- Quick-feathered edges are a snap
- Apply, Undo, Try Again
- Photoshop is all-knowing--NOT
- Save your selections
- Never save a JPEG more than once!
- Channels in Photoshop.
- Working with Proxies.
- Secret menus can be your ace in the hole.
- Smaller than a pixel.
- Too many palettes.
- Moving images.
- Measuring objects using the Line tool.
- Straightening a crooked image.
- 100-percent zoom
- Creating a custom brush
- Eliminate image icons for your Web graphics
- Importing Illustrator files
- Why no paint?
- Can't enter the duotone zone?
- Use your Photoshop filters in ImageReady

Quick-feathered edges are a snap

Use the Marquee tool or the Lasso tool to select part of an image. Feather the selection by pressing [command] [shift] D (or [Ctrl] [Shift] D in Windows); then invert the selection by pressing [command] [shift] I (Windows [Ctrl] [Shift] I). Fill the selected area by choosing Fill from the Edit menu, and picking the color into which you want your selection to blend. You can make the feathered area greater or smaller by using the Feather command in the Select menu, and changing the amount of pixels in
the Feather Selection dialog box.

Apply, Undo, Try Again [Versions: 3, 4: Macintosh, Windows]

If you apply a filter and don't care for the results, here is a simple and fast method to recall the filter and apply it with a different setting.
First choose Undo from the Edit menu or press [Command]Z on the Macintosh or [Ctrl]Z in Windows. Then, press [Command][Option]F on the Macintosh or [Ctrl][Alt]F in Windows to recall the last used filter dialog box. Make the changes to the filter settings and click OK to apply the filter.

Photoshop is all-knowing--NOT (Version: 3, 4-Windows)

Photoshop lets you save a file with the wrong extension. For example, by default, Photoshop saves a file in the native Photoshop .PSD file format.

However, if you type in a new file extension (such as .JPG) in the File Name text field without choosing the correct file format from the File Type listbox, Photoshop will still save the file in the .PSD format. Later, when you try to open the image, Photoshop will present you with a error dialog box stating there is a problem parsing the file. When you receive this error message, try changing the extension in the file name to .PSD

Save your selections (Versions: 3, 4; Macintosh, Windows)

Every time you take longer than 30 seconds to create a selection, save the selection as an alpha channel-you never know when you'll need the selection again. If your computer simply doesn't have the RAM available to save a lot of selections, save the selection as an image. To do so, first choose Save Selection... from the Selection menu to save the selection as an alpha channel. Then select the alpha channel and choose Duplicate Channel... from the Channels palette menu. In the resulting dialog box, choose New from the Document listbox, name the new image, and click OK.

Later, if you need to load the channel as a selection, open the image and choose Load Selection... from the Selection menu. Then choose the image and the channel from the Document and Channel listbox.

Never save a JPEG more than once!

Every time you save a JPEG, even if you haven't changed a thing in the image, the file is recompressed. Since JPEG is a "lossy" compression
scheme, which means additional information is removed from the image, that can mean quality loss. Any image editing (even just changing the dimensions of the picture) should be done before you convert it to a JPEG.

Channels in Photoshop (Versions: 3, 4--Macintosh, Windows)

Photoshop uses channels in two ways: to store color information about an image and to store selections. Photoshop automatically creates color information channels when you open a new image. For example, an RGB Color image has four channels--a composite channel, a red channel, a green channel, and a blue channel.
In addition to creating color information channels, you can create other channels (sometimes called alpha channels) to store and edit selections. You can load such alpha channels into other channels to select and isolate parts of an image. Each Photoshop image can contain up to 24 channels--including all color and alpha channels. Any channel you create will have the same dimensions and number of pixels as the original image. In addition, you can specify a name, color, mask protection option, and opacity for each channel. You can also edit the mask in an alpha channel using Photoshop's tools and filters.

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Working with Proxies (Versions: 3, 4 on Macintosh, Windows)

Proxies are the small rectangles that appear in the preview image in some Photoshop dialog box. Although, Proxies display only a portion of the real
image, you can scroll the proxy around the image and even click the + and - buttons to zoom in and out of the image. Alternatively, you can click on
the real image to move the proxy view to that click point. Also, to zoom in the proxy view, press [Command] on the Macintosh or [Ctrl] in Windows and
click the proxy. To zoom out, press [Option] on the Macintosh or [Alt] in Windows.

Secret menus can be your ace in the hole (Versions: 4--Macintosh, Windows)

There are so many features and functions in the new version of Photoshop that it's very difficult to remember how to access them all. However, you
can easily find and execute commands, related tools, palettes, or images using the Photoshop Context menu. Adobe Photoshop contains a number of
context-sensitive menus that display commands that relate to the active tool, selection, or palette. You can use a Context menu to choose commonly
used commands quickly.

To display a Context menu, first position the cursor over an image or palette item. Then, press [Ctrl] on the Macintosh and press the mouse button or simply click with the right mouse button in Windows.

Smaller than a pixel (Versions: 3,4--Macintosh, Windows)

We all know that the smaller possible Photoshop brush size is one pixel.
However, you can use the one pixel brush to create a half-pixel line. To do so, choose the one pixel brush from the Brushes palette. Then choose a 50%
tint of the color your painting in. Although the stroke you paint will actually measure a pixel wide, the tint forces the stroke to appear half a pixel wide.

