59141 About the Author...\n\nMacworld contributing editor Deke McClelland is an award-winning artist and writer living in Boulder, Colorado. In addition to hosting the educational TV show Digital Gurus, Deke is the author of the bestselling Macworld Photoshop Bible from IDG Books. He also wrote Photoshop for Dummies, Macworld FreeHand Bible, and Mac Multimedia and CD-ROMS for Dummies (all from IDG Books), as well as The Illustrator 6 Book (from Peachpit Press).\n\nTo order one of these excellent titles, contact IDG Books at (800) 762-2974 or Peachpit Press at (800) 283-9444.
59142 Tips and Tricks
59143 Did you know...
59178 Zoom Tool Essentials
59179 Press Ctrl with the spacebar to temporarily access the zoom tool. To zoom out, press Alt with the spacebar. Or you can permanently select the zoom tool by pressing the Z key.
59180 Zooming from the Keyboard
59181 Assuming default settings, magnifying and reducing the image with the zoom tool has no effect on the size of the window. If you want to expand and contract the window along with the image, press Ctrl-plus to zoom in or Ctrl-minus to zoom out. In Photoshop 3, you can zoom all the way in (16:1 screen-to-image pixel ratio) or all the way out (1:16) by pressing Ctrl-Alt-plus or Ctrl-Alt-minus. In Version 4, press Ctrl-Alt-plus and Ctrl-Alt-minus to zoom the image without resizing the window.
59182 Zooming in Photoshop 4
59183 The new Photoshop lets you zoom to 100 percent view size from the keyboard by pressing Ctrl-Alt-0 (zero). You can also press Ctrl-0 to reduce or magnify the image so it exactly fits on screen. (In Photoshop 3, you can accomplish these same tasks by double-clicking on the zoom and hand tool icons, respectively, in the toolbox. But let's face it, pressing a key is more convenient.)
59184 The New Magnification Value
59185 You can now enter a custom magnification value in Photoshop 4. Anything from 0.13 to 1600.00 percent is acceptable. To enter the value, display the status bar by choosing Show Status Bar from the Window menu. Then enter a value into the option box in the lower left corner of the screen.
59186 Applying the Magnification Value in Photoshop 4
59187 After modifying the magnification value in the Navigator palette -- or the one in the status bar at the bottom of the screen -- you can press Enter to apply the value and exit the option box. However, if you aren't sure of what value you want to use, try this: Press Shift-Enter to apply the magnification while keeping the value active, which permits you to further modify the value and try again.
59188 Using the Navigator Palette in Photoshop 4
59189 A little red rectangle shows the portion of the photo that's visible in the image window. Drag the rectangle to scroll the photo in the image window. But here's the hidden trick: Ctrl-drag to resize the rectangle and change the zoom ratio.
59190 Cancel to Reset
59191 To reset the settings inside many of Photoshop's dialog boxes, press the Alt key to change the Cancel button to Reset, then click on the Reset button to bring back the original values.
59192 Photoshop 4's Image Previews
59193 You can now save image previews from Photoshop 4. Just select the Save Thumbnail check box in the Save dialog box when saving the image to disk. From that point on, you can see a small preview of the image anytime you select the file inside the Open dialog box.
59194 Windows 95's Desktop Previews
59195 If you save an image in the native Photoshop format from Photoshop 4, you can view a preview of the image from the Windows 95 desktop. Just right-click on the Photoshop file and select Properties from the pop-up menu. Then click on the Photoshop Image tab in the Properties window to view the thumbnail. You can also view captions and other information entered using Photoshop's File Info command.
59196 Floating in Photoshop 3
59197 Press Ctrl-J to clone and float a selection. If the selection is already floating, Ctrl-J drops the floater in place. But if you add the Alt key, things change: Ctrl-Alt-J floats a selection without cloning, leaving a hole behind the floater. When applied to a floating selection, Ctrl-Alt-J drops a clone and leaves the floater intact.
59198 Ctrl-J in Photoshop 4
59199 If you're used to floating images in Photoshop, you'll find that things have changed a bit. First of all, Ctrl-J copies the selected area to a new layer. Shift-Ctrl-J cuts the selection to its own layer (leaving a hole behind). And if you add Alt to the mix, Photoshop displays a dialog box asking you to name the layer.
59200 Floating in Photoshop 4
59201 So the question becomes, How do you float? Moving and cloning selections still floats them. This means you can float a selection any time the move tool is active by pressing Alt-up arrow followed by down arrow (without Alt) to clone the selection and move it back into place. But watch out -- applying a filter or color-correction command to the floater defloats it. This means you have to convert the floater to a layer if you want to edit it. And if you ever feel the need to defloat a selection, press Ctrl-E.
59202 Dropping with the Type Tool (Photoshop 3 only)
59203 When you Ctrl-drag around part of a floating selection with the marquee or lasso tool, you delete it. If you prefer to merely deselect part of a floater -- and drop it into place -- Ctrl-drag around it with the type tool. This is an especially useful way to kern floating type. Ctrl-drag around one character, nudge the others, Ctrl-drag around another character, and so on.
59204 The Two Type Tools in Photoshop 4
59205 In Photoshop 3, you select the type tool from the keyboard by pressing the Y key. In the new Photoshop, you press the more logical T key. You can also switch between the standard type tool (which creates text on a new layer) and the type mask tool (which creates character selection outlines) by pressing T.
59206 The Type Mask Tool in Photoshop 4
59207 The new type mask tool lets you create selection outlines in the shape of letters. You can also add to existing selection outlines by Shift-clicking with the tool, or subtract from selections by Alt-clicking. Shift-Alt-click to find the intersection of the type with the existing selection.
59208 Type Tidbits
59209 Regardless of which version of Photoshop you use, the type tool functions more or less the same. If a selection is active, you have to click twice in the image window with the type tool to bring up the Type Tool dialog box. To exit the dialog box, you press Enter on the keypad (not the one above the Shift key). Photoshop 4's type tool creates text on a new layer, but that's the only difference.
59210 Adding to the Type Layer in Photoshop 4
59211 Any time you use the type tool in Photoshop 4, the program automatically selects the Preserve Transparency check box in the Layers palette. This way, you can adjust the color of the type and paint inside it, just as you could in the old days when type was a floating selection. However, it also means you can't add anything to the type layer until you first turn off Preserve Transparency.
59212 Working inside PhotoText
59213 Most folks agree that PhotoTools' most significant contribution to Photoshop is the PhotoText module. This one filter eliminates most uses for Photoshop's native type tool. And it offers a few unexpected keyboard shortcut: Press Ctrl-Tab to switch back and forth between the type and arrow tools.
59214 Changing Layers in Photoshop 3
59215 You can switch layers by pressing Ctrl-[ to select the next layer down and Ctrl-] to select the next layer up. You can also press Ctrl-Alt-[ or Ctrl-Alt-] to switch to the bottom or top layer.
59216 Reordering Layers in Photoshop 4
59217 In Photoshop 4, the layering shortcuts have been reassigned. Ctrl-] moves the selected layer up one level. Ctrl-[ moves the layer down one level. Ctrl-Shift-] and Ctrl-Shift-[ move the layer to the top or bottom of the stack. (All this excludes the background layer; you can't reorder the background layer, or move a layer behind it.)
59218 Changing Layers in Photoshop 4
59219 Since the old layer-selection keystrokes are otherwise occupied, Photoshop 4 had to invent new ones for switching layers. Now, you press Alt-[ to select the next layer down and Alt-] to select the next layer up. You can also press Shift-Alt-[ or Shift-Alt-] to switch to the bottom or top layer.
59220 The Layer Express (Photoshop 3 only)
59221 If you don't know which layer an image is on, select the move tool and Ctrl-click on the image. Photoshop takes you directly to the layer that contains the clicked image.
59222 The Layer Express (the Photoshop 4 way)
59223 In Photoshop 4, you can find out which layer contains an image without scrutinizing the Layers palette. Just right-click on the image with the move tool -- or Ctrl-right-click with some other tool -- to display a pop-up menu. The layer that contains the image appears at the top of the menu. If you want to bypass the pop-up menu, and make the layer active immediately, Ctrl-Alt-right-click on the image with any tool.
59224 Saving and Flattening Layers
59225 Just one file format -- the native Photoshop format -- supports layers. This means that if you want to import a layered image into QuarkXPress or some other publishing program, you have to flatten the image before saving it in TIFF or some other format. When doing so, be sure to use Photoshop's Save a Copy command (Ctrl-Alt-S in Photoshop 4). You can select any format you want and Photoshop will automatically flatten the layers. This keep your original layered file intact and permits you to continue editing the layers as long as you like.
59226 Shuffling the Icons in the Toolbar
59227 You can drag icons into and out of the PhotoTools toolbar when the Customize Toolbars dialog box is up. But you can also adjust icons without the dialog box with the help of the Alt key. Alt-drag an icon to change its position in the toolbar. Alt-drag the icon out of the toolbar to delete it.
59228 Hiding the Palettes in Photoshop 3
59229 Photoshop is one of the few programs that doesn't provide a command to hide and show the toolbox. You can hide and show the toolbox and all palettes by pressing the Tab key. To hide only the toolbox, press Alt-Tab.
