Photoshop CC 2017 Update

The New Phone Book is Here!

Regarding the new Photoshop version, I'd like to be as excited as Steve Martin was about seeing his name in a phone book. I keep hoping! But this version seems to only have some minor updates or enhancements, at least for photography users.

I don't use Photoshop that much to begin with, and I keep hoping I'll see more reason to use it. I primarily use Lightroom. I find it quicker and less fiddly than Photoshop. There are times, however, especially for healing or cloning items that you don't want, where Photoshop provides the control that you just don't get in Lightroom.

As for my wishlist, I wish that they'd re-organize their user interface. Maybe it's just me but I don't see the distinction between filters and tools, or why there are links for some types of layers (Brightness and Contrast) above the list of layers. I don't understand why things are scattered all around the display without much apparent reason or order. But I am probably too old school and too little millennial to enjoy having to search for things in a cluttered and nonsensical user interface. I'm also one of those people that hate the Microsoft "ribbon" garbage.

I recently had occasion to look at a book I likely hadn't opened once in the last 35 years, "Standard Mathematical Tables", 27th Edition, by William H. Beyer. I no longer remember how to use many of the various equations, but it was a pleasure seeing how well organized complex information can be.

I remember a software program I wrote in the mid or early 1980's that provided parts breakdowns for recreational vehicle equipment and how well it was organized, allowing you to drill down to find an individual part for a specific automotive refrigerator manufacturers model for example.

I think there is often a disconnect in software user interfaces because software developers create something such as an enhancement to Photoshop and stick a link to it in the menu that they were working in when they came up with the idea rather than considering where it might be better placed with regard to work flow. I've done it and seen it. Rogue software developers end up adding functionality to a user interface instead of leaving that to (in this case) a photographer (or other end user type) that actually uses the software.

Granted, Photoshop has a lot of functionality in it that I don't even use, such as creating 3-D objects. They've somewhat addressed the issue by offering different user type layouts. I just wish they were more flexible or that the functionality wasn't laid out so confusing in the first place. I'll end my rant here.