Photoshop CS6 – What’s on your wish list?
When you’ve been using a program like Photoshop for a length of time, you begin to develop a wish list of things you’d like to see in future versions. Sometimes these are addressed by new releases and sometimes they’re not.
Now I know Photoshop CS5 has just been released but there are still things on my wish list that aren’t in Photoshop. Here are some things I’d like to see in the next version of Photoshop:
1. Clarity
While Vibrance, which first made its appearance in Lightroom, has now been included as an adjustment in Photoshop, Clarity has not yet made the grade – it’s available in Camera Raw but not in Photoshop itself.
In Lightroom and ACR the Clarity slider lets you adjust the midtone contrast and it gives a much needed boost to the midtones in an image with quite spectacular results. At the top of my list for the next version of Photoshop would be the inclusion of a Clarity adjustment.
2. Paste into a Selection
One thing I’d love to see in Photoshop is the ability to paste a copied item from one image in Photoshop into a second image but with the copied selection being pasted in at a specific size.
In short, I’d like to make a selection on the target image with the marquee tool and have Photoshop paste the clipboard contents into the marquee area at a size that fits it to the selection.
You can make a selection and paste the clipboard contents into it but the pasted image isn’t resized to fit – I’d like the option to do both.
3. Print Multiple Images
Having used Paint Shop Pro for many years, the feature that I’d love to see Photoshop ‘borrow” from that program is some means of easily assembling multiple images to a layout for printing on a single sheet of paper.
PaintShop Pro has a very smart Print Layout tool which displays images down the left of the screen which you can drag and drop into a page for printing. You can drag to resize the images, right click and size them to a fixed size or add them automatically in position on a pre-designed template – built in or custom made.
Adobe has some workarounds to this problem available: Lightroom 3 has a multiple print feature which is reasonably flexible and simple to use and which I wrote about in this post. You can assemble multiple images for printing on a single page through Adobe Bridge but the tool is a little cumbersome and it’s in Bridge and not where most people will expect it to be – in Photoshop itself.
You can add the Picture Package tool back into Photoshop CS4 and CS5 (which Adobe removed in these versions) as I explained in this post.
But, workarounds aside, I dream of the day a really smart multiple picture print tool appears in Photoshop.
So, now you know the top three things I’d like to see in Photoshop CS6 – now it’s up to you – what’s on your wish list?
66 Responses to “Photoshop CS6 – What’s on your wish list?” - Add Yours
July 21st, 2010 at 6:12 am
Crop tool from LR. I mean come one, Adobe?!
July 21st, 2010 at 6:14 am
Ubuntu support.
Completely non-destructive editing, including the ability to alter any edit at any point in time. (Like what GEGL does.)
The ability to use anything as a brush or adjustment layer.
July 21st, 2010 at 7:36 am
The biggest thing I would like to see is letting the user use a slider OR input a number for most adjustments. I hate how many of them max out at some arbitrary amount that makes them useless at massive resolutions.
I would also like to see adobe sit down and trim a lot of the useless fat out of photoshop, fix the myriad of bugs, and make the interface more intuitive.
Make tools that it already has work even better instead of adding new gimmicks… Things like 3D, video, etc were cool in theory but should they really be part of a program designed to work with photos?
July 21st, 2010 at 9:16 am
Multiple Strokes and different types of Strokes (e.g. dotted, dashed lines etc.) would be a great feature I think.
July 21st, 2010 at 9:31 am
I don’t understand why people go on so about Photoshop. Paint Shop Pro — mentioned in this article — has had ALL THREE of the features on this wish list since version 9, from back in 2004.
The previously mentioned Print Layout is pretty handy.
Instead of calling it “Clarity,” in PSP it’s called “Clarify,” and it’s everything asked for in this article.
Likewise, make a selection on the target image with the marquee tool and PSP will paste the clipboard contents into the marquee area at a size that fits it to the selection. Piece of cake.
Plus, there are quite a number of Photoshop actions that run right within Paint Shop Pro. And it’s cheaper, too.
July 21st, 2010 at 10:57 am
Clarity has been there since Photoshop 1. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and use a high radius rather than a small one as you would for sharpening. If you want negative clarity, duplicate your background layer, set the transfer mode to overlay or soft light and apply a high pass filter with the desired radius. Then invert the high pass filtered layer.
