P: Photoshop 2025 No Longer Saves Interpolation Setting for Transform

[esther_4982]

Dear Adobe Team,

I am extremely frustrated with a critical change in Photoshop 2025 that severely impacts my workflow. In previous versions, when I set the interpolation method to “Nearest Neighbor”, Photoshop would retain this setting even after restarting. However, in the 2025 update, the software no longer remembers my chosen interpolation method, forcing me to manually reset it every single time I use the Transform (Edit → Transform) function.

I am a fashion print graphic designer working for several well-known luxury fashion brands, and I rely on Photoshop for high-precision work on a daily basis. This unnecessary change is highly disruptive and drastically slows down my workflow. As a professional, I cannot afford to waste time adjusting the same setting repeatedly throughout the day. There is absolutely no reason why Photoshop should reset this option upon every restart.

I demand that Adobe restores the ability to permanently save the chosen interpolation method for transformations, just as it worked in previous versions. If this is an intentional change, I strongly urge you to reconsider, as it adds nothing of value while actively damaging the user experience.

Please escalate this issue to the development team and provide a solution as soon as possible. Professionals in industries like mine expect Adobe to prioritize usability rather than making arbitrary changes that hinder productivity.

I await your response.

Sincerely,

Esther

[Daniel35887877e4s2]

I changed the Image interpolation setting in Preferences>General, but that does not affect the transform tool itself. It keeps defaulting back to "bicubic" in Transform Tool. I want it to be "nearest neighbor" every time. How do I change this. The older version of Photoshop let me keep the setting forever.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

 It keeps defaulting back to "bicubic" in Transform Tool. 

No such thing. 

Is it represented in the Toolbar? If not then it’s not called a Photoshop Tool. (edited)

Could you please post screenshots with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Options Bar, …) visible? 

[Stephen Marsh]

The setting is sticky, it remembers the last interpolation method used (it doesn't use the General Prefs value). Note that the sticky behaviour is only during that session, if you quit and restart Photoshop it will revert back to Bicubic and not the last used setting.

If you always wanted a certain interpolation method to be used as a default start point, rather than the last used value or bicubic, you could create an interactive action or script and use that instead, perhaps remapping the keyboard shortcut.

Note: I would never use "nearest neighbour" in a "free" transform unless I was resizing in multiples of the original, such as 200% or 400% etc. and wished to preserve the edges of the original pixels.

[cristifagan]

I'm having the same issue since I updated PS. Any solutions? I use this tool everyday for a comic strip- so annoying to have to manually change it on the toolbar every time!

[Stephen Marsh]

Any solutions?

By @cristifagan

See my post directly before your post, I don't believe that anything has changed since then. 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

@cristifagan , please read this (in particular the section titled "Supply pertinent information for more timely and effective answers”):
https://community.adobe.com/t5/using-the-community/community-how-to-guide-tips-amp-best-practices/td...

Could you please post screenshots taken at View > 100% with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Options Bar, …) visible to illustrate your problem? 

[Sameer K]

Hey, @esther_4982. Welcome to the Photoshop Community. I'll make sure to clarify this for you. 

I've tried to recreate this, and I can observe that the last mode used in Free Transform is retained until Photoshop is closed. What version of Photoshop did you notice this change start to appear in? This behavior is uniform for Photoshop 2025 and Photoshop (beta) v26.5. 

I've moved your post from Ideas for now. If we can pinpoint the change, I'll move it accordingly. 

Thanks!
Sameer K

(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

[esther_4982]

Hi Sameer

Thank you for your response.

I used to work with Photoshop 2023 and Photoshop 2018 on my personal laptop, and in both versions, my interpolation setting for Free Transform was always retained, even after restarting Photoshop. However, after updating to Photoshop 2025, I noticed that, as you mentioned, the setting is only retained until I close Photoshop.

