17 CHAPTER Understanding the Photoshop Workspace IN THIS CHAPTER Touring the workspace Looking at the menus Understanding and organizing panels Tool overview Using presets to save tool configurations Configuring Photoshop preferences Creating custom menus and shortcuts T he Photoshop CS5 workspace has had years to develop into a fine- tuned working environment, and with bigger monitors and faster processors, working in Photoshop has only become much more fun. With all the room that larger display options give you, you can easily orga- nize the panels, documents, and tools in the workspace to provide an effi- cient photo-editing environment. With all its features, Photoshop can be a bit daunting at first. The purpose of this chapter is to familiarize you with the Photoshop workspace, how to nav- igate around, find tools, customize settings, and set the environment so it works best for you. Workspace Overview At first glance, the Photoshop workspace seems a little dreary—lots of gray, but that is very misleading. With beautiful photographs (or other colorful graphics) in the work area and fascinating tools at your fingertips, you’ll soon be addicted to the Photoshop playground. In fact, you probably are glad that the background not only makes a good contrast for colorful files but is easy on the eyes. So without any further ado, I give you the Photoshop workspace, as shown in Figure 2.1. 06_584743-ch02.indd 1706_584743-ch02.indd 17 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 18 FIGURE 2.1 The Photoshop workspace Application bar Arrange Documents Menus Screen Mode Tool options menu bar Panels Workspace presets Panel tabs Panel icons Document windowDocument info Document tabs Zoom value Toolbox The document workspace The document workspace, in the center area of the workspace, houses the documents (image files) that you are currently editing. The document workspace is large enough to really get some work done; it gives you the flexibility to expand your image to a workably large size and keep your favorite panels open and docked as well. The document workspace is also home to the panels and Toolbox discussed later in this chapter. 06_584743-ch02.indd 1806_584743-ch02.indd 18 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Chapter 2: Understanding the Photoshop Workspace 19 Note The screenshots in this book were taken at a screen resolution of 1024x768, which is a really low resolution, especially if you have a larger screen. If your resolution is set higher, you have a larger work area than is shown here. If you set your resolution as high as 1920x1200 (which is what mine is usually set to), you have an insane amount of room to expand your panels, tile your document windows, and generally make everything available to you at once. Of course, if your resolution is set lower than 1024x768, your work area is smaller. n As you open image files, they appear in the center of the document workspace, and you have sev- eral options for viewing them. When you click the View menu, as shown in Figure 2.2, and you can choose the following basic options: l Fit to Screen: If you are working on your entire document (and not working with other files), your best option is to choose Fit to Screen so you can see all of it as large as possible. l Actual Pixels: The Actual Pixels mode is the best option if you want to see the cleanest view of a specific area because the pixels in the image match the pixels in the screen, so no interpolation is necessary. l Print Size: The Print Size option is handy if you want to get a better idea of how the doc- ument will look when printed. FIGURE 2.2 You can change the way your image fits into the document workspace by using the View menu. 06_584743-ch02.indd 1906_584743-ch02.indd 19 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 20 Tip Don’t use the zoom options in the View menu; you have several better options—the Zoom tool, the Magnify box, and the roller wheel on your mouse, all of which are discussed later in this chapter. n In addition to the standard View modes, you can easily zoom in and out on the image, depending on your editing needs. Notice at the bottom-left corner of the document windows is a percentage representing the Zoom value and the document information. You can change the size of your doc- ument by selecting the Zoom value and typing a new percentage. Another useful feature in the document window is the information section at the bottom. By default, the document information displays the size of your file. Keep an eye on this as you begin to add multiple layers and effects to a document; you might be surprised by how these changes can increase the size of your document. If you click the arrow next to the document information, a pop-up list opens, as shown in Figure 2.3, that gives you several options for the information display. You can choose to display the Adobe Drive, the Document Size, the Document Profile, Document Dimensions, Measurement Scale, Scratch Sizes, Efficiency, Timing, the Current Tool, and the option to preview an image at 32-bit exposure. FIGURE 2.3 The information section of the document window can be very useful when you are editing images. The menu allows you to display several types of information. 06_584743-ch02.indd 2006_584743-ch02.indd 20 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Chapter 2: Understanding the Photoshop Workspace 21 When multiple documents are open in the document workspace, Photoshop provides tabs for each of them, as shown in Figure 2.1. These tabs display the document name, and you can access the document for editing by clicking its tab. Using the tabs is the most economical and organized way to have multiple files open, and you probably will prefer this option most of the time. There are also other View options when you have multiple documents open. To change how the document windows are organized, select Window ➪ Arrange from the main menu and then choose one of the following options: l Cascade: Cascading your documents shows the document windows in a cascade fashion from the upper left to the lower right of your document workspace. l Tile: Tiling adjusts the size of all open document windows so they can all be viewed together in the workspace. For example, if you are working with two or more documents at the same time, cloning areas of one into another, you probably want to tile your docu- ments in the document workspace. l Float in Window: Floating your documents releases them from the document workspace or from a floating group to their own individual window. When