Taking the Chef ’s Tour of Your Photoshop Kitchen

Food for Thought: How Things Work

A good understanding of certain fundamental operations and features in Photoshop provides you with the background that you need to follow the recipes or get creative and whip up some delicious artwork.

Don’t forget about Photoshop’s Tool Tips. If you don’t know what something or some option does, park your cursor over it for a couple of seconds, and Photoshop provides its information in a little box. Also, new to Photoshop are rich tool tips that include short videos of a specific tool in action. (If you find these distracting, open Photoshop’s Preferences and in the Tools section, deselect Use Rich Tool Tips.)

Ordering from the menus

When you’re working in Photoshop, you see a horizontal list of menus spread across the very top (Mac) or near the top (Windows) of the application window: File, Edit, Image, Layer, Type, Select, Filter, 3D, View, Window, and Help. On the Mac, the program also has a menu named Photoshop, just to the left of the File menu.

As with most programs, you click the name of a menu to reveal its commands. For both Mac and Windows, you can click and hold down the mouse button until you’re over the command you want; or you can click and release, move the cursor, and then click again. Some commands, such as Crop and Reveal All, are executed immediately after you choose them. When a command name in the menu is followed by an ellipsis (…) — the Image Size command shown in Figure 3-1, for example — you know that a dialog box will open so that you can input variables and make decisions. A triangle to the right of a command name, such as that which you see next to Image Rotation, indicates a submenu. If you click the command name, another menu appears to the right. The cryptic set of symbols to the right of some commands (for example, Image Size) is the keyboard shortcut for opening the command’s dialog box. (I show you how to assign keyboard shortcuts later, in the section “Sugar and spice, shortcuts are nice.”)

FIGURE 3-1: Some commands have submenus, and some have dialog boxes.

If you’re working on a high resolution monitor in Windows and the Photoshop interface is too small to use efficiently, you can go to Photoshop’s Preferences ⇒ Interface and in the UI Scaling section select 200%, although the default Auto setting seems to work well for most users.

As you read in the upcoming section “Clearing the table: Custom workspaces,” Photoshop menus are customizable — you don’t have to see commands that you never use. You can also color-code your menu commands, making it easier to spot those that you use regularly.

When a specific command appears grayed out in the menu (in gray type rather than black), that command isn’t available. Some commands, such as Reveal All in Figure 3-1, are available only under specific circumstances, such as when part of the image is being hidden with the Crop tool. When working with Photoshop’s creative filters, you’ll find that many aren’t available unless you’re working with an 8-bit RGB (red/green/blue) image. (Color modes and bit depth are discussed in Chapter 6; filters are explored in Chapter 15.)

Your platter full of panels

Photoshop, like the other programs of the Adobe Creative Cloud, uses floating panels. The panels, many of which you see along the right edge of your screen, usually appear on top of (float over) your image window. (As you drag panels around to customize your workspace, as described later in this section, you’ll find that panels can hide other panels.) The Options bar across the top of the work area and the Toolbox (technically, it’s called the Tools panel) along the left edge of the screen are also panels.

Panels contain Photoshop features that you might need to access so regularly that using a menu command is inconvenient. (I can’t imagine having to mouse to a menu command every time I want to change tools or select a specific layer!) You don’t always need to have your panels visible. In Photoshop, press the Tab key to hide all the panels or press Shift+Tab to hide all but the Toolbox and the Options bar. (Press Tab again to show the panels.) With fewer panels visible, you provide more room for your image. You can selectively hide and show panels via Photoshop’s Window menu.

Photoshop uses expanding/collapsing panel docks. As shown to the right in Figure 3-2, clicking the double-arrow button at the top of a stack of panels collapses that stack to a tidy group of icons. The Color, Adjustments, and Layers panels are fully visible. The Swatches, Styles, Channels, and Paths panels — “nested” with the three visible panels — can be made visible by clicking the panel tab. The collapsed History and Properties panels together occupy only a tiny fraction of the screen — those two buttons to the left of the Color panel. In Figure 3-2, the Application Frame (Mac only) is deselected in Photoshop’s Window menu, allowing the program to utilize the entire screen.

FIGURE 3-2: Nesting and collapsing panels opens up the work area.

By clicking and dragging a panel’s tab when the panel isn’t collapsed, you can move it to another grouping or pull it out of its grouping and away from the edge of the screen. You might, for example, want to drag the Clone Source panel away from its buddies to make it more easily accessible while performing a complex clone operation. (The Clone Source panel is used with the Clone Stamp tool. You can specify up to five different source locations and easily switch among them.)

