P: Photoshop on MacOS Window Size Not Consistent When Multiple Images Open In Tabs

[1957GoldTop]

I like to stack images in tabs within a window so I can easily switch between the two to see the differences.  I also like to have a white border when doing so.  This always worked great in previous versions of PS, but somewhere along the way the behavior of windows changed.

If you watch the screen recording, if I expand the window so there is a white space, all images in different tabs in the window have different amounts of white space which makes lining them up difficult.

In the past, if I expanded a window with multiple images in tabs, each tab would have identical white space, making them line up perfectly.

Please fix this bug.

Using latest version of PS 2025 on MacOS  15.4.1.

Jeff

[Aleke]

Hi @1957GoldTop! Thanks so much for sharing the recording — really appreciate it.

Quick question: how are you arranging your windows like that? Are you using the Float All in Windows option under the Window > Arrange menu? If you could walk us through how you're setting things up, that would be super helpful — we’d love to try and reproduce it on our end.

So far, I haven’t been able to get the same behavior you're seeing, but I might be missing a step.

Another thing we could try is resetting preferences (just make sure to back them up first so you don’t lose your brushes, workspaces, or other custom settings). Here’s how to do that: https://adobe.ly/4dfgbnf

Thanks again!

— Alek

[1957GoldTop]

It works the same for me regardless of if I select "float in all windows" or "float in window".

I reset preferences and that didn't change anything... Attached is a new screen recording done after resetting preferences.

[1957GoldTop]

@Aleke any update on this? See my last message with the new screen recording?

[Trevor.Dennis]

Without jumping on Alek's toes, I'll offer my two cents worth.

The white background can be obtained by right clicking the background (outside the document window) and choosing Custom.  That will open a color picker (white is not one of the default options).

Two arrange the windows like you have shown can be done in a couple of ways.  The default is Consolidate all to Tabs and that's what you would see after resetting Preferences.

If you open the first image and drag it away from the background frame to make it 'Floating' then then the next image you open will be tabbed inside the same floating window.  As above.

You can also drag and drop an image into a floating window. Position it carefully till you see the blue bounding box and release the mouse button.

Using the Window > Arrange options from that position will fill the application frame with the selected number of windows with the same tabbed documents they had.

If you then select Four Up, it will separate the four open images into separate windows.

I'm guessing and assuming here, so sorry if I have it wrong, but I wonder if you might benefit from asigning shortcuts to the Window > Arrange options?  I make limited use of that strategy using shortcuts I got from a Michael Ninness Photoshop Power Shortcuts at MAX 'about' 12 years ago.

But you could expand on that.  You'll find those functions under Edit Shortcuts > Application Menus

I like to use the Function keys for shortcuts, as they are mostly available.  Even if they aren't you can set up your shortcuts and save them with a Custom Workspace (along with Custom Toolbar and Menus) and switch back to Essentials if you need the default shortcuts. I have tiny actions that set and reset my custom workspace (F5) and Essentials (F6) The reset is so when your workspace is totally messed up, you hit that function key and it tidies itself up.  It happens pretty much instantly on my MacBook Pro, and takes less than two seconds on a Windows system with Three large screens with nearly every panel open.

[1957GoldTop]

Thanks for the reply but you're not understanding what the issue is... All I need to happen is, if I have a window that has two (or more) tabs of images in it, when I drag the winow to leave space around the one image in that window, when I switch to another image in the window then all the images should have the identical spacing around it. So, when I click/switch from tab to tab the images are perfectly lined up.

That was always the behavior in PS until about a year or so ago and now it's not (unless there's a setting I'm missing)

[Aleke]

Hi @1957GoldTop! Thanks so much for the extra recording, and apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

I now have a much clearer picture of what you’re experiencing, and I was able to reproduce the issue on my end. I’ll go ahead and share this with the rest of the team and keep you posted with any updates.

To help us investigate, can you share your System Info with us? You can find it in Photoshop under Help > System Info. Just copy the info to a text file and attach it to your response, or share it with us through Google Drive, WeTransfer, or another file-sharing platform.

You also mentioned this wasn't the behavior in previous versions of Photoshop. Do you recall in which versions this worked correctly?

Thanks again!
Alek

[1957GoldTop]

@Aleke Any upate on this?

[Aleke]

Hi @1957GoldTop! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I checked in with the team, and it turns out this behavior was an intentional change made between versions 22.2 and 25.12. We’ve found that different users have different preferences when it comes to how windows resize, join, and tile; so when we adjust it one way, it often creates frustration for others.

On top of that, the code has evolved quite a bit over time, which makes it tricky to untangle exactly what’s happening behind the scenes.

That said, it looks like this is the behavior Photoshop will stick with moving forward. If you'd like to see it changed, I’d definitely recommend posting your feedback on our Ideas board. The team actively reviews those suggestions when planning future updates.

Thanks again for your patience and for bringing this up!

Alek

[1957GoldTop]

@Aleke So they decided to make things worse and stick with it? I can't imagine many people liking this... if I have two versions of an image in the same window, each in its own tab and I want to be able to compare them on a pixle perfect level AND I want the winodw to have a bit of a border around it why would making the window size different be a good thing? Even if you're not trying to compare the same image and you just want to view a few images each in their own tab why would you want the window size jumping around all over the place randomly? That's clearly bad design.

But hey, maybe I'm missing something... can you explain a logical reason why users would want their window jumping all over to different sizes when going from tab to tab? I know I have my workflow but if theres a better one I'm all ears.

My guess it has more to do with what you said when you said " the code has evolved quite a bit over time, which makes it tricky to untangle exactly what’s happening behind the scenes" and they just don't want to spend the time to figure out what is causing it and so they're going to say it's staying 🙄

[1957GoldTop]

See this thread for a full description of the issue along with screen recordings:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/window-behavior/m-p/15321221#M865058

Between version 22.2 and 25.12 something changed in the behavior of tabbed winodows with a border around the image. Prior to 22.2 if I had multiple images open in a window and pulled the winodw area wider than the image to create a border, the border size would remain consistent from tab to tab. Now the window size jumps around all over the place when going from tab to tab.

At the very least you should have a setting to make "window size consistent" when you have a window with multiple tabs.

[1957GoldTop]

Here is a screen recording of this happening:

Screen Recording 2025-05-14 at 7.13.37 AM.mov

Prior to 22.2 if I resized the window and switched between tabs, the window size would remain the same for both tabs.  Much better user experience.

[Sameer K]

Hey, @1957GoldTop. The team is investigating this. Thanks for the details and your patience.

Sameer K