The "Google" of Photo editing and graphic design
May 13, 2021

The "Google" of Photo editing and graphic design

Shion Song | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe PhotoShop

Photoshop goes far beyond simply editing photos and is used extensively to provide graphical mockups for web design proposals, UI designs as well as image editing for other applications such as flyers and creating templates for social media purposes. It is extremely convenient and offers great interoperability (e.g. vector assets can be easily designed in Illustrator and imported in Photoshop)

Even outside of traditional design, Photoshop makes web development much easier as it offers tools such as the eyedropper which can be used to find HEX codes of certain colors (e.g. from a client's logo).
  • Industry standard for a long time and therefore handles almost anything clients send
  • Layers system allows easy organization for files that are complex and involve tens to hundreds of layers
  • Powerful features such as Content Aware fill! This function is incredibly useful when handling images sent by clients that need additional tweaking (e.g subject of interest is too far right, etc) or the dimensions are not ideal
  • Good community support. There are lots of tutorials out on the internet that allows you to constantly learn new features on the fly
  • Automation scripts/batch operations save time when applying similar edits to a large number of files
  • CC has an incredible amount of bloatware that is constantly running in the background. While most desktops systems are powerful enough to handle it, it can potentially impact battery life of mobile systems
  • macOS version of PS has bugs that can disrupt the workflow and require a restart of the application (e.g. Export as window can randomly stop working)
  • Default setting on Photoshop can chew through 32 GB RAM much more quickly when working with lots of layers (compared to older versions like CS6)
  • Subscription is mandatory, which makes it more difficult for occasional freelancers
  • Some consistency issues such as keyboard shortcuts between applications (e.g. Illustrator) can vary, which can interfere with muscle memory
  • Content aware tool - allows "smart" resizing and extending of client images that may not be formatted ideally for a specific application
  • Powerful layers/grouping system - makes it easy to organize and quickly edit very complex files
  • Interoperability with other applications like Premiere Pro, Illustrator, InDesign. Every application has their strength and the CC suite makes it very easy to use the best tool in each use-case scenario and bring it all together
  • Photoshop saves time. Client files tend to just work and interoperability between applications make it easy to use the right tool for the right task efficiently.
  • Subscription costs may be initially hard to swallow for the occasional freelancer but the pros start to outweigh the cons fairly quickly as the business starts to grow
  • Photoshop elevates the quality of photos and design and keeps clients impressed
For basic tasks, GIMP will get the job done but the features offered by Photoshop is like comparing apples and oranges. The feature sets are vastly different and almost not fair to compare. Adobe XD can be great for basic wireframe mockups but its UI does get a little clunky and harder to use in comparison as soon as you start needing more complex image manipulations in the mockups. In my work, the focus is more on the overall design so XD's strengths on interactive design is less realized with clients. Once a project gets past the design stage, it's often efficient to enter the development stage on their platform of choice directly. Given this situation, photoshop offered the most versatile solution.

Do you think Adobe PhotoShop delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe PhotoShop's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe PhotoShop live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Adobe PhotoShop go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Adobe PhotoShop again?

Yes

Photoshop has been an industry leader for a long time and has enjoyed regular improvements that sets it quite above its competitors. You can also rest assured that Photoshop (and the entire Adobe suite) can handle just about any file a client sends. It also has a great support community and you can Google just about anything and get the results you need.

Due to the mandatory subscription model, Photoshop is best suited for freelancers/businesses with a steady flow of work. For such businesses, the subscription model guarantees access to the latest features and actually comes out to be more cost effective if the said business was regularly updating their license to begin with.

For individuals who need to occasionally touch up photos or have very basic needs, it may not be the best option and other alternatives with perpetual licensing models are available.

Adobe PhotoShop Support

While I never contacted Adobe directly, there is so much content out there in the form of YouTube videos, Lynda/LinkedIn learning that almost any issue, including bugs, can be worked around (and this method is generally faster as there's no turnaround time involved).