July 21st, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Photoshop CS 6? Perhaps a release date in 2012 so I can catch up. with all the changes. This is a very deep software program and many tutorials only touch upon the basics for photographers. Let’s see more effort to train photographers in how to blend Photoshop and programs like CS In Design to create unique photo books.
Let’s do a Photoshop pop quiz of the week! How do you create a text path around a photo circle in Photoshop?
July 21st, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Clarity brush. Also some of Lightroom’s sliders. I would pay to have a Lightroom add-on or something for Photoshop. Anyway I do not want to hear about CS6 yet, seriously.. CS5 is perfect.. the work-flow from LR to PS CS5 is fine, no thanks on cs6 can’t think of anything I want!
July 22nd, 2010 at 12:22 am
strip out the useless bloat mentioned by ryan. it is almost like they took the 2003/2007/2010 office development strategy and applied it to photoshop and CS. When in doubt add more features and uselessly slow the apps down so they can’t accomplish their original purpose!
Focus on what you have (photo, illustration, layout), strip it down and make it much faster.
Lightroom should replace bridge
and kill flash
July 22nd, 2010 at 12:35 am
Peter, you just made the case for a single slider.
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:29 am
We JUST got CS5. Give it a second. Jeeezus!
July 22nd, 2010 at 5:17 am
As mentioned above, you can do clarity manually pretty easily but a slider would be nice.
Apart from that I would just like it to be faster, each new version runs slower than the last unless you have the latest supercomputer.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:16 pm
I would also like to vote for Linux support, Macintosh is fast becoming an unreliable and expensive platform while Windows is bug ridden and needs alot of virus protection. Linux on the other hand is a great workhorse – not to mention free!
July 23rd, 2010 at 4:02 am
A nice feature will be to have a better view of the brushes (make it bigger) with name. So far it is very small and only identified by numbers
July 23rd, 2010 at 5:52 am
I hate to say it, but number 3 may never happen. That’s what Adobe made InDesign for.
July 23rd, 2010 at 6:54 am
I think Adobe is puting far to many editing programs for the photographer instead of building one platform just for photography and get rid of all the other stuff like lightroom, and ellements, bridge, then combine all the best tools for us to use and have a price more inline with other software.
I am sure thats what Elements was for the only trouble was they still never put the best tools in it, so back to Photoshop we must go.
July 23rd, 2010 at 7:46 am
All that being said, I must say that Photoshop Elements has added immensely to my photographic enjoyment. Yes, I understand that CS5 users will be unimpressed with this, but when you consider that the average person can learn and use PSE to improve and create, it is a notable program. And it seems that the learning never ends which makes it a continuing challenge.
Thanks for the many hours of enjoyment, Adobe.
July 23rd, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I want the multicoloured path bag. Shades of grey are hard to see on some backgrounds as there is not enough contrast
July 23rd, 2010 at 1:46 pm
A small thing, but maybe the ability to anchor a selection to a certain point, and adjust the selction to the correct size without editing the photo.
I’m not sure if there’s an easier way, but currently I make another layer filled black with 0% transparency, and make my selection using that.
July 23rd, 2010 at 6:30 pm
A “save project” function that saves all your open tabs as a project instead of having to close and open the same set of images if you leave or come back to them.
July 23rd, 2010 at 7:36 pm
How about an intuitive interface rather than one that’s so complex, disjointed, ugly and dated that people will go elsewhere? CS is just needlessly complex for me, a lot of photographers seem to use it because it’s what they’ve got used to using over the years when there was nothing else. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that I still feel that in use CS has echoes of 1990s OS platforms about it that turns me right off. For a program so complex somebody really ought to think of a way of making it more user-friendly. There is a whole industry around teaching it so I guess there’s plenty of vested interest.
Having said that, neither do I really understand why photographers would pay for it when there are free alternatives which whilst not quite as developed do most of the same things – some folks just got too much money I guess!
July 24th, 2010 at 12:41 am
It would be really nice if they would fix the healing brush so that it didn’t leave bad colors, or a mud look if you get too close to another texture or edge. The clone tool is perfect. Why can’t the healing brush be that way too?
July 24th, 2010 at 12:41 am
SIMPLIFY! I have cheaper photo editing tools that is one click to get a certain look. In Photoshop it’s 10 clicks! WTH? Can’t they make it more simple? I am certainly no pro. I pick around and learn alot on line. I have printed instructions that could fill a book on how to do the simplest of actions in PS. Loaded Actions are the best – how about more of those standard in the system?
