OTT: Photoshop CS-6 and macOS

General Web Design
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I would say that if you are using either Photoshop or Affinity Photo (or Illustrator or Affinity Designer) for web design work, then you are using the wrong app. Th only valid reason I can think of to use Photoshop or Illustrator, is to use Adobe format pre made smart graphics of the type that are in the graphic bundles that have become popular. Photoshop is primarily a high resolution bitmap manipulation app and Illustrator is a print media vector tool.

For web work, you need a web graphic app that can resize images and be capable of vector creation and export to png, jpg and svg. JpegMINI (free) will handle the resizing and also the best image optimisation available. Autodesk Graphic for $30 does the vector and export better than anything ever made by Adobe. Graphic also has free addons for some impressive time saving tasks such as sizing canvas to selection and animated GIF import and export.

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Can Graphic handle pixel manipulation as well? I need an ability to do correction of photos, such as adjusting color balance, contrast, brightness, etc.

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Yes it does basic pixel stuff but if you need to do that, then use your phoneā€™s photo editor or a cheap App or even get hold of the free Picasa for superb bitmap manipulation. Generally an App that is good at photo editing or Photoshopping, is not good at the stuff you need to create web graphics. If all you are doing is correcting photos then Photoshop is a massive over use of power to do something simple.

Images from modern cameras and phones are so good today that they generally donā€™t need any correction.

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Well, I almost never use my phone for taking pictures. I never use Apple Photos for handling photos. I got a huge collection of my photos in Lightroom library. So, I need a desktop app for my pixel manipulation, even if itā€™s just a basic correction work. For something more complicated, I will still use Photoshop CS6, for as long as I can, although I will still be on the lookout for its replacement.

I am going to investigate Graphic. Thanks for the info.

25

Well, it appears that big Brother has struck again. An argument against Adobe subscription, as if anyone really needed one:

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For anyone whoā€™s sceptical of software subscription models - hereā€™s a perfect example of how you donā€™t actually own any of the software you use.

But isnā€™t that the case for most software? You donā€™t buy it, you ā€œlicenceā€ it.

27

For some strange reason Photoshop CS6 stopped saving files under Mojave. It worked for the first couple of months then, out of the blue started telling me that it canā€™t save my files because they are open.
I purchased Affinity Photo which works quite well, but many things are more difficult to achieve.
Luckily I discovered that Photoshop can still export files, so all is not lost (until the next OS upgrade).

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Did you try the old trashing the prefs trick, and then re-launching?

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I did. It didnā€™t help!

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  1. Apparently a known issue:
    Adobe Community
    The problem, according to this link, is AFPS. Their solution to save to an external USB drive.

  2. Another interpretation, having to do with the finder format:

  1. If those donā€™t work, here is the whole Google search:
    Photoshop CS6 stopped saving files under Mojave. - Google Search

Have fun.

2 Likes
31

How very strange. I never thought of a file system error. Saving to a USB drive does actually work.
Thanks for the tip.
When the problem arose, I googled it, of course, but didnā€™t find a solution, I even had the feeling that I was alone with this one.

So now I can pack Affinity Photo in mothballs until the next major OS upgrade.
Thanks for your help!

1 Like
32

This is good to know for future reference. Iā€™ve just installed Mojave and CS6 seems fine, so far. Lightroom is actually running better but this does coincide with an upgraded video card.

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ā€¦ and LR doesnā€™t import and/or display Sony camera-raw files ā€¦

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Damn it, you are right. I just tried importing a file from my RX100 and the import button is basically dead. In the past Iā€™ve always used Canon and typically converted to DNG. There are still good reasons to use DNG, but in the case of the Sony they became larger when I last tested this. Luckily, Iā€™ve discovered a little workaroundā€¦

If you include a DNG file alongside the Sony Raw files and select the DNG first, it then enables the import for the others as well. After importing, the Sony files can be viewed, edited and exported as usual. You can delete that DNG file if no longer required.

This is a hassle, but shouldnā€™t be a total deal breaker if you want to work with older versions of Lightroom using Sony Raw files. I tested this with 5.7.1.

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Hey Ashley,
thxs for your tip about the DNG files.
Somehow it doesnā€™t work for the RAW files (ARW) from the A7RM3, or could I be doing something wrong?

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I donā€™t donā€™t know, since I only discovered this by chance and there may be some difference in the format compared to the RX100. I only installed Mojave a few days ago.

When I tried the Sony files alone that didnā€™t work, but I could see the DNG files were OK. I just happened to have a previously converted DNG file in the folder that appeared first in the lineup, so I deselected them all, then selected the DNG file, which enabled the import button. From there I selected them all and was able to import the Sony Raw as normal alongside the DNG.

Itā€™s been a bit of a juggling act for a quite a while now importing Raw files in legacy versions of Lightroom with the various Mac OS updates, so I have become quite adept at finding workarounds. The one consistency has always been that it is easier with files that have already been converted to DNG.

You can use the free DNG converter app, then rename them in Bridge or some other app in the desired location and simply add them in Lightroom at import if all else fails. These settings below should work for compatibility and you could even embed the original, though the file sizes could become huge.

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It might be worth trying again with a DNG file named as something like 0.dng that appears first in the line up then try like I did. Sooner or later these tricks will stop working and it will either be a case of going for CC or finding an alternative, such as Capture One.

In a few months time I may get a new Mac Mini, then keep this Mac Pro on Mojave as a backup that can also run legacy software. As long as it keeps going that should be viable for another 3-4 years and by that stage there should be other options.

Realistically though, I only have a couple old apps like CS6 that are likely to break under 10.15, assuming this computer can be upgraded, so there is a limit to how much compromise should be made simply to accommodate one or two old apps if reasonable modern alternatives are available.

I am also mulling over what to do with the old 2007 iMac that will only run El Capitan. It spends most of the time in a cupboard as an emergency backup and pulled out once every few months, just to install updated versions of a few keys apps, but support for El Capitan is likely to disappear in a few months when 10.15 is released.

37

Hejsan I always use Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and I also even use Affinity Publisher event though it is in beta. As for photos I have not used Photoshop for years now. Affinity Photo is capable of most what one need to do. I find Affinity apps to be high quality software, but with a somewhat steep learning curve. My two cents worth of opinionā€¦ :-)