Optimize Photoshop CC performance. Optimizing Photoshop or what to do to prevent Photoshop from slowing down

One of the most widely used photo editors has long been recognized Adobe Photoshop. Many photographers and retouchers spend long hours in front of their computer screen, processing photographic images. How can this work be made easier and faster? These questions are answered by my tips for optimizing work in Adobe Photoshop.

Very often, when working with photographs, photographers make large number operations. However, only twenty of the last actions performed are stored in the History palette of Adobe Photoshop.

To increase the number of stored actions, you need to perform Edit – Preferences – Performance and select the number of actions convenient for you, stored in the History of the edited image.

As a rule, a convenient number of operations is from 70 to 100. However, you can specify a higher value. You just need to remember that the more of your actions are stored in History, the more power is required from your computer.

When working with multi-layered, complex images, photographers often encounter the problem of slow Adobe works Photoshop.

To speed up the graphics editor, you can increase the percentage of RAM (computer memory) used in favor of Adobe Photoshop. To do this, in the Edit – Preferences – Performance window you need to set the RAM value you require. It is optimal if it is approximately 70-80 percent of the total RAM of the computer.

To speed up Adobe Photoshop, you can also connect Scratch disks that need to be connected in a previously opened panel

It is impossible to imagine working with photographs without the correct Adobe Photoshop color space. To do this, you need to go through Edit – Color Settings

When editing photos that will be printed, it is best to use Adobe RGB (1998) space.

For photos whose use will be limited to the Internet, sRGB will take precedence

When working with photos, try to use as many hotkeys as possible. Their use will significantly reduce the processing time of each image.

To assign your own “hot keys”, as well as to obtain information about existing ones, you need to open the Edit – Keyboard Shortcuts panel, where, by opening the corresponding item, you can perform actions with keyboard shortcuts in Adobe Photoshop.

To assign your own keyboard shortcut, just select the appropriate command in the Keyboard Shortcuts panel and press the keys on the keyboard that are convenient for you. It is important to remember that you will not be able to use existing combinations!

After the settings for the command and its “hot keys” have been made, just click the Accept button and close the panel.

I hope this article will make your work in Adobe Photoshop more comfortable.

Initially Adobe Photoshop uses 70% available memory.

A lower value speeds up work when editing small images with a large number of layers.

You can choose preset options caching settings and fragment size depending on the purpose, using the appropriate selection buttons.

Web/UI Design:

Web/UI Design

2 ;

128 KB.

Default/Photos:

Default/Photos

Cache Levels: 4 ;

Cache Tile Size: 1024 KB.

Huge pixel sizes:

Huge Pixel Dimensions

Cache Levels: 6 ;

Cache Tile Size: 1024 KB.

Scratch Disks

If there is a shortage RAM, as well as to store a number of temporary files necessary for work, Photoshop uses the space of a regular hard drive. HDD disk or solid state SSD drive. Similar to " Swap file" V Windows.

Let's go through the menu: Editing - Settings - Scratch disks ().

Select one or more disks that will definitely contain free space for the program to work (several GB). If there is SSD disk, it's better to have it on it free space and choose it for Photoshop, because... SSD disks are much faster HDD.

Graphics Processor Settings

Modern versions Photoshop use video card resources for faster image display and processing.

Note: Photoshop needs the video card to support the standard OpenGL 2.0 and had from 512 MB video memory (recommended from 2 GB).

To activate, you just need to check the appropriate box in the performance settings: Editing - Settings - Performance ().

Disable thumbnails for layers, channels, paths

Note: If miniatures are needed, they can be returned. For maximum speed You can remove the display of most thumbnails from the above sets or reduce their sizes.

Disable or reduce thumbnails for sets

For brush sets, swatches, gradients, styles, patterns, paths, shapes.

Set thumbnails are disabled or changed the same way.

Let's look at the example of disabling thumbnails for sets brushes.

Let's go through the menu: Editing - Sets - Managing Sets ().