the document windows are floating, they are independent of the Photoshop interface, and you can use the stan- dard operating system window controls on them. You can organize floating windows into groups by dragging one window on top of another window. When more than one docu- ment is in a floating group, their tabs are displayed at the top of the window. You also can float windows by grabbing the tab in the floating group or document workspace and drag- ging it out. You can add a floating document to a group or document workspace by drag- ging it into the tabs. l Float All in Window: This causes all windows to float. Tip You can quickly cycle through open tabbed document windows by using the Ctrl/Ô+Tab hotkey sequence. n l Consolidate All to Tabs: This docks all floating windows into the document workspace. This option is great if you find that you have so many windows open that navigating them is difficult. You also can consolidate windows to the document workspace or floating group by right-clicking the tab bar at the top and selecting Consolidate All to Here. l Match Zoom: This sets the zoom percentage of all open document windows to match the value of the active document window. This is useful when you are working with multiple images that eventually will be consolidated into a single document. l Match Location: This sets the center panning position of all open document windows to match the center position of the active document window. This is useful if you are work- ing with multiple versions of the same image or a sequence of images and you want to quickly move to the same location in all windows for comparison. l Match Rotation: This sets the rotation angle of the image in all document windows to match the rotation angle of the image in the active document window. l Match All: This sets the zoom, center panning position, and rotation of all document win- dows to match the values of the active document window. 06_584743-ch02.indd 2106_584743-ch02.indd 21 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 22 The application bar The application bar (refer to Figure 2.1) provides quick links to the following options: l Bridge: This starts the Adobe Bridge application or navigates to it if it is already open. Bridge is the application that you should use to organize your image files. l Mini Bridge: This opens a miniature version of Bridge inside Photoshop. You can use the Mini Bridge panel to easily select files to edit. Cross-Ref Bridge is a great tool for organizing your files for use in Photoshop as well as other Adobe applications. Mini Bridge is new to CS5 and gives you a panel-sized version of Bridge to work directly from in the Photoshop workspace. Both applications are covered extensively in Chapter 6. n l Guides/Grids/Rulers: Next to the application icons is the View Extras icon, which allows you to quickly control the visibility of guides, grids, and rulers to the document window using a simple drop-down menu. The guides, grids, and rulers are shown in Figure 2.4, and the following list describes the purpose of each: FIGURE 2.4 The guides, grids, and rulers features of Photoshop allow you to better organize and align objects in your images. Ruler Guides Cursor location indicator Ruler units Guides Subdivisions 06_584743-ch02.indd 2206_584743-ch02.indd 22 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Chapter 2: Understanding the Photoshop Workspace 23 l Guides: Guides are vertical or horizontal lines that you can add to a document using the View ➪ New Guide menu option. Guides can help you with object placement and organization. You also can force items to be snapped to guides by selecting View ➪ Snap To ➪ Guides from the main menu. The position of guides can be adjusted in the image using the Move tool. Tip When you click and hold down the mouse button on the ruler, the cursor changes to a guide adjustment cur- sor. You can quickly add guides to an image by clicking the ruler and dragging them into the document. n l Grids: Grids are a mesh of vertical and horizontal lines that you can use to more eas- ily see the alignment and organization of objects in your images. Photoshop also divides the grids into subdivisions of lines that are not as visible but are visible enough to be useful. A great feature of Photoshop is that you can force items to be snapped to grids by selecting View ➪ Snap To ➪ Grid from the main menu. This option is useful when placing images, text, and shapes in a document. The number of grid lines, colors, and style can be configured in the Preferences dialog box discussed later in this chapter. l Rulers: When rulers are enabled, a vertical ruler is displayed on the left and a hori- zontal ruler is displayed on the top of the document window. You can change the rulers’ unit of measure by right-clicking the ruler and selecting the unit from the drop- down menu. While you are moving the cursor over the documents, the exact place- ment of the cursor is noted in the ruler by a line that moves with the mouse. The Ruler tool is very important if you are preparing items for print. l Zoom: The Zoom Value found in the document window is duplicated on the application bar. An added benefit is the easy-to-use drop-down menu that allows you to quickly choose from 25%, 50%, 100%, or 200%. You also can enter a custom value by highlight- ing and changing the percentage. l Arrange Documents: The Arrange Documents icon gives you more convenience and ver- satility than the View menu for arranging more than one open document in the document window. Use the drop-down menu shown in Figure 2.5 to choose from several tiling options, float all windows, or open a new window. Use the Match Zoom and Match Location options to show all your open files at the same percentage and in the same loca- tion. You also can fit your selected document to the screen or view actual pixels. l Screen mode: The Screen mode is the last icon on the application bar. The Screen mode icon lets you choose between standard screen mode, full screen mode with menu bar, and full screen mode. l Standard Screen Mode: Standard screen mode is the default, and it allows you access to other applications that are running. l Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar: This mode looks similar to standard screen mode, but you can’t access other programs, through the Windows taskbar for instance. 