I followed the "About" trail for PS 2018 from the program to the About concerning the artwork/artists.
Apparently, this artist also provided the splash screen for the 2015 InDesign app.
My guess is that Adobe may have paid for this artwork and as a consequence would be reluctant or perhaps even contractually restricted from either removing it or allowing customers to remove it.
That would be a shame. While the InDesign splash screen seems appropriate and non-controversial to me, the artwork for Photoshop 2018 is anything BUT non-controversial.
The subject seems to have been the victim of some type of tragic event or crisis. To me, the eyes are pleading for help -- which may be the artists' goal given the samples on the page for the artists.
Wouldn't most companies want non-controversial splash screens rather than something that is polarizing? Although the art may be, to some, an excellent piece of art (obviously not to others given the comments in this thread) I just don't think that it is appropriate to the usage as a splash screen.
You blew it, Adobe. Admit your mistake, pay off the artist's commission, and allow for the elimination and/or replacement of this art for your splash screen.
Great, Gaz, thank you! This splash don't bothers me but Photoshop starts then faster. Small addition for those who are unfamiliar with params for exe file - on windows, if we have link to file at desktop - open properties of link to Photoshop and add as Gaz sad -NoSplash to the path. If you have Win10 and link to Photoshop is pinned to task bar - unpin it, start Photoshop from the link at desktop with param, and then pin it to the task bar.
I am using the latest version of Windows 10 (Version 1709). I have a link to Photoshop pinned to my taskbar. I did not have to unpin it to get this addition to work. I simply modified the properties of the photoshop link that was on the taskbar.
There is an interesting side benefit to disabling the splash screen: Photoshop no longer forces its way to the front but instead will load in the background like every well-behaved app should load.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Lightroom. The no splash switch seems to work in Lightroom as well, but it still forces its way to the front and refuses to load in the background.
Lightroom has a setting in Preferences > General to toggle "show splashscreen during startup" which does the job nicely.
As for Photoshop not showing anything at all during the load... I prefer a program to show something as it is loading, as LR does even without the splash screen, so that I can see I activated the program. Having Photoshop show nothing during the load is kind of weird as I have to wait many seconds before I know whether or not my click worked.
I'd prefer the ability to simply choose another image or the standard icon, but Many Thanks, Gaz, for this shortcut solution. NoSplash is better than the nightmare.
Aghh. Spoke too soon. If I start Photoshop from Lightroom, LR of course does not seek out the shortcut with the NoSplash option so I get the ugly splash image. I will have to remember to start Photoshop from the link before calling it from Lightroom.
Please, Adobe, give Photoshop a simple NoSplash toggle.
Please disable or permit us to disable the terrible splash screen art on startup. I thought the last several "clip-art ads" were awful. The new 2018 "ad art" is intolerable! I detest being forced to view this every time I start a Photoshop session!
You have shipped Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 with a surprisingly unattractive splash screen image. Perhaps your criteria need to be revised. I can understand if you want an image which shows off a number of attractive features of Photoshop, but the image itself should not be ghastly. Surely an accomplished organization like yours can do better. I'd be happy to provide one of my own images if you like www.kennethmorrislee.com. Thanks for listening !
Why am I being forced to look at splash screens that are totally not to my liking? You'd think Adobe would have realized that the designers who use their products are opinionated about how things look... I have no desire to deface the splash screen, but I wish I could at least put something in there that's tasteful.
Feedback : Displaying a custom user made splash screen for all the Adobe CC 2015 applications is not giving me a professional image of Adobe. The user should be able to decide if they want to see this splash sreen on the loading of the application. Sorry but everybody doesn't like the pictures you picked.
Kenneth, Since you are publicly critiquing someone else's work, I hope you won't mind an observation of your own work.
In my opinion, you could learn a thing or two from the graphic designer Janusz Jurek and photographer Elizaveta Porodina, both of which have very well rounded portfolios.
I should have been courteous. I should have qualified my remarks (as you did) with "in my opinion". I forgot that art is a matter of personal taste. Fortunately we are all different.
Given another chance, I would have simply asked that there be a way to either override the splash screen with an image of our own choice, or disable it altogether.
This is not a convenient solution but if you launch the application from the MacOS Terminal, you can specify a startup argument of --hide. This will launch the application without the splash screen and the application will remain minimized on the Dock. It comes up pretty fast this way. To do this, you have to first navigate to the Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2018/ directory, or the corresponding directory on your computer.
I also object to the advertising component in all of this. Next to each splash screen illustration, is a link to each artist's work, which can usually be purchased as "Stock" clip-art through Adobe's CC App. I get enough unwanted advertising shoved at me already. I pay for all of it one way or another, but I don't believe that this incessant marketing of spam every time I use a product I've already paid for, is fair.
I also notice that some who disagree, characterize us as having nothing "more important to do." Good for them that they are so busy, they can't take the time to point this out.
I don't mind the link to the artist's work. I'm happy to read the name, happy they got the exposure, and perhaps would like to follow the artist. That said, if someone from Adobe wanted to spend a lunch hour designing the splash screen so the image was a component we could swap out, that would be fun. Art is, after all, very subjective, and my taste doesn't always thrill to someone else's choice.
But I wouldn't consider this important enough to take away from the needs of the rest of the app. More a "for fun JDI" if someone at Adobe feels like it—perhaps bored on a Friday night. '-}
As for the marketing angle—this one doesn't bother me, but the CC App always opening to Stock does. I like access to Stock in my CC Libraries, not in the CC App. I expect that complaint is falling on deaf ears, though, if it's proving at all profitable to keep it the default opening screen.