When Was Photoshop Invented and Why

Who doesn’t know the name of Photoshop? The ultimate most popular and powerful photo editing software in the world! For the last 30 years, it’s been the first choice by millions of industry professionals. But, many users, especially beginners search to know- when was Photoshop invented and the reason behind developing this tool! Well! Today in this article, we will try to cover all the things together in a frame so that you get a clear idea about the history of Photoshop and its growth over the years.

Let’s start with an introduction to this creative innovation. Later, we will try to let you know-

• When was Photoshop first invented?
• Why was Photoshop created?
• Photoshop version history with features.

What Is Photoshop?

In Simple words, Adobe Photoshop, or shortly Photoshop is an extremely powerful graphic design software that helps to execute all the image editing and retouching tasks with its smart tools.

It’s also called a raster graphics editor. This application is widely used by designers, photographers, web developers, marketing coordinators, art directors, webmasters, and artists from different media. Some of the popular Photoshop versions are likely Adobe Photoshop Elements, Photoshop CC, Lightroom Classic, etc. These all have different purposes to develop that have some special characteristics.

When Was Photoshop Invented?

Pioneering the digital image editing industry, the history of Photoshop dates back to the early days of computer graphics, when the concept of altering images digitally was still in its infancy.

So, when did Photoshop come out first? Developed by brothers Thomas and John Knoll in 1987, Photoshop was initially conceived as a tool for processing and displaying grayscale images on a monochrome display. Even though it was released officially in October 1988 as ‘Image Pro‘. And, the version name was Photoshop 0.63.

Over the next three years, the brothers continued to work on refining the software, adding new features and functionalities to make it more user-friendly. Finally, in 1990, the first edition of Photoshop – Photoshop 1.0 – was released to the world under the brand name Adobe, ushering in a new age of digital photo editing.

Despite its limited capabilities compared to today’s standards, the release of Photoshop 1.0 was a groundbreaking moment in the history of technology. It showed the way for the incredible progress in digital art and design that we see today.

Who Invented Photoshop? (Behind The Invention)

This simple query may arise for the people who are being introduced to this special tool. Who is/are behind this creative invention or who invented Photoshop? Well! They are brothers namely Thomas Knoll, a software engineer, and John Knoll, a visual effects supervisor.

At the time of exploring the idea of Photoshop, Thomas was a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan. He was then writing a program called ‘Display’ that was being developed for displaying grayscale images on a monochrome display.

Then after seeing the project, his brother John, who was a visual effect artist at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) planned to turn this into a complete image editing program. It was a big step indeed! Initially, it was known as ImagePro.

What Was Photoshop Originally Created For?

After being familiar with the name, the question may arise- why was Photoshop invented? With the emergence of digital image editing in the late 1980s, there was a growing need for accessible software that could enable users to manipulate and enhance their digital images. Prior to Photoshop, the software options for digital image editing were limited and often expensive, making them inaccessible to the average user.

Recognizing this need, the Knoll brothers set out to create a more user-friendly and affordable alternative to the existing software options. Photoshop was designed with a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for anyone to edit their images without the need for extensive technical knowledge.

What truly sets Photoshop apart, however, are its unique features and capabilities. From its advanced color correction tools to its powerful selection and masking options, Photoshop has revolutionized the way that digital images are edited and manipulated.

Ultimately, Photoshop was invented to provide users with a powerful and accessible tool for unleashing their creativity and bringing their visions to life. Now, it’s become almost the one-way program for creating digital paintings, web design materials, making GIFs, posters & brochures, infographics & mock-ups, and many more.

Adobe Photoshop Pros & Cons

In this part, we will cover both the advantages and drawbacks of Photoshop from a neutral plane. Let’s go through the points below!

Pros

• The perfect tool for color adjustments, clipping paths, image retouching, basic animations, batch editing, converting image formats, and another complex editing.
• Practical and flexible for professionals.
• Has an excellent and organized interface, including the necessary instructions to use it properly.
• Plenty of design tools and plugins.
• A great tool to design flyers, greeting cards, animated GIFs, and many more.
• Capable of creating social media elements for promoting any product or service.
• It can easily increase the resolution of images that attract the audience.
• Easy to customize with pre-designed layers, Photoshop templates, and colors.

Cons

• Comparatively expensive software.
• Not perfectly compatible with vector graphics.
• It needs a strong processor and plenty of memory space to run this program.

So, after the introduction of Photoshop and the story behind it, let’s try to know about the notable features of their released versions. Take a look at it below.

Photoshop Latest Features Update History (1988-2023)

What is the Most Current Version of Photoshop?

Future of Photoshop

As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, Adobe – the company behind Photoshop – has made constant updates and betterment to the software to keep up with evolving industry trends and user requirements. These updates have incorporated the addition of new features such as Content-Aware Fill and the Object Selection Tool, as well as performance enhancement and user interface updates.

Photoshop’s expanding proficiency and potential are virtually boundless. With new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, there is terrific potential for Photoshop to become even more powerful and efficient.

For example, Adobe has already revealed the potential for AI-powered tools in Photoshop, such as the Sky Replacement feature that uses machine learning to automatically replace a sky in a photo with a more dramatic one.

The potential impact of Photoshop on the future of digital media is significant. As digital media becomes increasingly important in our lives, the need for high-quality visual content is greater than ever.

As new technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality continue to emerge, there will be new opportunities for Photoshop to play a role in creating immersive and interactive visual experiences. Ultimately, the future of Photoshop is bright, with endless possibilities for its continued growth and evolution.

Wrapping Up

We started with a very common and popular query- When was Photoshop invented & why? Later, we ended with the source of Photoshop version history to let you know its various versions released till now. Hopefully, you got to learn many basic but essential things related to this application. However, it’s not the end of this journey. Many more functionalities are yet to add in the upcoming versions.