Why does Photoshop suck so much

[Hel]

Look, Photoshop is clearly a superior coloring tool if you want to paint (at least compared to programs like ClipStudio and Medibang), but I am just constantly fighting with the program to get anything done. I'm lucky if 60% of the time I'm using it is actually spent coloring, while the rest is spent troubleshooting all the random crap Photoshop keeps trying to do. I don't even bother trying to do lineart in it anymore because it is so ridiculously difficult to draw a simple line.

Why is this interface so needlessly complicated and difficult to use? Is there a way to make it less terrible without having to fiddle with every one of the problems individually? Does anyone else hate Photoshop like I do? If you do all your art in Photoshop, WHY when there are programs that are so much easier to use?

[carloswebcomic]

Photoshop is for, you know, photos.
The interface and such goes back to the 90's and it was never made with comic artists in mind.
It was a tool to manipulate images, not make illustrations.
The art community is not a tech community. People up to this day still believe that Macs are better for artists without actually understanding why or bothering to learn whether that's true or not (hint: it's not).

Photoshop is popular because of its history and broad user base, but in reality, for comics, you're far better off using something else.

[joannekwan]

Is it that difficult? What issues are coming up?

For lining:
I just press "b" to bring up the brush tool and go at it. My default brush is a 15pt round with pen pressure on. I use "[" and "]" to decrease and increase the brush size respectively.
I also often press the space bar to bring up the hand tool to move the canvas around and "r" to rotate and "z" or "alt+z" to zoom in and out. "command+0" to view the entire canvas.

Also I'm on a Mac and don't have Lazy Nezumi or other pen/line stabilizers.

I do everything in PS and I've been using it for about 10 years, mostly because it was the first art program I was introduced to not counting MS Paint. Recently I'm trying out Clip Studio Paint, mainly because it's so cheap and doesn't have the bullshit subscription service. (It's a backup incase my access to PS is ever cut off) But since I'm so used to PS, I still have a preference for it. I mean, I haven't even explored all of CSP's comic stuff yet. I've just been drawing out all my panels, speech bubbles, etc.

[Hel]

I'm sorry but this answer is a total cop out because

A) No matter what you're using a program for it shouldn't be this difficult to operate

B) The Photoshop website advertises Photoshop as a tool, not just for photo editing, but also for illustrating, so they clearly anticipate it being used for drawing and painting. It wouldn't make sense for them to deny the non-photographers using their program when they make up such a large percentage of the user base.

C) Of course the interface has been changed since the '90s what on earth are you talking about?

Also your thing about the Macs was really off-topic. I don't know what you were getting at there.

And, as I said, Photoshop is superior at painting which is what I was trying to do on it.

[LordVincent]

I have the same thing as @joannekwan, where I'm used to photoshop due to it being the first program I was introduced to. I use it less and less with time tho.

You said you found lineart problematic in photoshop, and I'd say this is something 90% of people that have lineart in their style experience. Just get sai for lineart, it'll save you hours of trouble with the wobbly lines. Stabilizer is a lifesaver.

[Hel]

There are so many weird things it does.

I had to delete the other keyboard shortcuts for B so I could just use the one type of brush tool because it kept switching between the different things set to B without me realizing right away. Now it is switching to what appears to be the wet version of my brush and I have no idea why. Also, it wasn't showing me an opacity option for this particular brush before and all of a sudden it is but other options for the brush have disappeared.

There are so many little settings for the brush tool and it's never clear what is causing what thing to happen. The settings aren't all in one place, either. I have to spend ages trying to find the cause of a single problem.

There's a weird glitch with the hand tool where if you try to use it to move your canvas while you're zoomed in it will zoom you out and zoom you back into another part of the drawing. It does this constantly so I am forever having to rezoom myself.

I can't move the canvas around within its window so I have to move the entire window if I want to center it on my screen.

I can't make color, navigator, brushes, and layers all be visible in the right-hand toolbar at the same time despite there totally being enough space for them all to fit. If I try to open more than 3 of them at a time one will shut while another stretches to fill the space.

Why are some of the settings for the brushes at the top while others are in the window?? Why do I have to go back and forth across the screen to access all the settings?? This makes no sense.