59230 Hiding the Palettes in Photoshop 4
59231 The new Photoshop lets you hide the toolbox by choosing a command under the Window menu. You can also hide and show all palettes by pressing Tab. But here's the best part: to hide or show all the palettes except the toolbox and status bar, press Shift-Tab.
59232 Collapsing Palettes
59233 If a palette gets in the way of viewing an image, you can hide it by clicking in the close box on the far right side of the title bar, or collapse the palette by clicking in the collapse box just to the left of the close box. To collapse the palette down to its smallest possible size -- just the title bar and panel tabs -- Alt-click in the collapse box or double-click on a panel tab.
59234 Parting the Palettes
59235 Shift-click on a palette's title bar to snap the palette to the nearest edge of the screen, away from the center of the image window. You can also Shift-drag a palette to move it around the perimeter of the screen. This tip works equally well with the toolbox.
59236 Palette Function Keys
59237 You can hide and display palettes by pressing function keys along the top of the keyboard. Press F5 to hide or show the Brushes palette, F6 for the Picker palette (the Color palette in Photoshop 4), F7 for Layers, and F8 for Info. In Photoshop 3, F9 brings up the Commands palette. Or you can simply select an option from the convenient Palettes Menu icon in the PhotoTools toolbar.
59238 New and Improved Sanitation in Photoshop 4
59239 The Layers, Channels, Paths, and Actions palettes include little trash icons in their lower right corners. In Photoshop 3, you had to drag an item onto the trash icon in order to delete it. Now you can just click on the trash icon to delete the selected item. To bypass the trash warning, Alt-click on the trash icon.
59240 Enter for Options
59241 Never double-click on a tool icon to display the Options palette. It's much easier to simply press the Enter key when the tool is selected. This not only displays the palette but also activates the first option box value. Then you can enter a new number and press Enter to apply it.
59242 Context-Sensitive Pop-up Menus in Photoshop 4
59243 The new Photoshop makes it very easy to access frequently used commands. If you click the right mouse button inside the image window, Photoshop displays a pop-up menu of commands related to the selected tool. (Finally, Photoshop is Windows 95 compliant!) These context-sensitive menus aren't as extensive as in some programs, but they do come in helpful.
59244 Nudging Numbers
59245 You can incrementally adjust a highlighted option box value in just about any dialog box by pressing an arrow key. Press the up or down arrow key to raise or lower the value by 1; press Shift-up arrow or Shift-down arrow to raise or lower the value by 10.
59246 Getting Out of an Option Box Rut in Photoshop 4
59247 If you press a key and Photoshop doesn't seem to react -- or worse, it beeps at you -- it's probably because Photoshop is trying to apply the key to an active option box. To get out of the option box and return control to the image window, press the Enter key.
59248 Sizing a New Image
59249 When creating a new image, Photoshop automatically adjusts the settings in the New dialog box to match the contents of the Clipboard. If you press Alt when choosing the New command (or press Ctrl-Alt-N), Photoshop ignores the Clipboard and brings up the default settings. You can also set the new image to exactly match the image size, resolution, and color mode of any open image. Simply choose a file name from the Window menu while the New dialog box is open.
59250 Resample or Crop to Match
59251 You can match the size and resolution of an image to another open image in two ways. You can resample the image, choose the Image Size command. and then select the image you want to match from the Window menu. To crop the image, choose the Canvas Size command and then select an image name from the Window menu.
59252 Color-Correction Coda
59253 The color-correction dialog boxes reset each time you bring them up on screen to provide you with a fresh start. But there may be times when you want to take the corrections that you applied to one image and duplicate them onto another. To reinstate the last settings you applied, press the Alt key when choosing the command. Or press Alt along with the standard keyboard shortcut, as in Ctrl-Alt-L for Levels.
59254 Levels Invert
59255 You can invert an image from inside the Levels dialog box by exchanging the first and last Output Levels slider triangles. (The Output Levels values change from 0 and 255 to 255 and 0.) This is a particularly good way to edit masks -- rather than inverting and correcting in two separate operations, you do it in one, permitting you to undo the operation if you don't like the result.
59256 Pencil and Smooth
59257 The Curves dialog box is a wonderful tool for correcting colors, but adding and moving points inside the graph can result in humps that translate to flattened colors. Switching to the pencil tool makes editing easier and affords more control. You can click and Shift-click to set points in the graph and connect them with straight lines. Then click on the Smooth button several times to smooth out the color transitions. The pencil turns Curves into a friendlier and more productive environment.
59258 Creating Tints
59259 In Adobe Illustrator, you can Shift-drag a slider handle in the Paint Style palette to move all CMYK handles in unison, which permits you to create a tint. If you're one of the many folks who wonder why this technique doesn't work in Photoshop's Picker palette (the Color palette in Version 4), the answer is very simple -- it doesn't need to. You can create a tint of any color by choosing HSB Sliders from the Picker palette menu and then adjusting the B slider. The B stands for Brightness, meaning that it maintains the hue and saturation, and modifies just the tint.
59260 CMYK Picker
59261 You can choose both the CMYK Preview and Gamut Warning commands while inside Photoshop's Color Picker dialog box. CMYK Preview shows all colors as they appear in the CMYK color space; Gamut Warning coats all RGB colors that fall outside the CMYK gamut with gray. This latter command is especially useful for masking out colors that won't print. (In Photoshop 4, you can use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-Y for CMYK Preview and Ctrl-Shift-Y for Gamut Warning.)
59262 Modifying Selection Outlines in Photoshop 3
59263 After selecting part of an image, you can add to the selection by Shift-dragging with the marquee or lasso tool (or Shift-clicking with the magic wand tool). To carve bits out of the selection, Ctrl-drag (or Ctrl-click) with one of these tools. And to find the intersection of the selection and a new area, Ctrl-Shift-drag (or click).
59264 Modifying Selection Outlines in Photoshop 4
59265 Selections have changed in Version 4 of the program. You still add to a selection by Shift-dragging (or Shift-clicking with the wand). But to subtract from a selection, you have to press the Alt key when clicking or dragging. And to find the intersection, press Shift and Alt.
59266 Accessing the Move Tool in Photoshop 4
59267 The reason why Photoshop 4 has abandoned the long-time subtraction key Ctrl in favor of the upstart Alt is that Ctrl now serves a different function. To make Photoshop more consistent with Illustrator, pressing the Ctrl key temporarily selects the move tool. (The only exception is when a path tool is active, in which case pressing Ctrl temporarily selects the path arrow tool.)
59268 More on the Move Tool in Photoshop 4
59269 To move or clone a selection or layer, you now have to use the move tool. (Unless the selection is floating, simply dragging a selection with the marquee, lasso, or magic wand moves the selection outline without altering the image.) Lucky for that Ctrl key. When any tool but the path tool is selected, you can Ctrl-drag a selection or layer to move it. Ctrl-Alt-drag a selection to clone it.
59270 Adding a Square Area
59271 As any first-year image editor knows, you draw a perfect square with the rectangular marquee tool by pressing the Shift key. But in Photoshop, you press Shift after you start dragging and release the key after you release the mouse button. For example, to add a square area to a selection, press the Shift key, start dragging with the marquee tool, release the Shift key, press Shift again, finish dragging, release the mouse button, and then release Shift. Give it a try to get the hang of it.
59272 Add and Subtract by Command
59273 The Color Range command under the Select menu selects areas according to color, like a magic wand on steroids. Normally, the command creates a new selection from scratch, but you can also modify existing selections. In Photoshop 3, Shift-choose the Color Range command to add to a selection; Ctrl-choose the command to subtract; and Ctrl-Shift-choose the command to find the intersection. (In Photoshop 4, substitute the Alt key in place of Ctrl.)
59274 Quick Mask Quickies
59275 Press the Q key to enter the quick mask mode, where you can edit the selection outline as if it were a rubylith. Press the Q key again to exit the mode. Alt-click on the quick mask icon in the toolbox to reverse the rubylith; that is, color the selected area with red and make the deselected area transparent. Double-click on the quick mask icon to change the color of the rubylith so it stands out better from the image.
59276 Transforming a Selection
59277 To transform an image and preserve the selection, switch to quick mask mode, perform the transformation, and switch back out. For example, if you switched to the quick mask mode and applied the Image Size command, Photoshop would scale both the image and the selection together.
59278 Transforming a Path
59279 Photoshop scales, flips, and rotates paths with an image. But how do you transform a path independently of an image? First duplicate the image using the Duplicate command, then apply the desired transformation. Finally, use the arrow tool in the Paths palette to drag and drop the transformed path into the original image window. (You'll probably need to Alt-click on the path to select the entire thing. If so, be sure to Alt-click and drag in two separate steps. If you accidentally Alt-drag the path, the trick won't work.)
59280 Selective Reversions
59281 Most folks know that pressing Delete fills a selection with the background color (or leaves a transparent hole in a layer), and Alt-Delete fills with the foreground color. But few seem to realize that Shift-Delete brings up the Fill dialog box, so that you can fill a selection with pixels from the last saved version of the image.
