I went to the Adobe Max 2024 conference in hopes of learning about some amazing new features of Adobe products coming out soon — instead, here are the 8 mind-blowing features I learned about within Photoshop, and I was stunned to hear that they’ve all actually been there the whole time. Despite Photoshop's longevity as a top editing program, I was surprised to learn about these features. None of these features even include AI, so if you prefer a more traditional Photoshop workflow, these tips are for you.

8 The “Ps” button opens documents more quickly

Work smarter and faster, not harder

Usually, when I open a Photoshop document, I fiddle around in the menus, setting document sizes, color profiles, or other variations of settings. Had I known that clicking the Photoshop logo — the blue “Ps” in the top left corner of the home screen — would open my documents without all the fuss, I could’ve saved myself countless hours of time over the years.

While you still need to create the document size, you might just want to drag and open an existing document in Photoshop. By pressing the Ps button, you can open the app without needing to open a file in the same motion.

7 Set a background color adjustment rather than color layer

Provides speedier, more efficient results

Typically, to set a background in Photoshop, I might draw a colored rectangle or just use the Fill Tool set to my ideal color. This adds pixels to my document, making it heavier and ever-so-slightly slower to function.

Instead, to set a background, you should use the background tool found within the Layers panel. Select the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon (which looks like a half circle) at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Solid Color.

From there, pick your ideal background color, and it will appear. But it’s actually only set as a layer mask which is non-destructive and easy to edit without affecting pixels.

6 Customize your toolbar

Default settings aren’t always best for you

Admittedly, I did know this top tip — I just didn’t realize how useful it could be to put it into practice. Your Photoshop workflow (and other Adobe software, for that matter) should cater to your requirements. Keeping default tools and toolbars on display makes your workflow less streamlined and even slower in some cases.

If you don’t use certain tools, you can hide them away. You can also remove any symbols, brushes, pattern swatches, and other Adobe-provided elements that simply just take up space. Let your machine run more efficiently.

Go to Window > Workspace to customize the toolbars you see. You can also go to Edit > Toolbar to customize the tools that appear by default on your tool panel. Anything in the Extra Tools panel can be found by selecting the ... icon in the toolbar — they're still there, just hidden away for ease.

5 Add a banana icon (or mocha coffee cups)

Who says your workspace can't be fun?

You may have seen this little golden icon on the Photoshop panels of various creators and educators. If you're wondering whether the banana icon serves a function, then the answer is no (except, yes, that function is fun). But why not add something a little different to your interface, if it brings a smile to your day?

To add a banana icon to your toolbar, go to Edit > Toolbar. With the popup window open, hold down your Shift key while selecting the Done button in the popup — the popup will clear and your banana will appear. It’s just a cute banana (but it does visually replace the Artboard icon, which appears when selected).

Thirsty too? If you want coffee to go with your light snack, go to Settings or Preferences > Interface. For Mac users, hit Ctrl + Option + Cmd + Shift — basically all the keys you can hold at one time — while selecting one of the Color Theme swatches and enjoy your choice of coffee color themes.

There are other Easter eggs too, such as the Layer Monkey and Toast — but I'll leave those for you to figure out on your own time.

4 Remove layer bounds for better layer visualization

See the artwork within the layer, not the layer surrounding the artwork

Oftentimes, having a piece of art within a layer means your layer panel looks like an open sea with floating bits of trash — good trash, artistic trash — in various view points. There's too much space around each element, with the thumbnails showing the entire artboard with the included element, rather than focusing only on the element in that layer.

You can tidy up your layers panel, so that each layer's thumbnail shows only the artwork on the layer rather than the layer with a tiny piece of floating artwork in the corner.

Go to the Layers hamburger menu > Panel Options > Thumbnail Contents > Layer Bounds to reveal the layer contents in the thumbnail without the negative space surrounding it. This helps with viewing your layers to see which artwork is on which layer much more quickly and efficiently.

3 Optimize your layer views with the Eye icon

The Eye icon works in reverse for visualizing layers

Usually, if I need to see a layer by itself, I spend time going up and down the layers panel, turning the visibility off with each layer’s Eye icon. While it isn’t a tedious task, it can take some time when working on multiple layers.

Little did I know, you can switch all layers' visibility off in the opposite way as switching one layer’s visibility on. Holding down Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) while selecting the Eye icon of any layer will switch off visibility for all other layers, leaving only your selected layer visible. It really is that simple.

2 Zoom in to singular layer elements with a click

Save time zooming to your elements

I hate to admit it, but I really have been zooming in one click or one outward-pinch at a time all these years — a slow process when you need to zoom to a specific element, especially if you can't find it within the chaotic artboard.

As I recently learned, you can zoom directly to a layer’s element in one singular click. This saves so much time zooming around and scrolling to find the element among the mass of other artistic elements in your design.

Mac users can hold down Option while selecting a layer and Windows users can hold down Alt while selecting their specific layer. Your artboard will zoom directly into the selected layer’s main element, filling your screen. This helps so much with speed and efficiency. How did it take me over a decade to learn this?

1 Use Layer Comps to save your sanity

Share variations with ease

Having been a Photoshop user for around half of my lifetime, I've spent many of those years seeing "Layer Comps" somewhere within the menus and totally ignoring them. The label never appeared obvious to me, and if I couldn't figure out the tool's purpose from its name, then I brushed it off as a tool that probably wasn't worth using.

During the Adobe Max 2024 conference, Paul Trani — Adobe Principal Evangelist — taught a room of around 100 people about Layer Comps, and the silent shock followed by nervous giggles showed that I wasn't the only person in that room learning this for the first time. We are experts in our field, until someone shows us a tool that's been around since around 2005 that we've never touched.

Layer Comps allow you to create variations of similar designs for easy sharing with clients or shareholders. You do not have to recreate your artboard and save multiple versions of the same file. You can just create a new Layer Comp to export, leaving your original file intact. You can toggle between views for easy exporting, sharing, viewing, and editing.

Layer Comps are great for creating color variations of the same design, alternative branding options in a similar layout, or language variations in a design for global audiences. Choose to save with unique aspects such as placement, visibility, appearance, and smart object inclusion. You can even create scripts to save renamed versions of each comp, for further efficiency.

Photoshop remains future proofed

So many new Adobe and Photoshop features are focused on AI tools, and while they have their uses, it is refreshing to know there's still so much to learn and gain from Photoshop's traditional features. As the saying goes, every day is a learning day. Whether you're learning tips and tricks for more efficient workflows or brand new features that can transform your entire editing game, these amazing features in Photoshop could be more useful than you'd imagine. Never feel like you've learned all you can when it comes to editing software. There's always more you don't know hiding within those deep, dark menus.