I’ve been doing a lot of Photoshop work lately, using CS5.\u00a0 Adobe adds nice features to Photoshop every so often, but I think they have been lagging with respect to some simple user interface enhancements to speed things along.\u00a0 Here is my wish list.\u00a0 (If you don’t use Photoshop, you may as well click away now.)<\/p>\n
1. I often copy a layer mask from one adjustment layer to another, by holding ALT and dragging the mask icon.\u00a0 When I do this, the “Replace Layer Mask?” dialog box pops up, which I must dismiss with another keystroke before doing anything else.\u00a0 My program fix: for every dialog box of this type, provide a small check box, “Don’t show me this again.”\u00a0 And in Preferences, provide a master list of reminders we can choose to see or not see.<\/p>\n
Photoshop is inconsistent in asking you to confirm actions.\u00a0 There are many actions more “dangerous” than replacing a layer mask which need no confirmation.\u00a0 So let users choose our own reminders.\u00a0 There is always Undo.<\/p>\n
2. While we are on the topic of Layer Masks, how about adding “Invert Layer Mask” to the menu that pops up when you right-click on the mask icon?\u00a0 Right now, the only way to do this is the keyboard command CTRL-I.\u00a0 I’m not a big fan of software that forces you to use a keyboard shortcut, with no other visible means (such as toolbar button or menu item) of doing the same thing.\u00a0 It is bad design<\/a> to force users to store commands in their heads.<\/p>\n 3. Corel PhotoPaint (in the 1990s!) allowed users to fully customize the menu bar.\u00a0 I took advantage of this and created a “User” menu heading, to which I copied frequently-used commands.\u00a0 I arranged them top to bottom in order of my typical workflow.\u00a0 The other commands were always available, in their standard menu locations.\u00a0 If you have worked this way, the ability to color and\/or hide menu commands (the only menu customization Photoshop offers) doesn’t seem very impressive.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 I am tired of pressing ENTER twice to dismiss the brush-size popup window.\u00a0 If I can make the popup appear with a single right-click on the image, I should be able to dismiss the popup with a single click as well.\u00a0 Don’t keep sending me back to the keyboard!<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 I love the quick-selection tool but why can’t I select its “brush” size with a right-click of the mouse, like I do with other brushes?<\/p>\n 6.\u00a0 To clear guidelines, the user has to select a command in the View menu.\u00a0 This could be done faster with a clickable button where the two rulers intersect.<\/p>\n These are my off-the-top suggestions.\u00a0 I am sure to add others!\u00a0 (You can tell Adobe what features you would like to see here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve been doing a lot of Photoshop work lately, using CS5.\u00a0 Adobe adds nice features to Photoshop every so often, but I think they have been lagging with respect to some simple user interface enhancements to speed things along.\u00a0 Here … Continue reading