59282 More Delete Key Tricks in Photoshop 4
59283 Just when you thought you knew every Delete key shortcut, Photoshop 4 comes along and piles on a few more. First, you can press Ctrl-Delete to fill any selection with the background color, even if the selection is floating or on a layer. When working on a layer, you can press Ctrl-Shift-Delete to fill just the opaque area of a selection with the background color. And press Shift-Alt-Delete to fill the opaque area with the foreground color.
59284 Applying Effects to Multiple Layers in Photoshop 4
59285 You can now apply color corrections to multiple layers at a time. To do so, choose New Adjustment Layer from the Layers palette menu, or Ctrl-click on the little page icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Then select the kind of color correction you want to apply and press Enter. The correction affects all layers below it. To exclude areas from the correction, you can paint with black inside the adjustment layer. (It works just like a layer mask.) And if you want to edit the color correction, double-click on the layer name in the palette.
59286 Clone Visible Layers
59287 Unfortunately, no version of Photoshop lets you apply filters to multiple layers at a time. The workaround is to preview an operation on a flattened version of the layers, and then duplicate the effect onto each layer independently. Start by hiding all layers except the ones you want to edit (using the eyeball icons in the Layers palette). In Photoshop 3, press the Alt key and choose the Merge Layers command from the Layers palette menu. This clones and merges all layers onto a new layer at the top of the stack. In Photoshop 4, you have to first create a new layer, but you have a new keyboard shortcut, Ctrl-Shift-Alt-E. Experiment with the merged layer as desired. Then throw away the merged layer and repeat the filter on the individual layers in the composition.
59288 Defloating Layers in Photoshop 4
59289 The days of floating images are dead. But luckily, you don't have to change your work habits substantially. After sending a selection to a new layer with Ctrl-J or pasting in a new layer with Ctrl-V, you can merge the layer and the one immediately below it by pressing Ctrl-E. It's just like merging a floating selection with the underlying image, which is why Ctrl-E works for defloating as well.
59290 Merging Layers in Photoshop 4
59291 Ctrl-E isn't the only way to merge layers in Photoshop 4. You can merge all visible layers by pressing Ctrl-Shift-E. To add the contents of the active layer to the layer below it without deleting either layer, press Ctrl-Alt-E. And to merge all visible layers and clone them onto the active layer, press Ctrl-Shift-Alt-E.
59292 Copying across the Layers in Photoshop 4
59293 Another way to duplicate the contents of multiple layers is to use the new Copy Merged command. This copies all visible pixels inside the selection. You can also avail yourself of the logical keyboard shortcut, Ctrl-Shift-C.
59294 Pasting into Layers in Photoshop 4
59295 I like layers as much as the next guy, but Photoshop 4 has gone layers-happy. Whenever you choose the Paste command, for example, Photoshop creates a new layer. Even the Paste Into command results in a new layer, one that includes an automatic layer mask that matches the outline of your previous selection. The good news is that the Paste Into command finally gets the keyboard shortcut it has long deserved, Ctrl-Shift-V.
59296 Converting Channels
59297 You can convert a channel to a selection outline by Alt-clicking on the channel name in the Channels palette. (In Photoshop 4, you have to Ctrl-click on the channel name.) This goes for color and composite channels, as well as those that may contain masks. You can even access the selection outline represented by the quick mask while in the quick mask mode by Alt-clicking (or Ctrl-clicking) on the Quick Mask item in the Channels palette.
59298 Switching Channels in Photoshop 3
59299 Don't forget that you can switch between channels from the keyboard. In a grayscale image, Ctrl-1 displays the main image while Ctrl-2 and higher take you to different mask channels. In an RGB image, Ctrl-0 takes you to the color composite view, Ctrl-1 displays the Red channel, Ctrl-2 displays Green, and Ctrl-3 displays Blue. Higher numbers take you to mask channels. All shortcuts are listed in the Channels palette.
59300 Switching Channels in Photoshop 4
59301 The new Photoshop has gone and changed the keyboard shortcut for accessing the color composite from Ctrl-0 to Ctrl-`. (That's the grave/tilde key in the upper left corner of the keyboard.) This should manage to confuse a few old-timers, since this very same shortcut used to switch to the layer mask (now changed to Ctrl-\). Good thing the Channels palette lists the new keyboard tricks.
59302 Converting Channels from the Keyboard
59303 Press Ctrl-Alt and one of the number keys to convert one of the first 10 channels to a selection. In an RGB image, Ctrl-Alt-0 (or Ctrl-Alt-` in Photoshop 4) converts the composite image to a selection, Ctrl-Alt-1 converts the Red channel, and so on.
59304 Adding and Subtracting Channels
59305 In Photoshop 3, Shift-Alt-click on a channel name in the Channels palette to convert the channel to a selection and add that selection to the existing one. In Photoshop 4, Ctrl-Shift-click on a channel name to achieve this same effect. In either version, Ctrl-Alt-click to subtract the channel from the selection, and Ctrl-Shift-Alt-click to find the intersection.
59306 Saving Mask Channels
59307 Photoshop permits you to save an image with a mask channel in the PICT, TIFF, or native Photoshop file format. PICT is only a fair format for this purpose, because it is limited to four channels -- RGB plus one mask -- and the format is not widely supported outside the PC. However, both TIFF and Photoshop are excellent formats. Either format saves as many mask channels as you can create. And TIFF offers the added advantage of wide support from both Windows and Macintosh applications.
59308 Nudging the Selection
59309 To move the selected area in an image by a single pixel, press any one of the four arrow keys. The image moves in the direction of the arrow. To move a selection 10 pixels, press Shift with an arrow key. Press Alt with an arrow key to clone the selected portion of an image and nudge it 1 point in the direction of the arrow. Press Shift-Alt-arrow to clone and nudge 10 points.
59310 Nudging in Photoshop 4
59311 Before nudging a non-floating selection with the arrow keys in Photoshop 4, you have to select the move tool. You can either press the V key, or you can temporarily select the move tool by pressing Ctrl. For example, to nudge a selection when any tool but the move tool is active, press Ctrl with an arrow key. To clone a selection, press Ctrl and Alt with an arrow key. (Once you get the selection floating, you can press the arrow keys without the help of Ctrl, assuming that a selection tool is active. If a painting tool is active, keep that Ctrl key down.)
59312 Nudging Everything
59313 When no selection is active, you can nudge the entire image or layer. Just select the move tool (press V) and press an arrow key to move 1 pixel or Shift-arrow to move 10. In Photoshop 4, you can nudge an entire layer when some other tool is selected by pressing Ctrl with an arrow key.
59314 Moving Empty Selection Outlines in Photoshop 3
59315 Press Ctrl and Alt when dragging a selection to move the selection outline independently of the pixels it contains. You can also press Ctrl and Alt with an arrow key to nudge the selection outline independently of the image.
59316 Moving Empty Selection Outlines in Photoshop 4
59317 One of the many changes that's bound to bewilder long-time Photoshop users is Version 4's distinction between the selection tools -- which create and modify selection outlines -- and the move tool -- which changes the selected pixels. For example, you can now drag a selection outline with the marquee, lasso, or magic wand to move the outline independently of the image. Or, so long as a selection tool is active, press the arrow keys to nudge the selection outline. (One caveat: If the selection is floating, you first have to press Ctrl-E to defloat it.)
59318 Scrolling from the Keyboard
59319 Photoshop lets you scroll from the keyboard using the Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys. Press Page Up and Page Down to scroll up or down an entire screen (as when clicking in the scroll bar). To scroll up or down less dramatically (as when clicking on a scroll arrow), press the Shift key with Page Up or Page Down. You can also press the Home key to go to the upper left corner of an image or End to go to the lower right corner.
59320 Scrolling within Filmstrip Files
59321 Photoshop provides many keyboard tricks that expedite the editing of Filmstrip files creates in Adobe Premiere. To scroll up or down exactly one frame, press Shift-Page Up or Shift-Page Down. To move a selection up or down exactly one frame, press Shift-up arrow or Shift-down arrow. And to clone a selection onto the previous or next frame, press both Shift and Alt with the up or down arrow key. (To move or clone a selection in Photoshop 4, either select the move tool or press the Ctrl key along with all the others.)
59322 Channel Drop in Photoshop 3
59323 Unfortunately, you can't use the Ctrl and Alt keys to transfer a selection outline -- without pixels -- from one image to another. Dragging and dropping copies the pixels, regardless of what keys are pressed. To transfer a selection outline by itself, first convert the selection to a channel by clicking on the dotted circle icon in the Channels palette. Then drag and drop the channel name from the palette into the other image window. Inside the other image, Alt-click on the dropped channel to convert it back to a selection, and Ctrl-Alt-drag the selection into place.
59324 Shuttling Selection Outlines in Photoshop 4
59325 You can drag and drop channels between images in Photoshop 4, but it's rarely necessary thanks to the program's new treatment of selection outlines. Transferring a selection outline from one image to another is as easy as dragging the selection with the marquee, lasso, or magic wand and dropping it in a different image window. (Just be sure the selection isn't floating; if it is, press Ctrl-E to defloat.)