Oh my gosh there are so many things. On top of which there seems to be a disconnect between what I'm doing on the tablet and what is happening on the screen that just isn't there when I'm using other programs, making it nearly impossible to draw lineart or anything that requires precision.

Drawing on other programs feels like drawing. Drawing or painting on Photoshop feels like wrestling with Photoshop.

[Rueleer]

The complexity and difficulty of Photoshop's interface is probably due being an industrial grade program meant for professionals. To improve functionality, they reduce convenience since I guess they assume trained users will just sort it out themselves. :'DD

As for making it less terrible, I don't think there's anything to help in regards to lineart. (I also have no tips for the UI since I don't use PS, sorry) qwq Without a stabliser tool, you're only left with naturally improving through drawing on the program, or switching to adjustable vector art. I'll second John's suggestion at just using a separate program to lineart if it's that painful.

I'm a strong believer in not letting your tool weigh you down, so if it's frustrating to the point of giving up, please try to use another program as your main. q3q

[Hel]

Photoshop was actually one of the first things I started using but it was so incredibly difficult I started to become convinced I was less capable than other people because I couldn't do digital art.

Then someone suggested I try a different program and I could draw fine right away. Leaving the question, why on earth is Photoshop so much more difficult to use?

[Hel]

Thanks. I do still use ClipStudio as my main but Photoshop is really great for painting if you can get it to work.

Even if something is for professionals, you should always start simple and let people make it more complicated as they desire. Not start complicated and force people to try to simplify it themselves. I don't know why being a professional would make you want to do things the hard way.

[LordVincent]

Because it is a professional tool with a wide range of tools to suit people from various parts of the creative field. It's difficult to understand ALL of photoshop because most people don't use all tools available. I'd say I only use 10% of the tools in photoshop.

It's okay to find most of PS to be unknown or difficult. And if you find ALL of ps difficult to use, then stop using it. I envy you because your art preferences are easier on your wallet xP

I've actually considered switching to Clip Studio for my colored stuff and quitting PS because I prefer the way the wand tool works on clip studio. The way I have to do it now, I'm forced to wait until I filled everything out and then make a bottom layer that's all black to fill out the accidentally uncolored bits in the lineart.

[carloswebcomic]

I'm sorry but this answer is a total cop out

A cop out? Mate, I'm not defending Photoshop and I couldn't care less whether you like it or not.
You asked a question and I tried to answer it. Take it or leave it.

[Hel]

It wasn't an answer it was a series of poor excuses that made no sense?? Sorry I'm being kind of mean about it but I'm so tired of hearing "it's made for photo editing" as an excuse for why Photoshop's user interface is so bad.

[Hel]

Ugh I just want to be able to do the fancy painting you can do on Photoshop. For the few frickin minutes at a time I get it to work it really is nice. Then it does something jenky again and I have to stop to figure out what's going on.

If I could just use the few tools that are applicable to me and ignore the rest it would be fine. But Photoshop won't let me do that. It seems to have a mind of its own and likes to change settings for me so stuff starts working differently all of a sudden and I don't know what changed. Something will be working for a few minutes and then it won't be.

[joannekwan]

Wow … huh … I don't think I've ever encountered those things before? What version of PS do you have and is it legit? Also what OS do you have and what version of that is it? And for good measure, what tablet are you using?

As far as the brushes, the top settings are your basic ones (mode, opacity, flow, and different pressure settings), if you really want to tinker with a brush, that's when you go to the side menu, it should have a preview of what changing a setting does. You can set a brush to how you want and save all the settings for it as a new brush. (fyi, I'm on CS6 so it may be a bit different for yours depending on the version) Go to the top bar, and in the second drop down menu where it has the brush shape and size click on the little paper icon with the folded corner to create a new brush preset. You can then select this brush anytime you want.

Hand tool glitch: can't say for certain but that might be a hardware software issue? Like sometimes if I'm zoomed in on the canvas and use the brush at a certain size, a mirrored section of the workspace appears all glitchy at the left of my screen and goes away after I zoom out. I looked it up and it's just some compatibility issue with the current Mac OS and CS6. It was worse before I did research and found a plug-in to remedy it. It's fixed for the most part but will still come up on occasion. It's annoying but not "stop the presses I can't work anymore" annoying.

