{"id":51769,"date":"2026-04-30T13:59:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T17:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=51769"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:08:09","slug":"photoshops-modern-spectrum-user-interface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/30\/photoshops-modern-spectrum-user-interface\/","title":{"rendered":"Photoshop’s “Modern” Spectrum User Interface"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcin Wichary<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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The first field is not focused, so you cannot start typing the number after opening this window. You need to immediately move your hand to the mouse.<\/p>\n

If you click on any field, the value is not pre-selected, so you cannot start typing a new number then.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Clicking on parts of the input field doesn’t bring it into focus even though the hover state promises it. (Discrepancies between hover and focus handling are a horrible new thing I’m starting to see more in recent interfaces.)<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Simply backspacing through the field shows a crude error modal and – to add a second injury to the first injury – the dialog removes focus from the field!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What’s going on at Adobe? As he says, “all those transgressions are solved problems”—figured out by Adobe itself decades ago.<\/p>\n\n

Marc Edwards<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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This is a great post by @mwichary, demonstrating how Adobe’s apps are decaying. I have a couple to add to the pile for the new canvas window: It now accepts fractional pixels and shouldn’t, nudging increases or decreases by 0.01 pixels, and shift-nudging changes the value by 0.1 pixels.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Cabel Sasser<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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there is no jumpscare quite like a “oh my god adobe updated the hue\/saturation panel for the first time since 1978” jumpscare<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Jason Snell<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I have been using Photoshop since John Sculley was the CEO of Apple. Longtime users can be brutally resistant to change, but I would like to think that I remain open-minded. One can’t have used Photoshop for more than three decades without having adapted to change and found utility in the new features Adobe has added over the years. I’ve used generative fill. I’ve used AI-enhanced edge detection. I’m hip and with it.<\/p>\n

But, as Wichary detected, what Adobe is doing with the Modern User Interface is not<\/em> to make a new, improved, modern interface. Adobe’s own description gives it away: It’s a hammering of all of Adobe’s user interfaces so they look alike, across Creative Cloud. It’s a “multi-platform design system,” which means in addition to Adobe being committed to “modernizing” Photoshop by making it look like Premiere, it’s also going to make it look the same on the Mac as Windows.<\/p>\n

Already, Photoshop desperately wants to run in single-window mode, with multiple documents opening in a single uberwindow—in other words, the stink of Windows. Fortunately, you can turn that feature off, and I have.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

That all said, of course, this decision could<\/em> benefit Photoshop users, because Adobe could put in the work to make the app better<\/em> while also fulfilling its own corporate goals of homogeneity.<\/p>\n

Ha ha ha. Sorry. I tried to write that with a straight face.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Alejandro Romano<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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We’re talking about Adobe, though. They sure had the resources, the talent, and the runway to manage that transition. They just chose not to. Priorities were different.<\/p>\n

Remember Creative Cloud? Of course you do. We all do. It’s still with us.<\/p>\n

Who likes it? No one.<\/p>\n

One of the most insulting moves it enabled them to do is to hit people who dared<\/em> to cancel their subscription with surprising, insane fees for trying to leave. What about that? Could you respect a company that treats their users like that? Most of them have supported and cheered them on for decades. It’s gotten to the point where, if you pirated their software, you would have a better experience.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

They came up with the subscription model. It ended the last financial incentive to ship better software. They could cut down the cost of innovation, while charging customers more for the same. Win-win.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n