Apple's brand new M1 chips were the talk of the tech world when they launched last November, with users and critics alike blown away by the speed of the latest Macs. For digital artists, it's essential that creative software can match the hardware, but Photoshop for M1 Macs has only been available in unsupported beta format – until today.
Adobe has just announced that the first version of Photoshop to run natively on M1 Macs is available right now. If you're already rocking the latest MacBook Pro or Air (both among our best laptops for graphic design), get ready for a seriously enhanced Photoshop experience.
Photoshop is particularly fast on the M1 MacBook Pro (Image credit: Apple)
"Our internal tests show a wide range of features running an average of 1.5X the speed of similarly configured previous generation systems," Adobe announced in a blog post today. "Don't blink," the company boldly added. "You might miss the splash screen launching."
From everyday actions such as opening and saving files and running filters to intensive tasks like Content-Aware Fill, Adobe says M1 Photoshop feels "noticeably faster" across the board. If you want to experience it for yourself, there are already some incredible early M1 MacBook deals doing the rounds online.
Adobe notes that there are a few recent features it hasn't finished properly porting to M1, such as Invite to Edit Cloud Documents and Preset Syncing. But any users who require access to these tools can easily switch back to Rosetta 2 (the software Apple uses to run Intel apps on its M1 chips) until they make their way into the official build.
More features will be hitting Photoshop for M1 soon (Image credit: Adobe)
Photoshop for M1 only confirms just how exciting Apple's M1 chips are for creatives, making previously slow and intensive tasks faster than ever, and potentially transforming users' workflows. And with the chip rumoured to be hitting even more Apple machines such as the iMacas soon as this month, it sounds like even more creatives will be able to satisfy their need for speed in 2021. What better time to check out our best Adobe Creative Cloud discounts?
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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles. He has interviewed leaders and designers at brands including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe. Daniel's debut book of short stories and poems was published in 2018, and his comedy newsletter is a Substack Bestseller.