Window mode. Hm, well there's three window mode types and perhaps by trying one or the other it can fix your problem? The first mode is where it's a free floating window and the border takes on whatever border your OS uses. Then there's the tabbed mode, it's attached to the top PS bar and if you have multiple tabs open you can see them all there, kind of like an internet browser. Then there's another mode (you can switch between window modes by hitting "f") where it jumps "into" the window and you can't see the tab anymore. Well, there's also a "display" mode where you go one more step and it just shows your canvas against a black background and all the tools/UI are hidden.

Right hand section: I believe you can move those sections around. Like if they're tabs in the same group you can grab one and move it out of the group and place it above or below.

Disconnect: Do you mean lag? Because it might be another hardware software issue? There's no lag for me when I'm drawing in PS on my Mac, but when I try CSP on my PC I feel it's not as quick and there's just the smallest of lags. I would do some research to try and pinpoint this.

[carloswebcomic]

It wasn't an answer it was a series of poor excuses that made no sense?? Sorry I'm being kind of mean about it but I'm so tired of hearing "it's made for photo editing" as an excuse for why Photoshop's user interface is so bad.

Look mate, if you want people to parrot your words, that's fine, but I'm simply telling you what I have discovered over 20 years of making comics and using different software over that time.
If you think I'm making 'excuses' I suggest you read again. As I said before, if you want to make comics, there's better software out there because Photoshop is not made for it.
I really don't know what you want to hear and frankly I couldn't care less as it seems that you want to fight me over something YOU are having problems with.
You are a great reminder of why I don't frequent these forums anymore.

[Potoh]

How long have you been using Photoshop?

Just from my personal experience: when I started to use it I got frustrated too, even to a point where I didn't use it at all for weeks and months at a time. I realized that it wasn't the programme that sucked, but my attitude. I expected to be able to draw nice shit right from the get go, which wasn't the case. It's a matter of practice, like with everything in life. You have to learn it step by step, it's not going to let you do fancy paintings from the start.
The interface isn't bad in my opinion, but it takes some time to get used to it. If I have issues finding the right feature or Photoshop does weird stuff I don't want it to do, I just google it. 99% of the time there is a solution in the form of tutorials. But getting mad at Photoshop never helped me making progress in learning the programme.

[nolongerusetheforum]

... Well, I will just say my opinion that some people can use Photoshop for painting extraordinary art.

Example : Sakimi-chan. She use Photoshop to draw and if you didn't know her, go check her DA : http://sakimichan.deviantart.com/

And well, I think that the tools is just a tools. You can even use MS Paint and get extraordinary art out of it if you compatible with it. I means, I have see a lot people make awesome art using Photoshop, MS Paint, Corel, SAI, Fire Alpaca and many more programs. I even found someone who can draw on Excel lol. No kidding, google it.

So well, if Photoshop isn't suitable for you then just move on to the next app. There is many cheap or even free drawing app to choose.

Just my 2 cent.

[Hel]

I have CC 2017 Photoshop. It's from Adobe's official website and looks the same as the Photoshop on the school computers does (minus the language change) so I have no reason to believe it's not the official version (besides it being terrible). I have Windows 10 on an Acer computer and I use a Wacom Pen & Touch Small.

Why are the basic settings at the top? That's less accessible than the window on the side. I think I managed to save my brush preset but it doesn't really matter because it still likes to change brushes on me for some reason.

I don't think the window thing is a glitch I think Photoshop is just lacking a feature I liked in other programs which is the ability to move the canvas around within the black background so I can get it centered even if I don't have interface centered on my screen.

Right hand section: I try to move them around but it just won't let me have more than 3 open at a time in that section. It's weird because there's all this extra space the windows are stretching to fill but I can't put another window in there without one of the ones that was already there folding up.

Disconnect: Maybe it is lag? I guess it's similar to how it is when I don't have my tablet on the correct screen setup. I'll do some research.

[Hel]

It's not a matter of skill or talent, but of usability.

[Potoh]

I'm talking about practice. It's a complete different thing. The most skilled and so called "talented" people are able to bring whatever software they are using to their full potential, because - guess what - they practiced. A lot.
Allowdley Photoshop is pretty complex. But in my opinion the more often you try, the better you become. That's all I'm gonna add to that conversation.