Every day, I shut down my laptop after work. The next day, when I start Photoshop again, I have to manually reset the interpolation setting before using Free Transform. While I can certainly remember to do this each time, I don’t understand why such a small but impactful change was introduced in the latest update. I am so used to the previous behavior that I have already encountered multiple instances where I forgot to reset the setting, which forced me to redo my designs.

Could you clarify if this change was intentional? If so, is there a way to restore the previous behavior so that Photoshop remembers my last-used interpolation setting across restarts?

Looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks again!

[Trevor.Dennis]

How do you have Interpolation set in Preferences?

I'm interested why you use Nearest Neighbor?  That total lack of anti aliasing leads to some nasty jaggies.  Especially with shallow angles.

[esther_4982]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

I’ve already tried setting Image Interpolation to Nearest Neighbor in Preferences. After restarting Photoshop, the Preferences setting remains as Nearest Neighbor, tools like the Magic Wand and other options that allow anti-aliasing control also retain my previous settings. However, when using Free Transform, the interpolation always resets to Bicubic, which I find very confusing. I don’t understand why only this specific setting has changed in the new Photoshop version.

As for why I need to use Nearest Neighbor, I work in fashion print design, and when creating patterns for rotary printing, maintaining jagged edges is essential. This helps with color separation and recoloring during later stages of production. In my 10 years of experience, both fashion print designers in apparel companies and print designers in textile suppliers always try to preserve the anti-aliased edges in files to ensure flexibility in further processing.

I would really appreciate any insights on why this behavior has changed in Photoshop 2025 and if there’s a way to restore the previous functionality.

[Sameer K]

Thanks for sharing the update. I'll share this with the team to review & comment. 

Regards!
Sameer K

[WMETS]

I think this is wat he's saying. I was also looking for an answer to this. When using the transform tool the first time when PS is booted, it's always in Bicubib, can this be changed in the prefs, to another, like neares Neigbour for inscance?

        

[19911hb]

Tbh, it's pretty straightforward. Interpolation is set to nearest neighbor in ps preferences but whenever the program is opened it defaults to bicubic in the toolbar  and has to be changed  manually. For us comic strip creators this is a problem because if we forget to change it then that piece of art is useless. I see lots of creators complaining about this new problem in later versions of photoshop but I can't find any solution. It appears to be a case of photoshop disregarding the prefs ..  so I think the question  is whether it is a glitch or something that can easily be o ridden. 

[19911hb]

I',]m guessing most newspaper comic strip creators have been using PS for many years and have set up their prefs as instructed by the newspaper syndicate.... but they only use Photohop to color comic strips, so any new wrinkle is a problem. In previous versions , if interplaotion was set to nearest neighbor that's where it stayed.  What's happening now is, regardless of whether the creator only ever uses nearest neighbor , when the program is opened it defaults to bicubic. Muscle memory means that most of us, after decades of doing the same thing every day, keep forgetting that the prefs no longer work and the setting has to be changed manually. I think the ptroblem with the suggested Actions solution is that a lot of us have no idea how to set that up and even if we did, we will still forget that we have to manully change a setting ot add a step before we can resume work. I realize that says more about how limited our PS skills are but it is incredibly frustrating that there is no longer a simple setting that works.

[M-H]

Image Interpolation in preferences refers to canvas, how "the zoom" works, so its not affecting transform tool. Best workaround as @Stephen Marsh mentioned is script. Feel free to use one I've just made.