Many of the panels are resizable. Like an image window, you drag the lower-right corner of the panel to expand or contract it. Almost all the Photoshop panels have a panel menu from which you select various options. (The Toolbox and Options bar are the exceptions — they don’t have menus.) You open the panel menu by clicking the small button in the upper-right corner of the panel, as shown in Figure 3-3. The panel menu contains such options as thumbnail size (for example, the Layers, Channels, and Paths panels); how to display items in the panel (Swatches, Styles, and Brush among others); or even the size and content of the panel (Info and Histogram).

FIGURE 3-3: Access a panel’s menu by clicking the button in the upper right. (Clicking the double-arrow above the button expands or collapses the panel or panel group.)

The content of some panels changes automatically as you work with your image. Add a layer, and the Layers panel shows a new layer. Save a selection, and the Channels panel shows a new alpha channel. If you create a vector shape, the Layers panel gets a new layer, and the Paths panel shows the layer’s vector path. You control some other panels by loading and deleting content through the panel menus or with the Edit ⇒ Presets ⇒ Preset Manager command. Use the Preset Manager (as shown in Figure 3-4) to save sets of your custom bits and pieces as well as to load and delete items from the panels.

FIGURE 3-4: Use the Preset Manager to control the content of a number of panels.

As you can see in Figure 3-4, at long last you can now create groups (sets) of items in the Preset Manager panel. Take advantage of this feature to simplify the panel and easily access only the brushes you need for a particular task. The groups appear as expandable folders below the visible brushes. And your custom groups of brushes automatically appear in the Brush panel as well! (You may need to expand the Brush panel to make the brushes in the group visible.)

In addition to the content of the Brush, Swatches, Styles, and Tool Presets panels, you use the Preset Manager with a number of pickers. Pickers are sort of mini-panels, available only with certain tools or features. The Gradient and Custom Shape pickers are accessed through the Options bar when those tools are in use. The Pattern picker is found in the Fill dialog box, in the Layer Style dialog box, and (with some tools) in the Options bar. The Contour picker is used with six of the effects in the Layer Style dialog box.

If Photoshop is an upgrade and if you have an earlier version of Photoshop on the same computer, you can pick up presets from earlier versions to save the time it would take to reload (or re-create) presets you use often. You can do so at any time by choosing Edit ⇒ Presets ⇒ Migrate Presets.

When you create custom layer styles, brushes, gradients, and the like, use the Preset Manager to protect your work. Create sets of the items and save those sets with the Preset Manager. Remember that new content of your panels is stored only in Photoshop’s Preferences file (introduced later in this chapter) until you create and save sets.

The tools of your trade

If you’re upgrading from an earlier version of Photoshop, you may notice the ellipse near the bottom of the Toolbox. Click that and you can customize the Toolbox to optimize it for your workflow.

You control the behavior of Photoshop’s tools through the Options bar. With the exception of a few path-related tools (Add Anchor Point, Delete Anchor Point, and Convert Point), every tool in Photoshop has options. The Options bar changes as you switch tools. The behavior of some tools changes when you add one or more modifier keys (⌘ , Shift, and Option for the Mac; Ctrl, Shift, and Alt for Windows). As an example of how modifier keys can affect tool behavior, consider the Rectangular Marquee and Elliptical Marquee tools:

Hold down the Shift key while dragging. Normally the marquee selection tools are freeform — you drag however you like. When you hold down the Shift key while dragging, on the other hand, you constrain the proportions of the selection to a square or circle (rather than a rectangle or ellipse).
Hold down the Option/Alt key while dragging. When you hold down the Option/Alt key while dragging a marquee selection tool, the selection is centered on the point where you first clicked. Rather than being a corner of a selection, that starting point is the center of the selection.
Hold down the Shift and Option/Alt keys while dragging. You can select from the center while constraining proportions by using the Shift and Option/Alt keys together.
Use the Shift key to add to an existing selection. If you already have an active selection in your image, Shift+dragging a selection tool adds to that selection. (Press Shift before you click and drag.)
Use the Option/Alt key to subtract from an existing selection. When you have an existing selection and you hold down the Option/Alt key, you can drag to subtract from the selection. Note in Figure 3-5 that the selection tool’s cursor shows a small minus sign when subtracting from a selection.
“Double-clutch” with the Shift or Option/Alt key. You can even constrain proportions or select from the center and add to or subtract from a selection. Press the Shift key (to add to the existing selection) or the Option/Alt key (to subtract from the existing selection). Click and start dragging the marquee selection tool. While continuing to hold down the mouse button, release the modifier key and press and hold Shift (to constrain proportions), Option/Alt (to center the selection), or both; then continue to drag your selection tool. You might want to use this technique, for example, when creating a donut-shaped selection. Drag the initial circular selection and then subtract a smaller circular selection from the center of the initial circle.

