Photoshop CC 2018

The world’s favourite image editor gets a refresh for 2018

one of the main complaints people have about Photoshop, apart from the fact you can only get it on a subscription plan, is that it’s too difficult and complicated.

Experienced Photoshop users would probably argue with that, but Adobe is nevertheless trying to reassure novice users with a new Learn panel that walks you through some basic image-editing operations. They really are basic, but perfect for someone coming to software like this for the very first time. New ‘rich’ tool tips that appear when you hover the mouse over a tool also help, and some of these feature animated GIFS that demonstrate how the tool works.

Improved masks and selections

Other new features include improvements to the Select and Mask tool to make selections more accurate and realistic, and an improved Refine Edge Brush tool for cleaning up tricky edges of your selections. Alternatively, if you want to cut out an object with a clear, curved outline, the new Curvature Pen tool could make this a whole lot easier. Paths are a great way to make selections around objects that you can distinguish visually but the automatic selection tools can’t, but their thin outlines can make them tricky to see – until now, because Photoshop CC 2018 brings adjustable path outlines too.

Also new is the ability to cut-andpaste layers within documents and between them, and the ability to edit 360º panoramas, which could prove useful given the increasing interest in VR photography.

The other improvements in this version are more for designers than photographers and include big improvements to brushes and support for variable fonts, so this isn’t really a major Photoshop update on the same scale as the Lightroom CC changes, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Photography Plan subscribers get the update automatically.