Adobe Photoshop — Mac download

If you use Lightroom for exposure and colour, you will recognise the logic in Photoshop 27.10. The new Light adjustment layer brings non-destructive exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows controls into a single panel.

What changed for AI-assisted editing

Markup lets you place visual annotations to guide generative AI. Combined with Prompt to Edit, it gives you more control over where and how AI fills or replaces content.

What the Light adjustment layer adds

It sits above your image layers and adjusts lighting without baking in changes. You can tweak it, mask it or remove it at any point in your workflow.

One-click selections, neural filters and custom brushes carry forward

One-click selections, automatic masking and neural filters remain core. You still control which file formats appear in Save As dialogs, and the brush library—custom brushes included—is unchanged.

Apple Silicon support requires macOS 14 and Rosetta pre-installed

Does it run on Apple Silicon? Yes. Version 27.10 includes native ARM support alongside 64-bit x86. macOS 14 or later is required.

What about Rosetta? If Rosetta isn't already on your Mac, install it first. The installer package will remind you, and the instructions cover this step.

Is Generative Fill missing? It is unavailable in this build. You still get Prompt to Edit, Markup, and the AI Assisted editor in beta — just not cloud-based Generative Fill.

Do neural filters work out of the box? You may need to extract the Neural Filters Pack manually to the Adobe UXP plugins folder. The install steps tell you exactly where.

Can I block the Adobe Genuine pop-up? A blocking utility is included. Add it to your startup items and the window will stop appearing.

Designers who need AI tools without the cloud dependency

• Designers who need AI tools without the cloud dependency
• Photographers moving from Lightroom who want non-destructive lighting
• Teams that prefer checklist-driven installs with clear steps

Workflows that rely heavily on Generative Fill or older macOS versions

• Workflows that rely heavily on Generative Fill
• Older macOS versions — Ventura and below are not supported

Customise Save As formats and five other setup steps before your first project

You have installed Photoshop 27.10. Now do these six things before opening your first project.

1. Set your preferred Save As formats. Photoshop lets you customise which file formats appear in the Save As and Save a Copy dialogs. Trim the list to the three or four you actually use.
2. Extract the Neural Filters Pack. If you skipped this during install, do it now. Without it, several neural filters will appear greyed out.
3. Add the blocking utility to startup. System Settings > General > Login Items. Drag it in. One less interruption later.
4. Pin the Light adjustment layer icon. You will use it constantly. Right-click the adjustment panel and pin it to the top.
5. Open the AI Assisted editor once. Even if you do not use it today, let it initialise. The beta panel needs a first-run handshake.
6. Test Markup on a blank canvas. Scribble a rough annotation, apply Prompt to Edit with a simple instruction like "make this blue". You will understand the gesture logic faster than reading about it.

Shift-click markup annotations to edit text directly, no panel needed

These are easy to miss because they are not in the splash-screen highlights.

• Shift + click on a Markup annotation to edit its text directly. No need to open the panel.
• Light adjustment layer masks accept gradients. Paint a gradient on the mask to fade lighting changes across an image — useful for product shots where one side needs more contrast.
• Prompt to Edit respects selections. If you make a marquee selection before typing your prompt, the AI only works inside it. Faster than cleaning up edges afterwards.
• Custom brush folders. Photoshop stores them in a folder you can back up separately. If you collaborate with someone who also uses 27.10, you can share the whole folder.
• Dynamic Text on paths is not just for type. You can use it to place vector shapes along a curve, then convert them to guides for masking.

A workflow: product shot retouch with non-destructive lighting

Here is a real task, start to finish, using the tools in 27.10.

The job: A watch photographed on a white background needs the metal band brightened, the face contrast increased, and a subtle shadow added underneath. The client wants three variants of the lighting — flat, contrasty and warm — all from one master file.

1. Open the raw file. Do your base corrections in Camera Raw. Keep it neutral — no heavy contrast yet.
2. Duplicate the background layer twice. Label them "Base", "Retouch" and "Reference". Lock "Reference" and keep it visible at the bottom.
3. Select the metal band. Use the one-click selection tool. Photoshop 27.10 handles the edges well against white. Feather by 0.5 px.
4. Add a Light adjustment layer. With the band selection active, click the Light adjustment icon. The mask auto-fills from your selection. Increase exposure by +0.4 and contrast by +15.
5. Repeat for the watch face. New selection, new Light adjustment layer. This time, push highlights to +25 and leave exposure untouched. Name the layer "Face pop".
6. Add the shadow. Create a new layer below the watch. Use a soft black brush at 20% opacity. Paint a crescent shape under the watch body. Gaussian blur at 12 px. Reduce layer opacity to 60%.
7. Create the three variants. Group the two Light adjustment layers into a folder. Duplicate the folder twice. Label them "Flat", "Contrasty", "Warm". In "Flat", zero out both adjustment layers. In "Contrasty", push contrast on both to +40. In "Warm", add a Photo Filter adjustment layer above and set it to Warming Filter (85) at 25%.
8. Export. Use Save a Copy for each variant. Your custom format list shows only the three formats you need — no scrolling through twenty options.

One file. Three deliverables. All lighting changes are reversible because nothing was baked into the pixels. If the client asks to adjust the shadow opacity next week, you change one slider and re-export.

Version 27.11 rolls in the newest internal adjustments and a light layer of performance polishing across the workspace.

• macOS 14 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel 64-bit