FIGURE 3-5: Use the Option/Alt key with a selection tool to subtract from a selection.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with modifier keys while working with tools. After all, you always have the Undo command (⌘ +Z/Ctrl+Z) at hand!

If you’re using a current version of Windows, you also have Microsoft Dial Support available, which enables you to adjust brush attributes using the Microsoft Dial (if it’s on your hardware).

Get Cookin’ with Customization

Customizing Photoshop not only helps you work faster and more efficiently, but it can also help you work more precisely and prevent tragic errors. Consider using a Crop tool preset to create a 5x7 print at 300 pixels per inch (ppi). Such a preset will always produce exactly those dimensions, every single time. Setting up the Crop tool each time you need a 5x7 at 300 ppi doesn’t just waste time: It also opens the door for time-consuming or project-wrecking typos. (“Oops! I guess I made a mistake — this image is 5x7 at only 30 pixels per inch!”)

Clearing the table: Custom workspaces

One of the easiest ways to work more efficiently is to see your image better. Generally speaking, bigger is better, so the more room you have on the monitor to display your artwork, the better you can zoom in and do precise work. As mentioned earlier, the easiest way to gain workspace is to press the Tab key to hide Photoshop’s panels. Pressing Shift+Tab hides all the panels except the Options bar and the Toolbox.

Keep in mind that it’s best to use 100% zoom when evaluating your image for banding (areas of similar color that should blend smoothly, but don’t) or moiré (which can occur when scanning printed material — see Figure 4-3 in the following chapter for an example) and when applying filters. Any other zoom factor is a simulation of the image’s appearance. If you have a computer and video card that support OpenCL drawing (take a look in Photoshop’s Preferences ⇒ Performance, activate Use Graphics Processor and click the Advanced Settings), you have much better on-screen display. But 100% zoom is safest when making critical decisions.

You can also drag the panels that you need regularly to a custom group of panels. To move a panel, drag it by the tab and “nest” it with other panels. And don’t forget that the major panels have keyboard shortcuts assigned to show and hide. Although keyboard shortcuts are customizable (as you can read later in this chapter), here are the primary panels’ assigned F keys, the function keys that appear at the top of your keyboard:

Actions: Option/Alt+F9
Brush: F5
Color: F6
Info: F8
Layers: F7

Any panels nested with the panel that you show/hide are also shown and hidden. And don’t forget that you can always restore all panels to their default locations by choosing Window ⇒ Workspace ⇒ Essentials (Default) from Photoshop’s main menu. If the default workspace is already selected, choose Window ⇒ Workspace ⇒ Reset Essentials to get back to the default panel layout.

The most efficient way to customize your work area is to create and save specialized workspaces. Arrange the panels exactly as you need them for a particular job you do regularly, choose Window ⇒ Workspace ⇒ New Workspace (in the Window menu, visible panels are indicated with a checkmark), and name the workspace for that type of job. Then you can make a specialized workspace for each type of work you do. For example, perhaps when you do color correction, you need to see the Histogram panel (in the expanded view), the Info panel, and the Channels panel. Arrange those panels how you need them and then hide the rest, saving the workspace named as Color Correction. Or, perhaps when you create illustrations in Photoshop, you need to see the Layers and Paths panels at the same time. Drag one out of the group to separate it, position them both where convenient, and save the workspace as Illustration.

To access a saved workspace, choose Window ⇒ Workspace and select it from the list at the top of the menu, as shown in Figure 3-6. You can see some preset custom workspaces in the middle section of the menu, as well.

FIGURE 3-6: Select a workspace from the menu to instantly rearrange your panels.

You can also save the current state of the customizable keyboard shortcuts and menus in your workspace. Although streamlining the menus for the specific work you’re doing is a great idea, it’s probably not such a great idea to have more than one set of custom keyboard shortcuts. The time it takes to remember which shortcuts go with the current workspace (or to undo a mistake caused by the wrong shortcut) is time wasted.

