Photoshop

=Photoshop= Tips to help you use photoshop

Resetting Photoshop
To start clean - with nothing moved around on the page, click on Control, Alt, Shift at the same time as opening the Photoshop program. This resets default photoshop settings.

Exploring the Interface
Menu Options Bar - the row starting with File. Tool Bar - situated down the left side of the page. Options bar - under menu options - this bar is linked to the tool you select ie the Tool Bar and Options Bar are linked. Panels - on the right are a number of panels that can be moved around. To open a new panel, go to Windows in the menu options bar. To make your workspace neat again without restarting photoshop, click on Window - Essentials (default). This resets your workspace.

Saving workspaces
If the panels on the right take up too much space, click the arrows above the panel to shrink them. Click Windows - Layers - then drag the word to where you want the panel. If you want to save the workspace because you like your settings, click Windo - workspace - save workspace, name it and press save. If you now click Window - workspace - the name you saved it under, it will reappear.

Opening a file
File - open - browse the picture you want You can open more than one picture - to see what is open, click Window - down the bottom are the names of the files you have open or there are tabs under the options bar.

Adobe Bridge
You can open up files using Adobe bridge in 2 different ways - File - Browse in Bridge OR click the orange BR above Edit button. It is a separate application - if you click my pictures and find a picture you want, you can move a slider that appears under the panel and this allows you to enlarge the picture to preview the picture. Double click the picture to open the picture in photoshop.

New File
To create a new file from scratch. File - New name the file You can change the width to say 600 pixels and teh height to say 400 pixels - to print to screen, 72 pixels per inch is more than enough - to print you need at least 300 pixels per inch - up to 1200. Colour mode - to print to screen use RGB - to print use CMYK You can select a background colour or make it transparent. It also tells you, based on the resolution, how many kb your picture will be. Click OK File - Save As

Photoshop Toolbar
The toolbar is down the left side. The tools are grouped - if you look carefully, you will see wmall lines between the groups. The first group The first 4 tools are selection tools: Move tool Rectangular Marquee tool Lassoo Tool Quick selection Tool

Next are the crop, slice and measurement tools: Crop Tool Eye Dropper Tool

Next are the retouching and painting tools tools: Spot Healing Brush Brush Tool Clone stamp tool History Brush Tool Eraser tool Gradient tool Blur tool Dodge tool

Next are the drawing and type tools: pen tool Horizontal type tool Path selection tool Rectangle tool

Next are navigation tools: 3D navigation tools

Hand tool Zoom Tool

Colouring Tools

The tools have a small arrow - click this with the left mouse key to find more tools. The ones you have most recently used or selected are shown.