P: Support for native full-screen mode on macOS

Report · Jul 21, 2011

I must say that full screen apps is a wonderful idea. I can start in such a way some of the apple apps (safari, imail, numbers) - I like switching between them. It will be desirable to enable this option for Ligtroom & Photoshop (both CS and Elements) to behave in similar way under new Mission Control stuff...

Report · Nov 12, 2021

@defaultdq6x2tej0j3v wrote:

Adobe claims on their websites that the new Photoshop CC versions are fully compatible and able to run native on the new M1-Macbooks. I've been searching far and wide to find a way to open Photoshop CC in native full-screen mode on my MacBook-Pro like any other problem. However there doesn't seem to be anyway to do it. All "solutions" that you can find on different plattforms as well as on this one are basically just work-arrounds that don't really solve anything…Is there anyone out there who can tell me what is going on?

That’s just the way it is, at least for now. Several Adobe applications that are more than 20 years old (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and others) implemented their own full screen modes before macOS added it, and those applications kept using their own way because users were used to it. There is no way to get macOS native full screen mode in the current versions of those applications. It may come if Adobe decides to modernize the windowing systems of those applications.

(Some Adobe applications such as Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Substance 3D Designer do support native macOS full screen mode, because they are newer.)

In Photoshop, you have probably found that clicking the green window button maximizes the window, but does not go full screen. To go full screen, you can use only the traditional Photoshop full screen mode commands on the View > Screen Mode submenu (or press their shortcuts, F or Shift+F).

Report · Nov 12, 2021

Apple built an API to implement this into existing code a long, long, long time ago. Adobe just refuses to write the few lines of code in. It baffles me that after making other apps in their collection support macOS full screen, a decade later they still don't have it on most of their super popular apps.

Adobe, you HAVE to know the benefits here after putting it into Lightroom. When you make an app macOS native full screen, the app as a whole gains its own dedicated space. Uncompromised, no gaps or distractions, nothing but that app. When you use Photoshop's full screen or even people's workaround of making a new desktop and putting Photoshop there as a separate space, you're still tied to the desktop and Finder. Anything involving non full screen apps, Finder stuff like Quick Look windows, Photoshop's own toolbars, everything overlaps and clashes easily because no matter how stubbornly you say your full screen mode is the same or better, it's just a mostly full window floating on top of the desktop and still attached to everything else from the Finder. What if also I wanted to use Photoshop split app with another app, like a 70-30 split so I can look up references on the side? Can't do that either, unless I want to break another app's full screen separation benefits from the desktop.

Give it macOS native full screen Adobe, just please do it already after 10 years. It's absurd at this point. There's a good reason why Mac users have been consistently begging for it over the decade. You just clinging to your own full window option without giving users a choice between either is just user hostile and ridiculous.

Report · Nov 12, 2021

Go ahead, sort the ideas page by both "Most Votes" and "Most Replies", and this thread is on the first page for both. It's highly requested, has gone through countless threads begging with developers to implement it for years, only to be promised it'll be considered and abandoned over and over again. This is one of the easiest BIG beneficial changes you can quickly put into the next update.

Report · Nov 13, 2021

For now, I'm going to switch over to Pixelmator Pro to get my work done in native full screen mode. I don't get weird distracting window gaps showing my bright wallpaper underneath, I can open other small utility apps in windowed mode on my desktop without having to restack their order constantly, and I automatically get a native full screen mode without the toolbars flickering in and out every time I switch between spaces.

At the end of the day though, Photoshop is the most feature rich software. I know switching away from it for now just for something that seems so miniscule like native full screen support seems foolish, but I'm putting my foot down after kicking and screaming with the community for 10 years for the feature. After that long, these easily fixable annoyances shouldn't be here. It's one thing if these were bugs and Adobe needed time to patch them because they're user specific, but this is a universal problem that has an immediate solution provided via Apple API 10 years ago, and it continues to be a problem simply because Adobe is too stubborn to just add it and give users the choice.

Maybe some users do prefer your built in full screen mode Adobe, that's fine. But add the native macOS option, and users can have the choice. They can continue to use the built in Photoshop full screen, or they can click the green full screen bubble to get the native macOS version with all of its benefits.

Inform me when this feature is finally implemented. Until then, goodbye Creative Cloud. I've tried for so many years and I have to put my foot down, or this will never happen.

Report · Nov 16, 2021

Sadly I have been posting about this on that thread for 10 years now, and I'm honestly not expecting anything. They said on multiple occasions that they'd "consider it heavily" and "review it" and "consult with the team" over the decade and it just went completely silent. Unless we put some drastic pressure on them, they probably don't care enough to do it, citing superiority of their own full screen mode (which has multiple problems over the native macOS one). I posted this in the other thread, but I'm going to Pixelmator Pro and won't return to Photoshop until they act on their words and finally implement this. I'm not putting up with another decade of this app being the only one in my entire workflow that doesn't have native full screen.

