Specifications
6
You can add Option to the
top two commands to pre-
vent the window that con-
tains your image from
changing size when you
zoom.
You can also type
Com-
mand-H
to hide any guides
or selection edges and use
Command-; to hide guides
but not selection edges.
Ty pe
Command-R to show
or hide the Rulers. You
can open or close any pal-
ette (like the Info Palette)
by choosing its name from
the Window menu. You
can even change the mea-
surement system the Info
palette uses (RGB, HSB,
CMYK, etc.) by clicking on
the eyedropper icon within
that palette.
If you turn on the Caps
Lock key, your cursor will
look like a crosshair when-
ever it’s on top of your im-
age. You can add a Color
Sampler (with correspond-
ing readout in the Info Pal-
ette) by holding Shi and
clicking within your image,
or
Shift-Option-click to re-
move a Color Sampler that’s
already on your image.
If you’re working on an
image that is in RGB mode,
but you plan on convert-
ing it to CMYK mode in
the end, you can type
Com-
mand-Y
to turn on the Proof
Colors feature. With de-
fault settings, that fea-
ture will show what your
image would look like
if it were converted into
CMYK mode. And if you
can’t quite tell which areas
of the image are shiing
when you toggle Proof Col-
ors on and off, try typing
Shift-Command-Y to tell Pho-
toshop to cover all the
ar-
eas that will shi with gray.
Preferences> Plug-ins… and
tick the checkbox named
Additional Plug-ins Folder.
en point it to that folder.
An additional advantage to
this approach is that you
can share compatible plug-
ins among multiple ver-
sions of Photoshop (great
when first upgrading!),
and you can enable and
disable plug-ins by delet-
ing their aliases or moving
them to a different folder.
Photoshop Adjustment
Dialog Tricks
When in a Photoshop Im-
age Adjustment dialog box
such as Levels or Curves,
many people think they
don’t have access to things
outside the box. Here are
not-so-obvious things you
can do while Adjusting
your images:
Hold the Spacebar any
time you want to use the
Hand tool to scroll around
your image. And if you
add the
Command key,
you’ll get the Zoom tool,
and you’ll be able to click
or click and drag to zoom
in on your image. Add the
Option key, and you can
zoom out with each click
of the mouse button. For
efficiency, type one of the
following keyboard com-
mands to zoom in and out
on images:
Command-Plus (+)
= Zoom In
Command-Minus (-)
= Zoom Out
Command-Zero (0)
= Fit on Screen
Option-Command-Zero (0)
= 100% View
Here are some things you
can do inside an Adjust-
ment dialog box. If there’s
a number active, you can
use the Up and Down Ar-
row keys to change that
number. Adding Shi will
change the number in larg-
er increments.
e Tab key will allow you
to cycle through the dif-
ferent numbers you can
change within a dialog
box. Once you are finished
with an adjustment, you
can press Return or En-
ter to apply the adjustment,
or to abort the adjustment,
type
Command-Period. e
Escape key does the same
thing.
If you’ve completely
screwed things up, you can
type
Option-Command-
Period
to reset the dialog
box back to its default set-
tings. If you’ve only half
screwed up, type
Command-
Z
to undo the last step you
performed within the ad-
justment as a whole (before
you click
OK to apply the
whole thing).
Ben Willmore,
www.digitalmastery.com
Don’t Convert
Text to Outlines
Strangely, confusion about
this crops up on a regu-
lar basis—you don’t need
to convert your text to out-
lines in any application
just to be sure the font will
print. Instead, export in
PDF format, and by de-
fault the fonts will be in-
cluded in the file. e fonts
don’t need to be installed
on the recipient’s comput-
er to print it either; they’ll
be accessed directly from
within the file.
give it a click and then
drag up (lightens) or down
(darkens) to move the
point on the curve.
Lesa Snider’s Photoshop:
The Missing Manual
Easy Eye Enhancement
To make the eyes of your
subject pop off the page,
open an image and add a
Levels adjustment by click-
ing the half-black/half-
white circle at the bottom
of the Layers panel. Don’t
make a Levels adjust-
ment; just set the Adjust-
ment layer’s blend mode
to Screen. Click the Ad-
justment layer’s mask and
fill it with black by choos-
ing
Edit> Fill. Use the Brush
tool set to white, and paint
each iris. Lower the Ad-
justment layer’s opacity to
lessen the effect, or dupli-
cate the layer to strength-
en it. It makes a huge dif-
ference!
Lesa Snider’s Photoshop:
The Missing Manual
Manage Third-Party
Photoshop Plug-ins
If Photoshop gets corrupt-
ed and needs to be rein-
stalled, you’ll a
lso need to
reinstall your third-
party plug-ins. You can
avoid this by installing
your third-party plug-ins
into a separate folder, and
then either:
Make aliases of the plug-
ins you want to use, and
drag those aliases into the
Plug-ins folder in the Pho-
toshop folder; or
Tell Photoshop to use your
separate plug-ins folder
as an additional plug-ins
folder. Choose
Photoshop>
Tips (from pg. 5)
Design Tools Monthly
™
• Issue #237 • Acme Printing • www.AcmePrintingUSA.com