What is Photoshop Used For? Definition & Tools [2024 Update]
What is Photoshop? Photoshop is a raster graphics editor that is used for image editing and manipulation. Thomas and John Knoll, both born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States, created this extremely powerful application in 1987, and the distribution license was sold to Adobe Systems in 1988.
Credit: Clipping the Photos
Today, Adobe Photoshop has become one of the most popular applications worldwide for creating and editing digital images.
Photoshop is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes other popular programs like Photoshop Lightroom, Illustrator, After Effects, and more.
Adobe Photoshop uses raster graphics, meaning the images used in Photoshop are made up of a grid of pixels, as opposed to Adobe Illustrator, a vector graphics program, meaning the graphics are made of paths.
The biggest difference between vector and raster images is that they are infinitely scalable and do not lose their quality, no matter how big or small you make them. This means that vector images are best for projects ranging from large billboards to wallet-size business cards.
When you compose raster images, like the ones used in Adobe Photoshop, you risk losing image quality the more you scale them. Therefore, Adobe Photoshop is better for projects involving image editing, photo retouching, color correction, and image manipulation.
One of its most popular uses is creating composite images and combining multiple images to create a single image. It’s also commonly used for photo editing, web design, graphic design, and logo design.
Photoshop also has a wide range of drawing and painting tools to create unique images from scratch. You can even use it for animation! Plus, it supports various file formats, including JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and GIF. It’s also available on both Microsoft Windows and Mac.
What is the latest version of Photoshop?
The latest full version of Photoshop is Adobe Photoshop 2024 (Version 25.3.1).
The Photoshop desktop December 2023 release features solutions for issues reported by customers and enhancements to performance and stability.
Here are some issues that were fixed:
- The embedding of color profiles is no longer preserved when batch-saving PNGs.
- The tool options bar does not properly display the mode of the Spot Healing brush tool.
- Crash reports are resolved by using the Photoshop beta version.
- When saving as PNG, the color profile is not embedded in the action.
- Midpoints exhibit smoothness issues with gradient interpolation.
- In Photoshop 24.4.1, the Curves adjustment layer is experiencing lag and unresponsiveness.
You can see more details here.
Here is a list of all of every Photoshop version since its commercial release in 2003:
- 2003: Photoshop CS (Version 8)
- 2005: Photoshop CS2 (Version 9)
- 2007: Photoshop CS3 (Version 10)
- 2008: Photoshop CS4 (Version 11)
- 2010: Photoshop CS5 (Version 12)
- 2012: Photoshop CS6 (Version 13)
- 2013: Adobe Photoshop CC (Version 14)
- 2014: Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 (Version 15)
- 2015: Photoshop CC 2015 (Version 16 and Version 17)
- 2017: Photoshop CC 2018 (Version 18)
- 2018: Photoshop CC 2019 (Version 19)
- 2019: Photoshop 2020 (Version 20)
- 2020: Photoshop 2021 (Version 21)
- 2021: Photoshop 2022 (Version 22)
- 2022: Photoshop 2022 (Version 23)
- 2022: Photoshop 2022 (Version 24)
If you’re already a Creative Cloud subscriber, you can download and install Photoshop from the Creative Cloud website. Otherwise, you can purchase it as part of a Creative Cloud subscription or as a stand-alone product.
What are Photoshop’s advantages?
Photoshop is a popular image editing software used by photographers, graphic designers, web designers, and graphic artists. It has many features that allow users to edit images in various ways.
Wide range of tools
One advantage is that it has a wide range of tools that can be used to edit images. These tools include the clone stamp tool, which allows users to remove unwanted elements from an image, and the warp tool, which allows users to deform an image.
User-friendly
Another advantage is that it is generally user-friendly. Even people unfamiliar with image editing software can usually figure out how to use its basic features.
New features
Lastly, Photoshop is constantly updated with new features, so users can always access the latest and greatest image editing tools, including AI tools!
What are Photoshop’s features and tools?
Adobe Photoshop is a powerful photo editing software that offers many features.
Crop, rotate, resize, and retouch
These include the ability to crop, rotate, and resize photos with tools like the direct selection tool. You can also use the slice tool to extract part of the image without cutting or cropping it.
Photoshop also provides tools for retouching images and removing blemishes and wrinkles. You can use tools like the clone stamp tool, the healing brush tool, or the smudge tool for retouching images.
These tools and more can be accessed within the tools panel on the left side of Photoshop.
Adjust the brightness, contrast, and saturation
If your photos are too dark or lack color, that’s no problem. With Photoshop, you can edit your images by adjusting the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels.
These can conveniently be accessed by selecting the half-circle icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel.
Filters & Effects
Photoshop also has a wide selection of filters and effects that can be applied to photos, allowing users to achieve various looks. For example, you can use Photoshop’s blur tools to blur out unwanted elements in the background.
You can access different blur and distortion effects by selecting the Filter option at the top.
Removing the Background
Oftentimes, people like to take advantage of Photoshop’s background image removal option. It’s a fast and easy way to remove the background with a single button.