To customize Photoshop’s menus, choose Edit ⇒ Menus, which opens the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box. (Alternatively, choose Edit ⇒ Keyboard Shortcuts and click the Menus tab.) Here you can find every available menu command listed. (Filters available in the Filter Gallery cannot have individual keyboard shortcuts unless, in Photoshop’s Preferences ⇒ Plug-Ins, you have elected to list all filters on the Filter menu.) You also have the option of hiding a command or assigning a custom color to make it easier to identify in the menu. You might, for example, hide the blur filters that you never use, and color-code the others according to how you like or use them. (See Figure 3-7.)

FIGURE 3-7: You can hide menu commands and color-code the visible commands.

In addition to the application menu commands (from the menus at the top of the screen), you can switch the Menu For pop-up to Panel menus and customize those menus, too. Don’t forget to save your customized menu arrangements with the button directly to the right of the Settings pop-up. Your saved menu set appears in that Settings pop-up for easy access. Keep in mind, too, that while customizing shortcuts, you can drag the lower-right corner of the window to expand it, making it easier to find specific items for which you want to assign shortcuts.

Sugar and spice, shortcuts are nice

The Photoshop keyboard shortcuts can save a bunch of time. Rather than moving the cursor to the Toolbox to select the Brush tool, just press the B key. To open the Levels dialog box, press ⌘ +L/Ctrl+L instead of going to the Image menu, down to the Adjustments submenu, and then over and down to Levels.

Photoshop has customizable keyboard shortcuts. Because the default set of shortcuts is pretty standard — not only throughout the Adobe Creative Cloud but also with other major programs — you’re probably best served by making only a few changes. Open the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box (shown in Figure 3-8) through the Edit menu to make one major change and then any changes for personal preferences. Change ⌘ +Z/Ctrl+Z to use Step Backward. In most programs, pressing ⌘ +Z/Ctrl+Z keeps undoing — reverting through a series of previous actions in the program. In Photoshop, however, that shortcut toggles an Undo/Redo function; that is, press once to undo and press a second time to reverse the undo. Bah! Make Photoshop conform to the undo-undo-undo behavior common to other programs. In Keyboard Shortcuts, under Edit, change ⌘ +Z/Ctrl+Z to Step Backward and then use ⌘ +Option+Z/Ctrl+Alt+Z to toggle between Undo and Redo.

FIGURE 3-8: Assign custom keyboard shortcuts to speed your work.

There has been one major change to shortcuts: ⌘ +F/Ctrl+F no longer applies the previous filter, but rather opens the Search dialog box. Apply the previous filter with ⌘ +Option+F/Ctrl+Alt+F.

Spoons can’t chop: Creating tool presets

One of the keys to efficient, accurate work in Photoshop is using the right tool for the job. For example, the Patch tool with Normal active in the Options bar (the default) copies texture only. If you need to cover a spot on a client’s face, changing both texture and color, you may need the Clone Stamp tool or the Patch tool with the Content-Aware option. (You can read about how the tools work throughout this book.)

You can ensure that you’re using not only the correct tool but also the correct settings for that tool by creating tool presets, which store your settings from the Options bar. You can then select the preset tool (and, of course, that’s where the catchy name comes from) from the Tool Presets panel or from the left end of the Options bar, as shown in Figure 3-9.

FIGURE 3-9: Tool presets help you work faster and more accurately.

Although just about any tool is a good candidate for tool presets, some are just plain naturals. Consider, if you will, the Crop tool. As I explain in Chapter 4, a photo from a high-end digital camera has an aspect ratio (relationship between width and height of the image) of 2:3, and common print and frame aspect ratios include 4:5 for 8x10 prints, 5:7, and 13:19 for large prints. (Some digital cameras shoot in different aspect ratios.) You’ll often find a need to crop an image to a specific size to meet your printing requirements. And, don’t forget resolution — printing in the correct size at the wrong resolution is simply a waste of paper and ink! Set up a number of Crop tool presets for your typical print sizes and relax, knowing that you’ll always be cropping correctly.

Another logical candidate for tool presets is the Type tool. When you consider all the options for the Type tool in not only the Options bar but also in the Character and Paragraph panels, you have quite a bit to select and track. To ensure consistent text from project to project, consider creating tool presets for each project, including (as appropriate) headline and body text, special effects and accent type, and even your copyright information. Keep in mind, too, that you can use Type tool presets in conjunction with the Character Styles and Paragraph Styles panels (which are discussed in Chapter 13).

