Photoshop CS6 and Catalina MacOS

[Adreneline]

I know this won't affect averyone but for those running Photoshop CS6 (and I presume earlier) on a MacOS machine you might like to be aware that upgrading your OS to the latest Catalina will stop PS from working. At the time of OS upgrade you will receive an on screen notification advising you CS6 (in my case) will no longer work and asking if you wish to continue with the OS upgrade.

I was in one respect fortunate inasmuch that I spent the last few years of my employment in Education and so was able to purchase the full extended version of CS6 for Mac on an Education licence for just £160 - a bargain compared with the retail price of around £900. Neither Adobe or Apple have any intention to continue support for CS6 under the new Catalina OS; not only is there no support it won't even load or run. I for one cannot understand why this can be allowed to happen and I would be well p****d off if I had paid the full price - I am fairly p****d off having paid what I did.

At least PC's have a compatibility mode which more often than not comes to the rescue.

To add insult to injury I emailed Adobe asking if I could exchange my Mac licence for a PC licence and was advised they don't offer such a service.

Affinity looks more and more attractive - although I am still really struggling to see how I can use RGB channels in the same way as I can so readily use them in PS.

Adrian

[wornish]

What makes you want to upgrade to Catalina.  Are any of the new features of benefit?

In my case I can't see any benefits at all and have decided to stay with Mojave.

Catalina no longer supports 32 bit apps  (Purely a marketing decision) so locks out quite few  of the existing apps people may be using.

I have been a Mac user for over 15 years and its the first time I have not kept up to date with their releases.  

 

Edited November 13, 2019 by wornish

[JamesF]

A workaround might be to install (say) Mojave and PS on an external disk, then boot from that disk when you want to use PS.  It's hardly a wonderful solution, but possibly the cheapest way out.

James

[Adreneline]

5 hours ago, wornish said:

What makes you want to upgrade to Catalina.  Are any of the new features of benefit?

I don't particularly want to upgrade, although being able to use my iPad as a second screen might have it's advantages.

The point of the post is that upgrading will stop a much used and popular (for AP) application from working and I for one think that is a pretty poor deal when you've spent good money on it in the first place.

I have an iMac which is stuck on El Capitan simly because if I upgrade it all the music hardware I use (and apps like Cubase and Wavelab) will need upgrading and why should I have to spend more money on new version simply because Apple upgrade their OS without regard for third party applications and the investment people like me have made in them. A poor deal in my view, especially as I can run the same apps on my Win10 machine in compatibilty mode.

Adrian

[Adreneline]

5 hours ago, JamesF said:

A workaround might be to install (say) Mojave and PS on an external disk, then boot from that disk when you want to use PS.  It's hardly a wonderful solution, but possibly the cheapest way out.

That might well work but then best not to upgrade at all. Of course one day my MBP may pack up and if I buy a new one it will come with Catalina installed and I will not be able to install PS CS6. Furthermore an old OS on a separate disc may not be compatible with the newer hardware.

It seems to me you have been placed between and rock and hard place.

[JamesF]

It is not an ideal situation, I agree.  And of course you can no longer buy a copy of PS outright as far as I am aware -- you have to pay a subscription to use it.

The only other possibility that springs to mind is to use GIMP.

James

[Merlin66]

I use AstroArt for all my pre-processing, guiding and "tweaking" - sadly underrated - it punches well above it's weight.

http://www.msb-astroart.com/

A good alternative to PS (layers, histogram. plug ins, etc. etc.) is Corel's PaintShopPro. No subscription....

https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/

 

[PeterCPC]

Try Affinity - no subscription and free updates.

Peter