- Photoshop User Guide
- Introduction to Photoshop
- Photoshop and other Adobe products and services
- Photoshop on the iPad(not available in mainland China)
- Photoshop on the iPad | Common questions
- Get to know the workspace
- System requirements | Photoshop on the iPad
- Create, open, and export documents
- Add photos
- Work with layers
- Draw and paint with brushes
- Make selections and add masks
- Retouch your composites
- Work with adjustment layers
- Adjust the tonality of your composite with Curves
- Apply transform operations
- Crop and rotate your composites
- Rotate, pan, zoom, and reset the canvas
- Work with Type layers
- Work with Photoshop and Lightroom
- Get missing fonts in Photoshop on the iPad
- Japanese Text in Photoshop on the iPad
- Manage app settings
- Touch shortcuts and gestures
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Edit your image size
- Livestream as you create in Photoshop on the iPad
- Correct imperfections with the Healing Brush
- Create brushes in Capture and use them in Photoshop
- Work with Camera Raw files
- Create and work with Smart Objects
- Adjust exposure in your images with Dodge and Burn
- Photoshop on the web (not available in mainland China)
- Common questions
- System requirements
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Supported file types
- Introduction to the workspace
- Open and work with cloud documents
- Generative AI features
- Basic concepts of editing
- Quick Actions
- Work with layers
- Retouch images and remove imperfections
- Make quick selections
- Image improvements with Adjustment Layers
- Move, transform, and crop images
- Draw and paint
- Work with Type layers
- Work with anyone on the web
- Manage app settings
- Photoshop (beta) (not available in mainland China)
- Generative AI (not available in mainland China)
- Common questions on generative AI in Photoshop
- Generative Fill in Photoshop on the desktop
- Generative Expand in Photoshop on the desktop
- Generative Fill in Photoshop on the iPad
- Generative Expand in Photoshop on the iPad
- Generative variations in Photoshop on the iPad
- Generative AI features in Photoshop on the web
- Content authenticity (not available in mainland China)
- Cloud documents (not available in mainland China)
- Photoshop cloud documents | Common questions
- Photoshop cloud documents | Workflow questions
- Manage and work with cloud documents in Photoshop
- Upgrade cloud storage for Photoshop
- Unable to create or save a cloud document
- Solve Photoshop cloud document errors
- Collect cloud document sync logs
- Invite others to edit your cloud documents
- Share files and comment in-app
- Workspace
- Workspace basics
- Preferences
- Learn faster with the Photoshop Discover Panel
- Create documents
- Place files
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Customize keyboard shortcuts
- Tool galleries
- Performance preferences
- Use tools
- Presets
- Grid and guides
- Touch gestures
- Use the Touch Bar with Photoshop
- Touch capabilities and customizable workspaces
- Technology previews
- Metadata and notes
- Touch capabilities and customizable workspaces
- Place Photoshop images in other applications
- Rulers
- Show or hide non-printing Extras
- Specify columns for an image
- Undo and history
- Panels and menus
- Position elements with snapping
- Position with the Ruler tool
- Web, screen, and app design
- Image and color basics
- How to resize images
- Work with raster and vector images
- Image size and resolution
- Acquire images from cameras and scanners
- Create, open, and import images
- View images
- Invalid JPEG Marker error | Opening images
- Viewing multiple images
- Customize color pickers and swatches
- High dynamic range images
- Match colors in your image
- Convert between color modes
- Color modes
- Erase parts of an image
- Blending modes
- Choose colors
- Customize indexed color tables
- Image information
- Distort filters are unavailable
- About color
- Color and monochrome adjustments using channels
- Choose colors in the Color and Swatches panels
- Sample
- Color mode or Image mode
- Color cast
- Add a conditional mode change to an action
- Add swatches from HTML CSS and SVG
- Bit depth and preferences
- Layers
- Layer basics
- Nondestructive editing