July 24th, 2010 at 12:43 am
Shotslot, we made the same point! hehe…
July 24th, 2010 at 1:25 am
There’s only one thing I wish for with CS6 relative to CS5 – for it to be FULLY FUNCTIONAL with Wacom’s newest tablets and “airbrush”. I had an exchange with an Adobe engineer about the problems with using the Wacom airbrush, a few months before CS5 was released. He said they were too deeply rooted to be fixed in time for CS5. I just hope they don’t forget!
TBH, CS5 has more functionality that I would probably even dreamed of having on my desktop. Adobe is far more creative than I am…
July 24th, 2010 at 2:25 am
I would like Adobe to fix problem “another incident of Updater is running. Please try again later.”
I cannot update CS5, Bridge, or Camera Raw because of this. I have spent countless hours on the phone
with Adobe tech service, to no avail. They don’t call me anymore. I was thinking about asking for a refund,
but I like the program too much. I worry that the problem will continue with CS6!
July 24th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Intuitive, Simple…less buttons.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:17 am
a simple method of image straightening much like the windows (live) image straightening tool.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:30 am
I will go back to basics with my reply. I would LOVE to see photoshop priced in such a way that more people could afford it. Currently, here in Australia, CS5 is over $A1,000 and out of reach for many people.
Any business that wishes to sell their product would realise that a cheaper price would increase sales…
IE: small per item profit = more sales = increased turnover and overall profit margin. It isn’t rocket science.
I am currently working with Photoshop Elements8 and find that it just isn’t worth the outlay when it comes to Photo-Manipulation as so much of CS5 is missing but, it is all that I could afford to purchase.
Being on a pension of around $A300 per week the current price means that by the time I had saved up for CS5 or CS6 ADOBE would have released CS10 and that would be charged at an even greater price and once again out of reach for many people.
I am hoping that the management of ADOBE will come out of their rarified air of “ADOBE-LAND” and into the real world where people are suffering.
July 30th, 2010 at 2:54 am
I just wish I could AFFORD CS5.
August 6th, 2010 at 2:08 am
How about making it affordable for normal people? I would definetly buy it if it was $300.
August 6th, 2010 at 3:26 am
Ability to set your own ‘transform’ points with the transform tool. I realize Puppet Warp has done this, to a degree, but I think it would be simpler to set your square and add your own points.
August 14th, 2010 at 8:04 am
A reasonable price?
August 20th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Unfortunately for those of you asking for “fat trimming” and the like, Photoshop has moved from just being about editing photography. It has become the hub (or a least a sector of it) for almost all digital art forms and styles. That is why Adobe has broken off into Lightroom/Elements type programs, to give back some of the photog-based tools back to the photogs without the need for all of the other stuff that Photoshop now offers.
August 27th, 2010 at 7:24 am
Many of these things are already addressed in CS5.
Regarding why everything doesn’t have a one-button solution: you are NOT a pro. For that, there are other, cheaper, simpler programs, that don’t give you the control that pros need – that’s why photoshop has to be so specific.
Now, REGARDING that fine-tuned control, what I want are SMALLER increments in the repousse and 3D tools. I was excited about this new tool, but when I try and make anything, I have to use the lowwwwwest depth they allow, and even that’s a little big. This seems to be way off. I can’t imagine using most of their scale, and as a result it’s not useful to me. But, since this is new, it will surely improve.
This might also be my ignorance, but in making 3D objects, I’d like a way to combine my smaller 3d elements into one object I can control with their 3D tools. I can’t seem to combine or group them to behave as one object, and i can’t make that object without building its parts individually.
August 27th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
My wish list:
Combine Illustrator and Photoshop – PS’s crippled vector features (such as lack of stroke options and styles) seem to be intentional so that ADBE can sell it in 2 flavors. I have no problem if they make an “Adobe Infrastructure” where Photoshop is the default program and Illustrator is a plugin upgrade, however having these as separate programs is silly. Same thing for Bridge – if you are going to price it for pros, then assume a minimum level of hardware that would support a built in Bridge, without opening it as – yes – another program. In my opinion there is a lot of overlap in code that can be avoided…come on guys, I didn’t buy CS5 to run I on a Texas instruments calculator…
Bring back “export layer comps as PDF” feature – I used that all the time and it was awesome!
August 28th, 2010 at 4:29 am
I can’t believe many of the comments here.
All you calling for a simpler more intuitive flashy interface, Why???.
There are dozens of simple to use flashy “we will do everything for you” programs for the amateur or occasional user out there GET ONE.