06_584743-ch02.indd 2306_584743-ch02.indd 23 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 24 l Full Screen Mode: This mode hides everything but the selected document so you can work without distractions. The Photoshop tools are still available to you; just hover over the tool you want to use and it appears, or press the Tab key to view all your tools. Press Esc to return to standard screen mode. FIGURE 2.5 The Arrange Documents drop-down menu lets you choose how to tile multiple docu- ments and makes it easy to quickly access several other options. Arrange Documents Workspace presets The workspace presets shown in the middle right of the application bar are quick ways to change the layout of the panels and tools in Photoshop, depending on the task you are performing. When you select a preset, the panel layouts are adjusted so you have easier access to the tools that are typically used for the selected task. Presets are selected by clicking the name or the double arrows and selecting one of the options from the drop-down menu: l New in CS5: This displays the panel icons for panels with new features in CS5, such as the new 3D tools, paint brush, the paragraph and character presets, and Mini Bridge. l Essentials: The Essentials preset gives you full access to the most commonly used panels in Photoshop, including the navigation, swatches, and layers panels. l Design: The Design preset gives you the more common graphic design panels, such as the swatch, character, and paragraph panels. l Painting: The Painting preset makes the paint brush and brush presets readily available. 06_584743-ch02.indd 2406_584743-ch02.indd 24 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Chapter 2: Understanding the Photoshop Workspace 25 l Photography: The Photography preset provides the histogram and adjustments panels that make it easy to apply adjustments to photographs. l 3D: The 3D preset displays the 3D, Mask, and Layers panels that are used heavily when working with 3D objects. l Motion: The Motion preset displays the Animation {Timeline} and Clone Source panels that are frequently used in animation. l Reset/New/Delete: When you select a workspace preset and then adjust the panels, Photoshop remembers those adjustments so you don’t have to make them each time you start the application. The Reset option restores the currently selected workspace to the origi- nal settings so you can start over with a fresh set of panels. The Create option allows you to save the current panel layout as your own custom workspace. The new workspace then shows up in the list. The Delete option deletes the currently selected workspace preset. The Toolbox and tool options bar The Toolbox, shown in Figure 2.6, provides easy access to all of the tools in Photoshop that require mouse or stylus interaction with the document. The Toolbox includes tools such as selec- tion tools, painting tools, erasing tools, and much more. We discuss each of the tools available in the Toolbox later in this chapter. FIGURE 2.6 The Toolbox provides access to the mouse/stylus tools. Each time you select a new tool, the tool options bar changes to reflect settings for the new tool. The tool options menu bar, usually referred to as the “options bar” or the “tool menu,” sits below the main menu. The tool options menu looks very different depending on the tool you have selected in the Toolbox. Figure 2.6 shows the different options for the Move, Brush, and Type tools. 06_584743-ch02.indd 2506_584743-ch02.indd 25 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 26 It is always smart to keep an eye on what is going on in the options bar. When you select a tool, the options are set to default values that are commonly used, but not necessarily the values you would use in a particular situation. After you change the options for any given tool, those options stay changed, even after using other tools. The options bar is so useful and important that you’ll see many examples throughout this book of different ways to set your options, and as you use Photoshop, you soon become very familiar with it. Cruising the Main Menus Now we come to the menu bar. The menus listed here give you a good comprehensive idea of what you can accomplish in Photoshop. In this section, I show you the primary purpose of each menu and highlight some of the menu options that might not be covered in other areas of the book. As you learn how to use the Photoshop tools throughout the book, you learn so much more about many of the menu options, so for now, I just give you a brief overview. The File menu The File menu has many of the options that you would expect, and many of them are self-explanatory. For the most part, all the options listed are different ways to open, save, or export your documents. The options in the File menu are covered throughout the book, opening and saving files are covered in Chapter 3, exporting to the Web and mobile devices is covered in Chapter 30, and batch operations on files are covered in Chapter 31. The Edit menu Again, this menu is a familiar menu found in most applications with many familiar options. Above and beyond cut, copy, and paste, you can step backward, undoing several of the last changes you made. Farther down the menu, you find the transformation edits—Content-Aware Scale and Puppet Warp among them. These are covered in Chapter 19. You learn about using color in Chapter 4 and color profiles in Chapter 29. Setting Preferences and using the menus and shortcuts options to customize menu and shortcut behavior are covered later in this chapter. The Image menu The Image menu is loaded with lots of options for changing your image. Making changes to your image is different than making changes to your file, because these options actually affect the look of your image. The options in your Image menu let you change the color mode, resize, rotate, or duplicate your image, among other things. Neatly tucked into the Image adjustments menu you find some of the most powerful tools for correcting the color and light of your image. These are covered in Chapter 06_584743-ch02.indd 2606_584743-ch02.indd 26 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM . window. 06_584743-ch 02. indd 21 06_584743-ch 02. indd 21 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 22 The application bar The application bar (refer to Figure 2. 1) provides. Photoshop workspace, as shown in Figure 2. 1. 06_584743-ch 02. indd 1706_584743-ch 02. indd 17 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 18 FIGURE 2. 1 The Photoshop. units Guides Subdivisions 06_584743-ch 02. indd 22 06_584743-ch 02. indd 22 5/3/10 10:15 AM5/3/10 10:15 AM Chapter 2: Understanding the Photoshop Workspace 23 l Guides: Guides are vertical or horizontal