ptg 10 Chapter 1 Photoshop has an abundance of tools that give a Photoshop designer tremendous con- trol over any creative designing problems that may crop up. For example, the Photoshop toolbox contains 8 selection tools (you can never have enough selection tools), 10 paint- ing or shape tools, 4 type tools, and 12 tools dedicated to restoring and retouching images. Add to that collection, slicing, sampling, and viewing tools and you have a total of 70 tools. When you work on a document, it's important to know what tools are available, and how they can help in achieving your design goals. Photoshop likes to save space, so it consoli- dates similar tools under one button. To access multiple tools, click and hold on any toolbox button that contains a small black tri- angle, located in the lower right corner of the tool button. Take a moment to explore the Photoshop toolbox and get to know the tools. The Photoshop toolbox contains the tools needed to work through any Photoshop job, but it's not necessary to click on a tool to access it. Simply using a letter of the alphabet can access all of Photoshop's tools. For exam- ple, pressing the V key switches to the Move tool, and pressing the W key switches to the Magic Wand tool. In addition, if a button has more than one tool available, such as the Gradient and Paint Bucket buttons, pressing the Shift key along with the tool's shortcut lets you cycle through the tool's other options. You can quickly move between tools using Spring-loaded keys. Rather than go back to the toolbox when you want to switch tools, just hold down the shortcut letter key for the new tool, use the tool, and then let go of the shortcut key and you'll be back using the first tool. Working with Photoshop Tools Toolbox From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 1 Getting Started with Photoshop CS5 11 You can refer to Adobe Photoshop CS5 Keyboard Shortcuts (available for download on the Web at www.perspection.com ) for more information on all the letter assign- ments for the various tools. To really get effi- cient in Photoshop, you need to learn to use both hands. Use one hand for your mouse or drawing tablet, and the other on the keyboard to make quick changes of tools and options. Using the Options Bar The Options bar displays the options for the currently selected tool. If you are working with the Shape Marquee tools, your options include Feather, Style, Width, and Height. When working with the Brush tools, available tool options include Size, Mode, Opacity, and Tol e r ance. The Air b r ush mode of the Bru s h tool also includes Flow. The Pencil tool options include Auto Erase along with the standard Brush tool options. The Standard Shape tool Options bar includes Fill Pixels, Weight, Radius, Style, and Color. The impor- tant thing to remember is that the Options bar is customized based on the tool you have selected. For more information on these options, refer to Chapters 4, 6, and 9. Currently selected tool Options bar Toolbox (New!) From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 12 Chapter 1 Creating a New Document Create a New Document Click the File menu, and then click New. Type a name for the document. IMPORTANT Typing a name does not save the document. You still need to save your document after you create it. Click the Preset list arrow, and then select a preset document, or choose your own options to create a custom document. ◆ Width and Height. Select from various measurements, such as points, centimeters, or inches. ◆ Resolution. Select a resolution, such as 72 pixels/inch (ppi) for online use and 300 ppi for print. ◆ Color Mode. Select a color mode, such as RGB for color and Grayscale for black/white. ◆ Background Contents. Select a background color or a transparent background. Click OK. 4 3 2 1 Creating a new Photoshop document requires more thought than creat- ing a new word processing document. For example, there are resolu- tion and color mode considerations to keep in mind. You can create as many new documents as you need for your current project. However, since opening more than one document takes more processing power, it's probably best to work on only one new document at a time. Once a new document is created, you have access to all of Photoshop's design and manipulation tools to create anything you can imagine. 4 2 3 Creating a Custom Preset Document You may find that you use the same new document size over and over again. To save time, you can save the settings as a preset. In the New dialog box, click the Preset list arrow, click a setting, and then change the various options to customize your new document. To name yo ur customized pr eset, type a n ame in t he Name box, an d then click Save Preset. For Your Information From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 1 Getting Started with Photoshop CS5 13 Selecting Color Modes and Resolution Selecting a Color Mode A color mode , also known as color space , determines how Photoshop displays and prints an image. You choose a different color mode (based on models used in publishing) for different tasks. You can choose a color mode when you create a new document or change a color mode for an existing docu- ment. The common color modes include: Grayscale. Best for printing black-and-white and duotone images. This mode uses one channel and has a maximum of 256 shades of gray. RGB (Red, Green, and Blue). Best for online and multimedia color images. Red, green, and blue are also the primary colors on a monitor. CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black). Best for commercial printing of color images. LAB (Luminosity, A and B channels). Best for performing image correction. This mode puts all grayscale information on the L channel and splits the colors to the A and B channels. For more information on color, see Chapter 8, "Understanding Colors and Channels." Selecting Image Resolution Photoshop works primarily with raster docu- ments. Raster documents are images com- posed of pixels. A pixel is a unit of information that holds the color and detail information of the image. Think of a Photoshop document as a brick wall, with the individual bricks in the wall representing the individual pixels in the image. Documents opened in Photoshop have a specific resolu- tion. The resolution of the image, along with its width and height, represents how many pixels the image contains. Since pixels (the bricks in the wall) represent information, the more pixels a document contains, the more information Photoshop has to manipulate or enhance the image. A typical 17-inch monitor displays pixels at