Pragmatic suggestion for the Bridge V13 problem

Report · Nov 04, 2022

looking at the Bridge 13 feedback you got here on the forums, one has to conclude that this release was quite a failure. Numerous users who depend on Bridge for their daily work have downgraded to version 12. I don't want to reason about causes here, but offer a pragmatic suggestion that will help many users in the short term.

The majority of Bridge users will use the program along with Photoshop and other CC apps. Unfortunately, after a downgrade to Bridge 12, the connections to e.g. Photoshop 24 no longer work via Tools/ Photoshop. A simultaneous downgrade to PS 23 and various senseless installation and deinstallation cycles would be necessary to get versions in sync. Downgrading Photoshop and ACR, however, would be painful, as both deliver interesting innovations and run stable.

Realistically, after all the feedback for Bridge Release 13, it will take your team several months to deliver a version that sees wider acceptance. It would therefore help numerous customers to release a patch for Bridge V12, that allows its usage along with newer CC-products.

Since there have been no breaking changes, such a patch should be relatively straightforward to do. And your customers would no longer need to use silly workarounds.

Report · Nov 04, 2022

Actually, Bridge 2022 works fine with Photoshop 2023. You have to uninstall PS 2022 though. I have both Bridge 22 and 23 working with PS 23 on Windows 10 Pro.

Report · Nov 04, 2022

Actually, Bridge 2022 works fine with Photoshop 2023. You have to uninstall PS 2022 though. I have both Bridge 22 and 23 working with PS 23 on Windows 10 Pro.

Also on Win 10 Pro here. Do you have full access to Tools / Photoshop 2023 Tools from Bridge 12? What do they say if you click them? I see Batch, Lens Correction etc. but when I click any of them them Bridge asks me to install the most recent version of Photoshop. I also saw others reporting the same.

I have uninstalled PS 2022 and re-installed Bridge 12 and Photoshop 2023 several times and in any sequence (Bridge first, Photoshop first) but this didn't give me access to Photoshop 24.

Technical support (Chat) told me that version-numbers were matched. Therefore, it was expected that one can't connect Bridge 12 and PS 2023. Maybe they only wanted to have a reason to close the ticket.

Report · Nov 04, 2022

Some of those menu items are created in Bridge and Photoshop installs scripts that then load some menus in Bridge. Its a wonky, fragile system that sorta works. You probably have items for Premiere Pro and Media Encoder even if they aren't on your computer. This goes against interface guidelines on both platforms. Ugh.

You may need to manually open files into Photoshop to do some things.

Report · Nov 04, 2022

I have my own batch script, I don't really use the other menu items. They DO work together but yeah its still a mess. Don't hold your breath for a solution.

Report · Nov 04, 2022

> You probably have items for Premiere Pro and Media Encoder even if they aren't on your computer. This goes against interface guidelines on both platforms. Ugh.

That's right. Has always been so.

> You may need to manually open files into Photoshop to do some things.

That's impractical in our situation. I have to run batch-export on 50 or 100 files at once. I can't use Bridge Workflows / the Export Panel for what I do, as they require psd's to have a composite layer (we save psd's without, as this creates 2/3 smaller files). It would have been pretty cool if Bridge 13 finally could output psd's saved without max. compatibility – but no, didn't happen.

What I do right now is ridiculous: I do all editing and file management in PS and Bridge 12, but I kept Bridge Beta installed only to call the Batch-processing command. This is the reason why I opened this thread.

I might download your Lumigraphics tools. Is there a way to only install Batch so that it shows on top-level in the RMB menu?

Report · Nov 04, 2022

Batch is part of the Script Utility Pack, it does load a .jsxinc file but its Apache licensed Open Source so you can modify it to remove that dependency or load differently if you want.

Report · Nov 04, 2022

You are correct. It won't run a batch from Bridge 12 to Photoshop 23. Of course I'm on Windows 11 too, and so I can't drag and drop either... Pity some of these tech companies weren't more concerned about their customers and less about their diversity quota. I bet when they need medical attention, they prefer their surgeons to be highly skilled rather than shopping around for the most disadvantaged, hmm?

Report · Nov 09, 2022

Having installed Bridge 12 again, after the disaster that is 13 (which I left installed) It does batch process into PS23, but not 24 which is also installed. What a mess.

Report · Nov 09, 2022

I'm using Bridge 2022 and Photoshop 2023 together but I have to use my own Open Directly and Batch scripts for them to work together.