Photoshop's naming scheme was initially based on version numbers, from early pre-release builds and version 1.0 (February 1990) through version 7.0.1. Adobe published seven major versions before the October 2003 introduction of version 8.0, which brought the
Creative Suite branding. Notable milestone features included filters, colour separation, virtual memory (1.0), paths, CMYK color (2.0), 16-bits-per-channel support, availability on Microsoft Windows (2.5), layers, tabbed palettes (3.0), adjustments, actions, freeform transform, PNG support (4.0), editable type, magnetic lasso and pen, freeform pen, multiple undo, layer effects (5.0), Save for Web (5.5), vector shapes, revised user interface (6.0), vector text, healing brush, spell check (7.0), and Camera Raw (7.0.1).
Pre-release versions Version 0.87 (March 1989) was the first publicly available version of Photoshop, distributed commercially under the name "
Barneyscan XP".
Version 1 Photoshop 1.0 was released in February 1990.
Version 2 Photoshop 2.0 was released in June 1991. It added support for paths and the
CMYK color model. Photoshop 2.5, released in November 1992, was the first version available for
Windows.
Version 3 Photoshop 3.0 was released in September 1994 for Mac OS 7. The Windows version came out later in November. Notably, this was the first version that brought
Layers.
Version 4 Photoshop 4.0 was released in November 1996.
Version 5 Photoshop 5.0 was released in May 1998.
Version 6 Photoshop 6.0 was released in September 2000.
Version 7 Photoshop 7.0 was released in March 2002.
CS (version 8) The first Photoshop CS was commercially released in October 2003 as the eighth major version of Photoshop. Photoshop CS increased user control with a reworked file browser augmenting search versatility, sorting and sharing capabilities and the Histogram Palette which monitors changes in the image as they are made to the document. Match Color was also introduced in CS, which reads color data to achieve a uniform expression throughout a series of pictures.
CS2 (version 9) Photoshop CS2, released in May 2005, expanded on its predecessor with a new set of tools and features. It included an upgraded
spot healing brush, which is mainly used for handling common photographic problems such as blemishes, red-eye, noise, blurring and lens distortion. One of the most significant inclusions in CS2 was the implementation of
smart objects, which allows users to scale and transform images and vector illustrations without losing image quality, as well as create linked duplicates of embedded graphics so that a single edit updates across multiple iterations. Adobe responded to feedback from the professional media industry by implementing non-destructive editing as well as the producing and modifying of 32-bit
high dynamic range (HDR) images, which are optimal for
3D rendering and advanced compositing. FireWire previews could also be viewed on a monitor via a direct export feature. Enhancements were made to the Black and White Conversion, Brightness and Contrast Adjustment and Vanishing Point Module tools. The Black and White adjustment option improves control over manual grayscale conversions with a dialog box similar to that of Channel Mixer. There is more control over print options and better management with
Adobe Bridge. The Clone Source palette is introduced, adding more options to the clone stamp tool. Other features include the nondestructive Smart Filters, optimizing graphics for mobile devices, Fill Light and Dust Busting tools. CS3 Extended includes everything in CS3 and additional features. There are tools for 3D graphic file formats, video enhancement and animation, and comprehensive image measurement and analysis tools with
DICOM file support. The 3D graphic formats allow 3D content to be incorporated into 2D compositions. As for video editing, CS3 supports layers and video formatting so users can edit video files per frame. making it cleaner to work with. Photoshop CS4 features a new 3D engine allowing the conversion of gradient maps to 3D objects, adding depth to layers and text, and getting print-quality output with the new ray-tracing rendering engine. It supports common 3D formats; the new Adjustment and Mask panels; content-aware scaling (
seam carving); fluid canvas rotation and File display options. The content-aware scaling allows users to intelligently size and scale images, and the canvas rotation tool makes it easier to rotate and edit images from any angle. The color correction tool has also been improved significantly. In a video posted on its official
Facebook page, the development team revealed the new technologies under development, including three-dimensional brushes and warping tools. In May 2011, Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 (CS5.5) was released, with new versions of some of the applications. Its version of Photoshop, 12.1, is identical to the concurrently released update for Photoshop CS5, version 12.0.4, except for support for the new subscription pricing that was introduced with CS5.5. CS5 introduces new tools such as the Content-Aware Fill, Refine Edge, Mixer Brush, Bristle Tips and Puppet Warp. The community also had a hand in the additions made to CS5 as 30 new features and improvements were included by request. These include automatic image straightening, the Rule-of-Thirds cropping tool, color pickup, and saving a 16-bit image as a
JPEG. Another feature includes the Adobe Mini Bridge, which allows for efficient file browsing and management. CS5 Extended includes everything in CS5 plus features in 3D and video editing. A new materials library was added, providing more options such as Chrome, Glass, and Cork. The new Shadow Catcher tool can be used to further enhance 3D objects. For motion graphics, the tools can be applied to over more than one frame in a video sequence.
