The upgrade to Photoshop CC 2019 is ready to download. Let's take a look at what's new. You'll find improvements to many old favorites and also some new features.

Home Screen

The first thing you will notice is the new Home Screen (see screenshot), with the new layout of click-and-go options such as Take the Tour and Open in Browser call-to-action buttons.

I personally like the new Home button at the top left corner of the workspace (see screenshot), that will take you back to the Home Screen at any time in your creative process. But for people that don't like the Home Screen, you can turn it off in Preferences.

Live Paint Tool Symmetry

We have new symmetry options for the Brush, Pencil and Eraser tools (see screenshot). This live feature will rotate and repeat what you are drawing. The number of repeats is based on the number of segments you set in the panel.

Just click on the Butterfly icon in the Options bar and try out the new Mandala and Radial symmetry.

New Content-Aware Fill

Check out the new dedicated Content-Aware workspace (see screenshot) which has more controls. For example, you now have a split screen panel with a green overlay indicating the source sampling area. Use the Sample brush to paint the area that you wish to add or remove from the source pixels. You will see a live update.

Have you ever found it difficult to fill an area on a circular image because the sampled pixels do not rotate. With the new controls, you can set the amount of rotation, scale and mirror.

Learn Panel

The Learn Panel, with thumbnail links to in-app and online tutorials has been upgraded to allow you to practice the tutorials with your own images (see screenshot). At the end of each tutorial, you will see a Try with your own images link. Just open your image and do the step-by-step walk through again.

Blending Mode Preview

Your blending mode process will be easier with the new preview. Just open the Blending Mode menu and toggle through each option to see a live preview of the results.

Proportional Transform

Finally, Photoshop will maintain proportion automatically, that is by default, when using the Transform command. Now it will work the opposite way, you will hold down the Shift key to transform non-proportionally.

Layer Names and Ellipses

Do you feel limited by the number of characters allowed for layer names. When you have a long name, the end is not displayed. Now Photoshop will add ellipses in the middle of long names and show the beginning and end of the layer name.

Frame Tool

If you use InDesign, you are familiar with how graphic frames work. Now, you have this feature in Photoshop CC 2019, for shape, path and text layers. You can use it for masking and clipping. The placed image is automatically resized to fit within the frame and converted to a Smart Object.

There are also improvements for the auto-commit, reference point, horizontal flip, modern undo, color wheel and swatches and spacing controls.

What's Not New

Since upgrading to Photoshop CC, a few people have noticed that Photoshop is slow when performing certain tasks, such as opening a file. This is still very much the case with 2019.

Paint Symmetry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peAQBDpJvEc

Content-Aware Fill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiwqOAPE0kk

Copyright 2018 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe, Photoshop is/are either [a] registered trademark[s] or a trademark[s] of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.