Photoshop for Windows On ARM

[derok88634011]

I was hoping that we could get a build of photoshop for Windows on ARM devices (ARM64). The Surface Pro X is a great little device for graphics artitsts, but 32 bit emulation is unstable and can crash unexpectedly as well as the issue of it requiring more battery power to run. The Pro X is not the only Windows on ARM device available (though it's by far the fastest) and the industry is expected to grow.

The device has a rather powerful GPU, responsive CPU, and highly functional speed and size RAM. It's more than capable of running photoshop even in 32 bit emulation mode and development towards it would be worth the effort.

While we can use the 32 bit photoshop executable, and ARM64 one would make a world of difference. Given the target consumer of the Surface products, I think this would be a well enjoyed feature. While I certainly don't think it'd bring in millions of dollars of income, I do firmly believe it will at least pay for itself and make quite a few customers happy.

I know the Pro X has come out to a lukewarm reception from highly opinionated people (and I can't say I understand why), but fulfilling this request would cause nobody harm and could only make people happy. If it works out well, then it would open the door for other Adobe products to receive ARM64 builds.

[JJMack · Accepted solution]

Adobe has Photoshop source code we do not. Photoshop is Adobe's property not ours. If you want Adobe to do that give them your feedback their site for feedback is Photoshop Family 

[derok88634011]

What do you mean? Your english is a little hard to understand, sorry. Adobe owns the photoshop code base and these are the Adobe forume. Am I missing something?

[Ussnorway]

Adobe really only works with Apple products... their staff % that know Windows is very small

[derok88634011]

Surface is literally designed for this exact purpose. Don't be exclusionary and act like that. "Apple is the only thing that matters, why would they support somethingelse". It sounds like something a troll would say.

[Test Screen Name]

After years of being pushed to make 64 bit apps, and being told that 32 bit is obsolete forever, Microsoft launch the latest thing and tell us it won't run those 64 bit apps, but will run the old 32 bit apps we threw away. And you wonder why it's getting a bad press? When I read about this I thought someone had it wrong, but no, Microsoft really did do that. It's playing Apple's game, making new incompatible hardwarwe and hoping the industry will jump. Those with long memories will know too that Microsoft have been here before, with DEC Alpha chip support back in Windows NT 4.0; all software developers were expected to jump through hoops, and then Microsoft dropped it in Windows 2000.

[derok88634011]

64 bit emulation is avaible in the fast canary build of Windows 10, but not in the public insider preview yet. It won't be long. 32 bit emulation was a way of bridging the gap to ARM64 so that people could continue to use their old applications while waiting for ARM64 to take off. It's not hard to understand why. 64bit emulation on a RISC chip is extremely difficult.

[Tacafy大尉]

Certainly, it may be worth considering when the number of PCs using ARM architecture increases in Windows 10 in the future, but it is rare at present. For this reason, it may be considered when there is a benefit for Adobe to allocate development resources only, but it does not seem to be the case yet.

[derok88634011]

The pro X has been sold out since before it launched. It couldn't have had a better launch unless reviewers had been rational and considered why things were done the way they are. Yes, I wish it would've launched with 64 bit emulation, but it won't be much longer till that's in the public insider preview. I can be patient.

[Test Screen Name]

I'm glad to hear that 64 bit emulation is planned, but it may have been a fatal blunder to release it before this was ready. The damage done by its initial reception as a toy not suitable for serious apps (because the serious apps are 64 bit) may be irrecoverable. Such a shame.

[derok88634011]

I can't say I approve of the early release either, but the reviews have been far too harsh on this little guy. It really is a great computer and deserved better. It certainly has flaws, but I've found that about 60-70% of applications run just fine on it, even many heavy games. 

Photoshop is one of those that runs, but it doesn't understand multi-touch, which I find quite odd. I do most of my art on the Pro X now, over my dying Surface Book 2, but better compatibility would be greatly appreciated, hence the post. It can scroll, but it has issues with recognizing the GPU, which is a common issue and is likely a driver fault, as well as multi-touch rotation and zooming. You have to manually click on zoom in and zoom out.

I don't want to tell anyone off, but I didn't come here to debate the quality of the Pro X. I don't mind the occasional comment nor do I mind polite, genuine concern from people like yourself, but some people on various forums just go straight to insults and attacks. Not cool. Is it really that hard to understand that everyone on the internet (except bots) is another living, breathing person who deserves common courtesey until proven otherwise? Sigh, maybe one day.

[78 Alpha]

Well, Apple is going all arm, so thankfully they don't have a choice but to support arm. All that's left would be a port to windows or Linux.

Oh and since Apple will be making their own GPUs soon too, alive will have to learn a whole new graphics environment for acceleration.

[Tacafy大尉]

It has been solved ...
A similar proposal has already been made in the feedback forum, so I think it's more effective to agree to this post than to post.

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/photoshop-build-for-arm64-windows-on-arm