Select the required " Dial type" (Preset Type), in our example " Brushes"(Brushes), click on the button in the upper right part of the window and select from the top of the list the right way display.

If you have performance problems, do not keep a large number of add-ons in your Photoshop, erase everything unnecessary, otherwise the clutter will affect the loading speed of the sets (on low-power devices).

Reduce the size of the image you're working with

If you don't need too much high resolution When working with the current image, feel free to reduce its size: this will significantly speed up the program.

To reduce the image use the command: Image - Image Size ().

Change color depth to 8 bits

If you are not working on professional color correction or preparing an image for printing, you can use the 8 bit/channel, this will significantly speed up the program and 2 times will reduce the image file size.

To do this, go through the menu: Image - Mode - 8 bits/channel ()

Close unnecessary windows in Photoshop, there will be a lot of open and unused images extra load for the program.

To free up RAM, you should keep an eye on unnecessary open source software in the operating system.

In Photoshop, it is possible to reset all temporary data from memory; to do this, go through the menu “ Edit – Delete from memory" () and select the appropriate item, for example " All» (). This operation cannot be undone, take this into account.

Control the number of layers; too many of them can negatively affect the performance of the program.

If possible, create layers wisely, group them (select the ones you need and click Ctrl+G), if permissible, merge layers.

Disabling layers before saving will reduce the size .psd file, this can be useful for storing and transferring over a network.

If you don't work with the clipboard outside of Photoshop, i.e. you do not need to transfer, for example, copied sections of images (or other data) from Photoshop to another program - disable the “ Export clipboard"(Export Clipboard). This will improve performance somewhat.

To do this, go to Editing - Settings - Basic ( / Ctrl+K) and uncheck the “ Export clipboard"(Export Clipboard).

After these operations, Photoshop will definitely work faster.

. (next page textbook) ⇒

Working with large images places special demands on the program's performance, especially if you use HDR, Photomerge, 3D objects, or video layers. In this Photoshop tutorial I will give you a couple of tips on optimizing and speeding up Photoshop. So let's get started!

1. Memory used
Photoshop is a native 64-bit program, and can use as much memory as you can give it. A larger amount of RAM used when working with large images can significantly speed up the program. By default, Photoshop uses about 70% of the available RAM, but you can always change this setting by going to Edit > Preferences > Performance. Changes made here will only take effect after you restart the program. Increasing the amount of RAM used is the most effective way increasing program performance.

This scale clearly shows how much of the available RAM is used by Photoshop.

2. Working disks
When you go beyond the allocated RAM while working, your computer experiences additional load. In this case, additional disk space can be provided by adding any external drives as working disks. In this case, the priority of disks can be set using the arrows in the corresponding performance settings window. When adding scratch disks, consider the following factors:
- SSD drives are usually more powerful than regular HDD drives
- internal drives are preferable and faster than external drives
If you use external drives, it is better to work with a USB 3.0, Firewire or Thunderbolt interface.

In this window you can assign and set the priority of scratch disks.

3. Performance indicator
You can monitor the performance of Photoshop using a special indicator in the status bar at the bottom of the program window. To do this, you need to tick the appropriate box. context menu status lines. Efficiency, in this case, will be displayed as a percentage, where the value of 100% corresponds to maximum efficiency. In order to increase efficiency, you can, for example, reduce the number of layers and smart objects, which, in turn, leads to the loss of the previous non-destructive workflow.

After you open a document in Photoshop, a status bar will appear at the bottom of the program window.

4. Manage cache levels and history
The cache stores a low-resolution version of your working image, which is easily and quickly redrawn. There are 8 in total different levels cache, and the more of them are used, the longer time required by Photoshop to open the file. At the same time, more cache levels provide more fast work Photoshop after the document is opened.

To open the window for setting these parameters, go to the same menu Settings> Performance (Preferences> Performance). When working with small images with a large number of layers (for example, web design), use the “Tall and Thin” mode. And when working on large illustrations with a small number of layers (digital drawing, photo retouching), use the “Big and Flat” mode. In all other cases, it is better to use the default set of settings.

