This program is located: Adobe Photoshop CS2 Reference Guide For Windows Start > All Programs > Photo Editing and Scanning >Adobe Photoshop CS2 General Keyboarding Tips: TAB Show/Hide Toolbox and Palettes Ctrl + N New image Ctrl + S Saves file (once you have named and initially saved the file) Ctrl + R Show/Hide Ruler (when you have an image file open) Ctrl + Z Undo last action Ctrl + A Select entire image Ctrl + D Deselects selection Shift + Ctrl + I Inverts selection Ctrl + W Closes image With most tools you should experiment with the ALT, CTRL, SHIFT and SPACEBAR keys. Generally, ALT will SUBTRACT from your selection SHIFT will ADD to your selection CTRL will CUT your selection SPACE will MOVE your selection To activate guide lines (helpful for lining up items on different layers) first click View > Show > Guides. Activate your ruler by pressing Ctrl + R, then click on the ruler and drag the guide line out onto your image. This feature is non-printing. To change the dimensions of your image: Activate your image by clicking anywhere inside it. Once it is active click Image > Image Size. If you want to keep the proportions of your image the same, make sure that "Constrain Proportions" is checked in your Image Size box. Experiment to find the image size that is right for your project. Bear in mind, though, that changing the size of an image can sometimes affect its visual quality. There are two "sizes" for images there is the actual image size (dimension) and there is the file size (usually in Kb or Mb). They are proportional (as specified below under To Change the File size of your image).
When you click on Image > Image Size this box will pop up. Some people find it easier to use "percent" instead of pixels to determine the final size of the image. If you click on the arrows next to "pixels" you can change the Width and Height choices to percentages. It will start at 100 you can change it to whatever percentage you want. Note the "Constrain Proportions" check box. When that is checked you will see the "linked" image next to the width and height when you change one, the other will change automatically. The "Document Size" feature of this box indicates what size would print out should you decide to print your image. This can be altered separately from the Pixel Dimensions by unclicking "Resample Image." Generally, however, you won't need to make any adjustments to this area. To SAVE your image: If you just click on File > Save while you are adjusting your image, Adobe Photoshop will automatically save your image with the extension.psd, which identifies it as a Photoshop document. However, the web does not recognize PSD as a valid image type, so you will need to save your image in a different way if you are producing web images. If you are creating buttons or using layers, it is a good idea to keep a copy (see below) of your basic image as a PSD file; once you save an image as a GIF or JPG, the layers will be flattened so that you can no longer alter them. Save Options: File > Save (or Ctrl + S) Use this the first time you save an image, or to save periodically without changing Format or Options. File > Save As Use this to save an image file in a different format (e.g. BMP, GIF, JPG). In the Save As window, go to Format and choose the desired format. You are also given the option of saving As a Copy (the document you are saving will automatically have copy inserted into the name e.g. name copy.jpg ) File > Save for Web When you use this feature, a Save For Web window will pop up, with four tabs: Original, Optimized, 2-Up, and 4-Up. The options presented will be in GIF, JPEG or PNG (web-friendly) format. You can choose the Optimized option, or you can select one of the options in 4-Up. Then precede to save as usual by clicking OK. To change the File Size of your image: If you have already saved your file as a GIF or JPG and it is still too large *, you will need to scale down the resolution of your image. Image Resolution is defined by Adobe as the number of pixels displayed per unit of printed length of an image (ppi). An image with a high resolution contains more and therefore smaller pixels than an image of the same printed dimensions with a low resolution. For example, a 1 X 1 inch image with a resolution of 72 ppi contains a total of 5184 pixels. The same 1 X 1 inch image at 300 ppi would contain a total of 90,000 pixels. * NOTE: Recommended file size for web use is no more than 20Kb per image.
File Size is directly proportional to the number of pixels in an image. Images with more pixels might produce more detail at a given size, but they require more disk space to store and may be slower to edit and print. Image resolution, therefore, is a compromise between image quality and file size. To change the pixel dimensions of an image, choose Image > Image Size and change the value in the resolution field. Manipulating your image: In order to manipulate your image, you must first select the area to manipulate. If you can master these SELECTION TOOLS, you'll be most of the way there! See the help menu or the Lab Assistant for more information. Marquee Tools Lasso Tools Magic Wand Tool Marquee Tools: These let you select rectangular or elliptical areas. Click and hold the left mouse button in the upper left area of the image, and drag your mouse to the lower right corner and release the mouse button. A moving dotted line will appear around the area that you've selected. If you need to adjust the position of the dotted line, simply click inside the dotted line area and drag it. To select your image, use the Adobe Toolbox located on the left side of your screen. <<< Click on the top left tool, which is the Rectangular Marquee tool (lighter color in this image). There are several kinds of selection tools on this button: to see the others click the right mouse button on top of that same tool. Other choices such as "Elliptical" and "Single Row" will pop out and you can select and use any of them by dragging the mouse across them. When you have the tool that you would like to use selected, release the mouse button. Now to select your image, simply click and drag. It's selected! NOTE: If you select the wrong part of your image and want to change it, simply click Select > Deselect, or Ctrl + D. You can also just start over with selecting by left clicking outside of the dotted area and dragging again.
