Adobe Makes Edits For Left-Handers Much More Of A Breeze With Lightroom Setting

For years, creatives have lamented the lack of consideration put into design for the left-handed community, who make up about 10% of the world population. All things considered, it might seem like a small figure, but everyone either knows somebody who is left-handed or is a leftie themself.

Unlike on Photoshop, where panels can be moved around and locked into a preferred position, with Lightroom, the adjustment bar is fixed onto the right of the screen. For left-handers, this layout would be especially cumbersome if you were working from a tablet, which would force you to reach to your non-dominant side to toggle, say, the saturation and hue of a photo.

Thankfully, as photographer Glyn Dewis has discovered, Adobe has quietly introduced settings to streamline the digital workspace for lefties using Lightroom. Dewis finds he’s been using Lightroom Mobile on his iPad much more frequently, given the convenience and portability of it, and the option to optimize his workflow as a left-hander has helped him significantly.

Now, on the mobile version of Lightroom, you can permanently move the edit stack to the left side of your display by heading to your settings, then tapping ‘Input’ and ‘Left-handed editing’—an excellent option for those who love the ease of working directly from their display.

As for left-handed users on Lightroom Classic, you can also locate similar accessibility options under Preferences > Interface, and then selecting ‘Swap only Develop Left and Right Panel Groups’ or ‘Swap Left and Right Panel groups’. The modified interface should appear the next time you open the app.

At long last, you won’t be kept out of left field the next time you’re using these productivity tools. That said, Adobe hasn’t rolled out optimization for left-handers on Lightroom CC yet. That might come in a future update.

[via Fstoppers, Glyn Dewis, Photo Focus, cover photo 122625257 © Sharaf Maksumov | Dreamstime.com]