Multimedia

Photoshop Familiarization

Photoshop Workspace

Tools, menus, Palettes and accessing Preferences are summarized. Each aspect of the Photoshop
interface is examined in depth in later lessons as you learn to use the application.

Menu Options Bar

Toolbox Palettes

Figure 1 – Photoshop Workspace

• Reposition the palette toolbars anywhere inside the working area by clicking and dragging the blue
tab right on top of each.

• Clear the working area by pressing the Tab key to temporarily hide your palettes and toolbars and
you can access it again by pressing the Tab key once more.

• Open window palettes as many as you can. Hide the palettes that you will barely access so that it
does not clutter your working area.

The Menu

The Menu contains controls for common functions such as opening and saving files, as well as specific
functions, such as copying and pasting, calling up specific windows or Palettes, and controlling the
Photoshop workspace. As you progress through each lesson, the Menu and Menu Items are detailed.

The Toolbox
The Toolbox contains a collection of Tools for creating, selecting, and manipulating images.

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Selection Tools

Brush and Editing Tools

Vector Object Tools

Navigation Tools and Miscellaneous

Foreground and Background Colors

View Modes

Jump to Photoshop/Image Ready

Figure 2 - Toolbox

• Put your cursor on top of every tool icon. The small triangle at the lower right corner represent that
there is another tools grouped to that particular tools

• Press the icon and hold; you will get a pop up for you to choose the other tools.

The Options Bar

The Options Bar, by default, is placed just below the Menu. Whenever a Tool is selected in the Toolbox, the
Options Bar displays the available Options for the currently selected Tool

The Move Tool

The Move Tool Options

The Text Tool

The Text Tool Options

Selecting one of the Text Tools presents the user with ten (10) settings in the Options Bar.

Tool Currently Selected

Font Style Options

Figure 3 – Options Bar

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Palettes

The Default Palette Set

Palettes contain additional controls for other features in Photoshop, such as the use of Layers, Colors, and
Layer Styles. As you go through, you'll find that you can manipulate the content you create in many ways.

By default, there are four Palette sets, each containing a collection of multiple Palettes in each Set. There is
one additional Palette Set (the Character and Paragraph Palettes) that can be accessed with the Window
Menu.

Figure 4 - Palettes

• Dock a Palette into another Palette Set by dragging it into the other Palette Set. For example, if
you wish, you could make a single Palette Set with each of the standard Palettes inside it.

Figure 5 – Docked Palette

Note:
• To restore the Palette Sets to the default configuration, select Window > Workspace > Reset
Palette Locations.

• To save a customized Palette layout, select Save Workspace from the same Menu.

Foreground and Background Colors

Its essential to cover two fundamental Options referred to often in the book, that of Foreground and
Background Colors and the Move Tool.

• To restore Foreground and Background Colors to default, click the Default Foreground and
Background Color Icon in the Toolbox. This restores the current Foreground Color to Black and
the current Background Color to White.

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Switch Foreground and

Foreground Color Background Colors

Default Foreground and Background Color

Background Color icon

Figure 6 – Icons to change the foreground and background colors

Creating New Images

• To create a new image, select File > New. The New dialog box appears.

5 Decisions in creating new image in Photoshop

• Name - enter a name for your image file in the Name field. (It's a good idea to name all of your files
appropriately so that you can remain organized and productive).

• Dimensions (Preset Sizes/Width and Height) - You can set the image dimensions by selecting
from a list of preset sizes using the Preset Sizes drop-down menu or specify the Width (horizontal
size) and Height (vertical size) in pixels, here (Preset Sizes is set to Custom.)

• Resolution - set Resolution to 72 ppi for images designed for the Internet. Again, recall that
currently, the maximum resolution of monitors ranges from 72 to 96 ppi (some monitors have a
slightly larger range), making higher resolutions, which create larger file sizes, inefficient.

• Mode - select RGB Color for Mode. Because your images are destined for the screen, which uses
the RGB Color space, RBG Color is the appropriate mode to create and edit your images. Recall
that in addition to the RGB Color space, digital images have different Color or bitdepths. By default,
RGB mode in Photoshop operates in a 24-bit Color depth.

• Contents - determine the initial background Color of your image. Options include White,
Background Color, and Transparent.

Figure 7 – New File Dialog box

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Image Window

At the top of the Image Window is the name of your document (firstImage), the current level of
magnification (@ 100%), the current Layer you are working on (at this point the image has only one Layer),
and the Image Mode, in this case is RGB with a bit depth of 24. Standard controls for minimizing,
maximizing, and closing the document appear at the top right corner.

Figure 8 – Image Window

Navigator Palette

• Click the Navigator tab in the Navigator Palette Set.

You will notice a red box surrounding a thumbnail of the Monkey image. The image in the Image
Window you have currently selected is displayed in the Navigator Palette. When the box surrounds
the entire image it signifies the current magnification level is at 100%

Magnification Level Zoom In

View Box Zoom Slider
Zoom Out

Figure 9 – Navigator Palette

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The Zoom Tool

Alternately you can use the Zoom Tool on the actual image to adjust magnification.
• Click on the Zoom Tool to select it.
• Click and drag over the area you desire to magnify.
• Pressing the [ALT] key changes the Zoom Tool to a Zoom Out tool. Notice the "+" sign that
appears in the center of the magnifying glass icon by default.
• Pressing the [ALT] key changes the "+" sign to a "-" sign.
• Click on the image to Zoom Out to predetermined levels. {Double-Clicking} the Zoom Tool restores
magnification to 100%.

The Hand Tool

As an alternative to using the Navigator Palette to move a magnified image within the Image Window you
can use the Hand Tool.
• Magnify the Monkey's face.
• Select the Hand Tool.
• Click, hold, and drag over the image to move the image within the Window, effectively moving other
parts of the image under the virtual magnifying glass.

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Follow the steps to achieve the image shown on the last page:

• Open the monkey.jpg file.

• Go to Image menu > Image size, the Image Dialog Box appears. Note the image size, resolution
and the mode.

• In the Document Size Frame, click on the width drop-down menu and choose the percent option.
Do the same with the height drop-down menu. Reduced the width and height to 50%. Uncheck the
Constrain Proportions option box. Click OK.

Figure 10 – Image Size Dialog Box

• Create a new document with the same size of the original image with a white background (width,
height, resolution). Be sure that the width and height drop-down is set to inches.

• Drag the monkey image to the new document using the Move tool. You now have a Layer 1.

• Distort the image. Go to Edit menu > Transform > Distort. Adjust the four corner handle and press
enter. Your image should now look like the one shown below.

• In the Layer palette, drag Layer 1 to the New Layer icon or right-click Layer 1 and select
duplicate layer, Duplicate Layer dialog box appears and click OK. You now have a Layer 1 copy.

• While the Layer 1 copy still selected, go to edit menu > transform > Flip Horizontal. Adjust the
image like the one shown on the next page.

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• Drag again the original image to the new document. Go to edit menu > transform > Distort. Adjust
the four corner handle and hit enter. You should now have the same image shown below.

• Save your document.

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