Adobe has announced that it will give more priority to the task of improving the speed of its popular photo-editing software product Lightroom in light of customer complaints over the application’s slow performance. Many photographers – from neophytes to hobbyists and professionals – have come to love Lightroom because of the ease with which they can manage and process photos in more convenient and simple ways using the program, not to mention that it ships with a bevy of features and editing tools that transform your photos with stunning effects and preset filters. However, that reputation has long been marred by the fact that the program runs slowly even on the most powerful computer available from the marketplace.
Those complaints have not fallen on deaf ears, though, as Adobe’s Photo Product Manager Tom Hogarty wrote in the company’s blog that Adobe is turning its attention to the program and that improving its performance is currently the top priority of the company. In the blog post, Hogarty acknowledged the issues with Lightroom’s speed and performance and said the company is now working to fix the problem, taking cue from its community of customers. He added that Adobe will adopt the same approach it used to respond to feature and workflow requirements in collaboration with customers, an endeavor that Hogarty says began with the first public beta release of Lightroom. More specifically, Hogarty made mention of certain issues that affect graphics processing unit, import speed, editing tasks, and review workflows that Adobe is now trying to improve.
While several improvements have been added to Lightroom over the last year with the goal of addressing those that Hogarty described as “pain points,” a lot of work still needs to be done to meet the customers’ needs. In connection with that, Adobe has launched an online survey meant to allow customers to submit their feedback to the company or work with the team behind Lightroom on boosting the speed of certain features of the tool. The survey is designed to gather usage and performance data, which will serve as the basis for improving the application. Furthermore, customers will be asked to describe at least three performance issues they are experiencing with the program. In the long run, Adobe aims to advance the development of the software after years of negative feedback from photographers with regards to Lightroom’s performance and speed.