Will Photoshop Work On A Chromebook?

Chromebooks are portable devices running Google’s Chrome OS operating system. They are primarily designed to use web applications and store most of their data in the cloud, even if they have a local hard drive of a few gigabytes. This makes Chromebooks lightweight and fast devices, as they don’t have to process as much data.

However, there are some disadvantages to consider when using a Chromebook. One of them is the dependence on the internet. If you don’t have access to an internet connection, you may not be able to use many of your Chromebook’s features. Another clear disadvantage of using Chrome OS as an operating system is that many Windows or Mac applications do not have a native version for Chrome OS, and Photoshop is one of them.

While there are many web apps available, there are not as many as there are for operating systems like Windows or macOS, nor as powerful. This means that you may not be able to use some of the apps you need for your work or studies. Luckily, there are some tricks with which we can use or even install Photoshop on our Chromebook.

How to use Photoshop on a Chromebook

We will now see what options we have if we want to use Adobe Photoshop on a Chromebook and its possible alternatives.

Using the web version of Photoshop

Adobe offers a web version of Photoshop (currently in beta) that can be used on any device with a web browser. To use it, simply go to the Photoshop website and sign in with your Adobe account. You must be subscribed to an Adobe plan to use Photoshop on the web.

In addition to Photoshop, there is also Lightroom on the web, Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Express (similar to Canva). A number of Adobe tools to use online that will power your Chromebook, provided you have a decent Internet connection, of course.

Install Photoshop through a virtual machine

You can install a Windows or macOS operating system in a virtual machine and then install Photoshop in that virtual machine. This will allow you to run Photoshop on your Chromebook as if you were using a Windows or macOS computer.

In order to install a virtual machine on a Chromebook it is recommended that your model has sufficient processor and RAM.

The virtual machine will be installed in a Linux window. We will see how to do it later.

Access to a Windows remote desktop

Chrome OS offers the ability to remotely access a Windows computer from a Chromebook to run its applications. This is achieved through the Chrome Remote Desktop application or through a remote server with applications such as Citrix Receiver or an RDP client.

The latter option is ideal for businesses and organizations that offer their employees remote access to hosted software from lightweight machines such as Chromebooks.

Use an alternative desktop application

There are some alternative desktop applications that can be used instead of Photoshop. One popular choice is GIMP. These applications are free and can offer many of the same features as Photoshop.

To install GIMP on Chrome OS you must access developer mode and install the Crouton extension. With Crouton we will be able to run Linux in a Chrome OS window and we can also install Linux software like GIMP.

Photopea as one of the best alternatives

Another alternative to Photoshop is to use the online application Photopea (Photopea.com). It is practically a Photoshop clone and best of all it is free and can be used in any browser.

Using Wine

In the same way that we can install GIMP in the Linux window that we can enable on Chromebooks, it is possible to install Wine.

With the Wine application it is possible to run Windows software on Linux.

Conclusion

A Chromebook is not a computer designed for using professional software like Adobe Photoshop, which usually requires powerful hardware for optimal performance.

However, we have seen some good options for using Photoshop on Chrome OS and also some alternatives that can serve to perform many undemanding image editing tasks.

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