Using the Preset Manager (opened through the Edit ⇒ Presets menu), you can drag the tools presets up and down to rearrange them. Sort them in a logical order or move the presets you use most often to the top of the panel. The changes are for both the Tool Presets panel and the picker at the left end of the Options bar.

Season to Taste: The Photoshop Settings

The program-level Preferences and the Color Settings flavor all your work in Photoshop. The options that you choose in Photoshop’s Preferences (or simply the Prefs) control many facets of the program’s basic behavior. Choices made in the Color Settings dialog box determine how your work looks, both on-screen and in print. And when you get down to brass tacks, that’s what it’s all about — the appearance of your artwork.

Standing orders: Setting the Preferences

Photoshop’s Preferences file stores a whole lot of information about how you use the program. Whether you prefer to measure in inches or pixels, how you like the grid and guides displayed, what size thumbnails you prefer in your panels, which font you used last — all sorts of data is maintained in the Prefs. Much of the info in the Preferences is picked up automatically as you work (such as the size and color mode of the last new document you created, whether the Character panel was visible when you last shut down the program, and which tool options were selected in the Options bar), but you must actively select a number of options in the Preferences dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-10.

FIGURE 3-10: Use Photoshop’s Preferences to establish many program behaviors.

Many of Photoshop’s handy reminder messages include a Don’t Show Again option. If you someday decide that you do indeed need to start seeing one or more of those reminders again, open the Preferences and click the Resent All Warning Dialogs button at the bottom of the General pane.

Your custom styles, brushes, Actions, and the like are recorded only in Photoshop’s Preferences until you actually save them to your hard drive. That makes them vulnerable to accidental loss. Use the Actions panel menu command Save Action to save sets of Actions (not individual Actions) and use the Preset Manager (under the Edit ⇒ Presets menu) to save sets of your other bits and pieces. And make sure to save them in a safe location outside the Photoshop folder — you wouldn’t want to accidentally delete your custom items if you should ever have to (oh, no!) reinstall Photoshop, would you?

Open the Preferences on a Mac with the keyboard shortcut ⌘ +K or choose Photoshop ⇒ Preferences to select one of the 17 specific subsets of Preferences to change. The shortcut for Windows users is Ctrl+K, and the Preferences submenu is under the Edit menu. The default settings are perfectly acceptable (after all, they are the defaults for a reason), but the following sections cover some changes to the Preferences to consider, listed by the section of the Preferences dialog box in which you find them.

Some of the changes you make in Photoshop’s Preferences are applied as soon as you click OK. Other changes don’t take effect until you restart the program. (You’ll get a reminder about that.)

Preferences ⇒ History Log

The History Log maintains a record of what you’ve done to a specific image. You can record when you opened and saved a file with the Sessions option, see a summary of what you did with the Concise option, or keep track of every command, every feature, and every setting you used with the Detailed option! And the log can be recorded to a text file or stored in an image’s metadata for retrieval by choosing File ⇒ File Info.

Preferences ⇒ Tools

One option not selected by default that you may find very handy is Zoom Clicked Point to Center. When you click with the Zoom tool, this option automatically centers the view on the point where you clicked.

When using the transform commands, Photoshop shows you numerically precisely what you’re doing. A small display shows the new dimensions (when scaling) or the angle (when rotating or shearing). You may find that to the upper right of the cursor isn’t a good location (perhaps while using the stylus in your right hand on a Wacom Cintiq tablet). Change the location — or select Never to hide the info completely.

If you’re working with a machine that offers Gestures (pinching to zoom, three-finger swipe, and so on) and you like using Gestures, you can use them in Photoshop.