a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels per inch. You can figure out how many pixels are present on a 17-inch monitor by multiplying 1,024 x 768, which equals 786,432 pixels on the screen. The resolution is equal to how many pixels fit into each monitor inch, otherwise known as ppi (pixels per inch). A typical moni- tor displays pixels at 72 pixels per inch. To det e rmine th e s i ze o f a n i m age in inches, we divide the pixels by the ppi. For example, an image 1,024 pixels wide at 72 ppi would be 14.2 inches wide (1,024 / 72 = 14.2). To det e rmine th e p i xels pr e sent in an im a g e, you multiple the size by the ppi. For example, a 3 inch image at 72 ppi would have a total of 216 pixels (3 x 72 = 216). As the image resolu- tion drops, so does the output quality of the image. Pixelization occurs when the resolu- tion is so low that the edges of the pixel begin to appear. The higher the resolution (more pixels), the sharper your image will be. However, the higher the resolution, the larger the file size will become. To optimize your image file size, you need to use the correct resolution for the specific task. Use 72 ppi for web pages, CD/DVDs, and multimedia; use 150 ppi for inkjet printers, 200 ppi for photo printers, and 300 ppi for commercial printing. When working with images, it's always a good idea to start with a larger image size. You can always reduce the size of the image (subtract pixels) without losing any quality. If you need to enlarge an image, you run the risk of losing image quality. When you enlarge an image, the number of pixels doesn't increase as the image does, so the pixels become larger, which results in a rougher, or more pixelated, image. From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg 14 Chapter 1 When you create documents for specific purposes, such as, web, film, video, or for use on a mobile device, you know the importance of creat- ing documents that will perfectly match the output requirements of the intended file destination. The preset file sizes available in the Preset menu let you create images at a size and pixel aspect ratio that com- pensate for scaling when you incorporate them into various output modes. When you work with the Preset menu, the guesswork involved in creating compatible photo, web, mobile device, film and video docu- ments in Photoshop is a thing of the past. Creating a New Document Using Presets Create a New Document Using Presets Click the File menu, and then click New. Click the Preset list arrow, and then select from the available presets: ◆ Photo ◆ Web ◆ Mobile & Devices ◆ Film & Video ◆ Custom Click the Size list arrow, and then select the preset you want. The options vary depending on the type of document you want to create. ◆ Photo. For example, Landscape 4 x 6. ◆ Web. For example, 640 x480. ◆ Mobile & Devices. For example, 176 x 208. ◆ Film & Video. For example, HDTV 1080p/29.97. If you want, adjust the available options. Click OK. 5 4 3 2 1 2 5 3 4 Using a Video Preview Option Photoshop now includes a Video Preview option that lets you pre- view your documents on a display device such as a standard or DVD screen. The device must be attached to your computer through the use of a FireWire port. Once the device is attached, open a docu- ment, click the File menu, point to Export, and then click Send Video Preview to Device. To set output options before viewing your docu- ment on the device, click the File menu, point to Export, and then click Video Preview. The Video Preview option supports RGB, grayscale, and indexed color images, in either 8 or 16 bits per chan- nel. You can adjust the aspect ratio for proper display of images. First, select the aspect ratio of the display device, either Standard (4:3) or Widescreen (16:9), and then select a placement option, such as Center or Crop to 4:3, for the image. To maintain an image's (non- square) pixel aspect ratio, select the Apply Pixel Aspect Ratio To Preview check box. For Your Information From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 1 Getting Started with Photoshop CS5 15 Images displayed on a computer monitor are made up of square pixels. Conversely, an image displayed on a video monitor is not composed of pixels at all. Non-square pixels are most commonly used by encoding devices for video production. When importing an image created by a square-pixel graphics program into a video editing program such as Adobe Premiere, the square pixels are automatically scaled to non- square pixels for video encoding. This scaling results in a distorted image. By default, non-square pixel documents open with Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction enabled. This enables you to preview how the image will appear on an output device such as a video monitor, and see how it will appear when exported to an analog video device. In keeping with an ever-changing industry, Adobe includes the following Pixel Aspect Ratio options: DVCPRO HD 1080 (1.5) and HDV 1080/DVCPRO HD 720 (1.33). Working with Non- Square Pixels Work with Non-Square Pixels Click the File menu, and then click New. On the bottom of the New dialog box, click the Pixel Aspect Ratio list arrow, select any of the non- square pixel settings, and then click OK. Click the Window menu, point to Arrange, click New Window to create a new window, and then select the new window. Click the View menu, point to Pixel Aspect Ratio, and then select a pixel aspect ratio that’s compatible with the video format. The original window shows the corrected aspect ratio, and the other one shows it without. To re set th e pi xel as pect ra tio to the default, click the View menu, point to Pixel Aspect Ratio, click Reset Pixel Aspect Ratios, and then click OK (replaces) or Append (replaces, yet retains any custom values). To re move the pixel aspe ct rati o, click the View menu, point to Pixel Aspect Ratio, click Delete Pixel Aspect Ratio, select the aspect ratio, and then click Delete. 6 5 4 3 2 1 Image with a non-square pixel ratio 4 5 6 From the Library of Wow! eBook . / 72 = 14 .2) . To det e rmine th e p i xels pr e sent in an im a g e, you multiple the size by the ppi. For example, a 3 inch image at 72 ppi would have a total of 21 6 pixels (3 x 72 = 21 6) 72 pixels per inch. To det e rmine th e s i ze o f a n i m age in inches, we divide the pixels by the ppi. For example, an image 1, 024 pixels wide at 72 ppi would be 14 .2 inches wide (1, 024 . first tool. Working with Photoshop Tools Toolbox From the Library of Wow! eBook ptg Chapter 1 Getting Started with Photoshop CS5 11 You can refer to Adobe Photoshop CS5 Keyboard Shortcuts (available