What’s New in Photoshop CC-2017

Since it is very nearly 2017, I thought it was about time I updated to Photoshop CC-2017.

By default, when you install an update, the previous version of PS will be overwritten. If, like me, you prefer a safety net by keeping the previous version, select the Advance Options box after you click on the initial Install. You need to uncheck the ‘Remove old versions’ option.

I will review the main new features and changes; templates, search, select and mask, face-aware liquefy and type improvements.

Templates & Stock Art:

Let’s start with templates. When you open Photoshop CC 2017 the start up interface no longer has ‘Library’ or ‘Presets’ options; the options available are ‘Open’ and ‘New’ only. The biggest difference is the ‘New’ options interface.

This is highly integrated with Adobe resources, showing templates available to use for the categories: Photo, Print, Art & Illustration, Web, Mobile, and Film & Video. You can click to view more details on each. Here are 2 examples of the templates within the Photo option:

 

I have clicked download on one of these to illustrate how the templates work. You can see that the file opens as a PSD with editable layers.

You simply double click on the Smart Object Layer and add your own image. I used an image from Pixabay which you can download here:

https://pixabay.com/en/winter-in-new-england-605166/.

Place your image within the red ‘safe area’.

Close and save the file and re-open the original PSD.

Since I have used and downloaded the template, it is now available under my Adobe account License History.

The license for this particular, free template, is an Enhanced License. If you are a digital artist, downloading and using Adobe Templates and/or Stock in art work that you intend to sell, you need an Extended License for resources that you use. You can find out more about licensing terms here:

https://stock.adobe.com/uk/license-terms

http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/legal/servicetou/Adobe_Stock_Terms-en_US-20161015_2200.pdf

Search:

The 2017 update is further integrated with Adobe resources with the Search Option. You can open this by pressing CTRL (or COMMAND) F, or by clicking the eyeglass icon in the top left hand corner of the screen (which I have circled in red).

You have the option to search under Photoshop, Learn or Stock. Alternatively, you can search All. I have searched the term ‘Select’. The results under Photoshop correspond to the relevant Photoshop interface (tools, layers, panels, filters etc). Results under Learn are the relevant resources from helpx.adobe.com. Results under Stock show resources from the Adobe Stock Library.

Select and Mask Changes:

One of the major changes in CC 2015.5 was the removal of Refine Edge and the introduction of Select and Mask (see ShiftArt Tutorial). In CC 2017, Select and Mask includes a High Quality Preview Option, although this can substantially slow down the speed of performance. The update also includes the Polygonal Lasso Tool; with the idea that this will improve selections that require more defined, straight edges.

The following image contains areas where the Quick Selection and the Refine Edge Brush Tool would work best, but also areas that have a more defined straight edge.

https://pixabay.com/en/read-reading-book-reader-education-1342499/

Here is the initial, Quick Selection result:

And the results of the Refine Edge Brush Tool shown in the black and white mask view. (note that I have tidied regions using the paint brush tool).

If we zoom in you can see that the book could benefit from being better defined.

So here is the masking after I have used the Polygonal Lasso Tool to include all areas within the straight lines of the book and exclude areas outside of the book.

Face-Aware Liquify Filter change:

The Face-Aware Liquify Filter has been modified to include the option to adjust eyes either independently or symmetrically. It also shows the face selection points as an overlay and has a preview option.

The image below (https://pixabay.com/en/girl-person-human-female-face-1124933/) has one eye smaller than the other.

To fix this, open Liquify and select Face-Aware. You can either link features together (by clicking the middle symbol) or independently, as I have done in the image below.

Fonts and type:

For all you Type and Font fanatics there is a pretty cool addition in Photoshop CC 2017. Photoshop now supports SVG fonts with multiple colors and gradients in a single glyph. It also ships with the Trajan Color Concept and the EmojiOne font.

To access these, create a text Layer and set the font to an OpenType SVG font. You will see which fonts these are because they will have an SVG icon (I have highlighted an example of this in the screenshot below).

Type using the keyboard or select specific glyphs using the Glyphs Panel (Window/Glyphs).

I hope that this review has been helpful. You can read more about updates from Adobe on the Help Pages: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/whats-new.html