Preferences comprise a series of miscellaneous options that are applied across your application. They can be used to set up your own way of working.
General options
Choose whether to restore the last session when launching application.
Choose to open PSDs with editable text objects.
Select whether to show or hide file extensions.
Choose whether to create SVGs when copying objects for better cross-platform interaction.
You can exclude your thumbnail from being stored with your document.
Choose whether to overwrite imported PSD files when using the Save command, rather than creating an *.afdesign file. We recommend reading the warning provided in the dialog before selecting this option.
Language—Sets the UI language independently of the operating system. Select from the pop-up menu.
Color options
You can set up your default RGB, 32bit RGB, CMYK, Grayscale and LAB color profiles for use in future documents. Select from the pop-up menus.
Rendering Intent—Choose the rendering intent for your images. Select from the pop-up menu.
Choose whether to apply black point compensation when opening an image.
Choose whether to convert an opened file color space to the working space and also choose whether to warn that this has occurred.
Choose whether to receive a warning when a working profile is assigned to an unprofiled image.
Select a OpenColorIO Configuration File.
Select a OpenColorIO Search Folder.
Choose whether OCIO conversions are based on file name and also choose whether to warn that this has occurred.
Performance options
RAM Usage Limit—allows you to set your preference for optimizing application performance for your projects.
Disk Usage Warning At—choose the limit at which you are warned about disk usage.
Undo Limit—choose the history length you are able to access.
View Quality—choose the way in which the image displays during modifications. Select from the pop-up menu.
Choose whether to dither gradients, when working on projects, to speed up performance.
Choose a clipping option for optimizing performance.
File recovery interval—choose the behavior of the application's autosave.
Choose whether to use hardware OpenGL and/or only integrated GPU. Try the opposite of the default settings if you are experiencing performance issues. Selecting Only use integrated GPU may conserve battery life on unplugged laptops.
Retina Rendering—choose your rendering experience. Select from the pop-up menu.
Automatic (Best)—renders as non-retina followed by retina for balanced performance and quality.
Low quality (Fastest)—renders as non-retina only for highest performance level but compromises on quality.
High quality (Slowest)—renders as retina only for high quality but may compromise performance.
Rendering—choose your rendering experience. Select from the pop-up menu.
Default—renders using the default method - typically the installed graphics card.
Graphics display adapter—the name here varies depending on your graphics card and its driver. If you have multiple graphics cards installed you may see more than one option here.
WARP—use Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform. Try this if you are experiencing performance issues with the default option.
User Interface options
Background Gray Level—controls the grayscale level of the pasteboard surrounding the page.
Artboard Background Gray Level—controls the grayscale level of the pasteboard surrounding artboard(s).
UI Gamma—adjusts the contrast of the user interface.
Font UI Size—optionally increase the font size of UI text.
Tooltip Delay—set the length of time before a tooltip appears when hovering over a UI element.
Decimal Places for Unit Types—controls the number of decimal places allowable for each document measurement unit.
Locks (or keeps unlocked) an imported image as a background layer.
Choose whether line width (thickness) displays in points or in the document's measurement units.
Choose whether text is expressed in points or in the document's measurement units.
Choose whether the brush cursor display a preview of pixels to be placed.
Overlays a cross-hair over the brush cursor for better targeting.
Makes icons display in grayscale.
Expands layer to reveal selected object entry when object is selected on the page.
Choose whether to activate touch bar support.
Tools options
Tool Handle Size—makes selected layer content's bounding box handles and curve nodes (and handles) smaller or larger.
Choose whether +click displays context menus (alternative to right-click with a multi-button mouse).
Enable or disable the Force Touch context menu; when enabled, the menu is accessed by a strong-press on a Force Touch-compatible trackpad.
Choose whether an object is added to a selection when partially covered by the selection marquee or whether it has to be encompassed by the marquee.
Choose whether the middle mouse button will allow scrolling or zooming.
Choose whether dragging with the Zoom Tool zooms around the cursor (scrubby zoom) or creates a 'zoom to' marquee.
Choose if the canvas can be rotated using a Trackpad or not.
Move Tool Aspect Constrain—controls the default constraining behavior when resizing objects using the Move Tool. Select from the pop-up menu.
Create Text with Blend Gamma—controls the default blend gamma applied to text on creation.
Nudge Distance—sets the nudge amount by which an object is moved when using the arrow keys. Select measurement units from the pop-up menu.
Modifier Nudge Distance—sets the amount by which an object is moved when using the arrow keys along with the .
Additional dictionary folder—add an additional folder that you can copy dictionary files into. The directory is scanned during start-up and found dictionaries will be added.