- Create and manage layers and groups
- Select, group, and link layers
- Place images into frames
- Layer opacity and blending
- Mask layers
- Apply Smart Filters
- Layer comps
- Move, stack, and lock layers
- Mask layers with vector masks
- Manage layers and groups
- Layer effects and styles
- Edit layer masks
- Extract assets
- Reveal layers with clipping masks
- Generate image assets from layers
- Work with Smart Objects
- Blending modes
- Combine multiple images into a group portrait
- Combine images with Auto-Blend Layers
- Align and distribute layers
- Copy CSS from layers
- Load selections from a layer or layer mask's boundaries
- Knockout to reveal content from other layers
- Selections
- Get started with selections
- Make selections in your composite
- Select and Mask workspace
- Select with the marquee tools
- Select with the lasso tools
- Adjust pixel selections
- Move, copy, and delete selected pixels
- Create a temporary quick mask
- Select a color range in an image
- Convert between paths and selection borders
- Channel basics
- Save selections and alpha channel masks
- Select the image areas in focus
- Duplicate, split, and merge channels
- Channel calculations
- Get started with selections
- Image adjustments
- Replace object colors
- Perspective warp
- Reduce camera shake blurring
- Healing brush examples
- Export color lookup tables
- Adjust image sharpness and blur
- Understand color adjustments
- Apply a Brightness/Contrast adjustment
- Adjust shadow and highlight detail
- Levels adjustment
- Adjust hue and saturation
- Adjust vibrance
- Adjust color saturation in image areas
- Make quick tonal adjustments
- Apply special color effects to images
- Enhance your image with color balance adjustments
- High dynamic range images
- View histograms and pixel values
- Match colors in your image
- Crop and straighten photos
- Convert a color image to black and white
- Adjustment and fill layers
- Curves adjustment
- Blending modes
- Target images for press
- Adjust color and tone with Levels and Curves eyedroppers
- Adjust HDR exposure and toning
- Dodge or burn image areas
- Make selective color adjustments
- Adobe Camera Raw
- Camera Raw system requirements
- What's new in Camera Raw
- Introduction to Camera Raw
- Create panoramas
- Supported lenses
- Vignette, grain, and dehaze effects in Camera Raw
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Automatic perspective correction in Camera Raw
- Radial Filter in Camera Raw
- Manage Camera Raw settings
- Open, process, and save images in Camera Raw
- Repair images with the Enhanced Spot Removal tool in Camera Raw
- Rotate, crop, and adjust images
- Adjust color rendering in Camera Raw
- Process versions in Camera Raw
- Make local adjustments in Camera Raw
- Image repair and restoration
- Image enhancement and transformation
- Drawing and painting
- Paint symmetrical patterns
- Draw rectangles and modify stroke options
- About drawing
- Draw and edit shapes
- Painting tools
- Create and modify brushes
- Blending modes
- Add color to paths
- Edit paths
- Paint with the Mixer Brush
- Brush presets
- Gradients
- Gradient interpolation
- Fill and stroke selections, layers, and paths
- Draw with the Pen tools
- Create patterns
- Generate a pattern using the Pattern Maker
- Manage paths
- Manage pattern libraries and presets
- Draw or paint with a graphics tablet
- Create textured brushes
- Add dynamic elements to brushes
- Gradient
- Paint stylized strokes with the Art History Brush
- Paint with a pattern
- Sync presets on multiple devices
- Migrate presets, actions, and settings
- Text
- Filters and effects
- Saving and exporting
- Color Management
- Web, screen, and app design
- Video and animation
- Printing
- Automation
- Troubleshooting
Try the tips and techniques outlined in this document if Photoshop is running slower than expected on your machine
Discontinuation of 3D features in Photoshop
Photoshop’s 3D features will be removed in future updates. Users working with 3D are encouraged to explore Adobe’s new Substance 3D collection, which represents the next generation of 3D tools from Adobe. Additional details on the discontinuation of Photoshop’s 3D features can be found here:Photoshop 3D | Common questions on discontinued 3D features.