High importance of action history also leads to poor performance. This parameter can be changed in the range of 1-1000. For non-destructive work, a value of 5 is quite sufficient. If you are an artist and often use a brush in your work, then it is better to set the storage of approximately 100 recent actions.

5. Reducing resolution
It can be very helpful to determine the purpose of your final image before you start working on it in Photoshop. If you know that your image will be used on a website that is only 600 pixels wide, then there is no point in working with a 20 megapixel image. Therefore, before applying filters, adjustments, and layer styles, you should reduce the image size accordingly.

6. Closing unused documents
It is quite obvious that several at the same time open documents slow down photoshop. Make sure that the program efficiency is at least 100% (this parameter is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the program window).

7. Background and automatic saving
These settings are available in the Preferences > File Handling menu. If you enable the Save in Background option, you can continue working on the document, and the progress of the saving process will be displayed in the status bar. Deactivating this option will automatically disable autosaving. During the saving process, the working disk is accessed, and if there is a shortage disk space There may be a noticeable decrease in performance. Here you can set the frequency of saving in the range from saving every 5 minutes to saving every hour.

8. Delete history
You can delete the entire transaction history and any other information contained in the clipboard by going to the menu Edit > Delete from memory > All (Edit > Purge > All). This operation It is especially useful if you have a long sequence of actions to save, or if you have repeatedly copied large images during your work. That is, if some element was selected and copied during work, it “gets stuck” in the clipboard and takes up a certain amount of RAM.

9. Disable preview panels and thumbnails
To further improve performance, it is recommended that you also disable the display of preview icons in the Channels, Layers, and Paths palettes. Disabling the preview icons will speed up the program somewhat, but it will make it difficult to find the layers you need if you don’t organize them well in the layers palette. If you carefully group your layers and assign meaningful names to them, then there should be no difficulty in finding the desired layer even without seeing the thumbnail.

10. Optimization of working with layers
First of all, enable the display of document size in the status bar. The first value will show the file size that it will take when rasterized, the second will show its current size. The current size is usually significantly larger than the intended rasterized file size.
It should also be taken into account that adjustment layers are very convenient to use, but at the same time they significantly increase the file size. You can reduce the file size by rasterizing the layers, but the change is irreversible and you may lose your non-destructive work.
In the File > Scripts menu, you can find several options that will help you reduce the file size without resorting to full rasterization:
- Delete All Empty Layers
- Flatten All Layer Effects
- Flatten All Masks

As you know, most applications designed to process graphic files very demanding in terms of resource intensity of computer power. At the same time, everyone’s favorite Photoshop is a real leader in “gluttony”.

Even if you don't deal with huge tiff files and don't generate dozens of adjustment layers, you can still speed up this program by an order of magnitude. Here is a list of the most simple settings, allowing you to optimize Photoshop work

Setting up memory

You know that the more memory allocated to Photoshop, the faster it will be. The settings menu only indicates the memory available to the program, and not the entire amount available on the computer. By default, the memory available to the FS is limited to 70% of free resources. For most users of the 32-bit version of FS, this reserve is quite enough, but if you need more, start increasing this figure by 5%, keeping an eye on the efficiency indicator (more about it below). Do not overdo it, since for a 32-bit program, increasing the available memory to 100% is fraught with instability. To adjust the allocated free memory follow the menu Edit>Preferences>Performance. For the future, try to switch to the 64-bit version of FS, which works stably at an increase of up to 100%.

Swap file

Working with large volumes graphic information, if all this information does not fit in RAM, the program writes everything else to the so-called paging file on hard drive, that is, it is something like ersatz RAM. The disadvantage of the paging file is its slower response to program requests, so the optimal solution in such situations is to write the paging file on a separate physical disk. Ideal option– SSD drive, which is significantly faster than its HDD counterpart. Although a regular hard drive unloads the main disk with the program and OS and allows you to speed up work. To configure the paging file, go to the Edit>Preferences>Performance menu.

