Adobe has brought its flagship image editor into the native language of Apple's new chips, releasing a version of Photoshop built for the M1 that no longer needs to be translated on the fly. It is a quiet moment of maturation: a long-standing tool adapting its bones to a new foundation, with its speed gains confirmed by outside testers and its unfinished corners openly acknowledged. Like many transitions in software, it asks professionals to hold two worlds at once, trusting the new while keeping the old within reach until the gaps close.
Adobe Photoshop Goes Native on Apple Silicon, Trading Rosetta 2 for Speed Gains of Up to 1.5x
The M1 only lagged behind in the GPU test.
Mark
So what actually changed here? Photoshop already ran on M1 Macs.
Mimi
It did, through Rosetta 2, which translates Intel code. Now Adobe has a native build, and after four months of bug fixing on the beta it says the app is stable enough for real work.
Mark
And the speed claim is 1.5 times faster?
Mimi
Adobe says most features run about 1.5 times faster than on a previous-generation Intel Mac. That covers filters, Select Subject, Content-Aware Fill, even opening and saving files.
Luke
Careful, though. That 1.5x is Adobe's own internal testing. It's a company figure, and it says most features, not all.
Mimi
Fair, but PetaPixel independently confirmed the results. The M1 did especially well in the PugetBench 0.8 Photo Merge test.
Luke
Against an Intel MacBook Pro 13 and a Dell XPS 17 with an RTX 2060 Max-Q. And it lagged in the GPU test, so it isn't a clean sweep. We also don't know from this reporting how large PetaPixel's gains were.
Mark
What's missing from the native version?
Mimi
Preset Syncing, Invite to Edit Cloud Documents, Shake Reduction, embedded video layers and .u3d files. Adobe says they're coming and suggests Rosetta 2 for anyone who needs them.
Luke
No dates, though. Adobe says the near future, and that's all we have. Versions older than Photoshop 2020 won't be ported at all.
Mark
And the iPad update?
Mimi
Cloud document version history, with versions kept up to 60 days, and offline work on cloud files. You can bookmark versions so they don't expire.
El Pulso
- Mac users on M1 machines have been forced to run Photoshop through Rosetta 2 translation, and that workaround is now being set aside.
- Adobe claims most features run about 1.5 times faster, and independent PetaPixel tests largely backed the claim, though the GPU test fell behind.
- Preset Syncing, Shake Reduction, Invite to Edit Cloud Documents, and embedded video layers remain unported, leaving professionals split between two modes of working.
- Pre-2020 versions of Photoshop will never be ported, so older software is being left behind on the old architecture.
- Adobe promises the missing features are coming soon, and the workflow is landing in a hybrid state until then.
Adobe has brought its flagship image editor into the native language of Apple's new chips, releasing a version of Photoshop built for the M1 that no longer needs to be translated on the fly. It is a quiet moment of maturation: a long-standing tool adapting its bones to a new foundation, with its speed gains confirmed by outside testers and its unfinished corners openly acknowledged. Like many transitions in software, it asks professionals to hold two worlds at once, trusting the new while keeping the old within reach until the gaps close.
Adobe has released its first Photoshop built natively for Apple Silicon, ending the period when M1 Mac users had to run the program through Apple's Rosetta 2 translation layer on Big Sur.
The path here started last year with a quiet beta for Arm-based Windows and macOS machines. Users eager to drop emulation pushed for it, and Adobe spent four months fixing bugs, responding to feedback, and tuning the software for Apple's M1 chip. The company now considers it stable enough for serious work.
Adobe's internal figures show most features running about 1.5 times faster than on a previous-generation Intel Mac, with filters, Select Subject, Content-Aware Fill, and everyday file handling all improving. PetaPixel's independent testing largely confirmed those gains against an Intel MacBook Pro and a Dell XPS 17, with the M1 excelling in Photo Merge and trailing only on the GPU test.
The release is not yet complete. Preset Syncing, Invite to Edit Cloud Documents, the Shake Reduction filter, and support for embedded video layers and .u3d files still await native ports. Adobe says they are coming, and in the meantime users who depend on them should return to Rosetta 2. Versions before Photoshop 2020 will not be ported at all.
On the same day, Photoshop for iPad gained cloud document version history, keeping versions for up to 60 days and allowing bookmarks to preserve important ones, along with offline work on cloud files.
Adobe has made its first version of Photoshop built natively for Apple Silicon official, ending a stretch in which Mac users with M1 machines had to rely on Apple's Rosetta 2 translation layer in Big Sur to run the program.
The road here began last year, when Adobe quietly released a beta of Photoshop for Arm-based Windows and macOS machines. The beta drew interest from people hoping to stop running the app through emulation or translation. Adobe then spent four months chasing bugs, working through user feedback, and optimizing for Apple's M1 system-on-a-chip. The company now says the software is stable enough for real work.
The headline claim is speed. According to Adobe's internal testing, most features run about 1.5 times faster on Apple Silicon than on a previous-generation Intel-based Mac. The company lists filters, Select Subject, and Content-Aware Fill among the operations that improved, along with ordinary tasks such as opening and saving files.
The figure is not Adobe's alone. PetaPixel independently confirmed the performance results. Its testing pitted the M1 against an Intel MacBook Pro 13 and a Dell XPS 17 fitted with an RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU. The M1 did particularly well in the PugetBench 0.8 Photo Merge test, and it fell behind only in the GPU test.
The release is not complete. Adobe acknowledges room for improvement and says several features have not yet been ported to run on the M1 chip: Preset Syncing, Invite to Edit Cloud Documents, the Shake Reduction filter, and support for embedded video layers and .u3d files. Adobe says the missing features are coming in the near future. For anyone whose workflow depends on one of them, the company recommends switching back to Rosetta 2 for now.
Older software is a separate matter. Legacy versions of Photoshop prior to Photoshop 2020 will not be ported to Apple Silicon.
Adobe also updated Photoshop for iPad on the same day, adding two features. One is cloud document version history, and the other is the ability to work on cloud files while offline. Every document saved to the cloud will keep versions going back as far as 60 days, and users can bookmark the versions they do not want to expire.
What to watch next is the list of unported features. Until Preset Syncing, Shake Reduction and the rest arrive natively, some users will be moving between the native app and Rosetta 2 depending on the work in front of them.
Citas Notables
For features not yet ported to M1, such as Preset Syncing or Shake Reduction, users should switch back to Rosetta 2 for now.— Adobe (paraphrased)
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