Photoshop CC vs CS6: What Version to Choose

Photoshop CC and CS6 have a similar interface and functionality, but there are several significant differences between them.

Photoshop CS6 offers basic photo editing tools, smart objects, and a free form Pen tool. It also supports old plug-ins.

Photoshop CC brings together all the features of CS6 and complements the functionality with more advanced image editing tools and the latest plug-ins. Also, this version offers cloud storage, making it easier to share projects with colleagues.

What Is Photoshop CC?

Photoshop CC includes almost everything a creative person needs to create and edit images. Here are just the main pros and cons of Photoshop: you can use it to cut out objects, work with layers, draw elements, add some blur, change sharpness, etc. It is also possible to manage multiple masks and channels, and you can do things like background replacement, mirroring, and 3D manipulation.

Photoshop CC: Strengths and Weaknesses

Create symmetrical images. Aside from including 1200 brushes and pencils, Photoshop CC allows you to adjust additional settings for them. For example, smooth strokes or enhance symmetry. Symmetry is available for Paint Brush, Mixer Brush, Pencil, and Eraser tools. To use this tool, click the butterfly icon in the Options bar and then select the symmetry type you want: Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal, Dual Axis, Wavy, Radial, Spiral, Parallel Lines, Circle, or Mandala.

Advanced 3D editing capabilities. The CC version gets another point in the Adobe Photoshop CC vs CS6 battle due to its innovative features for 3D image editing. The 3D Scene panel includes a rich array of tools to work with a 3D picture. It is possible to create instances of 3D objects and copy them.

Once you edit duplicate items, all the changes will be reflected in the source object. Besides, Photoshop CC offers the possibility to transform panorama pictures into a 360-degree movie or pin it to different shapes, including cone, sphere, or doughnut. You can also use color-coded 3D print previews, control the bump-map depth and simplify 3D meshes. Moreover, it is possible to export your 3S project as PDF or SVX files.

Improved control over the Content-Aware Fill tool. With this tool, it is possible to quickly get rid of unwanted elements in your images. For example, you can remove people or unnecessary objects in the background. When you use a Fill tool, the surrounding area around the distant object will appear as if there was nothing there initially. You can specify areas in your photos that you want to fill and those parts that you need to keep intact.

Access projects remotely from any device. Since Photoshop CC is included in the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite, it automatically saves your images to secure cloud storage. This means that you will have remote access to your projects from any device. Also, it is possible to edit the same image with colleagues simultaneously.

Facial features recognition. This feature brings the CC version ahead of its contender in the Photoshop CS 6 vs CC stand-off. The Face-Aware Liquify tool not only recognizes a face in the image but transforms it. It is even possible to turn a sad face into a smiling one. This tool detects facial features such as eyes and mouth so you can change them. To do this, you can use the sliders that regulate the size of the eyes and nose, the width of the face, and the jawline. You can considerably enhance your photo while preserving its realistic look.

Simple adjustment of camera-shake reduction. This tool reduces the camera shake effect in a photo by aligning the shifted pixels. You can select the areas where you want to estimate blur trace. It is also possible to tweak Blur Trace Bounds. With Smoothing and Artifact Suppression, you can get less sharp results.

Advanced features of the Camera Raw module. Those, who work with RAW files, can fine-tune shades locally, change settings depending on the ISO of an image, and use the Photomerge tool by right-clicking on the file.

The Photoshop CS6 vs CC comparison shows that the advantage of the CC version is in the possibility to use Camera Raw as a preset, apply it to any image layer and change color temperature, exposure, and geometry. Also, you can use such profiles as Portrait, Landscape, Monochrome, Retro, and Vivid that will give your pictures an Instagram-inspired look. Besides, it is possible to enhance your photos with third-party actions.

Identification of fonts in images. Photoshop CC has a tool that can identify fonts in images and find the most appropriate ones in the Adobe collection. You can also add the fonts to your Favorites and see how a certain font will look in a picture, just by hovering over it. Photoshop CC supports emoji fonts and SVG OpenType fonts for responsive designs.