To do this, make sure the layer you want to remove the background on is unlocked by clicking on the lock icon if there is one.
Next, open the Properties panel (if you don’t see it, go to Windows > Properties and ensure it’s checked).
Select the unlocked layer where you want to remove the background, and under “Quick Options,” you will see a button that says “Remove Background.” Click this; like magic, the background will be removed, and your subject will be isolated!
The Pen tool
If you want to cut something out more manually with a clean edge, another option is to use the curvature pen tool.
The pen tool allows you to get exact, clean lines on the outside of a person or object. You can drop an anchor point, click and hold your mouse, and drag it to curve the line for accurate results.
The pen tool is one of the most commonly used tools to draw perfect lines.
Layers
Photoshop is also a layer-based editing system. Layers let you stack multiple images on top of each other, with each image on an individual layer. This is useful for combining multiple photos into a single composition or adding special effects to an image.
Using multiple layers is simple and easy. Open the Layers panel by going to Window > Layers at the top.
Next, use the Create New Layer button (the plus icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel) to add a new layer.
You can now put different photos, elements, filters, and effects onto the layer.
To change the order of the layers, click and drag them up or down in the Layers panel.
You can also adjust the opacity of each layer to control how much of the underlying layers show through. Experiment with different combinations of layers to see what effects you get.
Smart objects
Photoshop also has nondestructive layers called Smart Objects.
A Smart Object is a Photoshop layer that contains image data from a raster or vector file. They preserve an image’s source content with all its inherent properties, enabling you to perform nondestructive editing to the layer.
In other words, Smart Objects allow the image to remain editable without causing permanent edits.
When you convert a layer to a Smart Object (right-click on the layer and select “Convert to Smart Object), you can scale, rotate, or skew the layer’s contents without losing quality because the Smart Object contains the original high-resolution data.
Here’s how to convert a Layer to a Smart Object in Photoshop:
Right-click the layer you want to convert to a Smart Object and select “Convert to Smart Object.”
You’ll notice that there is an icon on the thumbnail of the Layer you have selected.
To open the Smart Object Window, double-click the thumbnail. This will automatically open a new window where you can make non-destructive edits only on this Layer.
Remember to save the edits you make in the Smart Object Window so they are applied to your original file.
You can also import Linked Smart Objects by going to File > Place Linked. You must change the original, and the rest will automatically change.
Smart Objects are particularly useful when creating and editing mockups.
There are also a variety of different warp modes that you can choose from, like scale, skew, distort, perspective, and warp.
Each mode offers different results, so choosing the right one for your project is important.
Advanced Tools
Beyond that, Photoshop offers many other advanced tools with more functionalities:
- Zoom in and out of your image
- Pan over your Photoshop Elements workspace
- Moves selections/layers
- Rectangular marquee tool (M): Select an area with a rectangle/square
- Elliptical marquee tool (M): Select an area with an elliptical shape
- Lasso tool (L): Select an area in a free-form shape
- Magnetic lasso tool (L): Select part of an image that has the highest contrast
- Polygonal lasso tool (L): Make a selection with straight edges
- Quick selection tool (A): Makes a selection based on color and texture
- Selection Brush tool (A): Select the area where you paint with the brush
- Magic wand tool (A): Selects pixels with similar colors with one click
- Refine selection brush tool (A): Makes a selection by automatically detecting the edges
- Auto selection tool (A): Makes a selection when you draw a shape around the object
- Removes red eye
- Removes spots
- Healing brush tool (J): Removes spots by determining a reference point
- Smart Brush tool (F): Applies tonal color adjustments to selected areas
- Detail smart brush tool (F): Paints adjustments to certain areas
- Paints with an image sample
- Paints with a pattern from your image or a preset
- Soften hard edges or areas
- Sharpen soft edges or areas
- Smudge an image
- Change the color saturation
- Lighten an area of an image
- Darken an area of an image
- Create soft or hard strokes of color
- Make your image look like it was painted
- Replace colors
- Erase pixels in an image
- Make pixels transparent to remove an object from the background
- Change similar pixels
- Fill an area with color
- Fill an area with a pattern
- Fill an area with a gradient
- Sample the color of an area
- Custom shape tool (U): Offers different shape options for you to draw
- Type tool (T): Create an edit text
- Create hard freehand lines
- Trims part of an image
- Cookie cutter tool (C): Crops a photo in a shape
- Crop and change the perspective of a photo simultaneously
- Resize photos without changing the visual content
- Select an object and move it to a different location
- Realign an image horizontally or vertically
You can learn more about tools in Photoshop here.
What types of file formats can you create with Photoshop?
Since Photoshop is so versatile, you can create and export many different file formats.
- TIFF – Tagged Image File Format
- PDF – Portable Document Format
- PSB (Photoshop Big) – large document format
- PSD – Photoshop document
- GIF – Graphics Interchange Format
- PNG – Portable Network Graphics
What is in the Adobe Photoshop Family?