Every user's setup is unique and may require a different combination of techniques to get the most efficient performance from Photoshop.From the suggestions documented in this article, consider which ones to implement within the context of your computer setup, the types of files you use, and your particular workflow.There are four primary ways to affect performance in Photoshop—Optimize your hardware setup,Optimize your operating system for Photoshop,Set performance-related preferences, andFine-tune Photoshop features.
The easiest way to improve performance, without spending money, is to set your Photoshop preferences and fine-tune its features to take advantage of your work and the type of files you typically work with.
The most dramatic way to increase performance is by investing in faster and more powerful hardware.Your computer must meet certain minimumsystem requirementsto run Photoshop optimally. Running Photoshop on underpowered or unsupported hardware—for example, on a computer having an incompatible graphics processor (GPU), may result in performance issues.
Watch this short video to learn how to quickly optimize performance-related preferences in Photoshop.
Photoshop provides a set of preferences (Preferences > Performance) to help you make optimum use of your computer's resources, such as memory, cache, graphics processor, displays, etc. Depending on your primary use case for using Photoshop and the types of documents you generally work with, different combinations of these settings may suit you.
Additional settings such as Scratch Disks, available on other tabs of the Preferences dialog, may also directly impact your computer's running speed and stability.
Adjust the memory allocated to Photoshop
You can improve performance by increasing the amount of memory/RAM allocated to Photoshop. The Memory Usage area of the Performance preferences dialog (Preferences > Performance) tells you how much RAM is available to Photoshop. It also shows the ideal Photoshop memory allocation range for your system.
By default, Photoshop uses 70% of available RAM.
- Increase the RAM allocated to Photoshop by changing the value in the Let Photoshop Use box. Alternatively, adjust the Memory Usage slider.
- Restart Photoshop to enable your changes.
To find the ideal RAM allocation for your system, change it in 5% increments and monitor performance in the Efficiency indicator.
We don't recommend allocating more than 85% of your computer's memory to Photoshop. Doing so may affect performance by leaving no memory for other essential system applications.
Note:
If you experience out-of-RAM or out-of-memory errors in Photoshop, try increasing the amount of RAM allocated to Photoshop. However, setting the RAM allocation for Photoshop too high (>85%) could affect the performance of other running applications, making your system unstable.
The best solution to this issue is to increase the amount of RAM to your computer. Check with your computer manufacturer for RAM specifications and compatibility.
Cache basics
Photoshop uses image caching to speed up the redrawing of high-resolution documents while you're working on them. You can specify up to eight levels of cached image data and choose one of the four available cache tile sizes.
Increasing cache levels improves Photoshop’s responsiveness while you work, although images may take longer to load. The cache tile size determines the amount of data on which Photoshop operates at a time. Bigger tile sizes speed up complex operations, such as sharpening filters. Smaller changes, such as brush strokes, are more responsive with smaller tile sizes.
Cache presets
Three cache presets are available in the Performance preferences. Choose the one that matches your primary use case/purpose of using Photoshop:
- Web/UI Design: Choose this option if you use Photoshop primarily for web, app, or screen design. This option is appropriate for documents having numerous layers of low-to-medium pixel dimension assets.
- Default/Photos: Choose this option if you use Photoshop primarily to retouch or edit moderate-sized images. For example, use this option if you normally edit photos originating from your mobile or digital camera in Photoshop.
- Huge Pixel Dimensions: Choose this option if you work extensively with heavy documents in Photoshop; for example, panoramas, matte paintings, etc.
Cache levels
For finer control, specify cache levels manually; the default value is 4.
- If you use relatively small files—roughly 1 megapixel or 1280 by 1024 pixels—and many layers (50 or more), set Cache Levels to 1 or 2. Setting Cache Levels to 1 disables image caching; only the current screen image is cached.
- If you use files with larger pixel dimensions—say, 50 megapixels or larger—set Cache Levels higher than 4. Higher cache levels speed up redrawing.
Note:
You may not get high-quality results with some Photoshop features if you set Cache Levels to 1.
