Participant

Question

Editing in Photoshop on a very small screen

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
June 23, 2021
3 replies
1446 views

Hi everybody,

I was hoping to get some input on editing on a small screen (10-12 inch). I'm going to have to do that. Did anybody here tried that?

And another more simple question - I currently use a fairly strong computer (i-7 16gb). I read that an i-3 8gb can also process Photoshop. I wonder what could be the limitations of using a weaker processor and when would I feel it?

Thanks

This topic has been closed for replies.

jane-e

Community Expert

Hi

The laptop that I use for travel is a tad larger — it's a 13" MacBook Pro. Here are a few tips if you go with a smaller screen:

Try to memorize keyboard shortcuts for the things you do most often
Tab will hide all the panels to increase your workspace and will also bring them back
Shift+Tab is the shortcut to hide the panels on the top and right
When panels are hidden, you can hover over the edges of your screen and they will reappear so you can do what you intended, then they disappear again. This takes a little bit of practice, but works well once you learn the right spot to hover.

Here are the system requirements. Note both the minimum and recommended specs. Also make sure you have enough free space for your scratch disk.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

~ Jane

N

nice5C3A

Participant

(it's the questioner, forgot me contact details)

Wow thank you guys so much for all this useful info! Let's see where we can follow up:

Sorry for my ignorance, @nikunj.m , but each processor - no matter the brand - has a "core count" and "clock speed" that would determine its ability to function under Photoshop's demands? Is it possible for you to tell me what's the numerical range for each category, so that I can check it out when i'm making the purchase?

@Conrad_C - Yes you are absolutely right - that's a question I should defiantly answer before getting help.

So I work on editing photos of artware for Shopify sites and also Amazon listing pages. The listing files can reach up to 50 layers with 3-5 masks and can end up as a 150mb files and produce JPEGs of up to 15 mb, with the highest resolution being about 8,000x6,500; The artistic photo files are smaller in software and has less layers, but their outcome resolution can be higher and reach up to 12,500x5,000 pixels. So the computer I should work on must handle these types of files as it's highest requirements. I hope an i-3/8gb can do that...

Thanks again everybody - and specifically @jane-e , for the great tips and all!

jane-e

Community Expert

@nice5C3A wrote:
Thanks again everybody - and specifically @jane-e , for the great tips and all!

You're welcome, @nice5C3A. I'm sorry I can't answer your other questions about cores and clock speeds though.

~ Jane

Conrad_C

Community Expert

The answer depends on what you’re editing. What kind of files will you start with, and what kind of files do you need to deliver?

If you are doing relatively simple edits of phone pictures or photos from an older 12–16 megapixel camera, for final delivery to web sites or social media, you don’t necessarily need a large screen or the most powerful computer because both the original files and the final delivery images will have relatively small dimensions and file sizes.

If you capture 30–45 megapixel raw files, convert them to Photoshop documents with lots of layers, masks and Smart Objects, to make complicated composite images or large detailed prints, then a small screen and an Intel Core i3 are going to seem cramped and slow. It will be even slower if the computer has less than 16GB RAM and no SSD.

Remember that you can make more room for the image on a small display by hiding, arranging, stacking, and collapsing the panels in the Photoshop workspace. Show only the controls you need.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Remember that you can make more room for the image on a small display by hiding, arranging, stacking, and collapsing the panels in the Photoshop workspace. Show only the controls you need.

By @Conrad_C

I've always thought that the only time the Function key shortcuts would be useful with their default settings is with a notebook or any small screen. You'd need to be creative with how you used panels toggling them on and off strictly as you needed them.

nikunj.m

Legend

Hi,

Welcome to the Adobe Community! Working on a smaller screen would depend on the resolution of the screen as well. So, if you are using like a 1080p screen the application interface should be comfortable to work on. If it has a higher resolution though, the interface may look very small due to a lot of pixels being packed in a small screen size.

For the second question, the performance of the application (Photoshop) depends on the core count of the processor along with the clock speed (frequency) of the processor. Though the i3 processors may meet the system requirements for Photoshop, if the processor has less number of slower cores then the application may run slower. Similarly, the clock speed of the RAM along with the amount of RAM you have on the computer may have an impact on the performance of the application.

For more details on the minimum & recomended system requirements for Photoshop, please check: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

Let us know if you have any other questions!

Regards,

Nikunj

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