Report · Nov 16, 2021

This is one of the many major issues that plagues Photoshop's full screen mode. I deal with this all the time and it sucks. This could very easily be fixed by adding native macOS full screen from 10 years ago, but after a decade of people complaining and asking for it, they refuse to do it. Well you can see firsthand the problems with their stubbornness. The window jumps around when you return to it, toolbars flash in and out, sometimes it won't even go into or exit full screen mode and you just have to force quit the app entirely.

They can fix this so easily by adding macOS native full screen functionality, but they just won't. It makes using Photoshop so annoying.

Report · Nov 28, 2021

Sadly, the absolute lack of replies from any Adobe employees on this just doesn't give this simple feature any hope. They've stubbornly decided not to add it ever, and have stopped even communicating that directly to us. What's the point of putting the idea under review for this many years if you won't make a decision on it?

At least give us proper closure so those of us who want to fully move to a more modern editing application can stop kindering hope for this 10 year old feature. Are employees even looking at this?

Report · Nov 28, 2021

For perspective (as someone who has followed this thread from nearly the beginning), look at this timeline and how Adobe continues to treat this highly requested feature. This is why I, at the least, continue to pester them about this a decade later.

July 2011: The thread is created.

March 2012: The first reply from an Adobe employee. At the time, the green button was a default + maximize button, and full screen apps were just ahead of the curve for adding the feature. Reason given at the time was that Apple's full screen mode was new and underbaked, causing conflicting issues with Photoshop. However, the team was supposedly really excited about the feature once it matured.

April 2012: Another Adobe employee (likely gone because their username is template now) starts hopping in, quite harshly antagonizing customers, calling their opinions "hyperbole", and absolutely refusing to work with any of the many different suggestions provided. Customers willing to compromise and work towards a solution were also antagonized.

June 2014: Apple reveals OS X Yosemite, making the green + button a native full screen option by default for the first time. At their developer's conference, they also made beta builds and workshops/documentation for the kit available to developers.

January 2015: The first sign of an Adobe employee posting since 2012. Customers beg Adobe to review the feature now that it has evolved and become a default option in the OS. They are antagonized yet again, incorrectly saying "no, nothing has changed."

July 2015: Adobe employee steps in and posts "the team is revisiting this".

August 2016: New Adobe employee posts "this is now supported in Lightroom". But not Photoshop. Customers are hopeful that since Adobe found it beneficial to add to Lightroom, they may add it to Photoshop. Adobe employee states again "it's on our radar".

And that is the last time this thread has seen any reply from an Adobe employee. Nearly 10 years of being strung along for "under review" waits that lead nowhere, being antagonized by certain employees, and them slipping into the shadows and leaving everyone in the dark until current day forward.

I seriously urge anyone and everyone who is baffled this is still not in Photoshop at the end of 2021, please make it known here with actual comments. Keep the thread alive, keep the pressure on Adobe, and don't just take them at face value that they're looking into it. Upvotes and occasional check-ins will clearly not do anything with them. We need to convince Adobe that the Mac community is large enough and values this fundamentally base OS feature enough that they have to take it seriously. All those extra tiny one comment threads about this are just getting merged into this one and lost. Let them know by posting in this one, for it is the original with the longest standing and the most conversation/history.

Report · Dec 05, 2021

I cannot stand the Windows-shell-standard-screen mode. Please give us back the open Mac interface without the [cursing removed by moderator] shell. Jeez.

Report · Dec 05, 2021

@GFred22 wrote:

I cannot stand the Windows-shell-standard-screen mode. Please give us back the open Mac interface without the damn shell. Jeez.

Windows shell? Do mean the Application Frame, where the application windows and panels are contained inside a parent window?

If that’s what you’re talking about, it’s hard to see how that is un-Mac-like…since it is exactly how Apple presents Mac applications like Final Cut Pro, Motion, Logic Pro, GarageBand, Photos, Keynote, Pages, iMovie…they are all contained in the same kind of single parent window with a solid background. It is now an essential feature of the Mac UI.

I know what you’re talking about, all the separate free-floating windows, the Mac interface…of the previous century. But Apple has moved on and now uses the application frame by default.

The ironic thing about this is that it is not Apple that will get you the Mac interface you want, because you can’t turn off the application frame in Mac applications made by Apple…but Adobe Photoshop does give you that option.

Report · Dec 07, 2021

The same bug

Report · Dec 14, 2021

Newer issue is that macOS changed to rounded window edges, so even if you fill to fit, the top edges just bleed your wallpaper through. Again, it also has to share desktop priority with every other non macOS native full screen app.

