Adobe Photoshop
Also known as: Photoshop, PS, PSD, Adobe PS
Adobe Photoshop is a professional raster graphics editor for editing photos, creating digital art, and designing print and web graphics.
It's the dominant tool for photographers and visual designers, known for its precise pixel-level editing, layer system, and broad file format support. Photoshop is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and runs on Windows and Mac.
Adobe Photoshop, explained at three levels
At home
Photoshop is a photo editing program used by professionals, but it does much more than basic editing. You can remove blemishes from portraits, cut a person out of one photo and place them in another, create collages, add text to images, and design graphics. It has a steep learning curve compared to apps like Canva, but the level of control is far greater.
At work
Designers and photographers use Photoshop for tasks that need pixel-precise control: retouching product photos for e-commerce, editing campaign imagery, creating print-ready artwork, and designing website mockups. If you work in a marketing or creative role, you'll likely encounter Photoshop files (PSD files) even if you don't create them yourself.
At home
Photoshop's non-destructive editing tools -- adjustment layers, smart objects, and layer masks -- let you make changes that can always be undone without permanently altering the original image. Smart Objects allow scaling, transforming, and applying filters while preserving the original data. Layer masks let you hide or reveal parts of a layer without deleting any pixels.
At work
Photoshop's Actions record repetitive tasks and play them back on multiple files -- useful for batch-resizing, watermarking, or colour-correcting hundreds of product photos at once. Camera Raw (accessible directly or via Photoshop) provides professional-grade RAW file editing for photographers. Smart Guides and Artboards help designers create consistent layouts for multiple screen sizes.
At home
Advanced users leverage frequency separation for portrait retouching (separating skin texture from colour for natural-looking edits), luminosity masking for landscape compositing, and Photoshop's Generative Fill (AI) to extend backgrounds, remove objects, or generate new content from a text prompt. These techniques are the foundation of professional retouching workflows.
At work
At a professional level, Photoshop integrates into Creative Cloud workflows with shared Libraries (assets synced across Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign), linked Smart Objects (update one file and all documents using it update automatically), and Adobe Bridge for digital asset management. Photoshop's scripting (JavaScript, AppleScript) allows automation of complex multi-step operations. Print production work requires understanding colour profiles (ICC profiles), CMYK output, bleed and trim settings, and print-resolution standards (300 dpi minimum).
Real-world examples
At home
Lena took a family photo where her brother had his eyes closed. She opened Photoshop, used the Select Subject tool to isolate her brother, opened another photo from the same shoot where his eyes were open, and composited the two together. The final image looked natural and nobody could tell it had been edited.
At work
Thomas, an e-commerce photographer, used Photoshop to process 200 product photos in a single afternoon. He created an Action that removed the background, placed the product on a white canvas, adjusted brightness and contrast, and saved as JPEG at exactly 1200x1200 pixels. He ran the Action on the entire batch while he took a coffee break.
How it compares
| feature | Adobe Photoshop | Canva | Figma |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary use | Photo editing, raster graphics | Template-based marketing graphics | UI/UX design and prototyping |
| Skill level | Professional (steep learning curve) | No design skills needed | Design background helpful |
| File type | Raster (pixels) -- PSD | Template-based export | Vector -- FIG |
| Pricing | ~$22/month (Creative Cloud) | Free; $120/year for Pro | Free tier; from $12/user/month |
| Best for | Photo retouching, print design | Quick marketing graphics | App and website interface design |
Photoshop is the professional standard for photo editing, compositing, and print design -- the right tool when precision and power matter more than speed. Canva is the right tool for non-designers who need professional-looking graphics quickly. Figma is the standard for UI/UX designers who need to design and prototype digital interfaces.
For analysts
When clients ask whether to invest in Photoshop training for their marketing team, the honest answer is usually no -- Canva covers 90% of their needs with far less training time. Reserve Photoshop recommendations for teams that do significant photo retouching, print production work, or complex graphic compositing.
History & origin
Photoshop was created by brothers Thomas and John Knoll in 1987-1988 and acquired by Adobe in 1988. Version 1.0 launched in 1990 exclusively for Macintosh. Photoshop grew to become the definitive photo editing and graphic design tool across the 1990s and 2000s, giving the English language the verb 'photoshopped' to mean digitally manipulated. Adobe moved Photoshop to a subscription model (Creative Cloud) in 2013. Adobe added AI-powered tools (Neural Filters, Generative Fill) in the 2020s. Photoshop on iPad and Photoshop Web expanded access beyond the desktop.