CS6 (version 13) Photoshop CS6, released in May 2012, added new creative design tools and provided a redesigned interface with a focus on enhanced performance. New features have been added to the Content-Aware tool such as the Content-Aware Patch and Content-Aware Move. Adobe Photoshop CS6 brought a suite of tools for video editing. Color and exposure adjustments, as well as layers, are among a few things that are featured in this new editor. Upon completion of editing, the user is presented with a handful of options of exporting into a few popular formats. CS6 brings the "straighten" tool to Photoshop, where a user simply draws a line anywhere on an image, and the canvas will reorient itself so that the line drawn becomes horizontal, and adjusts the media accordingly. This was created with the intention that users will draw a line parallel to a plane in the image, and reorient the image to that plane to more easily achieve certain perspectives. Starting January 9, 2017, CS6 is no longer available for purchase, making a Creative Cloud license the only purchase option going forward. No more updates will be available for all CS6 software either.
CC (version 14) Photoshop CC (14.0) was launched on June 18, 2013. As the next major version after CS6, it is only available as part of a
Creative Cloud subscription. Major features in this version include new Smart Sharpen, Intelligent Upsampling, and Camera Shake Reduction for reducing blur caused by camera shake. Editable Rounded Rectangles and an update to Adobe Camera Raw (8.0) were also included. Since the initial launch, Adobe has released two additional feature-bearing updates. The first, version 14.1, was launched on September 9, 2013. The major features in this version were Adobe Generator, a Node.js-based platform for creating plug-ins for Photoshop. Photoshop 14.1 shipped with two plug-ins, one to automatically generate image assets based on an extension in the layer name, and another to automatically generate assets for Adobe Edge Reflow. Version 14.2 was released on January 15, 2014. Major features include Perspective Warp, Linked Smart Objects, and 3D Printing support.
CC 2014 (version 15) Photoshop CC 2014 (15.0) was released on June 18, 2014. CC 2014 features improvements to content-aware tools, two new blur tools (spin blur and path blur) and a new focus mask feature that enables the user to select parts of an image based on whether they are in focus or not. Other minor improvements have been made, including speed increases for certain tasks.
CC 2015 (version 16 and version 17) Photoshop CC 2015 was released on June 15, 2015. Adobe added various creative features including Adobe Stock, which is a library of custom stock images. It also includes and have the ability to have more than one layer style. For example, in the older versions of Photoshop, only one shadow could be used for a layer but in CC 2015, up to ten are available. Other minor features like Export As, which is a form of the Save For Web in CC 2014 were also added. The updated UI as of November 30, 2015, delivers a cleaner and more consistent look throughout Photoshop, and the user can quickly perform common tasks using a new set of gestures on touch-enabled devices like Microsoft Surface Pro. CC 2015 also marks the 25th anniversary of Photoshop.
CC 2017 (version 18) Photoshop CC 2017 was released on November 2, 2016. It introduced a new template selector when creating new documents, the ability to search for tools, panels and help articles for Photoshop, support for SVG OpenType fonts and other small improvements. In December 2016, a minor update was released to include support for the MacBook Pro Touch Bar.
CC 2018 (version 19) Photoshop CC 2018 (version 19) was released on October 18, 2017. It featured an overhaul to the brush organization system, allowing for more properties (such as color and opacity) to be saved per-brush and for brushes to be categorized in folders and sub-folders. It also added brush stroke smoothing, and over 1000 brushes created by
Kyle T. Webster (following Adobe's acquisition of his website, KyleBrush.com). A Curvature Pen tool, similar to the one in
Illustrator, was added, allowing for faster creation of
Bézier paths. Other additions were Lightroom Photo access, Variable font support, select subject, copy-paste layers, enhanced tooltips, 360 panorama and
HEIF support, PNG compression, increased maximum zoom level, symmetry mode, algorithm improvements to Face-aware and selection tools, color and luminance range masking, improved image resizing, and performance improvements to file opening, filters, and brush strokes.