Too many palettes (Versions: 3, 4--Macintosh, Windows)

Considering the palette glut that most applications suffer from today, it's a wonder you can see an image at all. Luckily, there's a quick way to hid all the Photoshop palette on your screen. To toggle the palette display on and off, press [Tab].

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Moving images (Versions: 3 & 4 for Macintosh & Windows)

When you select and move an image, Photoshop displays the moving selection in two ways. The first way is to display the image as you move the
selection. The second method displays only an outline of the selection.
Both displays have their advantages, but to make optimal use of either, you should know how Photoshop decides which display to show. To display the
contents of an image as you move a selection, click the selection using the Move tool and wait a moment. Then, Photoshop displays the selection and its contents as you drag the selection to a new position. To display only the outline of a selection as you move it, click the selection and immediately
move it. Photoshop displays an outline of the selection.

Measuring objects using the Line tool (Versions: 3, 4 for Macintosh, and Windows)

Although Photoshop has guides, rulers, and grids to help you size and measure objects, a tape measure tool would certainly come in handy.
Fortunately, you can set Photoshop's Line tool to function as a tape measure. To do so, simply choose the Line tool from the toolbar.
Then, choose Show Options from the Window menu to activate the Line Tool Options palette and set the Line Width to 0.

Next, choose Show Info... from the Window menu to activate the Info palette. Now, let's try to measure something. For example, to measure the
width of an object, position the Line tool over the left edge.

Then, click and hold down the mouse button and drag the tool to the right edge of the object. (Notice that since we set the line width to zero, the
Line tool makes no mark on the image as you click and drag.) The Info palette displays the measured distance of the width of the object.

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Straightening a crooked image (Versions: 3, 4 on Macintosh, Windows)

How many times have you fought with the Rotate tool trying to straighten a crooked scan or image? Regardless of how adept you are with the Rotate
tool, it's always difficult to perfectly align a selection to a zero axis just by eyeballing the rotation of the image. Here's an easy method you can implement to perfectly align those crooked scans and images. Let's walk through the technique.

To find the exact rotation angle to correct the image, choose the Line tool from the toolbox. Then, choose Show Options from the Window menu to open
the Line Tool Options palette if it isn't already open. Next, set the Line Width to 0. Now, click the Info tab on the Line Tool Options palette to switch to the Info palette.

With the Line tool in hand, you're ready to find out the exact rotation angle that will straighten the image. Position the Line tool over the top-left corner of the image. Hold down the mouse button and draw a line along the top edge of the image (don't let go of the mouse button!).

Since we set the line width of the Line tool to zero, we're not actually drawing a line. The Angle text field in the Info palette gives you the angle of the image. Take note of this angle--you'll need it in a moment.

To straighten the image, select it and choose Arbitrary... from the Rotate Canvas menu under the Image menu. Then, in the resulting dialog box, enter
into the Angle text field the angle you noted from the Info palette and click OK. As you can see, the crooked image is now straight

100-percent zoom

There are lots of shortcuts in Photoshop, and here's a handy one to change the view of your image: Double-clicking on the Zoom tool in the Toolbox will zoom your image to 100 percent.

Creating a custom brush

To create a custom brush from a piece of an existing image, select the area you want to use with one of the Selection tools. The area must be less than 1000 x 1000 pixels, since that's the biggest a brush can be. It's best if the shape you choose is on a solid white background. Go to the Brushes palette menu and choose Define Brush. The selected area is
defined as a brush. This is a really good way to "paint" in a repetitive pattern in an image

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Eliminate image icons for your Web graphics

Every KB counts! If you use Photoshop to design for the Web, you might want to turn off the image preview in the file icon to reduce your file size. Choose File > Preferences > Saving Files and in the dialog box that displays, choose Never Save in the Image Previews dropdown menu.

Importing Illustrator files

The best way to bring an Illustrator file into Photoshop isn't by cutting and pasting. Use the Place command in the File menu instead. Your vector art is placed in its own layer, maintaining its original aspect ratio, and in a Transform bounding box for easy scaling, rotating, etc.

Why no paint?

You can use the Paint Bucket tool to fill adjacent pixels that are of similar color value with a color you choose. If it doesn't work, however, check your image mode to make sure you aren't in Bitmap. The Paint Bucket tool won't work in Bitmap mode.

Can't enter the duotone zone?

If you've ever tried to create a duotone from a color image and find that the duotone option is grayed out in the Image>Mode menu, there's a reason. Duotones use different colors of ink to represent levels of gray, therefore Photoshop treats them as grayscale images. Since only 8-bit grayscale images can be converted to duotones, you must first convert your color image to 8-bit grayscale.

Use your Photoshop filters in ImageReady

Many Photoshop users have found that Adobe ImageReady is a great tool for Web design. But it doesn't have a full set of filters. To add most of the filters in your Photoshop plug-ins folder (some
won't work, but most will), choose File>Preferences>Plug-ins & Scratch Disks, and in the dialog box that displays, check the Additional Plug-ins folder check box and click Choose. Then navigate your way to your Photoshop plug-ins folder and choose Select.

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