OTT: Photoshop CS-6 and macOS

Who can tell me which is the latest macOS that I can use with Photoshop CS-6? Is it Mojave, or High Sierra?

Seems to be ok on Mojave:

https://roaringapps.com/app/adobe-photoshop-cs6

Depends on the complexity of your usage.

In my personal experience, heavily dependent in a fine art context on third party filters, things took a precipitous nosedive after Mountain Lion, getting worse with each successive OS. On El Cap now, symptoms include frequent crashes, freezes, tools that donā€™t do what they are supposed to. And the aforementioned filters that not only crash the program, but take the prefs file down with it.

I am able to run it OK on High Sierra and havenā€™t come across any major issues, but as IvoryBlack said this may depend to an extent on your usage. Iā€™ve just ordered a new graphics card, so I can install Mojave on my Mac Pro and one of the major questions is how this will affect CS6. For some it seems to work, but not for everybody.

My understanding was that certain parts of CS6 were 32-bit only, which would become a deal breaker if Apple goes ahead with their planned 64-bit only policy. Looking inside system information though, it all appears to be 64-bit, so it may yet go on for a while if you are lucky.

HS here. Itā€™s iffy at best. Everytime itā€™s launched it creates a crash daemon in processes that just keeps growing. Left unclosed it can get to many gigs. So, I need to have activity monitor running all the time and kill the process whenever it appears (A total PITA).

On close, it creates a crash report and popup.

Very often when using it a popup appears saying ā€œfunction not availableā€ or summit like it. Typically when trying to select fonts etc.

In the end it was unusable, so bought Infinity Design. I now only use PS6 for simple image resizing.

This all happens across three machines, so I donā€™t think itā€™s a unique issue to just me, or one machine.

This seems to be highly variable from one user to the next. Iā€™ve had none of these problems, but when it becomes unusable Iā€™ll likely move to Affinity Photo. I have some concerns here about Lightroom 5.7.1 under Mojave and may switch over to Capture One full time if there are problems.

Thank you all, guys. I am still on Sierra and my usage of Photoshop is very basic, therefore, everything works without a problem. But I am tempted to make a clean install of the latest system, eliminating all the cruft that I accumulated over many yearsā€”from one version of OS to the next oneā€”no matter whether I needed that or not.

I know that CS6 is on its last legs, anyway. I am trying to learn new software before CS6 goes kaput, but old habits are always strong, so I keep going back to Photoshop. I got same situation with Lightroom. I bought Synium Luminar and it works, but is much less sophisticated than Lightroom. I think I may try CaptureONE instead. They still have one of their plans that does not involve subscription.

Now that we sorted out Photoshop CS-6 compatibility with macOS, what is the opinion of this group on the best replacement for Photoshop (non-subscription, of course)?

It does not need to be function-for-function replacement, so, please, leave out GIMP. In fact, I have never used the more advanced side of Photoshop. I need something that is intuitive for a long-time Photoshop user, has layers and adjustments support and can be used for photo-manipulation.

What do you use PS for?

I used to use it for everything from photo editing and manipulation to producing flyers, brochures, and even logos and icons. But, only because Iā€™d worked out how to bend PS to do this stuff, not because it was the best tool for the job (it wasnā€™t).

I recently moved to Afinity Design for all the icon, logo, brochure, flyer stuff, and itā€™s bloody brilliant. Rubbish for photo manip though, they make Afinity Photo for that. But I tried it and couldnā€™t get on with it, so went back to PS for purely photo editing etc.

Mainly, I use Photoshop for photo editing, logo creating, T-shirt designing, occasional larger graphics-with-raster creating (I never took time to learn Illustrator), etc. I used to apply Photoshop for various things over the years, but photography was always my main application.

Well, I do have Affinity Photo (and Designer) and I struggle trying to get used to them. I keep going back to Photoshop. I guess I need to look up some tutorials and spend time learning, even though I am the type who just jumps in and expects no problemsā€¦ šŸ˜‰

I am considering another option. Perhaps it would be easier and sufficient enough to buy Photoshop Elements?

I too used PS for all the stuff I shou;d have used Illistrator for.

I was the same with Photo, I really didnā€™t like it and went back to PS. I bit the bullet and got Designer and after having some of the regulars off here Iā€™m flying with it and find it brilliant.

I use Designer for all of my Illustrator-type work and Publisher for InDesign stuff- LOVE them both. But, I just havenā€™t been able to give up Photoshop. For me, itā€™s well worth the $120.00/year subscription. Plus, the subscription also includes Lightroom (oh, how I miss Aperture, though) and Adobe Fonts. Since I use FontPro and Adobe Fonts in every site, itā€™s a no-brainer. The $10/month plan is called the Photo plan.

Dave, I understand people who canā€™t live without Photoshop. I would be happy to continue using it, too. But I donā€™t agree with subscription plans in principle. On top of that, my feelings toward Adobe as a company are just about same as toward Microsoft.

So, I think I will have to learn and use Affinity apps.

Understood. I agree, in principle, regarding subscriptions. However, if youā€™re going to use Adobe Fonts, going forward youā€™ll need a subscription. And, I added up what I paid for CS3, CS4 & CS6 (Web Design), and the subscription is no more expensive.

First it was $10, then it was $20ā€¦

Well, that is interesting. Hereā€™s a page on Adobeā€™s site where itā€™s still offered for $10.00 a month. I guess if anyone is interested, they might want to jump on it. And, as mentioned, Fonts comes with it at no extra charge. https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/compare-chart.html?sdid=JRSIL&mv=search&s_kwcid=AL!3085!10!79439788831510!79439923504082&ef_id=XNhfLwAABX@FABWj:20190512180015:s

From what I read in another article the $20 a month is a test to see who will sign up. I used to find it quite annoying in the days before CC when they would send out surveys following a purchase asking if I would pay Ā£150 for the upgrade and then the next question was if I would pay Ā£200 etc. I always answered no because it was clear what they were trying.

2 Likes

Affinity Publisher is still in Beta. You must be a very brave soul.

I use it exclusively for designing professional marketing materials (flyers and such) that are then turned into print-ready PDFs. For my purposes, it has been stable enough to use as my main platform since last fall. I highly recommend it.

Affinity Photo takes a bit of getting used to but for most purposes (though sadly NOT some print tasks) it is an excellent substitute for Photoshop. Pixelmator is pretty good, too, and is easier to learn. On the whole, I prefer the standard version to the Pro version.