You can save scratch disk space and improve performance by limiting or reducing the number of history states Photoshop saves in the History panel. The amount of space you save varies depending on how many pixels an operation changes. For example, a history state based on a small paint stroke or a non-destructive operation, such as creating or modifying an adjustment layer, consumes little space. Applying a filter to an entire image, on the other hand, consumes much more space.
Photoshop can save up to 1,000 history states; the default number is 50.
To reduce that number, go to the Performance preference dialog.In the History & Cache
section, set the the number of History Statesto a lower value.
The best way to optimize GPU acceleration, which speeds up screen redraws, is to keep your video adapter driver up to date. For instructions on updating video adapter drivers
For more information how Photoshop leverages the graphics processor, tested cards, andminimum graphics processor and display requirements.
GPU preferences
Photoshop provides you with dedicated GPU settings in both the Performance and 3D sections in the Preferences dialog.
Settings in the Preferences > Performance section
If a graphics card is detected on your system, its name and model will appear under Detectected Graphics Processor in the Graphics Processor Settings area of the Performance section.
- If your graphics card is supported, the "Use Graphics Processor" checkbox is enabled and checked by default.
- If yourgraphics card isn't supported, the checkbox will be grayed out and not checked by default.
- Ifyour graphics card is supported, and the "Use Graphics Processor" checkbox becomes unchecked, this is likely because Photoshop has detected a crash caused by a defective graphics driver or configuration.SeeTroubleshoot Photoshop graphics processor (GPU) and graphics driver issues.
- Use OpenCL:Turn this off if Blur Gallery, Smart Sharpen, Select Focus Area, or Image Size with Preserve Details do not work as expected.
- Anti-Alias Guides and Paths:Disable if guides and paths are appearing too heavy or too wide
- 30 Bit Display:Enable to increase the color fidelity on a monitor which supports 30 bit.
Note:
Turning on OpenCL is likely to improve performance if you use these Photoshop features:
- Blur Gallery -Field Blur,Iris Blur,Tilt-Shift, Path Blur, Spin Blur (OpenCL accelerated)
- Smart Sharpen (Noise Reduction –OpenCL accelerated)
- Select and Mask (OpenCL accelerated)
Settings in the Preferences > 3D section
The 3D section of the Performances dialog box contains a VRAM slider similar to the memory control located in the Performance section. Use the slider to determine the upper limit of the video RAM (VRAM) available to the Photoshop 3D engine. The total value is a percentage of the overall VRAM available. A setting of 100% will still reserve a portion of the overall VRAM for use with the operating system. Higher values will help with overall 3D performance but may compete with other GPU-enabled applications.
Note:
If Photoshop cannot launch because the scratch disk is full, hold down the Cmd + Option keys (macOS) or Ctrl + Alt keys (Windows) during launch to set a new scratch disk.
To learn more about managing scratch disk preferences and recommended settings, seeSet up scratch disks.
To learn more about troubleshooting scratch disk errors,seeTroubleshoot scratch disk errors in Photoshop.
The Efficiency indicator
Watch the Efficiency indicator to monitor performance while you work in Photoshop.Click the pop-up menu at the bottom of the image window and choose Efficiencyfrom the pop-up menu.
If the value in the indicator is below 100%, Photoshop has used all available RAM and is using the scratch disk, which slows performance. If the efficiency is less than 90%, allocate more RAM to Photoshop in Performance preferences. Or, add more RAM to your system.
Disable Rulers and Overlays
Having rulers and overlays (such as Grids, Slices and Smart Guides) visible can slow some operations, such as painting, transform, and dragging layers on the canvas.
- Todisable rulers, in theViewmenu, deselectRulers.
- To disable overlays, go to theView> Showmenu, selectNoneor disable the individual items.
Work within file-size limitations
Very large files are often the cause of performance problems.
Photoshop supports a maximum file size of 300,000 x 300,000 pixels, except for PDF files, which are limited to 30,000 x 30,000 pixels and 200 x 200 inches, andCamera Raw, which supports images up to 65,000 pixels long or wide and up to 512 megapixels.
