Looking for a training course on Photoshop? We offer beginners to advanced workshops in Brighton, Sussex.
Options / Brushes (across the top of the screen)
- Select a new brush size/type for the tool in current use
- Make a new brush using options
- Used in conjunction with tools, provides modifiers for tool operation
Navigator
- Magnify or de-magnify using big and small hill icons (uses fast, pre-calculated magnifications)
- Move viewing area by dragging navigator rectangle
- Precisely adjust magnification using slider, or type in using zoom value field
Info
- Width and height of selections
- RGB and CMYK values
- Measurements when measuring tool selected
- X and Y positions of cursor
Colours
- Use sliders to modify foreground or background colours (select the appropriate square in the palette)
- Pick a colour from the blended picker below the sliders (cursor becomes an eyedropper)
Swatches
- Get a new colour for foreground (click swatch) or background (ALT-click swatch)
- Store a new, sampled, foreground colour in an empty area (cursor becomes paint bucket)
- Delete a colour using CTRL-click
History
- Move backward and forward through the changes made in the document
- Create a snapshot/s of a current satisfactory state as a place to come back to
Actions
- Record a series of modifications that can be played back on many different images (effects, scan corrections etc)
- Assign a particular command or set of commands to a function key as a personalised shortcut
Layers
Consider layers as sheets of acetate layered one upon another
- Each layer can have its own opacity setting
- Each layer can show only the selected part of its image by using layer masking
- The way in which layers combine with each other can be altered
- Layers may be locked to each other so that they can be moved in perfect registration
Channels
- Channels are the areas in which photoshop stores image information
- The information relates, in the first place, to the RGBÂ or CMYK channels that comprise the image
- Other images may be stored in the channels, most often these are the masks used
Paths
- The pen tool produces paths which are stored in the paths palette
- Paths may be created from selections and vice versa
- Path options provides ways in which the path may be incorporated into an image