var fileName = File($.fileName).name;
var brackets = fileName.brackets(/\(([^)]+)\)/);
var extractedBrackets = brackets ? decodeURI(brackets[1]) : "Nearest Neighbor";

var interpolation = '';
if (extractedBrackets === 'Nearest Neighbor') {
    interpolation = 'Nrst';
} else if (extractedBrackets === 'Bilinear') {
    interpolation = 'Blnr';
} else if (extractedBrackets === 'Bicubic') {
    interpolation = 'Bcbc';
} else if (extractedBrackets === 'Bicubic Smoother') {
    interpolation = 'BcSm';
} else if (extractedBrackets === 'Bicubic Sharper') {
    interpolation = 'BcSh';
} else if (extractedBrackets === 'Bicubic Automatic') {
    interpolation = 'BCAu';
}

var desc1 = new ActionDescriptor();
var ref1 = new ActionReference();
ref1.putEnumerated(cTID('Lyr '), cTID('Ordn'), cTID('Trgt'));
desc1.putEnumerated(cTID('Intr'), cTID('Intp'), cTID( interpolation ));
try{executeAction(cTID('Trnf'), desc1, DialogModes.ALL);} catch(e) {}

function cTID(s) { return app.charIDToTypeID(s); }
function sTID(s) { return app.stringIDToTypeID(s); }

Copy above to notepad and save as "Transform (Nearest Neighbor).jsx" in: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2025\Presets\Scripts and after PS restart in should apear in File > Scripts where you can reassign Ctrl + T shortcut from the default Free Transform. Script picks the interpolation type from its name so you can create other ones just by duplicating it and renaming to the whatever you need. 

[Stephen Marsh]

@19911hb 

I get it, muscle memory is tough to override.

I'm not an Adobe employee, so all I can do is suggest practical, pragmatic alternatives to deal with the situation now.

Recording a single step action and remembering to use it to trigger the interactive transform is the simplest solution that I can recommend. Although not all users may know how to record an action, they really should do so as they are missing out on a lot of productivity gains.

This topic is marked as a "discussion" so Adobe devs may never see it, as this is a user-to-user discussion. An "idea" or "bug" topic does appear on their radar.

[19911hb]

Many thanks ... will give this a go!

[chuck_1145]

I'm with Esther 1000% on this. I work in primetime animation as a color designer. I use all the latest updates of Photoshop. And this has been a consistent problem beginning this year. I use nearest neighbor because we threshold all of our line work to only black and white pixels for easy filling with paintbucket and selecting areas with the magic wand. It's all about speed. We have 2 weeks to color keys for each show and it's EXTREMELY frustrating to rescale a background, character or prop only to find out in the middle of a review with my director or creator that they want to change colors of something, only the edges are fuzzy and I can't cleanly select or fill the area with color or adjust it. All because I didn't check my options to see that my nearest neighbor interpolation had changed to bicubic again. Sometime it stays on my preferred choice of nearest neighbor but most times not. Please fix this! Pretty please. Thank you!

[chuck_1145]

And fwiw, 99.9 percent of our color work is done in the nearest neighbor mode at around 300dpi. We are only providing keys or color models for overseas animation studios to do the final production you see on tv which is antialiased. I know it's a somewhat unconventional use of Photoshop but very necessary for us to do our work efficiently. We animation colorists all appreciate this very valuable app.

[Sameer K]

Hey, @chuck_1145. Thanks for the detailed comment. Please feel free to add your upvote to the original post from @esther_4982. 

Thanks!

Sameer K
(Type '@' and type my name to mention me when you reply)

[Alexandra_Kirk2476]

Hi Esther, thank you for sharing your feedback. Your concern about Photoshop 2025 not retaining the ‘Nearest Neighbor’ interpolation setting is valid, especially for precision workflows. I recommend submitting this directly through Adobe’s Feature Request/Feedback portal so the development team can review it. Highlighting the impact on professional workflows may help prioritize a solution in future updates.

[Stephen Marsh]

This was also noted back in 2024:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/how-to-change-image-interpolation-set...

[ExUSA]

Interpolation Method is exposed in the ExtendScript DOM. You might be able to run a script at launch which sets this as needed.

[chuck_1145]

@Sameer K Thanks so much!

[chuck_1145]

@Stephen Marsh thank you Stephen. Noted. The problem Esther, myself and others are having is that that setting does not stay in the nearest neighbor mode when opening new documents with recent Photoshop updates. We have to keep checking it to make sure it didn't default to bicubic.