59326 Select the Selection Tools
59327 You can select the rectangular marquee tool at any time by pressing the M key. Press M again to switch to the elliptical marquee tool. You can also press L for the lasso tool and W for the magic wand.
59328 Selecting the Crop Tool
59329 In Photoshop 4, the crop tool has been stashed away in the marquee tool pop-up menu. Selecting the tool manually is a pain in the neck. So if you don't already know the keyboard shortcut, it's time to learn. Just press the C key.
59330 Drawing Geometric Shapes
59331 Photoshop's seeming lack of geometric drawing tools perplexes many new users; but the tools aren't absent, they're just hidden. To draw a rectangle, select an area with the rectangular marquee tool and then choose the Stroke command from the Edit menu (or just click on the Stroke icon thoughtfully provided in the PhotoTools toolbar). To create an oval, draw a selection with the elliptical marquee tool and apply the Stroke command.
59332 Moving Unfinished Shapes in Photoshop 4
59333 If you press the spacebar while dragging with the marquee or crop tool in Photoshop 4, the program stops resizing the shape and starts moving it. This excellent trick makes it easier to properly position a shape, especially when drawing the shape outward from its center (a feat pulled off with the help of the Alt key).
59334 Bring Up the Paths Palette in Photoshop 3
59335 You can display many of Photoshop's palettes by pressing function keys, but one palette, Paths, follows the beat of a different drummer. To display the Paths palette, press the T key. See, pressing T selects the pen tool, and the pen tool is in the Paths palette. Press T a second time to switch to the arrow tool, also found in the Paths palette.
59336 Selecting the Path Tools in Photoshop 4
59337 In Version 4, the pen tool is no longer located in the Paths palette. And since the T key now selects the type tool, the keyboard shortcut has changed as well. You now press the P key to select the pen tool. Press P additional times to cycle through the other path tools. (The P shortcut comes at the expense of the pencil tool, which now gets the old type tool shortcut, Y. My guess is that somewhere at Adobe, there's a product manager who writes with a pyncyl.)
59338 Give Yourself a Hand
59339 Press the spacebar to temporarily access the hand tool when working in Photoshop. If you want the hand to stay active for a while -- as when admiring your artwork -- press the H key. (Now there's something you don't see every day -- two keyboard tricks in a row that haven't changed in Photoshop 4.)
59340 Lifting Colors
59341 Depending on the active tool, you may be able to temporarily access the eyedropper tool by pressing the Alt key. Alt-click on a color in the image window to make that color the foreground color (assuming the foreground icon is active in the Picker palette, as it is by default). To change the background color, you have to switch to the eyedropper tool by pressing the I key, and then Alt-click.
59342 Shuffling and Combining Panels
59343 You can move a panel from one palette to another by dragging its tab and dropping it into a different palette. For example, in Photoshop 3, I like to drag the Picker panel out of the color palette and drop it into the Brushes palette. You can also drag a panel out of the palette and drop it into mid-air to start a new palette.
59344 Changing Erasers
59345 The E key is your ticket to the eraser. Press the E key once to select the eraser tool. Then press the E key again to change the type of eraser. The E key switches from the paintbrush eraser to the airbrush eraser, then to the pencil eraser, then to the block eraser, and back to paintbrush. If you're ever unsure where you are, press E until the cursor changes to a square, which indicates the block. One more E takes you back to paintbrush, and so on.
59346 Reverting with the Eraser
59347 To erase an image back to the way it looked when you last saved it, Alt-drag with the eraser tool. You'll get the smoothest results if you Alt-click with the eraser to load the saved image into memory, and then start Alt-dragging.
59348 Changing Opacity
59349 When an image is floating or assigned to a layer, you can change the opacity of the image from the keyboard. With the marquee, lasso, magic wand, or move tool selected, press a number key to modify the Opacity setting in the Layers palette. Press 1 to change the setting to 10 percent, 2 for 20 percent, and so on, up to 0 for 100 percent (which is absolutely opaque).
59350 Finer Opacity Control in Photoshop 4
59351 In Photoshop 4, you can change the opacity of a layer from the keyboard with 1 percent accuracy. When one of the selection tools is active, just press two keys in a row. For example, press 2 and 8 to get 28 percent, or 6 and 4 to get 64 percent.
59352 Make the Temporary Permanent
59353 Whenever you see an italic item in the Layers or Paths palette, it means Photoshop has created a temporary layer or path. For example, when you float a selection, the words Floating Selection appear in italics in the Layers palette. You can double-click on an italic entry in either palette to name it and save it permanently with the image. Alt-double-click on Floating Selection to let Photoshop name the new layer automatically.
59354 Hiding the Ants
59355 Sometimes the marching ants around a selection outline just get in your face. When they do, press Ctrl-H to hide the ants. The selection remains intact: the outline is merely hidden. Press Ctrl-H again to bring the ants back (unless you're at a picnic, of course, in which case you just need to unwrap the cantaloupe).
59356 Avoiding the Path
59357 Another item that can get in your face when working with an image is the path. When a path is visible on screen, Photoshop seems to go out of its way to apply all applicable operations to the path instead of to the image itself. To deactivate the path so it's no longer in your way, switch to the Paths palette and click in the empty area below the path name. Or, in Photoshop 3, you can simply press F7 to switch out of the Paths palette.
59358 Hiding the Path in Photoshop 4
59359 Photoshop 4 offers a new command that lets you hide the path temporarily so you can better see the image: just press Ctrl-Shift-H. But watch out. Although invisible, the path remains active, so you can still hurt it by pressing the Delete key.
59360 Selecting Layers in Photoshop 3
59361 After you convert a floating selection to an independent layer, you lose the selection outline. But not to worry, you can always get the selection outline back. Just press Ctrl-Alt-T to load the layer's so-called transparency mask, which is the selection outline around the opaque and translucent portions of the layer.
59362 Selecting Layers in Photoshop 4
59363 The Ctrl-Alt-T trick goes the way of so many other lost keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop 4. But this time, the new way makes a lot more sense. Ctrl-click on any layer name in the Layers palette to select the layer's transparency mask. It doesn't matter whether it's the layer you're working on or not.
59364 Adding and Subtracting Transparency Masks in Photoshop 4
59365 Shift-Ctrl-click on a layer name in the Layers palette to load the transparency mask and add it to the existing selection outline. This means you can combine multiple transparency masks just by Ctrl-clicking on one layer and Ctrl-Shift-clicking on another. Ctrl-Alt-click to subtract the transparency mask from the selection, and Ctrl-Shift-Alt-click to find the intersection.
59366 Repeat the Filter
59367 Press Ctrl-F to reapply the most recent command from the Filter menu. If the filter normally displays a dialog box -- as in the case of Unsharp Mask, Gaussian Blur, and other favorites -- then Ctrl-F skips the dialog box and repeats the last settings. To reapply the filter with different settings, press Ctrl-Alt-F.
59368 Float, Then Filter, in Photoshop 3
59369 Before you ever apply a filter to a selection, you should always press Ctrl-J to float the selection. Why? Because you can mix the floating filtered image with the underlying original to expand your range of options. Suddenly, a filter like Find Edges that has just one setting can produce several thousand variations, one for each of the 100 Opacity settings times 10 or more for the different blend modes (Multiply, Screen, and so on). Floating expands flexibility.
59370 Fading a Filter in Photoshop 4
59371 In the new Photoshop, there's no need to float before filtering. After applying any filter, choose the Fade command -- third one down in the Filter menu -- or press Ctrl-Shift-F. You can then specify an Opacity setting and a blend mode to mix the filtered image with the original. But you have to use this command right after applying a filter or you lose your chance to fade.
59372 Don't Save
59373 If you want to close an image without saving it, press Ctrl-W to close it and N to select the No button. If you change your mind after pressing Ctrl-W, press Escape to cancel the operations and leave the image up on screen.
59374 Turn On Preview!
59375 Nearly every one of the color-correction dialog boxes -- Levels, Curves, and the like -- provides a Preview check box that permits you to view the results of your settings in the image window. Some artists like to turn this check box off, in which case Photoshop applies the settings to the entire screen. You can click and hold on the title bar to reset the screen to normal, then release the title bar to see the effect again. But before you place too much faith in this technique, try it out in the CMYK mode. Not the same, is it? The only way to ensure reliable previews is to select the Preview check box and leave it on.
59376 Turn Off Video LUT Animation!
59377 Assuming you wisely accept that a color-correction command provides a more accurate preview when the Preview check box is on than when it's off, you may still wish for a method to compare before and after views of the image. All you have to do is go into the Preferences dialog box and turn off the evil Video LUT Animation check box (located in the Display & Cursors section in Photoshop 4). Now when you turn off the Preview check box in a color-correction dialog box you get a 'before' view, and when you select the option you get an accurate 'after; view.
59378 Duplicate Already
59379 When you choose the Duplicate command from the Image menu to create a clone of the foreground image, Photoshop asks you to name the duplicate. What a waste of your valuable time! Press the Alt key while choosing the Duplicate command to bypass the dialog box and let Photoshop name the cloned image automatically.
59380 Calling All Brushes in Photoshop 3
59381 If you have trouble remembering how to access Photoshop's painting tools from the keyboard, just think of America's Funniest Thwarted Criminals or one of those other real-life crime dramas. Press A for the airbrush, P for the pencil, and B for the paintbrush. Roger, that's an APB.
