Top 26 Photoshop Tricks You Can't Live Without

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Top 26 Photoshop Tricks You Can't Live Without Rating: (3.7 / 10) Views: 6,978

Submitted By: lacyshoes on 3/27/2007. (

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1) Simulating Bold and Italics in Photoshop When the Font Doesn’t Have Them

Photoshop only gives you bold and italics options when the typeface includes these styles. If you want to simulate bold and italic formatting styles when these options are not available, you still can, but the option is somewhat hidden. If your character palette is not showing, click the button on the type tool options bar to show it. With the text selected, click the arrow in the upper right hand corner of the palette menu. There you'll find Faux Bold and Faux Italics.
Warning: You cannot warp type when Faux Bold formatting has been applied.

2) Loading of Layer Styles

Start Photoshop, then open your email program if they were emailed to you or navigate to their files on the hard drisk, then right click/option click, then select open and the style will be loaded automatically.

3) Finding the Cursor when it has Seemingly Disappeared

I often cannot see the cursor whenever I am in a grayish area of the image.
Solution: press down on the spacebar and the hand icon becomes visible where the cursor is located. Some other keys also work, depending on what tool you're using, but the spacebar always works.

4) Closing Multiple Windows

Just hold down the shift key when you go File->close and photoshop will close all the open documents.

5) Watermarking Photos

Placing an overlay watermark on images that you plan to post on the Web will identify them as your own work and discourage people from copying them or claiming them as their own. You can add a semi-transparent overlay to many images automatically when you use the Web Photo Gallery Creator feature in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Just look under the "Security" section of the setup dialog.
The choices available include custom text, copyright notice, the filename, a caption, credits, or title. Note that some of these options will only exisit if you have added them to the IPTC data through the "File Info" command in Photoshop, or through another image manager that supports IPTC data.
You can also control the color, font, size, and position of the watermark text. Some options you may want to use for the custom text would be "Proof", "Sample", your company name and URL, or the copyright symbol.

6) Creating a composite layer

Step 1) You have an image composed of several layers and you want to create a new layer that has the entire image merged, while still maintaining all the separate layers.

Create a new layer and make it active.

Link all the layers together, by clicking to the left of the thumbnails, you will see the little chain, indicating that the layers are linked. (in photoshop CS2 Click the top layer. Hold shift and click the bottom to select all layers).

Step 2) Now while holding down the alt/option key, click Merge Linked from the layers “fly out” menu. (also work from merge visiable)
Step 3) And ZAP! You now have a new layer with the info from all the layers combined into it without merging the the layers. I don't know about you, but I think that is pretty slick!
In Photoshop CS 2 all you need to do is click on the top layer and press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E (Cmd+Shift+Option+E on Mac) CS2 will create the new layer on top or you. On CS do the same thing but make a blank layer first.

7) Using RGB Filters while working in CMYK

As you know some filters like the render filters are disabled in CMYK. Here is a neat tip, work in RGB mode with CMYK preview turned on. CTRL/CMD+Y build your file as normal then when you are finised, convert it to CMYK. This will allow all the filters to work, give you a smaller file size to work on (used 1/4 less memory) and you won't "lose" your colors when you convert it. Only use CMYK for going to a commercial printing press.

8) Undoing Actions

When recording a new action, always make "Create a new snapshot" the first step you record in your action. This way, if you run the action and decide you don't like the results, you can revert to the previous image state by clicking on the most recent snapshot.

9) Choosing Starting Increment for Batch Renaming

There is an undocumented feature for batch renaming files in Photoshop 7's file browser that lets you add a serial number and specify the starting increment. To append a file name with 3 digit numbers starting at 49, you would enter #049# in one of the File Naming fields of the Batch rename dialog box. For 2 digit numbers starting with 15, enter #15# and so on.

10) Converting Layer Effects to Layers

You can convert layer effects to actual layers by choosing Layer > Layer Styles > Create Layers. Not all effects can be reproduced as layers so you will see a warning box. If you only want to create layers from some of the effects, make a duplicate of the layer, hide the effects you do not want, then create layers.

