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Adobe releases key updates for Lightroom and Photoshop

By Marcus Wong - on 22 Feb 2018, 4:54pm

Adobe releases key updates for Lightroom and Photoshop

You may recall a report back in January on how Adobe was intending to update Lightroom Classic CC to bring major performance updates for multi-core machines. Well, those updates to Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC, Photoshop, and XD are now live.

Here are some of the improvements the updates will bring.

Lightroom Classic:

As reported, the latest update to Lightroom Classic brings significant performance enhancements and is focused on batch processing improvements.

Adobe says they focused on improving performance for computers with multiple cores and at least 12GB of RAM to bring improved speed in the following:

  • Faster import grid loading
  • Faster import and preview generation
  • Faster walking through images in the Loupe View
  • Faster rendering of adjustments in Develop
  • Faster merge operations of HDR/Panos
  • Faster export

You can now star folders to mark them as favorites.

The following enhancements have also been added:

Folder Search – Allows you to find specific folders via name

Filter Favorites within Folders – Folders can now be marked with a star to signify it is a favorite folder.

Create Collections from a Pin in the Map Module – Allows you to quickly create collections by location.

New filter for Edited or Unedited Images - Lets you quickly sort images which you can then create a smart collection for.

You'll now be able to create collections from the Map module.

Adobe Camera Raw – The Photoshop Continuously Scalable User Interface feature in the ACR plugin has been enabled, allowing Windows users to scale the ACR plugin from 100% to 500% in increments of 100%. On Windows, per-monitor scaling has also been enabled so that if you have a multi-monitor set-up, each monitor can be set to a different scale factor and ACR will display accordingly.

Lightroom CC family:

Add copyright information automatically in LrCC desktop.

The entire ecosystem has been made more stable, with support for new cameras and lenses added. Adobe says a lot of effort was put into improving stability, so moving to the next photo, scrolling through grids, and exporting images should be faster and cause less crashes.

LrCC desktop also gains the ability to add Copyright information to images automatically upon import. LrCC Android in the meantime, gains more powerful tools for correcting perspective distortion via the Geometry tab and the option to add watermarks on export. If you’re running Android Marshmallow or later and have an internet connection active, you’ll also be able to use Google Assistant to search your Lightroom library via voice.

 

Photoshop:

Photoshop on Windows 10 Creator’s Edition also now offers choices for UI scale factors from 100% to 400%, in 25% increments. Photoshop will now automatically adjust itself based on your Windows settings, making it simple to set up. As with ACR, per-monitor scaling has been enabled so that the software works optimally across displays.

The select subject feature is now available!

As previously covered, the Select Subject feature is now live with this update, and its available in all the places you start selections:

  • Select > Subject.
  • The Quick Selection tool and Magic Wand options bar.
  • The Select & Mask workspace options bar while using the Quick Selection tool.

A decontamination slider has also been added to Select and Mask so you can easily control the amount of decontamination applied – just like how Refine Edge works.

Improved SVG compatibility – Photoshop now supports copy and paste of SVG from Photoshop to XD with all the styles and effects retained. Previously, only  the first-used style was retained.

Better support for the Microsoft Surface Dial – Now you can change brush settings while you paint. You can also assign the Microsoft Surface Dial to control opacity and use that to adjust opacity while you paint. Previously, you could only change brush settings between strokes. All of the dynamic controls in the brush settings can also be assigned to the Microsoft Surface Dial now.

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