Access to Lightroom. Using Photoshop CC, you have access to all features presented in Lightroom. Users can edit photos, and they will be automatically saved to the Lightroom library.

Relatively expensive subscription. To get Adobe Photoshop CC, you should purchase a monthly subscription. If you didn't make a timely payment, you would be charged a cancellation fee.

What Is Photoshop CS6?

Photoshop CS6 is an old version of a graphics editor available only on such services as eBay. Adobe doesn't release CS products anymore and has replaced them with CC. This version includes such features as well-elaborated cropping options, content-aware Move and Patch tools, Adaptive Wide Angle filter, Blur Gallery, skin tone-aware selections, and upgraded auto settings.

Photoshop CS6: Strengths and Weaknesses

Considerably improved Camera Raw. With this tool, you can restore highlights, combine shadows with them, adjust clarity and contrast. With the help of Selection Brush, you can enhance white balance in a photo. For instance, if your image displays a flash in a night scene, you can balance the foreground and background by brushing different white balances.

First-class Crop tool. To use the Crop tool, just click and drag the crop rectangle. You can also drag the cropping borders from the edge of the image. The cropped area of the picture is scaled and panned to preserve its position in the center of an image. You can also save crop settings as presets to apply them to other photos and automatically correct perspective.

Automatic filling of the selected area. Adobe Content-Awear Fill technology is useful for automatically filling an area of an image with content. Just select a particular part in the picture, then click and drag to move it with the Content-Aware Move tool, and Photoshop will automatically fill in the rest of the area.

Adaptive wide-angle correction. Another feature to consider in the Adobe CS6 vs CC comparison is an adaptive wide-angle correction. With its help, it is possible to correct the optical distortion of images. You can make areas in a photo straight, or you can define simple polygons, and Photoshop will deform and bend an image until those lines are straight. Moreover, new distortions don’t appear in a picture during the correction.

Simplified automatic selection of skin tones. This tool allows you to find and select faces in an image if you want to blur the background. You just need to specify the color range.

Built-in video editing tools. You can easily add clips in multiple video formats to the timeline, trim, reorder, and add transitions in Adobe Photoshop CS6. Most of the features designed for photo editing are suitable for editing videos. It is easy to use standard Photoshop tools to modify and improve videos. You can apply adjustment layers, a variety of filters, and even destructive adjustments like shadows and highlights.

No layer adjustments. Photoshop does not support layer settings such as applying multiple drop shadow styles and copying and pasting layers.

Photoshop CC vs CS6: Price

When comparing Photoshop CC vs CS6, it is necessary to pay attention to Adobe's pricing policy. You can test Photoshop CC for free for a week. After that, you will need to buy 1-month license. Adobe no longer supports Photoshop CS6, so you can’t download it from the official website.

Photoshop CC subscription costs $20.99 per month. You get tools for creating and enhancing photos, illustrations, and 3D images, as well as Adobe Fresco, 100GB of cloud storage, your own portfolio site, and premium fonts.

Photography plan costs $9.99 per month. You get Photoshop, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, your own portfolio website, and social media platforms tools. Moreover, you can choose cloud storage of 20GB or 1TB.

All Apps plan costs $52.99 per month. You can enjoy over 20 products for PC and mobile devices, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, InDesign, XD, and more. As a bonus, you will get 100GB of cloud storage.

Besides, you can use Adobe Creative Cloud discounts, to save money on a graphics editor.

Photoshop CC vs CS6 – Who Wins?

Photoshop CC vs CS6 – which version is better? I recommend picking Photoshop CC since this version includes all the features presented in CS6, along with advanced tools for creating symmetrical pictures and working with 3D images. You can also upload your project right to the cloud in order to return to it at any time and from any device.

Photoshop CS6 is outdated, although it also has some interesting tools like those for work with wide-angle lenses. If you use this version, you can save your old plug-ins.