11) Customized Keyboard Shortcuts in Photoshop CS

I didn't get too excited when I first read about the ability to customize keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop CS, but after just one day of working with it, I have already customized several of them and I know I will find more uses for this capability as time goes on.
So far, I have customized shortcuts to toggle the file browser on and off (F3) and to open a new Window (Shift-Ctrl-W). These command don't have default shortcuts, so I created my own. I also swapped the default shortcuts for the Open and Browse commands because I would prefer to use Ctrl-O to open the File Browser.
Before you start customizing, I suggest you first generate a summary of the default key assignments. To do that, go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and click the Summarize button to create a chart of the default shortcuts.
You'll be prompted for a file name and after you save the file it will be opened in your Web browser. You probably don't need to print that file if you plan to customize your own shortcuts, but it could be useful to refer to later.
Shortcuts can be customized for all the menu commands, the palette menus, and the tools. Switch between them using the "Shortcuts for" menu. For application and palette menus you will need to click the triangle to expand the list for each menu before you can see the list of commands. To change one, click on it and a box will appear with a blinking cursor. Press the keys you want to assign as the shortcut and Photoshop will alert you if there are any problems.
You can assign more than one shortcut to the same command by clicking the "Add Shortcut" button. If you choose a set of keys that conflicts with another shortcut already assigned, Photoshop will let you know so you can either undo the change, or accept the change and go directly to the conflicting command to re-assign it.
If you choose an F-key shortcut that is already assigned to an action, it will allow you to accept the shortcut, but the action will override the command until you manually go into the action and remove the shortcut assigned to it.
For instance, I wanted to use the F3 key to toggle the File Browser on and off. When I changed this, Photoshop warned me that the F3 key was already in use by the action titled "Copy (selection)." I clicked accept, but the F3 key would still perform the Cut action instead of turning the File Browser on and off. To change it, I had to go into the actions palette and find the specific action with this key assigned, then double click the name to bring up the action options. From there I could remove the F-key assignment or add a modifier so that it would not conflict with my Browser shortcut.
Once you've customized the shortcuts to your liking, you should save your set and generate a new summary. Click the disk button next to the set menu to save the set permanently, otherwise the changes will be lost if you ever need to trash your preferences. Also, when you save the shortcuts you can return to them at any time--useful if you use Photoshop on more than one computer or a computer that is shared with other users. Just copy the *.kys file from the Photoshop CS\Presets\Keyboard Shortcuts folder and take it with you! If you've customized many shortcuts, you will probably find it useful to click the summarize button and print a list to keep nearby until you learn them all.
As much as I like this new ability to customize the keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop CS, I still miss the visual Quick Reference card that came with previous versions of Photoshop

12) Cycle Through Blend Modes with the Keyboard
When I'm experimenting with different effects, I often like to try out different blend modes to see what effects they have on my layers.
To cycle through all the blend modes quickly using the keyboard, use Shift-+ (plus) to change to the next mode, and Shift-- (minus) to change to the previous mode.
Notes:
If you have any painting tool active this shortcut changes the blend mode of the painting tool.
If the blending mode menu in the layers palette has an item highlighted, the keyboard shortcut may not work. If this happens, tap the ESC key and then try the shortcut again.
In the Photoshop CS documentation, this shortcut is listed as Shift-Alt + (plus) or - (minus) for Windows and Shift-Option + (plus) or - (minus) for Macintosh; however, the Shift +/- combination does still work except in the situations noted above.

13) Finding the Center of a Document or Layer

To find the center of your document quickly, choose Select > All, then enter free transform mode (Ctrl+T/Command+T). A crosshair will appear at the center point. If you drag out a pair of guides, they will snap to this point. Hit Esc to exit free transform mode.
To find the center of a layer, select the move tool and choose "Show Bounding Box" from the options palette. A crosshair will appear at the center point.

14) Custom Gradients Made Easy

When you are making a new color gradient and you want to use the same color more than once, don't recreate it. Just hold down the option/Alt key and drag a copy of the slider.

15) Quick Color Change

To change the color of an image: press Cmd/Ctrl+U this will open the hue/saturation dialog box, slide the hue slider to change the color. Use the saturation to adjust color intensity. Brightness, to adjust... well the brightness. Click on colorize to add color to a grayscale image or to add a "duotone effect to a RGB/CMYK image. I also like to use the hue/saturation to restore some luster to an image after converting for RGB to CMYK

16) Selection Tips

To constrain a selection to a perfect circle or square hold down the shift key.
To start drawing from the center hold the Alt/Option key.
Ever find that you started drawing a selection and you need to move it while you are drawing? No problem, just hold the spacebar and drag.