Photoshop has always been aimed at the professional user hence a great deal of tools for professional photographers.
Most of the desired features asked for are in there already, learn the program!!.
As a professional photographer I have been using (and studying ) Photoshop for 18 years, (1992) and still love discovering new things, I bet you wish that camera manufacturers would produce a camera that does everything for you at the point of pressing the shutter.
BTW Rhys, you can do exactly what you are asking for, just make a selection/ drag the centre crosshair to the point you wish to anchor/ then press ‘Control-Command-T (Mac) now you can rotate, stretch, scale or warp your SELECTION ONLY then hit the return key.
Hope this is what you were looking to do.
September 5th, 2010 at 3:41 am
my wish would be a tool: you have something such a ball you select out an d want to put it into another picture.
but in this picture there are shadows, lights , and areas where the ball wont be seen. this tool catch this an dput it in the right position, so that the lights the shadows and the clarity ist right.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:18 am
Adobe, before you think of adding anything fancy or jazzing up the interface more, please add an auto-save feature. A lot of people will be eternally grateful for that.
September 18th, 2010 at 12:50 am
my wish:
Make a tool that is a blend between transform & Move. Take the “Submit Comment” button on the bottom of this homepage, for instance. It has round corners and a long, repeating part in the middle. Say you want to make it longer. You cant just use the transform tool, because then the roundness of the corners changes. So what would I want to do? I would like to use the selection tool, select either the left or the right side of the button and drag it outward. Meanwhile, photshop is copying the last column of layers and repeting them so that the middle part gets streched. Ofc, if it is vector based, there is no point in this tool. But sometimes it could be really useful not to have to go ahead and select the right side of an image, move it outward and then go back and stretch out the part that is blank.
September 25th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
A dark UI option.
November 3rd, 2010 at 7:00 am
I’d like to see live font previews, like Microsoft Office programs to name a few. In those programs, when you hover over a font you’re considering using, the actual font in the image changes temporarily to match. In Photoshop, you have to pretty much commit to the font, then go back into the font dialog and do it again and again.
Also, the interface still parties like it’s 1999. Every other high-dollar piece of software I own is beautiful to look at, yet Photoshop is fugly. Every time I unwrap a shiny new version, it’s so disappointing to see the same appearance, with no options to change anything beyond tool/window positions.
November 11th, 2010 at 7:45 am
Needs the ability to adjust SIZE in the interface. . . some of us are getting older and the current “large” just is NOT. And the bigger monitors, (with higher resolution) are just making the problem worse.
December 9th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
1. the ability to copy something and not generate a new layer but just paste into the same layer
2. the ability to open a raw file.
3. being able to click on a file and have the file open. In cs5 file associations are all screwed up
December 25th, 2010 at 5:19 am
I think that photoshop is perfect and nothing needs to be added or taken away. Alot of you are right when they say its too expensive but its way too easy to get these programs for free. These programs are so expensive people have made it there job to make it possible to “steal” off of the internet. So for all of you people saying its too expensive look into websites like thepiratebay.org. They can change your life! hahahaha
January 8th, 2011 at 4:20 am
I have an idea: rise the price when CS6 is released, maybe double. Keep selling CS5 for – say – 400. Why stop there – also sell CS4 for- maybe 150?
This way the pro’s that really “need” the newest features will pay the premium price, and the rest of us can get a good price…….. on CS5 / CS4.
Adobe – are you listening??
Lets make a vote, and send the result to Adobe……
January 8th, 2011 at 5:59 am
I want a brush for directional sharpening/blurring with the direction of sharpening determined by the brush stroke, and the direction changing continuously with the direction in which the brush is moving.
Currently there is provision for removing motion blur and choosing an angle for entire image.
The new Directional Sharpen Brush could be very useful for sharpening and bringing out details on hair, feathers, fur, fabrics etc.
January 27th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
The ability to have clipping masks on top of a group would be nice… to be able to clip layers or adjustments to the sum total of mask area made by the collective layers within a group.
February 17th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Here’s another thing i would like to have in CS6, the ability to group layer styles and patterns in “Groups”. If you have a lot of styles and patters, it’s always annoying searching the appropriate style and pattern. Grouping them would make my life much easier.
March 18th, 2011 at 8:51 am
ok.okay..