File size capability for Photoshop:
- PSD files: 2 GB
- TIFF files: 4 GB
- PSB files: 4 exabytes (4096 petabytes or 4 million terabytes)
- PDF files: 10 GB (pages are limited to a maximum size of 200 inches)
Close unnecessary document windows
If you receive an “out of RAM” error message or if Photoshop is running slowly, it could be caused by having too many open images. If you have several windows open, try closing some of them.
Reduce the number of presets
To reduce the amount of scratch disk space Photoshop uses, minimize the number of presets you keep loaded. Patterns and brush tips are some of the largest presets.Save presets you don’t require right now to a preset file, then remove them, and only load them when you need them.
To find out more about managing presets,seePresets.
Minimize or turn off panel preview thumbnails
Each time you change a document, Photoshop updates all the thumbnails visible in the Layers and Channels panels. This update can affect responsiveness when you’re rapidly painting, moving, or nudging layers. The more thumbnails are visible, the greater will be this effect.
To minimize or disable these thumbnail previews, click the Panel menu and choose Panel Options. Select a smaller thumbnail size or selectNone, and then click OK.
Change file compatibility options
If you don’t need to work with your PSD and PSB files in older versions of Photoshop or in applications that don’t support layers, you can turn off a file compatibility feature to speed up document saving:
-
In Preferences > File Handling, for 16-bit and 32-bit PSD and PSB documents, select Disable Compression of PSD and PSB Files.
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From the Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility menu, choose Ask or Never.
Work in 8-bit image mode
Photoshop can perform many operations on 16-bit and 32-bit images. However, these images require more memory, scratch space, and time to process than 8-bit images.
To convert your image to 8 bits per channel, choose Image > Mode > 8 Bits/Channel.
Note:
Converting to 8 bits per channel deletes data from your image. Save a copy of the original 16-bit or 32-bit image before you convert to 8 bits per channel.
Turn off font preview
To speed font processing in Photoshop, turn off the font preview list by choosing Type > Font Preview Size > None.
Reduce image resolution
The greater the image resolution, the more memory and disk space Photoshop requires to display, process, and print an image. Depending on your final output, higher image resolution does not necessarily provide higher final image quality, but it can slow performance, use additional scratch disk space, and slow printing.The optimal resolution for your images depends on how the images will be displayed or printed.
For images presented onscreen, think in terms of total pixel dimensions. To reduce the image dimensions of an image, choose Image > Image Size. In the Image Size dialog box, make sure that the Resample option is selected. Enter a new value for the dimensions Width or Height (entering a value for one changes both).
For printed images, increasing resolution beyond about 360 DPI brings marginal if any benefits in most cases. If you produce many prints, experiment to find a resolution that gives you pleasing results. To reduce the resolution of an image, choose Image > Image Size. In the Image Size dialog box, select Resample. Change the Width and Height values to reflect the physical size of your printed document. Then, decrease the Resolution value, and click OK.
If you are going to increase the image resolution for printing rather than decrease it, perform this resolution increase as one of your last steps before printing the image. That way, you don’t have to process all this extra information in earlier steps.
Purge memory
You can improve system performance by freeing up unused memory and scratch disk space from Photoshop to make it available to other programs. To do so, choose one of these options:
- Edit > Purge > All
- Edit > Purge > Undo
- Hold down Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows) and choose About Photoshop
If other programs are actively trying to allocate or use the memory, freeing up memory in Photoshop will improve performance. Freeing up scratch disk space will be beneficial if you're out of space on a disk volume. If you free up significant memory or disk space, Photoshop will be slower the next time you open large files, while Photoshop allocates space.
If you want Photoshop to always use less memory, choose Edit > Preferences > Performance (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Performance (macOS) and move the Memory Usage slider to the left.
See Adjust memory usage.
Note:
Activity monitors, task managers, and disk utilities may take several secondsto register the change. In fact, for some utilities, you may need to explicitly request the update.
