Adobe Photoshop Review: A Knoll Brother Sold His Stake for $34.5M

In 1987, Thomas Knoll was a PhD student writing a program called "Display" just to show grayscale images on a monochrome monitor. His brother John, working at Industrial Light & Magic, saw what it could become. Adobe licensed it in 1988, shipped Photoshop 1.0 in February 1990, and in 1995, John sold his remaining rights to the software outright, for $34.5 million.

Photoshop is Adobe's professional image editing and compositing application, still the industry standard for photo retouching, digital art, and graphic design more than three decades later. What's changed recently is how much of the actual editing work AI now does: Generative Fill can remove, extend, or reimagine parts of an image from a text prompt, and as of 2026, Photoshop no longer locks you into Adobe's own model to do it, you can choose Adobe Firefly, Google's Gemini 3, or Black Forest Labs' FLUX.2 Pro from inside the same tool.

This review covers what that multi-model shift actually changes, what Photoshop costs today, and whether the generative features are worth the subscription on their own or just a bonus on top of the editing depth you're already paying for.

Short answer: Photoshop is worth it if you need professional-grade compositing, retouching, or print-ready output, no AI tool matches its editing depth. It's not worth it if you only need quick social graphics; that's a real overpay for casual use, and Canva or Adobe Express will serve you better.

Quick Verdict

What Works Well / What To Watch

What works well:

• Industry-standard depth: unmatched control and precision for professional photo editing and compositing work that lighter tools simply can't match.

• Fast-moving generative AI that's actually useful for compositing, not a gimmick: Generative Fill and the newer Harmonize tool (which auto-matches lighting, color, and shadow direction when combining elements) solve real production problems.

• Multi-model choice as of 2026: pick Adobe Firefly, Google Gemini 3, or Black Forest Labs FLUX.2 Pro for a given generation task, rather than being locked to Adobe's own model quality ceiling.

• Cross-device workflow: desktop (Windows/Mac), iPad, and a web app all stay in sync, genuinely useful for a workflow that starts on location and finishes at a desk.

• PSD file compatibility is the de facto standard across the creative industry, output works everywhere in a professional pipeline without conversion headaches.

What to watch:

• Expensive for casual use: $22.99-$34.49/month just for Photoshop alone is a real barrier for freelancers and hobbyists, and cost is consistently cited as a top complaint.

• Stingy generative credits on the base plan: new subscribers get only 25 generative credits a month (older subscribers are grandfathered at 100-250), before you need a paid add-on to generate more.

• A steep learning curve that reviewers consistently flag as overwhelming for beginners, especially compared to lighter tools like Canva built specifically for non-designers.

• Heavy PSDs with many layers can noticeably slow performance, a real constraint on complex professional projects.

• Subscription-only: there's no perpetual license option anymore, you're renting access, not owning a copy, permanently.

What Is Photoshop?

The Knoll brothers' story is one of the more remarkable origin stories in software: Thomas built the first version as a side project to solve a narrow technical problem, his brother John recognized its commercial potential from inside a visual effects studio, and Adobe moved fast enough to license it before anyone else did. By 1995, five years after the 1.0 release, John Knoll sold his remaining rights back to Adobe for $34.5 million, a figure that looks almost quaint next to what the product has generated for Adobe in the decades since.

That three-decade head start is the actual reason Photoshop still leads the category. Every major professional photo editing workflow, from magazine covers to film visual effects to e-commerce product photography, has been built around Photoshop's layer-based, non-destructive editing model for so long that PSD compatibility is effectively a industry requirement, not just a nice-to-have.

The 2026 shift to multi-model generative AI is a genuinely new chapter in that history, though. Rather than betting entirely on Adobe's own Firefly models, Photoshop now lets you route a specific generation task to whichever model, Firefly, Gemini 3, or FLUX.2 Pro, actually produces the best result for that job, an acknowledgment that no single AI lab has the best model for every kind of image generation, and that locking users into one would cost Photoshop its editing-quality reputation.

Key Features

• Generative Fill. AI fill, replace, and extend from a text prompt, running on Firefly Image 4 at 2K output by default, with reference-image support.

• Multi-model AI. Choose Adobe Firefly, Google Gemini 3, or Black Forest Labs FLUX.2 Pro depending on the task, all from inside the same tool.