History and cache

These settings are also available in the Edit>Preferences>Performance menu

Cache Levels

FS uses the cache to reproduce the image faster, so if you are dealing with files with a resolution of up to 1280x1024 pixels and with a large set of layers (50 or more), set the cache to 2. If you are working with more serious files, 10 MP or more, set value 4.

The Cache tile size parameter deals with the amount of data processed by the program at a time. Larger values ​​improve performance for general image operations, such as sharpening, while smaller values ​​are suitable for specific image operations, such as brushes.

If your PC is equipped modern processor, set to 128K or 1024K, and for older, low-power processors, set to 132K or 1032K.

History States

Since each applied action is saved in history, the page file increases accordingly. Therefore, the fewer actions the history stores, the less volume the FS will require. If you always work only with a copy of the layer, the last ten actions in the history will be enough.

GPU Settings

Photoshop versions CS4 and CS5 are not modest about the capabilities of your graphics card. For full use of resources graphics system computer, the video card must support the OpenGL standard and have at least 128 MB of video memory.

To set access to video card resources, check the appropriate box; in addition, it is recommended to update its driver.

Monitoring the performance indicator

The efficiency indicator tells you that the FS cord is exhausting the available memory capacity and at the same time begins saving data to the swap file.

To select an efficiency indicator, click on the arrow below the image and select Efficiency.

If values ​​less than 90-95% are indicated, this indicates that the program is accessing the swap file, i.e. the system doesn't work the best the best way, therefore there is a reason to increase the amount of RAM.

Close unnecessary windows

IN versions of Photoshop CS4 and CS5 document windows take up more memory resources than in older versions. If you have opened several windows with images, this means that the FS will not react so quickly to your commands.

It is also recommended to reduce the number of brushes and patterns that you probably use very rarely, but as a result of their presence, the system’s operation slows down significantly. To remove unnecessary “junk”, go to the Edit>Preset Manager menu, and then to Preset Type>Patterns (patterns) or Brushes (brushes).

Disable layer and channel previews (Panel Options)

Try to work with images with a color depth of 8 bits (especially if you are not dealing with professional color correction and print preparation). Follow the menu Image>Mode>8 Bits/Channel

Disable font previews

Follow menu Edit>Preferences>Type (Windows)

Reduce file size

Follow the menu Image>Image Size

Reset temporary data

Go to the Edit>Purge menu, where you select Undo, Clipboard, Histories, or All, where you will delete undo data, clean up the shallow buffer, history, or all of the above.

• Adobe Photoshop is very slow or begins to slow down significantly when performing any actions or operations.
• Windows and menus do not open or open very slowly.
• Edited images disappear or changes take a long time.
• The mouse pointer changes to an hourglass when hovering over windows or menus.
• Error messages appear, such as: The program performed an illegal operation and will close.
• All these signs indicate that it's time to think about upgrading or at least optimizing Photoshop settings and Windows.

Everything is clear with the upgrade - you go to the store and buy new components, let's move on to optimizing Photoshop and Windows settings.

Ways to Optimize Adobe Photoshop

The more complex the operation, the more memory will be required to cache it ( storing service information). For example, to undo certain changes to a file Photoshop action information from the cache is used. If you are willing to sacrifice such functions for the sake of program performance, the cache can be reduced or disabled altogether.

Enter the menu Edit - Preferences - Memory & Image Cash and set the value Cash level 2. This will reduce the amount of memory used for image caching, thereby speeding up Photoshop.

To improve Photoshop performance, set the Physical Memory Usage to a value of 50% or 75%. This option will highlight more physical memory to work in graphic editor, due to which the speed of work in it will be increased. Another method speed up Adobe Photoshop is to reduce hardware acceleration using the operating system itself.

Reduce or remove Hardware acceleration using Windows.

The reason is extremely slow work Adobe Photoshop may be a faulty video card driver or extremely low performance video cards. In the second case, the only thing that will help is replacing the video adapter with a more modern and powerful one. First, try updating or reinstalling your video card driver. Perhaps the problem will be fixed.