The Adobe Photoshop Family consists of a group of applications created by Adobe Inc. for image editing. There are many, but here are some of the most popular ones:
- Photoshop Lightroom
- Adobe Photoshop Elements
- Adobe Photoshop Express
- Photoshop Camera
- Photoshop Fix
- Adobe Bridge
Photoshop Lightroom: Best for light editing and managing photos
Photoshop Lightroom is a software program that allows users to edit and manage digital photos. It is available as a standalone application or as a plugin for Photoshop.
Photoshop Lightroom provides a range of features, including the ability to edit exposure, white balance, and color; add effects and filters; and create photo collages.
It also offers a variety of tools for organizing and managing photos, such as the ability to tag and rate photos, create albums, and search for photos by keyword.
Photoshop Lightroom is essential for photographers who want to make the most of their digital images.
Adobe Photoshop Elements: Best for simple and fast edits
Photoshop Elements is a software program that allows users to edit photos and create graphic images. The program offers a wide range of filters and effects that can be applied to images.
Photoshop Elements also offers a variety of project templates, making it easy to create professional-looking results even if you’re not a Photoshop expert. It has an even friendlier user interface than Photoshop, making it easier for beginners to learn and navigate the photo editing process quickly.
In addition, the software provides users with access to a library of stock photos and images, making it easy to find the perfect image for any project.
Plus, the best part is that you only have to pay for this program once instead of monthly for Adobe Photoshop. So if you’re a beginner or only doing basic photo edits, Photoshop Elements might be the best option for you.
Elements has everything you need if you’re looking to touch up a few family photos or create an entirely new design.
Photoshop Express: Best for quick, on-the-go editing
Photoshop Express is a free mobile photo editor that lets you quickly edit and enhance your photos. With Photoshop Express, you can crop and rotate your photos, remove red-eye and blemishes, add filters and effects, and much more.
Photoshop Express also allows sharing your photos with friends and family. You can post your edited photos to social media or email them directly from the Photoshop Express website.
Photoshop Express is the perfect tool for quickly enhancing your photos, whether you’re a professional photographer or just trying to improve your selfies.
Photoshop Fix: Best for image retouching and restoration
Adobe Photoshop Fix is a comprehensive photo editing app that allows you to make a wide range of photo adjustments, including retouching, color correction, and object removal. It includes a variety of preset filters and effects that can be applied with just a few taps.
In addition, this application offers the ability to quickly share your edited photos with other Adobe Creative Cloud apps, such as Lightroom.
Adobe Bridge: Preview, organize, edit, and publish multiple assets quickly and easily
Adobe Bridge is a software application that helps users organize, manage, and edit digital photos. It offers a variety of features, including the ability to view thumbnails of images, create photo albums, and share photos with others.
It also provides tools for editing photos, such as crop, resizing, and adjusting color levels. In addition, Bridge offers several plugins that extend its functionality, such as creating photo slideshows and printing photos.
This versatile software application can help users get the most out of their digital photos.
Adobe Stock: Royalty-free stock images and more
Adobe Stock is a subscription service that gives users access to millions of high-quality photos, illustrations, and videos. It’s a great resource for designers, marketers, and other creative professionals who need access to high-quality visuals. The service offers monthly or annual plans, and users can download up to 100 assets per month.
This app is a part of Adobe Creative Cloud, so users can also access it through the Adobe Creative Cloud app. It’s a great way to access professional-grade visuals without paying for each asset.
Read my Adobe Stock review!
How much does Photoshop cost?
The price varies, but ultimately, you have to pay every month to have access to Photoshop.
There are three different Photoshop plans available:
- Photography Plan: $19.99/month for Lightroom + Photoshop
- Photoshop Plan: $20.99/month for just Photoshop
- All Apps Plan: $54.99/month for the entire Adobe Creative Cloud
Each plan has a 7-day free trial, so you can try it before subscribing!
Conclusion: What is Photoshop Used For?
So what is Photoshop? Adobe Photoshop is widely used for photo editing, and it has an endless amount of features and tools. It was developed by brothers Thomas and John Knoll and sold to Adobe Systems in 1988.
Among other things, it can be used for cropping, rotating, and resizing photos. You can also adjust the brightness, contrast, and saturation and use different tools to get the desired effects on your images.
I have used Photoshop to create posters. If you want to learn to use Adobe Photoshop for your own projects, you can do so through various methods.
Some of the popular options include attending in-person classes (I took Photoshop classes when I was at University and when taking a graphic design BootCamp course in NYC!), participating in live online classes, and using online tutorials (YouTube) and books dedicated to Photoshop (there’s a bunch on Amazon!)
The opportunities are endless. What will you use Adobe Photoshop for?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Photoshop, and why is it used?
Photoshop is a powerful image editing software owned by Adobe. It is used for adjusting and enhancing photographs, creating digital artwork, designing graphics, and much more.
What is Photoshop, in a very short answer?
Photoshop is a versatile photo editing software with many features and tools. It can be used for various purposes, such as adjusting photos, creating digital art, and designing graphics.
Can I have Photoshop for free?
Adobe offers a 7-day free trial to try Photoshop for free! Afterward, you must subscribe to one of their monthly or annual subscription plans.