Preferences ⇒ Interface and Preferences ⇒ Workspace

The Interface and Workspace panels of the Preferences offers several options of note:

Appearance: You may find that Photoshop’s “dark interface” is not to your taste. (Try it for a while — it’ll likely grow on you.) You can select from among two lighter (and one even darker) interface appearances.
Screen Modes: You can easily customize the look of Photoshop’s three screen modes.
UI Font Size: If you find yourself squinting to read panel names and such, change the UI Font Size to Large and restart Photoshop. If you still have problems reading the screen, reduce the monitor’s resolution. (See Chapter 2 for details.)
Show Channels in Color: When only one channel is active in the Channels panel, it normally shows a grayscale representation of the image. If you prefer to have the active channel appear in its own color, select this option. Keep in mind, however, that after you get comfortable working with individual channels, the default grayscale is easier to see.
Show Menu Colors: As I discuss earlier in this chapter, you can assign colors to specific commands in the Photoshop menus. That might make it easier for you to quickly spot and select often-used commands. Use this option to disable the color coding without having to deselect each assigned color.
Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels: If you prefer an uncluttered workplace, here’s a great option for you! When selected, panels in icon mode (click the upper bar of a group of panels) collapse to buttons. To open a panel, click its button. When Auto-Collapse is selected, the selected panel automatically closes when you click elsewhere in Photoshop. If you need to keep a specific panel open while you work (perhaps Histogram or Info), drag it out of its group and away from the edge of the screen, and it will stay open until you close it.
Auto-Show Hidden Panels: Position the cursor over a collapsed panel and it springs open.
Open Documents as Tabs: Photoshop, by default, opens each document as a tab across the top of the work area. You click a tab to bring that image to the front. If you find that you’re constantly dragging tabs off to create floating windows, deselect this option in the Preferences. And if you disable tabbed image windows, you’ll likely also want to disable the Enable Floating Document Window Docking option. This prevents image windows from docking as you drag them around on-screen.

Preferences ⇒ File Handling

Image previews add a little to the file size, but in most cases, you want to include the preview. On Macs, you have the option of including a file extension or not (or having Photoshop ask you each and every time). Even if you don’t plan on sharing files with a Windows machine, I strongly recommend that you always include the file extension in the filename by selecting the Always option. Likewise, I suggest that you always maximize PSD and PSB file compatibility. This ensures that your Photoshop files can be opened (with as many features intact as possible) in earlier versions of the program and that they’ll function properly with other programs in the Creative Cloud. Maximizing compatibility can be critical if you also work with Adobe’s Lightroom CC.

Photoshop includes an auto-recovery feature, one that doesn’t compromise the creative process. If, as with some programs, your open file was simply saved to your hard drive at specific intervals, overwriting the original, your artistic experimentation could be limited to that specified time frame. Say, for example, that you tried a specific artistic filter, took an important phone call, and later found out that the program had rewritten the file on your hard drive and that experimental filter has become a permanent part of your artwork. But you decided you don’t like it after all. Bummer! (Or simply Undo, of course.) Rather than taking such risks with your creativity, Photoshop now can save recovery information, which doesn’t affect the original file in any way, at intervals specified in the Preferences. Or you can disable the feature by deselecting the check box.

Preferences ⇒ Performance

The Performance panel contains options related to how Photoshop runs on your computer:

Memory Usage: Try bumping the memory allocation to 100%. If things seem slower rather than faster, back off the memory allocation to perhaps 85%. In a 64-bit environment, Photoshop can take advantage of all the RAM you can cram (into the computer).
History States: This field determines how many entries (up to 1,000) appear in the History panel. Storing more history states provides more flexibility, but at a cost — storing too many history states uses up all your available memory and slows Photoshop to a crawl. Generally speaking, 20 or 30 is a good number. If, however, you do a lot of operations that use what I call “little clicks,” such as painting or dodging/burning with short strokes, that History panel fills quickly. For such operations, a setting of perhaps 50 or even 60 is more appropriate.
Cache Levels: The image cache stores low-resolution copies of your image to speed on-screen display at various zoom levels. Although this process speeds up screen redraw, the price is accuracy. Unless your video card has trouble driving your monitor at your selected resolution and color depth, you might be better served by Cache Levels: 1. That gives the most accurate picture of your work. (But remember to make critical decisions at 100% zoom, where one image pixel equals one screen pixel.)
Graphics Processor Settings: This area displays information about your computer’s video card. If your system has the capability, you’ll see a check box for Use Graphics Processor. This provides smoother, more accurate views at all zoom levels and other enhancements, including the capability to rotate the image on-screen — not rotate the canvas, but rotate just the on-screen image. And that’s too cool for words when painting a complex layer mask!