59382 An Ocean Full of Brushes in Photoshop 4
59383 Now that Y is the shortcut for the pencil tool, my terrific APB tip doesn't hold true in Photoshop 4. Instead, the keyboard shortcuts for the paintbrush, airbrush, and pencil spell BAY, which isn't nearly so much fun. I mean, didn't someone at Adobe have the common courtesy to say, 'You know, if we change the shortcut for the pencil tool, we're going to mess up Deke's insightful APB tip'? Apparently not.
59384 Pucker Up for the Edit Tools
59385 When you need to select one of Photoshop's retouching tools, think of a lemon. Press S to select the rubber stamp, O for dodge and burn, U for the smudge tool, and R for blur and sharpen. That's a mighty SOUR collection of tools.
59386 The Royal Fill and Stroke Tools
59387 Photoshop provides four fill and stroke tools, all of which reign supreme. Press K to get the paint bucket, I for the eyedropper, N for the line tool, and G for the gradient tool. Make way for the KING of color tools. (If you don't use the paint bucket -- and who can blame you? -- then you can leave it out and get an even better acronym. I mean, I'd rather think about a dry martini than George III any day.)
59388 Drawing Straight Lines
59389 Click with a painting or retouching tool, then Shift-click at a different location to draw a straight line between the two clicks. For some reason, Photoshop 3 adopted a different approach with selections. If you want to draw a selection outline with straight edges, press the Alt key and click away with the lasso tool.
59390 Polygonal Lassoing in Photoshop 4
59391 Because Alt-dragging with a selection tool subtracts from the existing selection outline in Photoshop 4, Alt-clicking with the lasso tool has become much trickier. After selecting the lasso, press and hold the mouse button, then press and hold the Alt key, and then start clicking at different points in your image. If you can't quite get that to work, press the L key to switch to the new polygonal lasso tool, then click away without pressing any key.
59392 Rotating and Moving the Crop in Photoshop 3
59393 After drawing a boundary with the crop tool, you can resize the boundary by dragging on a corner handle. You can also rotate the crop boundary by Alt-dragging a corner handle or move the boundary by Ctrl-dragging.
59394 Editing the Cropping Boundary in Photoshop 4
59395 Cropping is much changed in Photoshop 4. After drawing a cropping boundary with the crop tool, you can change the size by dragging a corner handle, as before. But to rotate the crop, you drag outside the cropping boundary (just plain weird). To move the crop, drag inside the boundary. To complete the crop, double-click inside the boundary or press the Enter key. And to cancel the crop, press Escape.
59396 Demon Xylophone
59397 Press the D key to return to the default foreground and background colors, black and white. To interchange the foreground and background colors, press X.
59398 Your Own Private Color Bar
59399 By default, Photoshop displays the CMYK color spectrum in the color bar along the bottom of the Picker palette. But you can set the color bar to display the RGB spectrum, a progression of gray values, or a gradation between the foreground and background colors. To change the color bar, Ctrl-click on it and select a new option or Shift-click to cycle through the collection.
59400 Modifying the Brush Size
59401 When painting or retouching, you can decrease the size of the brush by pressing the [ key, and increase the brush size by pressing ]. Press Shift-[ to switch to the single-pixel brush, which is the first one in the Brushes palette. Press Shift-] to switch to the last brush in the palette.
59402 Refining Your Strokes
59403 To apply a translucent brushstroke with a painting or retouching tool, press a number key. Press 1 for the 10 percent opacity, which is nearly transparent, all the way up to 9 for 90 percent opacity. Pressing 0 results in the darkest possible brushstroke. In Photoshop 4, you can press two numbers in a row for more precise opacity settings.
59404 Monkeying with the Brushes
59405 To edit a brush in the Brushes palette, double-click on it. To create a new brush, click in the empty area below the brush icons. To delete a brush, Ctrl-click on it.
59406 Creating Custom Gradients in Photoshop 4
59407 Adobe has significantly enhanced gradients in Photoshop 4, permitting you to create custom gradients comprising multiple colors. Click on the Edit button in the Gradient Tool Options palette to display the Gradient Editor dialog box. Click along the color bar to add a color, drag the color away from the bar to delete it. Drag the diamonds along the top of the bar to change how the colors mix. To lift a color from the image, just move the cursor outside the dialog box to get the eyedropper and click.
59408 Adjusting Gradient Transparency in Photoshop 4
59409 The new Photoshop lets you create gradients that fade in and out as many times as you like and to varying degrees. Inside the Gradient Editor dialog box, select the Transparency radio button. Then click on one of the swatches and enter an Opacity value. Or click along the color bar to create your own swatch. The second color bar along the bottom of the dialog box shows you the final gradient. When applying the gradient to the image, you can select whether or not to use the transparency by turning on or off the Mask check box in the Gradient Tool Options palette.
59410 Magic Marker
59411 To create a magic marker brush in Photoshop, select the paintbrush tool by pressing the B key, then press the Enter key to bring up the Options palette. Select the Wet Edges check box, and select Multiply from the brush modes pop-up menu in the upper left corner of the palette. Now select a bright color like red or yellow and paint away. Paint multiple overlapping strokes in different colors to achieve the full effect. You can also use the Screen and Overlay modes to achieve highlighter effects.
59412 Hand-Coloring an Image
59413 You can colorize an image with the paintbrush, pencil, or airbrush tool by selecting the Color option from the brush modes pop-up menu in the upper-left corner of the Options palette. Also, try using the Color option with the paint bucket tool. For example, if you change the foreground color to red and then click in a sky, you can color the sky red without harming the clouds or other details. (You may have to adjust the Tolerance value in the Paint Bucket Options palette to get it exactly right.)
59414 Swapping One Color with Another
59415 When editing Web images, you may want to replace all occurrences of one color with another. To do so, select the magic wand tool, set the Tolerance value in the Options palette to 0, and turn off the Anti-alias check box. Then click on the color you want to replace in the image window and choose Similar from the Select menu to select all identical colors throughout the image. Finally, select a new foreground color and press Alt-Delete to fill the selection.
59416 Previewing an Image While Dragging It
59417 When dragging a selection in the image window, you can view just the selection outline or the selected image. To view the outline, click on the image and begin dragging immediately. To see the image, click and hold for a moment -- until the watch cursor changes back to an arrow -- and then drag.
59418 Previewing a Dragged Layer in Photoshop 4
59419 The new Photoshop provides a special check box called Pixel Doubling in the Move Tool Options palette. Turn the check box on to speed up the preview process when you drag a layer. This option is especially useful when working in large compositions that typically slow Photoshop's performance to a crawl.
59420 Filling the Screen with Image
59421 Press the F key to hide the scroll bars and fill the screen with the image. Empty areas outside the image appear gray. Press F again to hide the menu bar and set the background to black. Press the Tab key to hide the toolbox and all palettes and just bask in your image. When you're ready to work again, press Tab, F to restore things to normal.
59422 Printing Excellent Halftone Screens
59423 Photoshop has some special halftoning capabilities that may help to eliminate banding and other problems inside printed images. You can access these special capabilities by choosing the Page Setup command from the File menu, clicking on the Screen button, and turning off the Use Printer's Halftone Screen check box. Photoshop should automatically set the Frequency and Angle values to their optimal settings for your printer. Now try printing the image. Sometimes the output looks better, sometimes it looks pretty much the same, but it almost never looks worse.
59424 Exporting Halftone Screens to Other Applications
59425 If you find that Photoshop prints an image significantly better thanks to the previous tip, and you plan on printing the final image from a publishing application such as QuarkXPress, you can export the Photoshop screen information along with the file. Save the images in the EPS format (the only format that supports custom screen info). Then press Enter to display the EPS Format dialog box, and select the Include Halftone Screen check box.
59426 Path-Editing Madness
59427 When drawing a path with the pen tool, you can temporarily access the arrow tool by pressing the Ctrl key. When the arrow tool is permanently active, you can access the other path editing tools as well. Press the Ctrl and Alt keys and position the cursor over a segment to get the insert-point tool; press Ctrl-Alt and position the cursor over a point to get the remove-point tool. Press Ctrl by itself to get the convert-point tool.
59428 Converting Paths to Selections in Photoshop 3
59429 To convert a path drawn with the pen tool into a selection outline, press the Enter key on the keypad when any selection or path tool is active. You can also add the path to the selected area by pressing Shift-Enter, or subtract the path by pressing Ctrl-Enter. To find the intersection of the selection and path, press Ctrl-Shift-Enter.
59430 Converting Paths to Selections in Photoshop 4
59431 In Photoshop 4, you can still convert the current path to a selection by pressing Enter on the keypad when any selection or path tool is active. You can also add the path to an existing selection by pressing Shift-Enter, subtract the path by pressing Alt-Enter, or find the intersection by pressing Shift-Alt-Enter. But that's not all. Adobe has also made the Paths panel consistent with its palette buddies Layers and Channels. This means you can Ctrl-click on any path name in the palette to convert it to a selection, whether the path is active or not. Ctrl-Shift-click to add to an existing selection, Ctrl-Alt-click to subtract, and Ctrl-Shift-Alt-click to find the intersection.
