The year is 2017. Not the sepia-toned, vinyl-crackling nostalgia version of 2017, but the real one—the raw, pixel-deep, 18.0.0 build of it.
But I am the last version of Photoshop where you had to know what a mask was. Where the was just a tool, not a philosophy. Where if you wanted to select hair, you sat down, zoomed to 300%, and worked .
I sit there for three years. A ghost.
My first user was a woman named Clara. She was a packaging designer for a small coffee roastery. Her iMac was from 2015, and it creaked when she opened too many browser tabs. But with me? We sang .
She’s adding a drop shadow to the final composite. Layer style > Drop Shadow. Distance: 15px. Size: 25px. She clicks “OK.” Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 v.18.0.0
Because every time a designer opens an old PSD from 2017—a wedding album, a band flyer, a coffee bag label—and they get that warning:
I am .
“This document was last saved by Photoshop CC 2017. Some features may not be editable.”