Layer groups can now be used as the basis of clipping masks, and entire groups can now have Layer Styles applied to them. The changes to the Layers panel go beyond the merely cosmetic. Furthermore, you can now change the opacity or label color of multiple selected layers at once, which means that once you've filtered the search to show just Hard Light layers, for example, you can color them all blue, so you can spot them instantly when all layers are revealed again. The Layers panel now has a search field, allowing layers to be filtered by kind, by layer mode, by visibility and much more. You can re-enable them through a Preference option. It's worth pointing out here that the Filter menu itself has been rationalized, with such categories as Artistic and Sketch now hidden: these Filters are accessed only through the Gallery Effects dialog. The only new special-effect filter in this release is Oil Paint, included as much to show off the power of the GPU acceleration as for any real creative value: it turns images into simulated oil paintings in real time, and so is good demo fodder, but it's a one-trick effect that barely deserves its elevated status to the top of the Filter menu. The Lighting Effects filter, which in CS5 disappeared for Mac users (it could be enabled by restarting Photoshop in 32-bit mode) is back in full-screen glory with a combination of head-up controls and rationalized sliders. Many other areas of Photoshop CS6 can also take full advantage of the GPU. The maximum brush has been expanded to a mind-boggling 15,000 pixels in diameter and even at that size Liquify works without any lags whatsoever on a reasonably capable Mac. Now it loads in an instant and is silky smooth in operation, even with enormous images. A core example is the Liquify filter, previously a notoriously sluggish tool when used on large images. Thanks to Adobe's Mercury Graphics engine, Photoshop now taps into your Mac's graphics processing unit (GPU) to provide huge boosts in efficiency in many areas of the application. Options have been moved from panels to draggable controls directly on the image, so you can effect adjustments without having to take your eye off the artwork.īut the biggest change is the sheer speed of operation. This head-up display (HUD) approach is seen in a number of filters and operations. The new thinking extends through a variety of interface areas, such as smart cursors with pop-up text that shows you how much you're rotating or scaling, and so on.

While there are certainly new features in Adobe Photoshop CS6, it's in overall usability that Photoshop has most obviously moved forward.

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