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Photoshop versions and languages compatibility

Photoshop is being updated regularly and is available in many languages. Actions and scripts that work fine in one version of Photoshop might be useless in the others – instead of running smoothly, they'll throw you errors. In some cases this is unavoidable.

For example, the Refine Edge feature from the older versions was replaced with the new Select & Mask feature. So, if you use the Select & Mask in one of your actions, you won’t be able to use it in the earlier versions, and you’ll get an error message if you try to run it because you can't run something that doesn't exist. This is inevitable but doesn’t happen often. If your action fails to run because of that, you should see which step exactly causes the error. Then you can rewrite and replace it with another command.

Or even better – you can update your Photoshop and fix the issue. As cautious as I am, and I never update Photoshop as soon as they launch a new version, but wait at least a few months for all the evident bugs to be fixed, I don't think it's reasonable to sit on a CS5 while others use CC2019. There are so many things getting better with each update that it's not reasonable to avoid new versions for years.

Unfortunately, if you use obsolete actions (written in older versions) in newer versions, updating will not work. So understanding Photoshop, its algorithms and commands makes the whole situation easier – if something is not working, you just get into it and most of the time the problem can be solved.

This is what happens when you run a script that's not supposed to work

Language compatibility is another issue. For example: when you create a layer, it usually has a name like “Layer 1” or “Layer 0”. Background, by the way, is also a name which is used when you address it in your actions. So if you work with a localized, translated version of Photoshop and try to run an action from another language Photoshop, you will most probably fail to do so due to an error message – if this action addresses layers by names, for instance. Because “Layer 1” is called something else in your version of Photoshop, and if the action tries to address it by name, it will fail to do so. This problem can be avoided if you don't address layers in your actions. Instead of that, you can use the Select Forward Layer or the Select Backward Layer commands and switch between layers with their help. But still, the problem of language compatibility might persist.

There’s a simple solution to this problem as a whole. Most professionals work with the English version of Photoshop and you should, too. There are two main reasons why: the first is that it resolves any issues with language compatibility, and the second is because of knowledge and communication in general. If you want to learn something about Photoshop and google it in your native language, you’ll be able to get but a fracture of information available worldwide. Most of it is in English. And if you try to read articles and forum threads in English, you’ll have a hard time trying to understand what all these commands and features are called in your Photoshop. So, English for Photoshop users is like Latin for doctors all across the world: the language you have to master if you want to be proficient. The reason why I made this video course in English, which is not my native language, is that I want it to be available for everyone who works in product image retouching or is learning how to do it, not just people from my country.

I always use the English version of Photoshop – at home and at work, and for this video course as well. And I hope that if you’re reading this, you also have the English version of Photoshop installed, otherwise, you’ll surely encounter all the problems I’ve mentioned.

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