Adobe Photoshop to Mac Review: Top Photo Editing App gets better

Price when reviewed

Full Photoshop: £ 21.98 a month, £ 262.51 a year for Photoshop; Photography Plan: From £ 19.97 a month, £ 239.64 a year.

Best prices today:

Adobe Photography Plan (per month)

£ 19.97

Adobe Photoshop (per month)

£ 21.98

Adobe first launched Photoshop exclusively to Macintosh in 1990. Since then, the software has grown to become a standard photo editor for creative professionals on all platforms. Today, the app is available on all major operating systems and continues to keep up with the latest industry developments – including the current AI boom.

While many rivals have released alternative photo editing apps, very few brands have managed to get a fraction of Adobe’s relevance in this space. Nevertheless, Photoshop is animals and whether it is worth the recurring fees depend on your personal budget and needs.

Adobe Photoshop is available on macos, iOS, iPados, Windows, Android and the Internet. While all clients serve the same main purpose, the actual function set separates based on the platform you use. For example, some of the desktop tools are currently not available on mobile and online. As such, this review focuses on the Mac version of Photoshop.

Get started with Photoshop

Unlike Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop is not available in the Mac App Store. To install the MacOS client, first download the Creative Cloud App Launcher from the Internet, which then automatically installs over half a dozen other adobe apps for maintenance and such. It floods your launcher (or app library on MacOS Tahoe) with unnecessary icons and overloads your Mac with background processes that can drain the battery and affect its performance. It’s a nightmare. The alternative is to use the web version of Photoshop, but it lacks some features.

Despite the bloatware, Photoshop appeared fluently on my M2 MacBook Air running macos tahoe developer Beta. Compared to the web app, the native MAC client UI looks a little outdated, but it works. You get fine -tuned theme and other preferences, but a modern redesign is objectively decayed.

If you are new to Photoshop, you will probably appreciate the tips and video wounds bundled with the app. Thanks to these explainers, you can find out exactly what each primary tool does and quickly know how the complex software works.

Foundry

Before we examine the traditional Photoshop features, let’s explore the latest features driven by artificial intelligence. Adobe Firefly is the company’s AI engine and it is baked into Photoshop. While using AI in photo editing can be a controversial topic, certain smart tools help creative achieving more in a shorter time – without necessarily removing the original photo of its artistic essence.

E.g. Has noise reduction tools and stains erasers existed for eons. The AI-Powered Photoshop app simply upgrades these existing features to improve output. So you are going to circle intrusive objects and get AI to generate an appropriate background that merges with the rest of the image. You will the same way to sense or expand photos while minimizing pixelation. It is the subtle kind of AI that maintains the realism of input.

Otherwise, you get some Wilder AI features in Photoshop for those who want to transform their content completely. For example, you can generate images from the bottom using text printing and insert them realistic (shadows and all) into your project. You also get to try different variants of the same object to see what visually works best in a particular context.

Likewise, you can isolate the subject of your shot and get AI to generate new backgrounds or sky styles, making it easier for marketers to take product shots. Similar to Lightroom, you can also use AI-made filters that uniquely adapt to your individual photos.

Foundry

Like most AI features, output can sometimes be unpredictable. However, the features have generally worked reliably to me, and they are undoubtedly more accurate than asking chatgpt to edit a photo in a certain way. However, it is worth noting that certain generative features consume Adobe Firefly -credits. If you run out of AI -Tokens, you can buy further them via a separate Firefly subscription that starts at $ 9.99/£ 9.98 a month.

Photoshop classic features

Foundry

Even before AI Boom, Adobe Photoshop topped the photo editing charts due to its advanced capabilities. For starters, the software uses a long -term layering system, making it easy to insulate edits and apply changes without affecting the original image. If you are unsure of a specific change or effect, you can easily disable, re -order or delete the respective layer without affecting the rest of your project.