Lasso Tools: There are three kinds of lasso tools; the Lasso, the Polygonal Lasso, and the Magnetic Lasso. Each has its own features, and each has its own options in the options palette. The Lasso Tool allows you to draw freehand around your selection it's perfect for complicated shapes and odd irregular outlines. Simply left click and drag all the way around your image. To draw a straight line section using the lasso tool hold down ALT and click where segments should begin and end (imitates the Polygonal Lasso Tool). The Polygonal Lasso Tool allows you to draw straight lines connecting points around an image e.g. if you wanted to select a star and leave nothing of the background around it. You would click the starting point, then click each time you changed direction. To draw freehand while you are using the polygonal lasso tool, simply left click then hold down ALT and drag around the area (imitates the Lasso Tool). Return to the starting point to complete the lasso. (Note: if you want to abandon the selection process, hit the Esc button.) The Magnetic Lasso Tool allows you to select an item by creating "fastening points" as you outline the image. It looks for the strongest border in the area that you select and then attaches to that. Magic Wand Tool: This last selection tool allows you to select a consistently colored area (for example, a red flower) without having to trace its outline. You specify the color range, or tolerance, for the magic wand tool's selection. Select the tool, then click on the color that you want to select. This will select every pixel in the image that is the same color as the pixel you've clicked. This works particularly well for line drawings on a plain background. You can adjust the tolerance (The word Tolerance, followed by a number, appears at the top of the window when the Magic Wand Tool is selected) to make the magic wand select more colors in the same range or fewer colors in the same range. Other Fun and Useful Tools: Once you've selected a part of your image to be manipulated, you can experiment with the options that Photoshop allows you. You can erase part of your image, change the colors in your image, do some photo-retouching, or apply an interesting visual filter to your image. Remember that ALT, CTRL, SHIFT, and SPACE can be applied while using most tools to achieve different effects. Zoom Tool: The button in the toolbox that looks like a magnifying glass. This tool allows you to zoom in closer to your image so that you can make adjustments more precisely. Click the zoom tool, then click inside the image on the area that you want to see more closely. Click again and you will get closer still. Also: Ctrl plus the plus (+) key to zoom in and Ctrl plus the minus (-) key to zoom out. Crop Tool: The button in the toolbox that looks like an L crossed with an inverted L. The key concept behind the Crop tool is that you define the area that you want to save, not remove this is the opposite of what you may be used to in most other programs, where unwanted items are selected and then cut or deleted. For example, in Photoshop if you want to remove a background from an object make sure that the object is what is selected. Click and drag to define the area to be saved, then right click and select Crop. When you click on Crop, everything that isn't selected will be cut from your work area. Eraser Tool: The button in the toolbox that looks like a chalkboard eraser. This tool works exactly like a rubber eraser would. You can adjust the size and effect of the eraser under the Eraser Options. Keep in mind when you use it that it is erasing everything within your selection that you drag it across!
Rubber Stamp Tool: The button in the toolbox that looks just like a rubber stamp. This is a great tool for photo-retouching. It allows you to remove unwanted objects (scratches, dust, even parts of the image itself!) from a photograph. Using the rubber stamp tool you can remove an object or area by "cloning" an area of the image over the area you want to eliminate. Text Tool: The button in the toolbox that looks like a capital T. If you would like to add text to your image, click on the T in the toolbox, then click into your image and start typing. This creates a text layer which can be moved and manipulated separately from the rest of the image. To alter the font, color, style and appearance of your text, select the text layer from the Layer toolbox and highlight the text with your mouse. This will enable the text tools on the top toolbar. You can also go to Layer > Layer Style and for additional effects. Brightness and Contrast: If your picture is a little too dark, or if you would just like to have some fun, go to Image > Adjust > Brightness and Contrast. A small window will open with slide bars that you can adjust to your specifications. If the preview box is checked, you will be able to see your changes as you apply them. Play around some. If you don t like the results, hit Cancel. Filters: To use most of the FILTERS under the Filter menu you must be working with a PSD image, not a GIF or a JPG, so you need to experiment with those BEFORE you save your image as a GIF or JPG. If you are trying to apply a filter to an image that is already a GIF or JPG, you will need to select all of your GIF image, hit COPY, create a new, blank image, then paste your selection into that new image. That will automatically make it a PSD image, and you can then use the filters or any of the other Photoshop effects. The filters also usually show you a preview, so you can see how the image will look once the filter is applied. Creating a transparent background for your image: You may want to save an image so that the background will be clear, so that the image has the same background color of any page on which it appears. This will save you the work of making several copies of the image with different background colors. To save an image with a transparent background: 1. Using the Magic Wand Tool, select the color you want to make transparent. 2. Choose Help > Export Transparent Image 3. In the first screen of the Export Transparent Image Wizard, choose one of the following, then click Next. a. If you chose a transparent background when you made the new image, choose the first option. b. If you have already used the marquee tool to select the area to be transparent, select the second option. c. If you haven t selected the area to be made transparent, choose the third option. 4. In the next window, to use the image for the web, choose Online, then click Next. 5. In the next window, choose GIF for the format. PNGs are not widely accepted as a format, so a GIF is really what you want.