PhotoShop Creative Suite 3 Chapter 1 The Work Area

Objectives After completing this chapter, you will be able to: Identify different features of Photoshop’s work area, including menus, tool options and palettes Modify the work area using a variety of methods Reset Photoshop’s work area Change and reset the foreground and background colors

Default Work Area If Photoshop has just been installed, you will see the default workspace. What does default mean? “How a computer program looks before any settings are changed.”

The Toolbox Also called the Tools palette Contains most of Photoshop’s tools Can be displayed as: Long, single row of tools Shorter version with two rows of tools To switch back and forth, click the double arrow at the top of the Toolbox.

The Toolbox Small arrow in the lower-right corner Indicates that other tools will appear if you click and hold the mouse button.

Foreground and Background Colors Two colored boxes near the bottom of the Toolbox Show what colors are currently selected for foreground and background colors Foreground color=top color box Used by the painting and drawing tools. Background color=bottom color box Appears when you create a new document or when you open an image and erase part of it.

Foreground and Background Colors To change either, click on the corresponding color box in the Toolbox This opens the Color Picker Click on the desired hue in the color slider

Resetting the Colors to Black and White In Photoshop, white means “no color” When you print, the white areas are not printed. Black used as a foreground color when creating objects such as text or lines Can reset colors to black and white by clicking on the Default Foreground and Background Colors icon.

Switching Foreground and Background Colors Small icon next to the foreground and background color boxes is the Switch Foreground and Background Colors icon. Looks like a curved arrow and switches the colors used

Screen Modes Change Screen Mode button appears at the bottom of the Toolbox Click and hold the mouse button to reveal four different screen modes that change how files you have opened fit into your screen.

Standard Screen Mode Activates the default setting Menus, options bar, palettes, the toolbox and all open files are displayed

Maximized Screen Mode Title bar of each image is hidden Information that normally appears there is displayed at the top of the screen Open images are resized as much as possible You can switch between images by using the Window menu.

Full Screen Mode w/ Menu Bar Similar to Maximized Screen Mode Creates even more room by removing the application title bar from the top of the screen

Full Screen Mode Hides the title bars and the menu bar They can be accessed by clicking the tiny downward-pointing arrow at the top of the toolbox 

The Options Bar Located just below the menu bar When you click on any tool in the toolbox, the options appear here If you hold the mouse for two seconds over any section of the options bar a tool-tip appears This is a brief description of each option.

The Options Bar At the far left side of the options bar, the current tool’s icon appears This is a picture or symbol that represents the selected tool If you click the small arrow pointing downward, you can access the Tool Preset As you become more comfortable, you can create your own presets.

The Options Bar At the far right of the options bar, there are two settings that appear The Go to Bridge option opens Adobe Bridge, a program that organizes files The Workspace button is the other option This opens the Workspace drop-down list.

Menus Lists of commands that are related to each other

Palettes Small windows that contain a variety of settings Hide the ones you don’t use very often Move to another location by clicking and dragging their tab Zip and restore them by double-clicking on tabs. Can be closed by clicking on the X Can be stretched or grouped.

Saving the Workspace Arrangement If you find an arrangement of palettes that works for you, you can click on the workspace button and choose save workspace Once you name the configuration, you will be able to pull that arrangement up in the future.

Working with Multiple Image Windows If you have more than one image file open, you can also use the Window menu to quickly arrange your images In the Arrange category of the Window menu, there are three options: Cascade Tile horizontally Tile vertically  

Cascade The images stack on each other.

Tile Horizontally Fit the screen to make the maximum horizontal space

Tile Vertically Resizes the images so that they fill the screen to provide the maximum vertical working space

Working with Multiple Image Windows Choose Window>Arrange>New Window A second copy of an image that is already open and selected will appear At the bottom of the window menu, you will find a list of all the images that are currently open

Using the Help Menu You can quickly find information about a particular topic

Using the Undo and Step Backward Commands Any time you make a mistake while using the program, be aware that you can undo it by choosing Edit>Undo or pressing Ctrl-Z. If you want to undo more than one mistake, choose Edit>Step Backward