Tip of the Day | Page 28

Locking A PDF Presentation

If you’re using Photoshop to create a PDF Presentation slide show (under the Automate submenu in the File menu) so you can email it to your clients for proofing, one of your concerns may be that your client will just print your photos out to a photo-quality printer, leaving you out in the cold (so to speak). But you can pull the plug on their printing aspirations. When saving your PDF Presentation, under Output Options, choose Presentation, then hit Save. It’ll ask you to name your PDF presentation (you’re not done yet), so name it and click Save. Then, a PDF options dialog will appear. Under Security (in the options along the left side), turn on the checkbox for Use a Password to Restrict Printing, Editing and Other Tasks under Permissions. Enter (and memorize) a password. Then, make sure Printing Allowed and Changes Allowed are set to None. Click Save PDF and it’ll ask for your password one more time. Now, when you email the PDF Presentation, printing will be grayed out, and even if they have the full version of Acrobat, they won’t be able to copy-and-paste your photos into something else for printing.

February 19th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Speeding Up Batch Actions

If you’re running a Batch action on a folder full of images, one of the things that can really slow the process down is the fact that the History palette keeps creating History States (undos) for each image. To keep your Batch actions running at full speed, there are two things you can do: In the History palette’s flyout menu, under History Options, turn off the checkbox for Automatically Create First Snapshot. Secondly, go under the Photoshop menu, under Preferences, and choose General (in Windows, Preferences can be found under the Edit menu). In the History States field, lower the number from 20 (the default) to 2 and click OK, then your Batch will run like a greased pig. Don’t forget to increase your History States or change your History Options back after you’re done batching or you’ll be down to two undos.

February 16th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Stroking Half A Path - Half A Path????

This is a mind-blowing advanced tip (not because it’s hard—it’s simple—but if you use the Pen tool [P], warning—your mind is about to spontaneously combust). Here’s the scoop: If you’re an advanced user, you already know that you can draw a path and then apply a stroke along that path (using the paint tool of your choice) by choosing Stroke Path from the Paths palette’s flyout menu. But dig this: If you draw your path, but only want to stroke a portion of that path, all you have to do is make a selection (using the any selection tool) of the part of the path you want stroked. Then when you choose Stroke Path, it will only stroke the area of your path that is contained within your selection. Boom! That was the sound of our heads exploding.

February 15th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Measure Twice, Look Once

If you need to measure more than one side of an object (for example, if you’re measuring a box, and you need the height and width), you can measure both at the same time. First, open the Info palette under the Window menu (so you can see the measurements that the Measure tool generates), then get the Measure tool (Shift-I until it comes up) and click-and-drag it along the first edge. Release the mouse when you reach the end of the edge. Then hold the Option key (PC: Alt key), click on the end of the first line, and continue on in a different direction. You’ll notice that another measurement line appears. Now, look in the Info palette and you’ll see your two measurements listed under D1 and D2.

February 14th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Embedding Paths Into Actions

If you’re creating actions and you want your action to include a path that you’ve created, you can do that, but you have to draw your path first, before you record your action. Once you’ve drawn your path, and it comes to the part of your action that requires the path, go to the Action palette’s flyout menu, choose Insert Path, and that path will be stored along with the action.

February 13th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Add To Your Selections Through The Channels Palette

If you’ve got the Channels palette open and you have multiple saved Alpha channels, you can load any Alpha channel as a selection by holding the Command key (PC: Control key) and clicking directly on the channel’s name. This instantly loads the selection. An even better tip: If you hold the Command key (PC: Control key) then add the Shift key (making it Command-Shift/Control-Shift) and click on another Alpha channel, it adds that to your current selection. You can keep adding more selections to your original selection until, well… until you run out of Alpha channels.

February 12th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Moving Multiple Curve Points At Once

If you’re working in the Curves dialog (Command-M [PC: Control-M]) and you want to make more than one point active at the same time, click on one point (to make it active) then hold the Shift key and click on another. As long as the Shift key is held down, you can click on as many points as you’d like to make them active at the same time.

February 9th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Making The Color Picker Show CMYK

If you’re working in CMYK mode and you go to the Color Picker, it still displays RGB colors. This is a bit of a problem, because you think you’re picking one color, but when you start to paint or fill with that color, you get the CMYK desaturated version. Here’s a tip to get around that. When you’re in CMYK mode and you go to the Color Picker, press Command-Y (PC: Control-Y), which is the shortcut for Proof Colors (found under the View menu). When you do this with the Color Picker open, it changes all the colors in the Color Picker to CMYK colors. That way, when you pick a color in the Color Picker, it looks the same when you paint or fill with it in your CMYK image.

February 8th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Tough Selection Tip

If you’re struggling to make a selection of an image that’s against either a background of a similar color or a very busy background, here’s a masking tip to make the process easier: Add a Levels or Curves adjustment layer above your image layer using the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu, and use it to dramatically increase the contrast in the image to help make the edges stand out. This will often help make the difference between the object’s edge and the background more obvious. The great part is, you can totally damage the look of the image because you’re using an adjustment layer. When your selection is in place, just drag the adjustment layer onto the Trash to delete it, and your image is back to normal, but you’ve got that “impossible” selection still in place.