59432 Painting and Retouching along Paths
59433 To stroke a path with the foreground color, select one of the painting tools and press Enter on the keypad. To lighten or darken an image along a path, select the dodge or burn tool and press Enter. You can also clone along a path by selecting the rubber stamp tool, blur or sharpen along a path with the blur and sharpen tools, and smudge along a path with the smudge tool. But here's my favorite: To revert along a path, select the eraser tool and press Alt-Enter.
59434 Automatic Tracing
59435 Few folks realize this, but Photoshop is better at automatically tracing paths around images than many drawing programs, including Illustrator. To trace a grayscale image, press Ctrl-Alt-1 to select the white areas in the image, then choose Inverse from the Select menu to select the black areas. To convert the selection to vector-based paths, switch to the Paths palette and click on the dotted circle icon. Voila, you have a collection of object-oriented paths. You can export them for use in Illustrator or FreeHand by choosing Paths to Illustrator from the Export submenu under the File menu.
59436 Getting Your Letters Just Right in Photoshop 3
59437 Switch to the quick mask mode (by pressing the Q key) before adding text to your image. This way, you can modify the letters to your heart's content before you apply the text to your image. Then when you switch out of the quick mask mode, the letters appear as standard, unfilled selection outlines, permitting you to filter the letters, revert them, or apply any number of other effects in the precise order that you deem necessary.
59438 Getting Your Letter Just Right in Photoshop 4
59439 You no longer have to create your text in the quick mask mode in Photoshop 4. The type tool creates text on a new layer, allowing you to edit without harming the underlying image, and the type mask tool creates empty selection outlines automatically. Even so, after you create selection outlines with the type mask tool, it's a good idea to switch to the quick mask mode if for no other reason than to adjust the character spacing.
59440 Viewing the Layer Mask
59441 When you add a layer mask to an image, Photoshop doesn't show it to you. If you want to view the layer mask, Alt-click on the little layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette. Alt-click on the thumbnail again to see the image and hide the mask.
59442 Viewing Mask and Layer Together
59443 To view a layer mask and image together, you can switch to the Channels palette and click in the eyeball column to the left of the Layer Mask item. Click on the eyeball again to hide the mask. But better yet, use these handy shortcuts: In Photoshop 3, Shift-click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette; in Photoshop 4, Shift-Alt-click on the layer mask thumbnail.
59444 Turning the Layer Mask On and Off
59445 To turn off the layer mask in Photoshop 3, Ctrl-click on its thumbnail in the Layers palette. In Photoshop 4, Shift-click on the thumbnail. A red X covers the thumbnail to show that it's off. Click on the layer mask thumbnail to make it active again.
59446 Switching between Layer and Mask in Photoshop 3
59447 When a layer includes a layer mask, you can switch between editing the layer and the mask by clicking on the thumbnails in the Layers palette. You can also press Ctrl-grave/tilde (upper left corner of keyboard) to edit the mask and Ctrl-0 (or Ctrl-1 in grayscale mode) to edit the layer.
59448 Switching between Layer and Mask in Photoshop 4
59449 Thanks to the wacky shortcut overhaul in Photoshop 4, you need to memorize different keystrokes to switch back and forth between editing the layer and editing the layer mask. Press Ctrl-backslash (\, just above the Enter key) to edit the layer mask, and Ctrl-grave/tilde (or Ctrl-1 in grayscale mode) to edit the layer.
59450 Creating a Layer Mask in Photoshop 4
59451 Adobe has moved the Add Layer Mask command out of the Layers palette menu and into the new Layer menu in the main menu bar. In fact, Add Layer Mask is now a submenu with four commands. But why bother with that when you can just click on the left-hand icon (the one that looks like a little quick mask icon) along the bottom of the Layers palette? When no selection is active, click on the icon to create a mask filled with white. Alt-click to create a black mask that temporarily hides everything. When a selection is active, clicking on the icon automatically creates a mask in the shape of the selection.
59452 Converting a Layer Mask to a Selection in Photoshop 3
59453 To convert the layer mask for the current layer to a selection outline, Alt-click on the Layer Mask item in the Channels palette. Or you can press Ctrl-Alt-grave/tilde.
59454 Converting a Layer Mask to a Selection in Photoshop 4
59455 In the new Photoshop, you can convert the layer mask for any layer to a selection outline by Ctrl-clicking on a layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette. To add the layer mask to an existing selection, Ctrl-Shift-click on the thumbnail. You can also Ctrl-Alt-click to subtract the layer mask from a selection and Ctrl-Shift-Alt-click to find the intersection.
59456 Automatic Marble
59457 To create a quick, no-brainer marble effect, make a new image or layer and select the colors you'd like to apply to the marble as the foreground and background colors. Then choose the Difference Clouds filter from the Render submenu in the Filter menu. The colors will appear inverted, so press Ctrl-F to repeat the filter and get the colors you expect. Then keep pressing Ctrl-F over and over again until you get the variation you desire.
59458 One Channel to Grayscale
59459 When you choose the Grayscale command from the Mode menu, Photoshop blends the red, green, and blue color values (or CMYK values) to create a grayscale composite. It's as if you suddenly became color-blind. But if you prefer, you can keep a single color channel and throw away the others. Just switch to the channel you like and choose the Grayscale command.
59460 Zooming and Scrolling in Filters
59461 When working inside many of the filter dialog boxes -- including Unsharp Mask, Gaussian Blur, and Noise -- you can zoom and scroll the previews using the standard keyboard equivalents. Ctrl-spacebar-click to zoom in, Alt-spacebar-click to zoom out, and spacebar-drag to scroll.
59462 Adjusting the Thickness of Sharpened Edges
59463 The Radius option in the Unsharp Mask dialog box lets you adjust the thickness of the sharpened edges in your image. Thinner edges work better for on-screen work, thicker edges work better when printing high-resolution images. Here are a few suggestions: When creating images for the World Wide Web, use a lower Radius value like 0.5. When printing medium-resolution images (around 150 pixels per inch), up the Radius value to 1.0. And for high-resolution work (300 ppi), you can go as high as 2.0.
59464 That Special Glow
59465 To add a slight glow to a selected area of an image in Photoshop 3, float the selection (Ctrl-J) and apply the Gaussian Blur filter with a Radius value of 2 or higher. Then select the Lighten option from the blend modes pop-up menu in the Layers palette. In Photoshop 4, don't bother to float your image. Start by applying the Gaussian Blur filter. Then choose Fade Gaussian Blur from the Filter menu, and select the Lighten option from the Mode pop-up menu in the Fade dialog box.
59466 Full-Color Emboss
59467 Photoshop's Emboss filter changes most of the colors in your image to gray, but you can achieve a color emboss effect in a couple of ways. In Photoshop 3, select the image, float it (Ctrl-J) and apply the Emboss filter in the Stylize submenu under the Filter menu. Then choose Luminosity from the Layers palette pop-up menu. In Photoshop 4, first apply the Emboss filter normally. Then choose Fade Emboss from the Filter menu and select Luminosity from the Mode pop-up menu.
59468 Even More Colorful Emboss with the Custom Filter
59469 If you're feeling up to a little numerical entry, you can achieve the best full-color embossing effects with the Custom filter. Choose the Custom filter from the Other submenu in the Filter menu. Then enter the following numbers into the nine central option boxes: -1, -1, -2; 1, 1, -1; 2, 1, 1. (If the effect is too strong, you can use Photoshop 4's Fade Custom command to tone it down a little.)
59470 Paste Behind
59471 Photoshop 2.5 used to have a Paste Behind command that let you paste an image behind a selection. To achieve this effect in Photoshop 3 and later, press the Alt key and choose the Paste Into command from the Edit menu. In Photoshop 4, you can also press Ctrl-Shift-Alt-V.
59472 Creating a Drop Shadow
59473 There are a million ways to create a drop shadow in Photoshop, but easiest way is to just use the PhotoShadow module included with PhotoTools. No doubt you've already figured that out by now, but here's something you may not know: You can dynamically reposition a drop shadow in the preview area by Alt-dragging it. In most cases, it's a lot easier than fooling around with the Offset sliders.
59474 Viewing a Single Layer
59475 To hide all but one layer in your image, Alt-click on the eyeball icon to the left of the layer name in the Layers palette. Alt-click again to bring all the layers back.
59476 Changing the Visible Channels
59477 Though the Channels palette offers the same eyeball icons as the Layers palette, they work slightly differently. For example, you can't Alt-click on a single channel to view it independently of others. Instead, you click on a channel name to activate that channel and view it independently. To make the other layers visible again, Shift-click on the visible channel name. You can also Shift-click on a visible channel to hide it.
59478 Adding a Background Layer
59479 If you transform the background layer into a floating layer, complete with its own transparency, you are left with an unrealistic view of how you image will print or import into another application. No desktop publishing program supports Photoshop's layer transparency. Therefore, you'll always want to establish a new background layer. To do this, choose the New Layer command from the Layers palette menu. Inside the New Layer dialog box, select Background Layer from the Mode pop-up menu.