17) Reset Preferences

A lot of Photoshop problems can be fixed by dumping the preferences file: While launching Photoshop, Hold down Alt+Ctrl+shift on the PC or Cmd+Option+Shift on the mac. When asked to reset the preferences say yes.
Before you do this, save your custom Patterns, actions, styles, brushes, gradients, shapes and color pallettes. These will also be reset. Tip: You can create an action to do this, so you have a one click backup! (Don't forget to save the backup action first)

19) Make a new Document from a layer

Under the layers pallete, when you hit duplicate layer, you can change the document setting to "New" to create a brand new picure from any layer.I wish I knew about this one a few years ago!

20) Reducing file sizes and speeding up large images

Even what you can't see, is effecting your file sizes. If you have imported an image that is larger than your canvas size. Select all and crop. You will be surprised how much you can save. Also delete unwanted layers, they can add up a lot too.

21) Cloning Vat

Whenever you want to duplicate an image on a layer, (eg. you are putting star-bursts everywhere) Just hold the Alt/Option key and drag.. zap, a duplicate. To keep it aligned, also hold down the shift key as you drag.

22) Color Modes and formats

For the web use RGB and save as a jpeg if its a photo. If you want tranparency, use gif or png. If you need animation save as a gif. For print use CMYK and save as either a tiff or an eps. For most print purposes 300dpi. To print to an inkjet only, RGB and 300 dpi.

23) Straight Lines with Brushes

To draw a straight line with any of the brush tools just click, hold the shift key and click again anywhere. A straight line will be drawn between the 2 points! Also works with most tools including erasers and even the highlight tool in the Extract filter.

24) Quick Black and White

If you press Ctl/Cmd+Shift+U all the color will be removed from the selection. If no selection is made, then the entire layer will be turned into grayscale instantly.

25) Rasterize and Flatten Layer Effects

If you apply layer style effects to text or shapes and then rasterize the layer, only the text or shape content is rasterized. The layer effects stay separate and editable. Usually, this is a good thing, but if you then apply a filter, it only gets applied to the text or shape and not the effects. To rasterize and flatten the entire layer contents, create a new, empty layer below the layer with your effects and merge down (Ctrl+E on Windows/Command+E on Mac).

26) Color Modes Demystified

A simple, real world approach Welcome to my new column. Here we will be looking at the things that make Photoshop tick. The things that we see in the menus all the time and may not understand what they do. This will be the "Techie column for non Techies." Enjoy
I have had many people ask me, "What are all the different color modes for in Photoshop?" Rather than try and be too technical I will attempt to describe then in a usable way. If you like this article, let me know and I will write one on different file formats.

Bitmap: I would use for some line art in low end situations, doesn't support color on a printing press but background shows through as transparent. Also used for wallpaper on PC computers.

Grayscale: For black, white and shades of gray., When you use this mode all color information is lost. However you must convert to grayscale before you make it a duotone. This mode doesn't support alpha channels.

Duotone: This is when you want to add some depth or color to a b&W image, or just get a trendy effect. A true duotone lets you choose 2 ink colors on your image and will print as a 2 color job on the press. There is also a Tri-tone -which has 3 colors and a quad-tone that has 4. You can produce some very sharp black and white (Grayscale) images with this and it is used in photography books all the time.

RGB: Uses the computers colors (Red, Green, Blue) and is the best option for the web or electronic publishing. Also called additive colors.When defining color spaces, use sRGB for web and Adobe RGB for printing, in most cases avoid the other RGB colorspaces unless you are doing specialized tasks that take advantage of these. Pro Photo is another useful colorspace but many of the colors can't be reproduced on an inkjet printer.

CMYK: Color printing presses print with 4 ink colors Cyan, Magenta, yellow and black. If you look at a magazine close up you will see tiny patterns of dots, these dots are arranged in different patterns and sizes to fool the eye into seeing colors that are not really there, e.g. brown etc. This method is used in most full color printing. I would only use this if you are going to a press. The disadvantages are, the image is a third larger than RGB, and you will lose some brightness as CMYK does not support as wide a tonal range as RGB. Also called subtractive colors.

Lab: LAB stands for Luminosity, a and b channels. Luminosity is the grayscale information and the a and b channels contain the color. It's useful to seperate the colors from luminosity for some different types of image correction including sharpening, noise reduction and also to increase the saturation of colors without damaging the overall color balance.

References:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshopquicktips/Photoshop_and_Photoshop_Elements_Quick_Tips.htm

http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/

http://www.photoshopquicktips.com/

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