It doesn't matter how many times this experience gets exponentially worse with each passing macOS change, Adobe doesn't care at all. Use our [cursing removed by moderator] outdated method, or don't use the software at all. Could easily implement an option to choose between what they think is better and the native option in macOS so everyone is happy, but they just don't care.

Report · Dec 20, 2021

Same bug, please fix!!!

Report · Jan 13, 2022

I was very surprised to learn that Photoshop (the Mac app) can't go "full screen" on macOS. What?? Please support this basic app feature (including for Adobe's other apps, too). Thank you

Report · Jan 17, 2022

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-ideas/p-support-for-native-full-screen-mode-on-ma...
We've been trying to get them to do this for over 10 years now in this thread, it just really seems like they're not interested in what people want on this.

All I can suggest is to add your upvote to this much larger thread, and add your comments to it as well so it stays relevant and persistent on the developers' backs. I agree, this is the one thing about Photoshop that I detest every single waking day, and I can only hope enough pestering from enough people will finally get them to cave on it.

Report · Jan 23, 2022

I understand the application is robust and needs to behave as expected for a variety of users but from my perspective support for native fullscreen is essential for any macOS application. I find Adobe's implementation of fullscreen extremely frusterating especially on M1 MBPs where the desktop is visible along the top of the screen on either side of the notch.

From what I can deduce based on prior comments, it seems like the codebase is likely pretty old around fullscreen and adding any support for native fullscreen would throw a wrench into multi-monitor fullscreen that (a significant number of?) users depend on for regular application usage. It also seems like a proper rewrite could solve the problem but it would be a massive investment of dev / QA time in order to have this feature added in and tested thoroughly for regressions. It seems that the amount of work necessary to implement this is likely greater than the benefit it will have for the amount of users who request it, but regardless I'm adding my vouch for this feature. From my perspective, I'd rather have a half baked feature with a beta warning label next to it than no feature at all.

Report · Jan 24, 2022

Honestly, I get this perspective, I really do. But out of everything Adobe makes, Photoshop is very likely their most popular software, and even after going through a restructuring for Apple silicon, they still refuse to put this in. However, they'll completely do whatever it took to update Lightroom (amongst a few other apps) with full screen capabilities. Not only does this completely fragment their apps and make Photoshop feel outdated, but the longer they refuse to restructure with the times, the further away Photoshop stays from newer features that Apple releases.

Switching spaces in Photoshop's built in full screen mode causes all of my toolbars and windows to flicker when returning to Photoshop every time, and if I'm using windowed mode, often I return and a top percentage of the screen has floated off screen, making it really annoying to try and find a way to resize it again. Native macOS full screen would resolve any of the constant bugs regarding full screen.

As previously mentioned, they just don't seem to care anymore, they want this topic to slip away into obscurity and for everyone to just give up on it. Look at how for the absolute longest time now, not a single member of staff has replied in this thread, they just stuck an "under review" tag on it many years ago and went completely dark. Even the last few posts were merged by a staff member from a newly made topic, so staff definitely is still looking at this, but they're just not talking.

Report · Jan 30, 2022

It's not a bug, Adobe has not coded it into the app and refuses to listen to its customers who want it.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-ideas/p-support-for-native-full-screen-mode-on-ma...

This is the thread requesting it that was created over 10 years ago, and back then Adobe kinda interacted with the members (albeit with some strong snobbery and ghosting). Now, they've stopped responding altogether.

Please, go to that thread, post your necessity for this option, upvote the thread, and keep the thread alive and thrive. The more people chime in and keep the thread relative, the more it appears on the top page and the more Adobe has to see it there. Only way we can ever get this is to pester them into adding this.

Report · Mar 16, 2022

was this fixed? the given answer is not correct..

Report · Mar 17, 2022

Ok, that's off-topic and has nothing to do with a five-year-old thread.

Report · Mar 17, 2022

No, and I think it never will be. Even though this would be one of the simplest problems to fix and would make thousands of Mac-users happy.

Report · Mar 17, 2022

You can go fullscreen with the F key or by switching to a separate Space.

Report · Mar 17, 2022

Photoshop users for 10+ years: "Please just give us a toggle for native full screen"
Adobe: "Best I can do is breaking your Save As dialog so you lose your work"

Report · Mar 18, 2022

sad but true 😞

Report · Mar 22, 2022

Hi, Photoshop has one of the largest codebases out there, and I'm wondering if there is a huge amount of "underground" work that needs to be done to get it working> I also wonder if all the functions could make it unscathed (fullscreen mode, fullscreen with toolbar, etc.) and therefore, if more customers would complaint of the change...

P: Support for native full-screen mode on macOS

2 Correct answers