• Harmonize. Auto-matches lighting, color temperature, and shadow direction when compositing elements together, a real time-saver on complex composites.

• Generative Upscale. AI upscaling up to 4x, roughly 56MP, built on Topaz Labs technology.

• Layer-based editing. The industry-standard non-destructive editing and compositing workflow professional studios have run on for decades.

• Cross-device access. Desktop (Windows/Mac), iPad, and a more limited web app, all staying in sync.

How Photoshop Performs In Practice

No paid Photoshop subscription was run specifically for this review, worth saying plainly. What follows is grounded in Photoshop's own documented feature set, pricing structure, and thirty-five-year production history, not a summary of other sites' star ratings.

The editing precision is the actual reason Photoshop still leads the category after this long: layer-based, non-destructive compositing at this depth simply isn't matched elsewhere, and Generative Fill and Harmonize extend that same precision into AI-assisted work rather than replacing it with something looser. That's a structural advantage, not a marketing claim, professional pipelines are built around PSD compatibility specifically because nothing else offers the same editing ceiling.

The part worth planning around is cost, not capability. Adobe's subscription-only model, the lack of any perpetual license option, and support responsiveness are well-documented friction points that show up consistently regardless of how good the editing tools themselves are. If cost is your main hesitation, that concern is well-founded and worth budgeting around honestly rather than dismissing.

A practical way to judge whether the cost is justified for your specific work: track how many hours a month you'd actually spend on tasks Generative Fill and Harmonize genuinely speed up, background removal, object extension, lighting matches on composites, versus tasks where Photoshop's depth doesn't matter much. If that number is low, a cheaper tool will very likely serve you just as well; if it's high, the subscription pays for itself in reclaimed hours faster than the sticker price suggests.

Adobe Photoshop Pricing in 2026

Verified against Adobe's official pricing and Tools item research the day this was written.

Is it worth the price? For a professional photographer or designer, the Photography Plan at $19.99/month is genuinely the best value in the lineup, Lightroom and 1TB storage included for less than the standalone Photoshop price. For someone who only occasionally needs image editing and doesn't need Photoshop's specific compositing depth, the cost is a real overpay, Canva or Adobe Express will do the job for a fraction of the price.

Adobe Photoshop vs Competitors

Canva wins decisively for non-designers who need fast social or marketing graphics, at the direct cost of Photoshop's editing precision and professional print output (CMYK export, deep layer control). See our Canva review for the full picture. Affinity Photo is the sharper choice if the subscription model itself is your objection, a one-time purchase gets you serious editing power without a recurring bill, though its generative AI and third-party plugin ecosystem trail Photoshop's. Photoshop's real edge remains depth: nothing else matches its compositing control at this level of industry adoption.

The honest dividing line between all three: Canva is for people who need to produce a finished graphic fast and don't care how it's built underneath. Affinity Photo is for people who want Photoshop-caliber control without an ongoing subscription. Photoshop itself is for people who need that control and also need it to plug into an existing professional pipeline, other tools your studio or client already uses, that expects PSD files and layer-based workflows specifically.

Who Photoshop Is Best For

Best for:

• Professional photographers and designers who need deep, non-destructive compositing and retouching control.

• Studios and agencies producing print-ready output where CMYK support and PSD compatibility genuinely matter.

• Anyone who wants to route different generation tasks to different AI models rather than being locked to one provider's quality ceiling.

Skip it if:

• You only need occasional social media graphics, Canva will cost less and require far less learning time.

• You're specifically opposed to subscription software, Affinity Photo's one-time purchase is worth a serious look.

• The base plan's 25 monthly generative credits won't cover your actual generation volume, budget for the Photography Plan's 1,000 credits instead, or a paid credit top-up.

Final Verdict: Is Photoshop Worth It?

Photoshop's three-decade head start, and the fact its own co-creator once cashed out for $34.5 million while the product kept compounding in value for Adobe, is the real explanation for why it still leads a category full of newer, AI-native competitors. The 2026 multi-model shift is a genuine acknowledgment that depth of editing control, not any single AI model, is still Photoshop's actual moat.

The honest catch is price, not capability. If you're a professional who needs the editing depth, the Photography Plan at $19.99/month is a fair deal, cheaper than Photoshop alone. If you're not sure you need that depth, you probably don't, and a lighter, cheaper tool will serve you better than paying for capability you won't use.

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