59480 Moving Multiple Layers in Photoshop 3
59481 To move items from different layers simultaneously, click in the second column of the Layers palette -- just to the right of the eyeball -- in a layer that is not active. A move icon appears in front of the both the active layer name and the name of the layer you clicked. Now drag with the move tool to move both layers at once (assuming no portion of the image is selected).
59482 Transforming Multiple Layers in Photoshop 4
59483 Version 4 goes one better, allowing you not only to move multiple layers at a time, but to scale, rotate, and otherwise transform them together as well. Click in the little square immediately to the left of an inactive layer. Photoshop displays a little chain-link icon. Now use the move tool or apply one of the Transform commands in the Layer menu. You can also merge all linked layers by pressing Ctrl-E.
59484 Linking Layers and Masks in Photoshop 4
59485 By default, every layer mask is linked to its layer. So if you move or otherwise transform a layer, you likewise transform the mask, and vice versa. To cut off this link, click on the link icon between the image and layer mask thumbnails in the Layers palette. Now you can edit layer and layer mask independently. To reestablish the link, click between the thumbnails again.
59486 Applying Multiple Transformations in Photoshop 4
59487 Photoshop 4 lets you move, scale, and rotate a selection in one operation. Press Ctrl-T to display the transformation boundary, which looks and works just like the crop boundary. Scale the selection by dragging a corner handle. Move the selection by dragging inside the boundary, and rotate the selection by dragging outside the boundary. Ctrl-drag a handle to skew or distort a selection. Press the Shift key when dragging to constrain any of the transformations. When you're finished, double-click inside the boundary or press the Enter key to apply the transformation. Or press Escape to cancel the operation.
59488 Other Free-Form Transformations in Photoshop 4
59489 Photoshop 4 has updated the first five commands under the Transform submenu in the Layer menu -- Scale, Rotate, Distort, Skew, and Perspective. Drag a handle to perform the desired transformation. Drag inside the boundary to move the selection. Then double-click inside the boundary or press Enter to apply the transformation. Or cancel and get out by pressing Escape.
59490 Specifying Numerical Transformations in Photoshop 4
59491 To numerically move, scale, rotate, or skew a selection, press Ctrl-Shift-T to display the Numeric Transformation dialog box. Then enter the desired values and press Enter. You can also press Alt-Escape when inside this dialog box to reset all values to their defaults.
59492 Transforming a Clone in Photoshop 4
59493 You can simultaneously clone and transform a selection with the help of the Alt key. Press Ctrl-Alt-T to freely scale or rotate a clone; press the Alt key and choose the Numeric command from the Transform submenu to modify the clone numerically.
59494 Precise Cursors
59495 If a cursor intrudes on your ability to see the image, press the Caps Lock key. This key displays the so-called precise cursors, which typically appear as tiny crosses.
59496 Anti-aliasing Edges
59497 To slightly soften a high-contrast image, enlarge the image to 200 percent using the Image Size command, then reduce it to 50 percent to return to the original size. (Bicubic Interpolation should be active in the Preferences dialog box.) You can repeat the effect a few times to get more softening. Enlarging and reducing the image applies antialiasing, which is infinitely more subtle than anything you can achieve with the Gaussian Blur command.
59498 Cloning, Deleting, and Alternating Lights
59499 The Lighting Effects dialog box offers a squad of undocumented keyboard techniques. You can duplicate a light by Alt-dragging one of the little white circles in the preview area. If you want to delete a light, you don't have to drag it to the trash icon -- just press the Delete key. If the preview contains multiple lights, press the Tab key to alternate between them.
59500 Modifying Spotlights
59501 Inside the Lighting Effects dialog box, you can drag the handles around an elliptical spotlight-type footprint to change the size and angle of the light. To modify the size of the ellipse without affecting the angle, Shift-drag a handle. To change the angle without affecting the size, Ctrl-drag a handle.
59502 Changing the Unit of Measure
59503 If you have the Info palette up on screen, you can change the unit of measurement used inside all dialog boxes. Click and hold on the little cross icon to the left of the X, Y items to display a pop-up menu of measurement options.
59504 Trashing the Preferences
59505 Photoshop has a habit of corrupting its preferences file over time. If the program starts behaving oddly, it may be that you need to throw away the old preferences. Quit Photoshop and then locate and throw away the Photos.PSP file in the Prefs folder in the same directory that contains the Photoshop application (possibly in the Win32App directory). Then restart Photoshop. The program will automatically create a new preference file the next time you quit.
59506 Locking the Preferences
59507 If you want to ensure that Photoshop will open with the same preference settings every time, you can lock the Photos.PSP file. Under Windows 95, right-click on the Photos.PSP file, which is found in the Prefs folder in the same directory that contains the Photoshop application file. Then choose the Properties command and select the Read-only check box. From now on, the Photos.PSP file will remain unchanged.
59508 Displaying the Last Preferences Panel in Photoshop 4
59509 Now that Photoshop 4 has combined a whopping eight panels of options into the Preference dialog box, you need some tricks to get through it all. Press Ctrl plus a number -- 1 through 8 -- to switch between palettes. You can also press Ctrl-Alt-K to display the Preferences dialog box and automatically switch to the panel you last visited.
59510 Finger Painting
59511 To smear the foreground color into an image, Alt-drag with the smudge tool. Photoshop calls this technique 'finger painting.' The length of the smear is determined by the Pressure setting in the Options palette. A value between 70 and 90 percent usually works best.
59512 Alt for Opposite
59513 When a retouching tool has a direct opposite, you can switch to it by pressing the Alt key. For example, Alt-dragging with the blur tool sharpens, and vice versa. Alt-dragging with the dodge tool burns (darkens) while Alt-dragging with the burn tool dodges (lightens).
59514 The Simple Beauty of Sample Merged
59515 A file full of layers presents an interesting problem. You see how the layers look mixed together, while Photoshop sees each layer independently. But you can make Photoshop see things your way with a little check box called Sample Merged. Included in the Options palettes for the magic wand, paint bucket, blur, sharpen, smudge, and rubber stamp tools, Sample Merged lets you factor in pixels from all layers when using a tool. For example, when using the rubber stamp, you can clone exclusively inside the active layer when Sample Merged is turned off. But to clone the contents of one layer onto another, you have to turn on Sample Merged.
59516 Editing Commands in Photoshop 3
59517 You can modify one of the shortcut buttons in the Commands palette by Shift-clicking or right-clicking on it. To delete a button, Ctrl-click on it. Be sure to save your button settings to disk so you can retrieve them if your preferences ever become corrupted.
59518 Recording a Macro in Photoshop 4
59519 One of Photoshop 4's best new features is the Actions palette. You can record a sequence of operations by clicking on the little page icon at the bottom of the Actions palette. Then name the new action, press Enter, and choose the commands you want to record. When you finish, click on the square stop button. The Actions palette automatically lists all the operations.
59520 Editing Macros in Photoshop 4
59521 You can edit any macro or command in the recorded list of operations in the Actions palette by double-clicking on it. Drag a command in the list to change the order in which it's performed. You can even drag the command into a different macro. Alt-drag a command to clone it. To delete a selected macro or command, click on the little trash icon in the bottom right corner of the Actions palette.
59522 Playing Macros in Photoshop 4
59523 To play a recorded macro or command listed in the Actions palette, drag the item and drop it onto the little triangular play icon at the bottom of the palette. Or just Ctrl-double-click on the action name. To play just a single command in the macro, Alt-click on the check mark in front of the command name. To play the entire macro, Alt-click on the check mark again.
59524 Checking Size and Resolution
59525 To quickly view the dimensions and resolution of an image, Alt-click on the preview box in the status bar along the bottom of the screen (to the right of the zoom option in Photoshop 4). Photoshop always lists the size of the image in pixels, and the number of channels.
59526 Creating Guides in Photoshop 4
59527 You can now drag snapping guides from the rulers. Press Ctrl-R to display the rulers, then drag from either ruler to create a horizontal or vertical guideline. To snap the guide to the ruler tick marks, press the Shift key while dragging. And if you change your mind in mid-drag -- and decide you want to change your vertical guide to a horizontal one, for example -- press and hold the Alt key.
59528 Editing Guides in Photoshop 4
59529 To turn off the magnetism of your guides without hiding them from view, press Ctrl-Shift-semicolon (;). To both hide and deactivate the guides, press Ctrl-semicolon. To move a guide when any tool besides the move tool is active, Ctrl-drag the guide. And to lock the guides, press Ctrl-Alt-semicolon.
59530 Activating the Grid in Photoshop 4
59531 You can hide and show Photoshop 4's grid by pressing Ctrl-quote. To turn on and off the snappiness of the grid, press Ctrl-Shift-quote.
59532 Modifying the Grid and Guides in Photoshop 4
59533 To change the color of the grid or the guides in Photoshop 4, double-click on a guide with the move tool to display the Guides & Grid section of the Preferences dialog box. Or if the move tool is not active, Ctrl-double-click on the guide. This is also where you change the size of the grid.
59534 Modifying the Rulers in Photoshop 4
59535 You can alter the rulers and the unit of measure used in Photoshop by double-clicking on a ruler in the image window. This displays the Units & Rulers section of the Preferences dialog box. (If the rulers are hidden, first press Ctrl-R.)
