X

What's new in Adobe Photoshop CC for November 2015 (pictures)

Adobe continues its Photoshop facelift for the flat-interface era and debuts the integration of Fuse 3D poses and animations.

Lori Grunin
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Lori Grunin
photoshop-open-ui-wasted-space.png
1 of 18 Lori Grunin/CNET

New startup

As part of the application's tabletization, Adobe added this New/Open screen which can display document thumbnails, libraries, or preset new document types and sizes. Personally, I hate the tabletizing of desktop app interfaces -- see all that wasted space on either side?

photoshop-custom-tools.jpg
2 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Customizable toolbars

Happy almost-2016! Adobe finally gives Photoshop users the ability to customize the tools which appear in the toolbar, and you can save them as a preset. All of the tools that you remove remain available in the three-dot tool.

photoshop-oil-paint.png
3 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Return of the oil paint filter

When Adobe dropped its Pixel Bender GPU filters, a predecessor to its current Mercury Engine accelerator, one of the casualties was the Oil Paint filter. It's baa-aack, under the Stylize filters.

photoshop-import-library.png
4 of 18 Lori Grunin/CNET

Automatic library creation

Photoshop can create a library from the assets in an existing document. Unfortunately, it's not smart enough to know that you already created a library from a given document.

photoshop-new-artboard.png
5 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Easier artboards

Adobe made it easier to quickly duplicate artboards; just click the plus.

photoshop-type-placement.png
6 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Precision placement of type layers

You can now enter coordinates to place type; I miss the ability to enter an offset value in addition to absolute, though.

photoshop-type-favorites.png
7 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Type interface improvements

Some nice enhancements include the ability to filter your fonts by characteristic, as well as by Typekit availability; build a list of frequently used favorites; and find similar fonts (the wavy lines).

photoshop-new-glyphs.png
8 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Somewhat improved Glyph palette

The palette now saves recently used glyphs. It would be nice to have a place in the palette to stash frequently used glyphs as well.

photoshop-type-similar.png
9 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Similar fonts

Photoshop's type properties now include filtering by similar fonts. It's nice, though I think its definition of "similar" is a little too broad.

photoshop-type-type.png
10 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Font filtering

You can now filter all your fonts by class, though only by one at a time. I hope in the future we'll be able to multi-select and that Adobe will add more stylistic and use options, such as fonts that have both Web- and print-licensing, normal versus all caps, body text versus display type, and so on.

photoshop-quick-export-preferences.png
11 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Quick export

There's now a Quick Export option in the Export menu that will save to a user-defined format and quality. That's really useful, at least for me.

photoshop-preferences-appearance.png
12 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Artboard appearance

Adobe extends control over the appearance of different interface options to Artboards.

photoshop-preferences-ui.png
13 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Streamlined place

You can now turn off Photoshop's default of entering transform mode when placing an object.

photoshop-export-multiples.png
14 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Multisize export

Adobe added the ability to batch export in multiple sizes plus a "convert to sRGB" option. I can't find a way to save presets, however.

photoshop-fuse-animate.png
15 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Fuse poses and animations

When you bring in a Fuse model, either via the libraries or saved externally from Fuse, you have a relatively large selection of preset poses and animations to apply to it. You have some minimal controls over ways to vary both. The palette hasn't integrated the existing Fuse architecture into Photoshop very well -- for instance, you have to page through the options -- but as with most initial implementations, that will probably get fixed soon.

photoshop-fuse-face.png
16 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Facial expressions

There are preset facial expressions you can apply to a Fuse model, and you can adjust the intensity of the expression, the head tilt on three axes, and the eyeball rotation up and to the sides (for the perfect eye roll). However, if you select a different facial expression from the preset, those remain fixed and you can't keyframe them to change as the body moves. The results can be...odd.

photoshop-fuse-skeleton.png
17 of 18 Lori Grunin/CNET

Look but don't touch

You can see the skeletons of the models in Photoshop, but you can't manipulate the bones.

photoshop-fuse-paint.png
18 of 18 Screenshot by Lori Grunin/CNET

Texture edits

All of the Fuse textures are available for live painting and other typical texture-map Photoshoppery.

More Galleries

My Favorite Shots From the Galaxy S24 Ultra's Camera
A houseplant

My Favorite Shots From the Galaxy S24 Ultra's Camera

20 Photos
Honor's Magic V2 Foldable Is Lighter Than Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra
magic-v2-2024-foldable-1383

Honor's Magic V2 Foldable Is Lighter Than Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra

10 Photos
The Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus Looks Sweet in Aluminum
Samsung Galaxy S24

The Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus Looks Sweet in Aluminum

23 Photos
Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra Now Has a Titanium Design
The Galaxy S24 Ultra in multiple colors

Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra Now Has a Titanium Design

23 Photos
I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites
img-0368.jpg

I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites

34 Photos
17 Hidden iOS 17 Features You Should Definitely Know About
Invitation for the Apple September iPhone 15 event

17 Hidden iOS 17 Features You Should Definitely Know About

18 Photos
AI or Not AI: Can You Spot the Real Photos?
img-1599-2.jpg

AI or Not AI: Can You Spot the Real Photos?

17 Photos