Adobe Photoshop CC – Important Features for UI Design

Adobe Photoshop which has been the go-to tool for designers worldwide for more than a decade started supporting User Interface design in recent version. Adobe Photoshop CC has come out with many features with which one can create UI both for the web and mobile apps. It also supports HTML5 and open source. Now let us look at some of the tools and features in Photoshop CC which assists in UI design.

Artboards

Artboards are especially useful for designing mobile apps and responsive design. You can design for multiple screen sizes and see the preview at the same time for all devices in a single document. You can have multiple design layouts in one document using artboards. To create a new artboard, just create a new document control+N -> then select the document type as artboard. You can select any one of the many preset device sizes. You can alter a number of artboard properties. Just select the particular artboard in the layers panel and click on properties.

You can also manually resize the artboard using the drag and scale. Consider you have designed the artboard for an iPhone, you can easily replicate the same for an iPad. Just duplicate the artboard layer and select properties and change size.

Library

Now you can store your frequently used layers in Photoshop libraries and access them easily both locally and also in the cloud. CC Libraries is a web service that allows you to access your assets anytime anywhere. You can also use your assets stored in the library in Illustrator. You can also store other aspects like layer groups, text styles, layer styles and colors. You can also view these libraries on a web browser instead of opening in photoshop. To do this, just click on the fly-out menu in the library and select “View on Website”.

Generate Assets

Now you can save each and every layer in your photoshop as a separate image asset. All you have to do is to append your layer name with an appropriate image extension. Currently, supported extensions are .PNG, .JPEG, .SVG and .GIF. You also have the facility to mention the image quality and size for the newly generated assets. Generating image assets is particularly useful for Mobile Apps. To generate assets, just click

File->Generate->Image Assets

Then append the extensions to the layers or layer groups. The newly generated assets are stored in a subfolder along with the source PSD file. If the source PSD file is yet to be saved, assets are saved in a new folder on your desktop.

Touch Bar Support

If you are MacBook Pro user then you are aware of the new cool Touch Bar. Adobe Photoshop now supports multi-touch display bar in MacBook Pro. You can access any one of the below 3 things in the touch bar for photoshop.

Layer Properties: This is the default option and it allows you to modify layer properties easily.
Brushes: You can work with the brush and paint properties of Photoshop
Favorites: You can customize this area and add your favorite tool.
You can access any one of the top 3 mentioned modes in touch bar. Each mode supports various inner level functionalities too. It also provides other context-sensitive operation based on what you are currently doing and which tool you are using.