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How to Change the Theme and Other Preferences in Photoshop

Learn where to change Photoshop preferences on desktop, web, and mobile—and how to reset desktop settings if needed.

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Photoshop’s theme controls depend on which version you use. In the desktop app, open the Interface preferences; Photoshop on the web and mobile have documented Dark, Light, and system-matching choices. The steps below also explain how to reset desktop preferences if a setting causes trouble.

Where Photoshop’s theme and preference settings are

Version Open settings Theme choices documented by Adobe
Desktop (Windows) Edit > Preferences, or press Ctrl+K Adobe’s desktop overview identifies Interface as the appearance category but does not specify theme choices. Adobe’s desktop preferences guide.
Desktop (macOS) Photoshop > Settings, or press Command+K Adobe’s desktop overview identifies Interface as the appearance category but does not specify theme choices. Adobe’s desktop preferences guide.
Photoshop on the web Main menu > Settings, or press Ctrl+K (Windows) / Command+K (macOS) Dark, Light, or Use system setting. Adobe’s web settings guide.
Photoshop mobile (iPhone and Android) General > Interface > Color theme Dark, Light, or Use system setting. Adobe identifies the Android app as Beta in its guide. Adobe’s mobile settings guide.

Change preferences in Photoshop desktop

  1. Open Photoshop.
  2. Open preferences: on Windows, choose Edit > Preferences; on macOS, choose Photoshop > Settings. You can also press Ctrl+K on Windows or Command+K on macOS.
  3. Select a category. Choose Interface for appearance and interface behavior, Workspace for workspace and panel behavior, or another category for the setting you need.
  4. Adjust the available options and select OK.
  5. Close Photoshop normally to save changes. Adobe says settings are saved when the app closes, but can be lost if it is force-quit or crashes. See Adobe’s preferences guide.

Adobe’s desktop overview does not list specific light/dark theme choices or a system-theme matching option. The documented location for appearance settings is Interface; do not assume its controls match Photoshop on the web or mobile.

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Choose a theme in Photoshop on the web

  1. Open Main menu > Settings, or press Ctrl+K on Windows or Command+K on macOS.
  2. In General, find Color theme and choose Dark, Light, or Use system setting.
  3. While in General, adjust the interface size or other listed preferences if needed.

Adobe’s Photoshop on the web settings guide documents those theme choices.

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Choose a theme in Photoshop mobile

  1. Open the app’s settings.
  2. Go to General > Interface > Color theme.
  3. Choose Dark, Light, or Use system setting.

Adobe documents this route for iPhone and Android in its mobile settings guide; the guide describes the Android app as Beta.

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Reset Photoshop desktop preferences

A reset removes preference customizations, so back up the settings folder before using the manual reset route. Adobe documents two reset options for desktop:

Reset preferences when quitting

  1. Open Preferences/Settings > General.
  2. Select Reset Preferences On Quit.
  3. Close Photoshop. The reset takes effect when the app quits.

Reset with a keyboard shortcut at launch

  1. Close Photoshop.
  2. Relaunch while holding Alt+Ctrl+Shift on Windows or Option+Command+Shift on macOS.
  3. When prompted, confirm deletion of the Photoshop settings file.

These steps are described in Adobe’s desktop preferences guide.

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Back up or find the preference folder

Adobe’s file-location guidance gives these paths; replace [version] with the Photoshop version folder on your computer:

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  • Windows: AppDataRoamingAdobeAdobe Photoshop [version] Settings under your user account.
  • macOS: Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings under your user account. The Library folder is hidden by default; in Finder, hold Option while opening the Go menu to access it.

Copy the relevant folder to a safe location before manually removing or resetting it. Adobe’s preference file names and locations guide covers the platform-specific locations.

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