Preferences ⇒ Scratch Disks

Photoshop’s scratch disks are hard drive space used to support the memory. Use only internal hard drives as scratch disks — never an external drive, a network drive, or removable media! If you have multiple internal hard drives, consider a dedicated partition (perhaps 15–50GB) on the second drive — not the drive on which the operating system is installed. Name the partition Scratch and use it exclusively as a scratch disk for Photoshop (and perhaps Adobe Illustrator). If you have a couple of extra internal drives, each can have a scratch partition. (On a Windows computer, you might see a message warning you that the scratch disk and the Windows paging file, which serves the same basic purpose at the system level, are on the same drive. If you have only one internal hard drive, ignore the message.) To re-order the scratch disks, click the scratch disk in the list and then, rather than dragging, use the arrows keys to the right.

Preferences ⇒ Cursors

Photoshop offers you a couple of ways to display cursors for painting tools. You can show the tool icon (Standard), a small crosshair (Precise), or a representation of the tool’s brush tip, indicating the size and shape of the brush (Brush Size). With soft-edged brushes, the brush size cursor shows where the tool will be applied at 50% strength or higher. Alternatively, select the Full Size Brush Tip option, which always shows the full extent of the brush tip, regardless of the Hardness setting.

You also have the option of adding a crosshair in the middle of either brush-size cursor. The crosshair option is great for keeping a brush centered along an edge or path, and it just about eliminates the need for the Precise cursor option. As you can see in Figure 3-11 when working with a soft brush, showing all the pixels that are changed even a little (to the right) might not give you an accurate view of your work. (The Normal Brush Tip cursor is shown at the top center and the Show Crosshair in Brush Tip option can be seen at the lower left.)

FIGURE 3-11: When working with a low Hardness setting, Normal Brush Tip is usually best.

When the Show Only Crosshair While Painting option is selected in Preferences, the brush cursor appears at the selected diameter display (Full Size or Normal) until you press the mouse button (or press the stylus to the tablet). It then automatically switches to the crosshair and remains as a precise cursor until you release the mouse button (or lift the stylus). Experienced brush-tool-using Photoshoppers might want to experiment with this option — if you know the diameter, you might want to better focus on the center of the brush when you are, for example, painting or dodging or burning along a distinct edge.

When you’re sure that you have a brush-size cursor selected in the Preferences but Photoshop shows you the precise cursor, check the Caps Lock key. Pressing Caps Lock toggles the painting cursors between Precise and Brush Size.

Also found in the Cursors panel is the Brush Preview color. Click the color swatch to open the Color Picker and assign a color to use when dynamically resizing your brushes. (If you don’t have OpenCL drawing capability, the brushes can still be resized, but the color preview will not be visible.) With a brush-using tool active, press and hold down the Option+Control keys on a Mac and drag left or right; on a Windows machine, Alt-right-click and drag left or right to resize the brush — on the fly! Want to change the brush hardness? Hold down those same keys and drag up or down rather than left or right.

Preferences ⇒ Transparency & Gamut

If you work in grayscale regularly, you might want to change the color of the transparency grid to something that contrasts with your image; perhaps pale blue and pale yellow. If you find the gray-and-white checkerboard pattern distracting in images with transparency, you can set Grid Size to None, which gives you a plain white background in transparent areas of your artwork.

Preferences ⇒ Units & Rulers

If you create web graphics rather than print images, you probably want to change the unit of measure from Inches to Pixels. Keep in mind that you can change the unit of measure on the fly by right-clicking the rulers in your image (which you show and hide with the shortcut ⌘ +R/Ctrl+R). If you regularly print at a resolution other than 300 ppi, you might also want to adjust the default resolution for print-size new documents.

Preferences ⇒ Guides, Grid & Slices

Photoshop offers Smart Guides, which appear and disappear automatically as you drag the content of one layer into and out of alignment with the content of other layers. Smart Guides (magenta in color by default) show when the content of the layer you’re dragging aligns perfectly with the edges or center of other layers’ content. See Figure 3-12. (Show/hide Smart Guides through the View ⇒ Show menu. They are active by default now.)

FIGURE 3-12: The magenta guides show how the layer aligns with other layers.

Preferences ⇒ Plug-Ins

Extensions are panels created outside of the Adobe Photoshop development process that you can download or purchase. Allowing them to connect to the Internet to search for new content may or may not be a good idea, depending on your level of network security. I’m not suggesting that a panel could steal your passwords or anything like that, but unless you trust the source of the panel …

The creative filters of the Filter Gallery are not listed individually in the Filter menu. You open the Filter Gallery, and then select the filter you need. If you would rather have the Filter Gallery open directly to the filter you need, select Show All Filter Gallery Groups and Names option and restart Photoshop.