CC 2019 (version 20) Photoshop CC 2019 was released on October 15, 2018. Beginning with Photoshop CC 2019 (version 20.0), the 32-bit version of Windows is no longer supported. This version Introduced a new tool called Frame Tool to create placeholder frames for images. It also added multiple undo mode, auto-commitment, and prevented accidental panel moves with lock work-space. Live blend mode previews are added, allowing for faster scrolling over different blend mode options in the layers panel. Other additions were Color Wheel, Transform proportionally without Shift key, Distribute spacing like in Illustrator, ability to see longer layer names, match font with Japanese fonts, flip document view, scale UI to font, reference point hidden by default, new compositing engine, which provides a more modern compositing architecture is added which is easier to optimize on all platforms.
2020 (version 21) Photoshop 2020 was released on November 4, 2019. Version 21 has many new and enhanced features like the new object selection tool for better automation of complex selections, new properties panel, enhanced transform warp, new keyboard shortcuts for paint & brush and background image removal option. It added several improvements to the new content-aware fill and to the new document tab. Also added were animated
GIF support, improved lens blur performance and one-click zoom to a layer's contents. It introduced new swatches, gradients, patterns, shapes and stylistic sets for
OpenType fonts. With this version users now can easily convert smart objects to layers and also can adjust 32-bit layers for brightness/contrast and curves. Presets are now more intuitive to use and easier to organize. With the February 2020 update (version 21.1) Photoshop now can iteratively fill multiple areas of an image without having to leave content-aware fill workspace. This version improved GPU based lens blur quality and provided performance improvements, such as accelerating workflows with smoother panning, zooming and navigation of documents. Version 21 was the first version where the
iPad version was released. With Photoshop on the iPad, combined with the new Cloud PSD file format, a user can save cloud documents and work across Windows, Mac and iPad. Version 21.2 of the desktop version was released in June 2020. It introduced faster portrait selection, Adobe Camera Raw improvements, auto-activated Adobe Fonts, rotatable patterns, and improved Match Font.
2021 (version 22) Version 22.0.0 was released in October 2020. Version 22.0.1 was released in November 2020. Version 22.1.0 was released in December 2020. Version 22.1.1 was released in January 2021. Version 22.2 was released in February 2021. Version 22.3 was released in March 2021. This is the first
macOS release to run natively on
Apple silicon. Version 22.3.1 was released in April 2021. Version 22.4 was released in May 2021. Version 22.4.1 was released in May 2021. Version 22.4.2 was released in June 2021. Version 22.4.3 was released in July 2021. Version 22.5 was released in August 2021. Version 22.5.1 was released in September 2021. Final version to include (as Legacy Swatches) a large set of Pantone color books, including Pastels & Neons, and Premium Metallics.
2022 (version 23) Version 23.0 was released in October 2021. First version to include (as Legacy Swatches) a reduced set of Pantone color books - only CMYK, Metallics and Solid colors. Content Credentials (Beta) was introduced. When enabled, the editing information is captured in a tamper-evident form and resides with the file through successive copy generations. It aligns with the C2PA standard on digital provenance across the internet. Version 23.0.1 was released in November 2021. Version 23.0.2 was released in November 2021. Version 23.1 was released in December 2021. Version 23.1.1 was released in January 2022. Version 23.2 was released in February 2022. Version 23.3 was released in April 2022. Version 23.4 was released in June 2022. Version 23.5 was released in August 2022. Final version with built-in support for basic Pantone colors - CMYK, Metallics and Solid (as Legacy Swatches). Future versions require a separate subscription to access Pantone colors.
2023 (version 24) Version 24.0 was released in October 2022. First version without built-in support for Pantone colors. All Pantone colors have been removed as of August 16, 2022. Separate paid subscription now required to access Pantone Connect extension and download color "fandecks". Version 24.1 was released in December 2022. Version 24.4.1 was released on April 20, 2023. Version 24.7 was released on July 27, 2023.
2024 (version 25) Version 25.0 was released in September 2023. This version added Generative Fill and Generative Expand for commercial use. This was the last version where the CPU requirements on the Intel platform were limited to only
SSE 4.2 instructions, which meant the
x86-64-v2 microarchitecture (Intel Nehalem and newer,
AMD Bulldozer and newer).
2025 (version 26) Version 26 was released in October 2024. The CPU requirements on the Intel platform have been increased to support
AVX2 instructions, which means the
x86-64-v3 microarchitecture (
Intel Haswell and newer,
AMD Excavator and newer). == Adobe Photoshop family ==