Other nonAI features include different brush styles for doodling, cloning tools, a wealth of fonts for inserted text, cropping, mixing, color balance adjustments, smearing, masking, healing, distorting, distorting, editing switching logs, several export options, etc. And with support for third-party stitches, you can super-discounted softwaren Tools that Adobe doesn’t have it to offer. There is a reason why the word Photoshop has become go-to-verbs for any changed image-it is incredibly powerful and basically unlimited in its abilities.

Foundry

As for performance, I did not encounter any major bugs or delays while using Photoshop on my MacBook. If it feels sluggish, you can go to the app’s settings and Finpuse some relevant options to make the experience smoother. For example, you can choose between on-device and cloud treatment for certain AI features. Similarly, you can speed up some tools by prioritizing speed rather than accurate results and dictating how much the RAM software can use.

Photoshop pricing and availability

To access Photoshop on MacOS (or any other platform), you have to pay for a subscription after your 7-day free trial expires. Adobe offers three main levels:

Photoshop: Vanilla Tier offers Photoshop access on all platforms in addition to 100 GB of sky storage for $ 34.49/£ 32.98 a month and cancel at any time. If you have long -term photo editing needs, you can select the annual plan of $ 275.88 with monthly $ 22.99/£ 21.98 billing. Cancellation of the latter plan will incur additional fees early. To maximize your savings, you can pay $ 263.88/£ 262.51 in advance for one year’s access.

At the time of writing, Adobe has a 50% discount in the first three months in the UK, which means you can get it to £ 9.98 a month for three months before paying the full price for the rest of the expression.

Photography bundle: This reduced level locks Photoshop, Lightroom and 1 TB of Sky Storage for $ 29.99/£ 28.99 a month (cancel at any time). Like Vanilla Tier, you can choose an annual plan to save some bucks and get it for $ 19.99/£ 19.97 a month. Whether you choose monthly billing or paying it all at once, this bundles you $ 239.88/£ 238.42 a year.

Creative Cloud Pro Bundle: If you trust other Adobe software, you can pay $ 104.99/£ 99.89 a month for the all-encompassing Creative Cloud Pro Bundle (canceling at any time). This unlocks Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat, Illustrator and over a dozen other apps. The annual plan is a monthly payment of $ 69.99/£ 66.49, while a pre -payment would reduce it to $ 779.88/£ 773.86 for the year.

Adobe US has a 40% discount for the first year, which brings the price down to $ 41.99 a month paid monthly on the annual level.

Adobe UK has a 50% discount for three months, bringing the price down to £ 32.66 a month for three months.

Qualified students can use additional discounts when they subscribe to Creative Cloud Pro Bundle.

The price structure doesn’t make much sense and Photography Bundle is the best value even if you just want Photoshop. You still come about 10 times more cloud storage for a significantly lower fee compared to Vanilla Photoshop level.

For more information about Adobe prices and the latest offers read Adobe Creative Cloud Pricing: How to Get the Best Deal.

Should you subscribe to Adobe Photoshop?

Whether you polish a portrait, design a poster, prepare marketing material or create a digital banner, Photoshop will be able to handle your needs. And because of its popularity, you can find hundreds of solid tutorials on YouTube and other sites if you are new to the platform. The app caters to both basic edits and advanced workflows, so whatever your level of experience is, you can find ways to use Photoshop effectively.

The only reason you might want to avoid using Photoshop is its revenue model. It is not cheap, and for many reasons, some users avoid services with recurring subscription fees. Fortunately, there are plenty of Photoshop alternatives that are completely free, such as Photopea, or charge a one-time fee, including Apple-owned Pixelmator. While their function-set — Isaries the AI-centries are not identical to Photoshop, they can still produce similar results.

But if your job is about manipulating images or you are a potential artist, Adobe Photoshop is definitely worth the price tag. In the end, Adobe Photoshop remains the best photo editor for professionals out there. It is stable, reliable, functional and actively developed; It doesn’t disappoint.