Preferences ⇒ Technology Previews

One of the several new Preferences panes is Technology Preview. Depending on which platform you use, your choices vary. Take a couple of moments (when you have time) to click the Learn More button to find out what the new technologies are all about.

Photoshop’s Preferences menu also provides you with direct access to the Camera Raw plug-in’s Preferences. In Camera Raw’s Preferences you can, among other things, determine whether JPEG and TIFF files open into Camera Raw. (Camera Raw is discussed in Chapter 7.)

Ensuring consistency: Color Settings

If one term strikes fear deep in the heart of a typical Photoshop user, it’s color management. Few aspects of the program are so misunderstood. Yet without wise color management decisions, your images won’t print accurately. For most Photoshop users, color management can be implemented with a few key choices in the Edit ⇒ Color Settings dialog box (shown in Figure 3-13), which can then be saved for future use:

Select an RGB working space. Open the Color Settings dialog box (under the Edit menu) and select your RGB working space, the color space in which you edit and create. If you primarily create web graphics, shoot in the JPEG format, send your images to a photo lab for printing, or print with an inkjet printer that uses only four ink colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), choose sRGB as your color space. If you shoot Raw and print to an inkjet printer that uses six or more inks, or if you prepare artwork that will be converted to a CMYK color space, choose Adobe RGB. (If you have hardware and software to create a custom profile for your computer’s monitor, use that profile at the system level so that it’s available to all programs.)
Elect to convert images to your working space. In the Color Management Policies area of the Color Settings dialog box, choose RGB: Convert to Working RGB. This ensures that the images you see onscreen actually use your working profile.
Turn off the mismatch warnings. Clear the check boxes for those annoying and time-wasting warnings that pop up on-screen any time you open an image with a profile other than your working space. You’re intentionally converting to your working space — you don’t need to reaffirm the decision every time.
CMYK and Grayscale settings: CMYK (cyan/magenta/yellow/black) color mode is used exclusively with images intended for output on commercial printing presses and some color laser printers. (Don’t be fooled by the inks you purchase for your inkjet printer — the printer’s driver expects to convert from RGB, so sending CMYK color to an inkjet will produce substandard output.) Likewise, you’ll use Grayscale very rarely. If, in fact, you have an inkjet printer that is capable of printing grayscale (such as the magnificent Epson Stylus Pro 7900), you may still want to have an RGB image and let the printer’s print driver handle the grayscale conversion. If, however, you are preparing an image for output on a commercial press (in CMYK or Grayscale color mode), speak directly with the person who will place the image into the page layout or with the print shop to find out what settings to use for that particular job.

FIGURE 3-13: Choose wisely in the Color Settings dialog box for optimal printing.

The preceding guidelines are appropriate for most, but not all, Photoshop users. You might fall into a special category. If you exclusively create web graphics, set the RGB color management policy to Off. In the Save for Web & Devices dialog box, when saving images in the JPEG file format, don’t embed ICC profiles. (ICC profiles make specific adjustments to the appearance of your images to compensate for vagaries of the hardware. I discuss color profiles in Chapter 4.) When you eliminate color profiles from the equation, you’re creating web graphics that any web browser can show properly (or, more accurately, “as properly as the viewer’s uncalibrated monitor can display”).

When it’s time to print, you’ll get the most accurate and pleasing color prints when you let Photoshop (rather than the printer) control color. In the Print dialog box’s Options area, choose Color Handling: Photoshop Manages Colors and select the printer’s own profile for the specific paper on which you’re printing as the Printer Profile. Use Relative Colorimetric as the rending intent and leave the Black Point Compensation check box selected. (Note: If your prints are too dark, try deselecting Black Point Compensation.) Click the Print Settings button to open the printer’s own options. Make sure to deactivate the printer’s built-in color management and select the same paper you chose to the right in Photoshop’s Print dialog box.

If you send your image files to an outside source for prints, they will likely require JPEG files using the sRGB color profile. Check the company’s website (or give them a call) and see if, instead, you can send TIFF files in Adobe RGB. That avoids the image degradation produced by JPEG’s compression and extends the color range for the images.

If color in your images needs to be absolutely perfect because merely accurate won’t do, consider purchasing hardware and software to calibrate and profile all the devices in your workflow. X-Rite (www.xrite.com), Datacolor (www.datacolor.com), and PANTONE (www.pantone.com) are three sources to explore.