Photoshop’s User Interface brightness

LD
Posted By
Lukas_Dubeda
Jan 7, 2009
Views
653
Replies
8
Status
Closed
Hi there,

could anyone try to explain to me why all the other applications from Adobe (concretely from the Production Premium bundle) have the sweet ability to darken their user interface, but Photoshop doesn’t?

Photoshop is THE ONLY application that’s missing the sweet slider to darken/brighten the user interface. I just discovered that even Illustrator CS4 has this ability, Premiere does, After FX does, so, what’s the point? Why can’t I darken Photoshop a bit? I think it’s a bit more crucial to darken the UI in Photoshop than it is in Illustrator, as you’re more likely to perform very sensitive color corrections in Photoshop and anything bright stands in your way, which is BAD!

I hope a soon-to-be-released patch will fix this.

Thanks in advance, cheers,

– Lukas

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RK
Rob_Keijzer
Jan 7, 2009
Lukas,

Not a solution, but when I do that sort of critical edits I switch to full screen (F-key cycles through 3 screen modes).

I set the colour outside the documents canvas to black and the rulers off.

On my system setting the rulers off also eliminates whatever chunkyness is left when hand moving the canvas.

Rob
LD
Lukas_Dubeda
Jan 7, 2009
Hey, Rob,

thanks for the tip, I use the same technique, I was just really almost shocked when I discovered that even Illustrator has this sweet slider to adjust the user inteface brightness.

I’m amazed that such a key photo editing software wouldn’t have this feature. Like Lightroom, that’s almost completely black, why can’t we tune down Photoshop’s UI brightness?

Don’t get me wrong, CS4 is ways better than CS3 even in terms of UI brightness, but still, if the sliders are available in all other Adobe products (Premiere, After FX, Illustrator, Soundbooth and I bet it’s in Flash, InDesign and Acrobat…), why isn’t the same option in Photoshop?
JJ
John Joslin
Jan 7, 2009
Different UI teams.
LD
Lukas_Dubeda
Jan 7, 2009
Different UI teams? What? Why? All the apps are finally looking very similar in terms of UI, which is good, but why this decision? What for? Why most of the Adobe apps have this option, but Photoshop doesnt?

I really don’t get it.

And to me, this is actually a big thing, the lightness of the UI that is, since I’m used to work in very dark environments with very dark UI schemes for my apps.
DG
Don_Gough
Jan 8, 2009
Maybe I’m way off the mark here, not understanding, but it seems what you have to do is adjust the monitor brightness to suit your working conditions – the ambient light. Maybe your monitor has a simple utility to adjust the brightness easily, perhaps a different setting for different uses. Maybe check your monitor documentation.
LD
Lukas_Dubeda
Jan 8, 2009
Don, I don’t need to tune down my monitor brightness, I need the Photoshop UI (or any other software’s UI for that matter) to NOT stand in my way of doing things. I love Lightroom for example, which is almost completely black and all you focus on is the photos you’re developing, not the overbrightened buttons and sliders.
M
Mylenium
Jan 9, 2009
Why can’t I darken Photoshop a bit?

I think it’s Photoshop’s "canvas" model. In other apps the principle is simply reversed – document windows are just a special type of palette, whereas in PS the UI elements are drawn on top of the actual paint canvas. Having the ability to darken it would certainly mean it would have to be applied on top of everything, also affecting the display of the work. Quite reasonably a technical limitation, but maybe it will change some day…

Mylenium
LD
Lukas_Dubeda
Jan 9, 2009
Interesting point, Mylenium, but if it has this drawback, why didn’t they think of it in the first place and allowed us, the end users who sit at computers in darkness 24/7, very often at night, to change what we use?

I for one can’t stand bright user interfaces, it distracts and hurts my eyes. So why can’t I change it, especially if Photoshop is the only app that doesn’t allow that and now since it doesn’t preserve the Windows color pallete as it used to (I also run a dark Windows UI palette).

In my opinion, a very stupid decision.

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