25