February 6th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Plot Multiple Curve Points In Just One Click

We showed you how Photoshop will plot a point on the curve for you if you Command-click (PC: Control-click) on a color in your image that you want plotted. However, there’s a power tip that we waited until now to share—if you add the Shift key, making it Command-Shift-click (PC: Control-Shift-click), Photoshop will add a point for that spot on all the color channels for you. This works in both RGB and CMYK modes.

February 5th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Load Any Saved Selection Without The Channels Palette

If you’re working on an RGB image and you’ve saved a selection (by drawing a selection and choosing Save Selection from the Select menu), you can instantly reload that selection at any time, without going to the Channels palette. If you have only one saved selection, just press Command-Option-4 (PC: Control-Alt-4), and the selection will instantly appear onscreen. If you have a second saved selection, press Command-Option-5 (PC: Control-Alt-5), and so on. The key to remember is that the RGB channels take up the 1, 2, and 3 spots, so always start with 4 to load your first Alpha channel. Note: If you’re working with CMYK images, remember to always start with 5, because the CMYK channels take up the first four spots.

February 2nd, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Using The Lasso – Don’t Stop To Navigate

If you’re using the Lasso tool (L), you have a surprising amount of navigation control, even while you’re dragging out your selection. For example, if you’re drawing a selection and you need to scroll over a bit, just press-and-hold the Spacebar, and right where your cursor is, the Hand tool will appear. Then you can move the image while you’re still selecting (try it once and you’ll see what we mean). When you let go of the Spacebar, you’re right where you left off, and you can continue your selection. Here’s another Lasso tip: If you’re drawing a selection and reach the edge of your document window and need to scroll over, hold the Option key (PC: Alt key), let go of the mouse button, move your mouse to the edge of your image window, and you can nudge the screen over (again, this is one you have to try once to understand it). It’s like you’re using the Lasso tool to slide the image over. When you’re done sliding, press the mouse button and release Option/Alt to continue selecting. Incidentally, while selecting, you can also use the zoom in/out tricks: Command–+ (Plus Sign) (PC: Control–+) and Command–- (Minus Sign) (PC: Control–-).

February 1st, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Let Photoshop Tell You The Highlight And Shadow

We use this tip to have Photoshop help us determine which are the darkest (shadow) points and which are the lightest (highlight) points in an image when we’re color-correcting. We start by choosing a Threshold adjustment layer from the Create New Adjustment Layer pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette. When the Threshold dialog appears, we drag the slider all the way to the left and the image turns completely white. We then slowly drag the slider back to the right, and the first black pixels that appear onscreen are the shadow areas. We make a mental note of that area as our shadow point. Then we drag the slider all the way to the far right (the image turns black). As we drag slowly back toward the left, the first white pixels that appear are the highlight points in the image. We note them as well. We now know where the shadow and highlight points are in the image, and we can use them, along with the Eyedropper tools in the Curves dialog (Command-M [PC: Control[M]), to set the proper shadow and highlight areas to remove any color casts. Note: When you’ve determined where the shadow and highlight areas are, you can then delete the Threshold adjustment layer by dragging it into the Trash icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

January 31st, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

No More Creating Type In Channels

If you’ve ever tried to create and format type in a channel, you know what a pain it can be. Especially because, when you’re working in a channel, it doesn’t create an editable Type layer, so you’re really limited to how you can format and, of course, edit your type. So instead of creating type in a channel (which many special channel-type effects call for), just create your type on a layer as usual. In fact, don’t go to the Channels palette at all—just pretend you’re not using channels. Once you’ve got your type formatted and adjusted just the way you want it on your regular Type layer, Command-click (PC: Control-click) on your Type layer’s thumbnail in the Layers palette. This puts a selection around your type. Now you can go under the Select menu and choose Save Selection. When the dialog appears, click OK, and it saves your perfectly formatted type as (you guessed it) a channel. Now you can delete your Type layer, and you’re left with an Alpha channel with perfectly formatted type.

January 30th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

Blend Mode Power Tip

Once you understand layer blend modes, you wind up using them all the time. Chances are by now you know which individual modes you want to use (such as Overlay, Multiply, Soft Light, Hard Light, Screen) and which ones you’ll probably never use (such as Dissolve). If you know which ones you want to use, you can use a keyboard shortcut to jump right to the blend mode you want. For example, to jump to the Overlay mode for a layer, press Option-Shift (PC: Alt-Shift) and the first letter of the mode you want, in this case, the letter O (making the shortcut Option-Shift-O [PC: Alt-Shift-O]). For Screen mode, you’d press Option-Shift-S (PC: Alt-Shift-S), and so on. (Note: If you have a tool selected that has a blend mode in its Options Bar, such as the Brush tool [B], the keyboard shortcut will change that tool’s blend mode instead of the layer blend mode.)

January 29th, 2007 | Web Editor | Tip of the Day | Comments (0)

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