While we're talking Curves, by default the Curves dialog displays a 25% grid. If you'd
like a finer grid, you can Option-click for Mac (PC: Alt-click) once within the grid, and it will
then display a 10% grid.
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Showing posts with label photoshop tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photoshop tips. Show all posts
This is such a quick little tip that you might not think that it matters, but it saves a few seconds every time you close a document. If you close a number of documents a day , it really starts to add up fast. When you close a document, Photoshop presents you with a dialog asking, "Save changes to the Adobe Photoshop document before closing?" You have three choices: (1) Don't Save, (2) Cancel, and (3) Save.
Here's the shortcut: Press the letter D for Don't Save, press S for Save, and C for Cancel.
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Want to change the unit of measurement for your image? Don't go digging through
Photoshop's menus for the Preferences dialog, just Control-click (PC: Right-click) on
Photoshop's rulers and a contextual menu will appear with a list of measurement units.
(Note: If your rulers are not showing, press Command-R [PC: Control-R]). Choose the
one you want, and your rulers will instantly reflect the change.
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You can increase or decrease the softness of a round brush in Photoshop without
changing the size of the brush by pressing Shift-Left Bracket or Shift-Right Bracket.
Too easy. :-)
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As you know, your digital camera embeds background info into your photos (called EXIF data) and Photoshop embeds its own info when you edit the image (called File Properties). However, in Photoshop CS you can add your own info (called IPTC data) in the IPTC area within the Metadata palette in the File Browser. This is where you might embed your copyright info, Web site, or other comments that people viewing your file might find important. To add your info, just click to the right of any IPTC item that has a Pencil icon in front of it, and a field will appear where you can enter your own custom info.
Do your Photoshop .psd file sizes seem a little large? It may be because of a preference setting that makes Photoshop save a flattened version of your Photoshop image, along with your layered Photoshop file.
Why does Photoshop do this? Because there's a slight possibility you might share this file with someone using Photoshop 2.5 (just like there's a slight possibility that Congress will vote to cut their own salaries), and Photoshop 2.5 didn't support layers, so it can't read your layered document. But because, by default, that flattened version is included in your layered file, guess what2.5 can open the flattened image. What luck! Who cares? I'd rather have smaller file sizes all year long, and if you would too,
go under the Photoshop menu (the Edit menu in Windows), under Preferences, under File Handling, then in the File Compatibility section, for Maximize PSD File Compatibility, change "Ask" to "Never." Think about this one for a minute and you'll wonder why this is turned on by default. Think about it for two minutes and you'll wonder why it's in Photoshop at all. Don't spend too much time on it, or you'll start to wonder who's the poor soul that's stuck on version 2.5.
If you have a multi-layered document and want to turn each layer into its own separate document,
Click File menu, under Scripts, and choose Export Layers to Files.
walla!
Problem: The image looked great in Photoshop, but now that you've converted it to CMYK, saved the file as a TIFF, and placed it into QuarkXPress, InDesign, PageMaker, etc., the image looks awfulway oversaturated and totally whacked.
Reason: The preview of CMYK TIFFs just looks like that, so don't freak outif it looked right in Photoshop, it should print fine. Okay, what if you saved the file as an EPS, and when you place the image into your page layout app, the color of the image looks okay, but it's not crisp and clear, but pixelated.
Reason: By default, the preview embedded within EPS images is a lame 256-color preview.
Solution: In the EPS Options dialog, under Preview, choose JPEG. That way, it sends a 24-bit, full-color preview, rather than the lame 256-color preview.
Now that Photoshop CS can really give you type in a circle, getting a perfect circle that you can add type to is not as obvious as you'd think.
To get this perfect circle, click on the Shape tools in the Toolbox and choose the Ellipse tool from the flyout menu. Then go up to the Options Bar, and in the second group of icons from the left, click on the middle icon, which creates a regular path, rather than a Shape layer or a pixel-based shape.
Then, hold the Shift key, and drag out your circle (the Shift key constrains the shape to a perfect circle). Now you can move your Type tool over the circle, and it will change into a Type on a Path cursor. Click on the circle, and get to typing.
If you're using the Pen tool, and you've created multiple paths within your document, these paths are totally separate, and are moved independently of one another.
However, if you want these paths to move as one unitcombine them. Just switch to the Path Selection tool, then go up to the Options Bar and click on the Combine button.
Now when you move one path, all the combined paths move right along with it.