Purge the clipboard
The contents of the clipboard are often large if you’ve been copying and pasting data within large documents. And, those contents are of little use when you’re done pasting. To free up RAM being used by image data in the clipboard, choose Edit > Purge > Clipboard.
Note:
The Purge command cannot be undone.
Use the Filter Gallery
The Filter Gallery allows you to test one or more filters on an image before applying the effects, which can save considerable time and memory.
Drag between files rather than copy and paste
Dragging layers or files is more efficient than copying and pasting them. Dragging bypasses the Clipboard and transfers data directly. Copying and pasting can potentially involve more data transfer and is much less efficient.
Save TIFF files without ZIP compression
For added speed when exporting TIFF files, do not choose ZIP compression. (ZIP compression produces the smallest TIFF files, however.)
Don’t export the clipboard
The Export Clipboard option causes Photoshop to make the contents of the clipboard available to other programs. If you copy large amounts of data in Photoshop, but won’t paste it into other applications, save time by turning off this option:
-
Choose Photoshop > Preferences > General (macOS) or Edit > Preferences > General (Windows).
-
Deselect Export Clipboard.
-
Click OK.
Disable the Libraries panel
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From the Libraries flyout menu, choose Close.
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Restart Photoshop.
Disable Generator
-
ChooseEdit > Preferences > Plug-ins.
-
Deselect Enable Generator.
-
Click OK.
Compositing is the process of combining multiple visual elements together into a single frame that represents your document. The internal compositor in Photoshop calculates itself thousands of times while you use the program, constantly displaying every change made to your image together as a single composite.
Multithreaded compositing
With the April 2022 release of Photoshop 22.3, you can now activate multithreaded compositing by going to Preferences > Performance and enabling the Multithreaded compositingcheckbox. You don't need to restart Photoshop for this change to take effect.
Adjustment layers, layer masks, blending modes, filters, styles, and effects each add processing complexity to your document that can chip away at Photoshop's processing speed. You may notice various slider adjustments not updating the screen as fast as they used to before all those layers and effects were added. Multithreaded compositing helps CPU and GPU-based compositing tasks work faster by subdividing computing work into smaller parts that can be run in parallel, often faster than they could be computed in a single 'thread'.
While there are many reasons that documents might become less responsive when being worked in Photoshop, speeding up compositing between 100% and 250% with multithreaded compositing goes a long way toward ensuring Photoshop can be as responsive and fluid as it needs to be.
If you notice redrawing errors and you suspect multithreaded compositing to be an issue, you can turn the feature off in Preferences > Performance. If you have a question to ask or want to share your issue with this setting, notify us on theAdobe Photoshop community. We'd love to hear from you!
Note:
Multithreaded compositing takes the place of the earlier warning about the removal of legacy compositing which is no longer required and now has been removed.
GPU-accelerated compositing
With the April 2022 release of Photoshop 22.3,GPU compositing was added to Photoshop to improve the responsiveness of certain layer operations within a document. GPU compositing can only be used if Photoshop properly detects your GPU on startup. To confirm this, go to Preferences > Performance, and verify that your GPU is listed in the section titled Graphics Processor Setting with a checkmark next to Use Graphics Processor.
To find the checkbox to turn GPU compositing on or off, click the Advanced Settings... button.
With smaller, less complex documents containing few layers and layer-based adjustments (e.g., blending modes, adjustment layers), you may not notice any performance degradation when turning on or off blending modes or layer visibility. But as the complexity and size of your documents increases, the compositor in Photoshop can be required to do more real-time processing, and the time it takes to display the results to the screen can start to take longer. With very complex documents, you may have noticed that moving the contents of a layer or changing opacity takes a fraction of a second longer for the screen to update to show you the results. With GPU compositing enabled, Photoshop will use more of your GPU's processing power to speed up the compositing and give you a more fluid editing experience.
If you encounter unexpected results when making these layer-based edits, you can try turning off GPU compositing to see if that changes the results.
Have a question or an idea?
If you have a question to ask or an idea to share, come and participate in theAdobe Photoshop community. We'd love to hear from you!