59536 Floating Fuzziness
59537 When you double-click on a layer, Photoshop displays the Layer Options dialog box. Here you'll find two slider bars that permit you to make floating pixels transparent and force underlying pixels to show through. To create soft transitions between transparent and opaque pixels -- which Photoshop calls 'fuzziness' -- Alt-drag one of the slider triangles. Alt-dragging separates the triangle in half; one half represents the opaque point and the other half is the transparent point.
59538 Adding a Border
59539 To add a rectangular border around an image inside Photoshop, set the background color to the color that you want to use as the border. If you want a black border, press D and then X. Then choose the Canvas Size command (or just click on the Canvas Size icon in the PhotoTools toolbar) and increase the size of the Width and Height by twice the border thickness. For a 2-pixel border, for example, you'd increase both values by 4.
59540 The Classic Vignette
59541 To create a fuzzy vignette effect -- in which an image fades into the background -- select the area to be surrounded by the vignette. Then soften the edges to taste using the Feather command (Ctrl-Shift-D in Photoshop 4). Choose the Inverse command from the Select menu to reverse the selection. And press D, then Delete to fill the area outside the vignette with white.
59542 Modifying Wand Selections
59543 The magic wand is an inexact tool, but Photoshop provides some commands that can help out. To expand the area selected by the wand, choose the Grow command from the Select menu (Ctrl-G in Photoshop 3) to look for more colors that fall inside the Tolerance setting. If a selection appears rough and pock-marked -- like a piece of blue cheese -- use the Smooth command in the Modify submenu under the Select menu to round off the edges and fill in the holes.
59544 The Magic of Inverse
59545 Selecting complex foreground objects can drive you nuts, unless you remember that they're frequently set against simple backgrounds. For example, you can select a flock of seagulls against a blue sky in just two steps. Use the magic wand to select the sky, and choose the Inverse command from the Select menu (or press Ctrl-Shift-I in Photoshop 4) to switch to the seagulls.
59546 Using Preserve Transparency
59547 Once you establish a layer, you can easily paint shadows and highlights into it by selecting the Preserve Transparency check box in the Layers palette. With this check box on, transparent portions of the layer stay transparent, and opaque portions stay opaque, guaranteeing that you'll always paint inside the lines. You can turn the check box on and off from the keyboard by pressing the slash key (/, the key with the question mark on it).
59548 Turn Off Preserve Transparency before Applying Effects
59549 Be sure to turn off the Preserve Transparency check box before applying one of the PhotoTools effects filters, which include PhotoShadow, PhotoGlow, PhotoBevel, and PhotoEmboss. Otherwise, these fine filters can't work their magic on the active layer.
59550 Cloning to Scratch (Photoshop 3 only)
59551 Photoshop3 lets you copy a portion of an image into the Scratch palette. Set the rubber stamp tool to either of the Clone settings in the Options palette. Then Alt-click on the portion of the image you want to copy and drag inside the Scratch palette.
59552 Zooming and Scrolling the Scratch (Photoshop 3 only)
59553 You can zoom in on the contents of the scratch palette by Ctrl-spacebar-clicking. Alt-spacebar-click to zoom back out, and spacebar-drag to zoom.
59554 Managing Your Swatches
59555 To add the foreground color to the Swatches palette, click in an empty area along the bottom of the palette. To replace a swatch with the foreground color, Shift-click on the swatch. To insert the foreground color between two swatches, Shift-Alt-click. And to delete a swatch, Ctrl-click on it.
59556 Ensuring Printable Colors
59557 If you see an exclamation point in either the Color Picker dialog box or Picker palette (dubbed the Color palette in Photoshop 4), Photoshop is telling you that the color falls outside the CMYK gamut. To bring the color back inside the printable range, click on the little swatch below or to the right of the exclamation point.
59558 Creating Clipping Groups
59559 To use one layer to color the contents of the layer below it, Alt-click on the horizontal line between the two layer names in the Layers palette. This converts the two layers into a 'clipping group,' in which the bottom layer in the group sets the opacity for all layers above it. To break up the group, Alt-click on the dotted line.
59560 Grouping Layers in Photoshop 4
59561 The new Photoshop offers another way to combine layers into clipping groups. You can group the active layer with the one directly below it by pressing Ctrl-G. If the active layer is linked to other layers, you can group all of them together by pressing Ctrl-G. To break up a group, press Ctrl-Shift-G.
59562 JPEG or GIF for Web Images?
59563 Web browsers support two primary file formats, JPEG and GIF. JPEG supports millions of colors and offers special compression capabilities, while GIF is limited to 256 colors but provides crisper detail. Generally speaking, you'll want to use JPEG for photographs and GIF for text and screen shots. But there is one caveat: If you want to make portions of a photograph transparent so you can mix it with a background pattern, GIF is the only way to go.
59564 GIF Hates Dithering
59565 Before saving an image to the GIF format, you should always reduce the number of colors in it to 256 or fewer using the Index Color command under the Mode menu (now moved to the Image menu in Photoshop 4). The Index Color dialog box offers a Dither option that lets you mix up colored pixels to simulate more colors. Photographs tend to look best when you set the Dither option to Diffusion. However, if you're saving text or a screen shot, you'll want to set the Dither option to None for two reasons: First, dithering detracts from the appearance of high-contrast artwork by introducing random pixels. But more important, GIF is better able to compress non-dithered images so they take less time to load.
59566 Exporting Transparent GIF Images
59567 To create a GIF image with transparency, first make sure your image contains 256 or fewer colors using the Index Color command. Then choose the GIF89a Export command from the Export submenu under the File menu. Inside the dialog box that follows, click on each color that you want to make transparent. If you make a mistake, you can make a color opaque again by Ctrl-clicking on it.
59568 Creating JPEG Images for the Web
59569 When you save an image in the JPEG format, Photoshop offers you basic Quality settings. It is generally accepted that the best Quality setting for Web graphics is Medium, because it packs a fair amount of image quality into a very small file size. The problem with the Medium setting, however, is that it makes your images impossible to edit. If you open a Medium JPEG image, make some changes, and save it again, it looks like garbage. So always keep a backup of the image in another format -- say, TIFF -- in case you want to make modifications later.
59570 Creating Progressive JPEG Images in Photoshop 4
59571 The new Photoshop lets you save progressive JPEG files for the World Wide Web. A progressive JPEG image initially displays at very low quality and then improves gradually over time (much like an interlaced GIF image). When saving a JPEG image, select the Progressive Optimized radio button. Then select the Good quality level -- enough to make the image recognizable on the first pass -- and press Enter.
59572 lt
61440 Open
61441 Save As
61442 All Files (*.*)
61443 Untitled
61446 an unnamed file
61457 &Hide
61472 No error message is available.
61473 An unsupported operation was attempted.
61474 A required resource was unavailable.
61475 Out of memory.
61476 An unknown error has occurred.
61696 Invalid filename.
61697 Failed to open document.
61698 Failed to save document.
61699 Save changes to %1?
61700 Failed to create empty document.
61701 The file is too large to open.
61702 Could not start print job.
61703 Failed to launch help.
61704 Internal application error.
61705 Command failed.
61706 Insufficient memory to perform operation.
61707 System registry entries have been removed and the INI file (if any) was deleted.
61708 Not all of the system registry entries (or INI file) were removed.
61712 Please enter an integer.
61713 Please enter a number.
61714 Please enter an integer between %1 and %2.
61715 Please enter a number between %1 and %2.
61716 Please enter no more than %1 characters.
61717 Please select a button.
61718 Please enter an integer between 0 and 255.
61719 Please enter a positive integer.
61720 Please enter a date and/or time.
61721 Please enter a currency.
61728 Unexpected file format.
61729 %1\nCannot find this file.\nPlease verify that the correct path and file name are given.
61730 Destination disk drive is full.
61731 Unable to read from %1, it is opened by someone else.
61732 Unable to write to %1, it is read-only or opened by someone else.
61733 An unexpected error occurred while reading %1.
61734 An unexpected error occurred while writing %1.
61836 Unable to read write-only property.
61837 Unable to write read-only property.
61840 Unable to load mail system support.
61841 Mail system DLL is invalid.
61842 Send Mail failed to send message.
61856 No error occurred.
61857 An unknown error occurred while accessing %1.
61858 %1 was not found.
61859 %1 contains an invalid path.
61860 %1 could not be opened because there are too many open files.
61861 Access to %1 was denied.
61862 An invalid file handle was associated with %1.
61863 %1 could not be removed because it is the current directory.
61864 %1 could not be created because the directory is full.
61865 Seek failed on %1
61866 A hardware I/O error was reported while accessing %1.
61867 A sharing violation occurred while accessing %1.
61868 A locking violation occurred while accessing %1.
61869 Disk full while accessing %1.
61870 An attempt was made to access %1 past its end.
61872 No error occurred.
61873 An unknown error occurred while accessing %1.
61874 An attempt was made to write to the reading %1.
61875 An attempt was made to access %1 past its end.
61876 An attempt was made to read from the writing %1.