I REALLY have a wanted implore Adobe watchers for a particular feature for Photoshop EXTended —Stephanie put this down too. it said- ‘Ability to set your own ‘transform’ points with the transform tool. I realize Puppet Warp has done this, to a degree, but I think it would be simpler to set your square and add your own points.
EVen like maya- have three (are they called ‘nodes’) even to start this nice rocket of Photoshop being.
all i ask max. is three!!!! People know these prices are super-leveed . If I was to adjust the $ of Photoshop I would say $700 for extended & $500 for regular!!
no-one prob. agrees with this one: but i want Photoshop CS6 in August 2011.l8r.
April 9th, 2011 at 2:34 am
Don’t destroy image quality. If I resize an object to a tiny size, press enter, I should be able to resize it back to the original size with no loss of quality.
April 21st, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Jacob,
Convert your tiny object to s smart object before you size down. Photoshop will preserve the image quality when you size up again.
May 14th, 2011 at 12:55 am
I would love to be able to drag down DIAGONAL guides AND specify the angle!
June 8th, 2011 at 9:03 pm
I would like to see a linux version. I do 3d graphics and I know that many of the big studios keep a windows or mac port solely for photoshop.
June 24th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Dark GUI, please, my eyes bleed.
As for CS3, JPEG decoding is wrong.
More resizers Kernels, and more working options enabled when over 8bit depth.
June 24th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
I would love to have the ability to increase the number lines on the warp grid. Right now the warp tool has is a 9 square grid. It would wonderful is you could increase or decrease that resolution to gain finer control over warping without have to leave your image to go into the liquify command.
Mari does this brilliantly and it is incredibly useful.
June 24th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
I would love to have the ability to increase the number lines on the warp grid. Right now the warp tool has is a 9 square grid. It would wonderful is you could increase or decrease that resolution to gain finer control over warping without have to leave your image to go into the liquify command.
Mari does this brilliantly and it is incredibly useful.
July 8th, 2011 at 6:29 am
Some requests that are simple to implement:
Ability to unlock / lock multiple layers at once
Ability to color multiple layers at once
When coloring layer, seeing color, not just name of color
Ability to have multiple layer palettes open for a single doc (or ability for multiple columns within a single layer palette)
Simplification of Brush palette- no reason for current over complication
Better method for storing multiple brush presets
Do not add in all filters by default.
Take away many of the drop downs that are provided in menu’s and palettes to simplify interface
August 2nd, 2011 at 6:53 pm
One of the must have feature in photoshop cs6 should be CSS3 code generator!!!
September 13th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
-blur tool need more strength like Painttool SAI.
-bigger brush size
-yellow + blue = green
September 22nd, 2011 at 1:09 am
ability to default save options, and screen mode.
Layer styles; change default of stroke and glow.
faster brush resize alternatives (with left hand on the keyboard, or click-n-drag aka zbrush style)
eyedropper tool; option to bypass adjustment levels
October 19th, 2011 at 7:08 am
Tubes introduce in Photoshop PS Tubes sounds good
October 19th, 2011 at 11:50 am
My request is probably too far fetched. I would like to see photoshop become a node based editor.
If you’ve ever used fusion to do photo editing, you would see how powerful this is.
October 26th, 2011 at 3:32 am
1. To make a Stroke Tool
2. To add curves to your cropping
3. To make a new 2 new blending modes, Shadow Overlay and Gloss Overlay
4. New layer style called gloss
5. Make new fonts
6. Allow to move anchor points with the pen tool
7. In the puppet warp only places that you click you drag and move about
November 8th, 2011 at 6:32 am
What I have been waiting for since the introduction of Smart Objects is the ability to have a mask for each filter (at present the mask is applied to all filters acting on the SO). The only way around the lack of masks per filter is to create a second level of SO and to apply a filter & mask to this SO … and so on. This means that SOs can be nested to 3, 4 or more (for example, the first SO might have some DFT Ozone filters, the next level might have sharpening, the next level local contrast using USM, the next level background blurring and the final level might have output sharpening. With a 20+ mpx RAW image the final size of the image is now heading for 1GB, especially if the ACR SO is included. With masks applied to the individual filters the size would be down to less than half … and what’s more it would be MUCH easier to work on the image as everything would be at the same level.
A REALLY IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT ADOBE!!
November 8th, 2011 at 10:47 am
I would like a repeat last event shortcut and a select last tool shortcut like in Maya.
In Maya, if you press “f”, it takes whatever you did last and repeats it.
In Maya if you press “y” it reselects the last tool you used.
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