More Photoshop Tips (inspired by OuTpaTienT)

[VillageIdiot906]

OuTpaTienT's little rant about the lifeline of this forum inspired me to post some helpful Photoshop tips... although I'm gonna have to remember them all. ;\

To start, here's a simple little tip that is commonly known, but can greatly benefit those who don't know about it:

- To quickly select a different tool of the same subset as your current tool (i.e. Rectangular Marquee, Circular Marquee), hold [SHIFT] and the tool shortcut key (in this case, "M"). This will "shift" from one tool to the next tool in the subset.

I know that most people know this trick... just posting it in case it could help somebody.

I'll post some more useful tidbits later (as I think of them).

[VillageIdiot906]

Here's another somewhat blatantly obvious tip...

- To quickly move the contents of a layer without having to switch to the "Move" tool, just hold down [CTRL] and move to your heart's content.

... I also have a question... in Photoshop CS2, how do you select the contents of a layer (in previous versions, it was [CTRL]+[LEFT CLICK] the layer... not sure about CS1 though... I upgraded straight from 7.0 to CS2)? Do you have to "Select All" ([CTRL]+"A") and then deselect all blanks portions of the layer, or is there an easier way?

[BeatYouWithShoe]

Heres some links.

http://www.good-tutorials.com/
http://www.noxcel.com/main/tutorials.htm
http://user.fundy.net/morris/photoshop.shtml
http://www.stridingstudio.com/tutorials/
http://www.wastedyouth.org/tutorials/index.html
http://www.thinkdan.com/tutorials/index.html
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/2d/
http://www.phong.com/tutorials/
http://www.spyroteknik.com/ spam
http://www.deepspaceweb.com/
http://www.spoono.com/tutorials/photoshop/
http://www.pixeljunction.com/tutorials.php
http://www.eyewire.com/tips/photoshop/ http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/pho...rials-tips.html
http://www.carbonfour.com/tutorials/
http://www.digitexturia.com/index2.php
http://jereme.gfxsites.net/#
http://www.dubtastic.com/
http://www.digitalwebgold.com/resources/tutorials.htm
http://www.designsbymark.com
http://www.bluesfear.com/tutorials.htm
http://www.dimitrix.net
http://www.eyesondesign.net/
http://www.teamphotoshop.com/
http://www.endeffect.com/
http://www.tutorialsearch.com/
http://www.xanthic.net/tutorials.html
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/
http://www.eyeball-design.com
http://asbestos.edgenetwk.com/news.htm
http://www.dreaminfinity.com/tutorials/ps.shtml
http://www.jereme.com/
http://www.effectlab.com/
http://www.jlswebsource.com/tutorials.html
http://www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop.htm
http://www.myjanee.com/jnetuts.htm
http://www.savvy.net/photoshop.htm
http://www.photoshopcafe.com
http://robouk.gdesign.nl/tutorials/
http://www.opticnurve.com/tutorials.asp
http://www.stewartstudio.com/tips/phototip.htm
http://www.stab.se/aq/ny/index.htm
http://www.magicpixel.com.au/html/workwel.html
http://www.darkerimaging.com/tutorials.htm
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/ph...?once=true&
http://www.rtideas.com/ticks/
http://www.screaming-art.com/tutorials.php
http://www.webinfractions.com/~defe...rials/index.htm
http://w1.243.telia.com/~u24308054/...s/tutorial.html
http://www.arraich.com/ps_intro.htm
http://www.digitaltropic.com/tutorials.htm
http://www.bizark.com/learn/
http://www.perfectpixels.com/index.cfm?method=photoshop
http://www.webteknique.com/
http://www.distortion.co.uk/freebies/tutorial.html
http://www.eyeland.com/tutorials.php
http://user.fundy.net/morris/main.html
http://europa.spaceports.com/~beatop/tutorials.htm
http://umojan99.tripod.com/
http://www.dsigning.com/photoshop/t...intwithfilters/
http://www.nebulus.org
http://www.somethingleet.com/
http://www.tutorialforums.com/
http://www.theroot42.org/forum/
http://www.shadowness.com
http://www.russellbrown.com/tips/photoshop.html
http://www.systemdark.com/academy

[OuTpaTienT]

... I also have a question... in Photoshop CS2, how do you select the contents of a layer (in previous versions, it was [CTRL]+[LEFT CLICK] the layer... not sure about CS1 though... I upgraded straight from 7.0 to CS2)? Do you have to "Select All" ([CTRL]+"A") and then deselect all blanks portions of the layer, or is there an easier way?

You can still do that in CS and CS2. But it has changed slightly. What you need to do is hold down [CTRL] and click on the actual icon (the little picture) for that layer in the Layer Palette.

And on this same tip, after you [CTRL] select a layer you can then add to that selection by holding down [SHIFT] and doing the [CTRL]+[click on icon] thing on other layers. As you would expect you can also hold down [ALT] (instead of 'shift') and it will subtract from your selection instead of add to it. And finally you can hold down both [ALT] + [SHIFT] to make additional layers intersect with your selection.

[cryptoguy]

Hey, I got a question on PS, if you don't mind

Is there a way to disable the "Apply the Transformation?" dialog box so that it just applies without asking?

[OuTpaTienT]

Why are you getting the "apply transformation" dialog box. Normally you shouldn't get that unless you attempt to exit the transformation mode without applying it first.

To apply a transformation, after you make the desired changes there are 3 ways you can apply the transformation:

1. simply hit the [Enter] key
2. double-click your mouse cursor anywhere within the transformation box
3. click on the checkmark button you will find in the tool preferences menu-bar (it'll be right next to palette docking bay)

[cryptoguy]

Hmm, I didn't know about #1 and 2. Alright, I guess Enter would work fine, thanks.

[cryptoguy]

Another question if you guys don't mind . There is probably a really simple answer to this, but it is eluding me!
1 Is there any way to apply Blending Options to several shapes at once? I mean linked shapes, without merging them?

Oh, and once more

2 Is there any way to duplicate several layers at once?

Thanks guys!

[OuTpaTienT]

1 Is there any way to apply Blending Options to several shapes at once? I mean linked shapes, without merging them?

You mean change the Blending modes of several layers all at once?

It is difficult to do. One way to do this is to change the blending mode of just one of the layers, then right-click on that layer in the Layers Palette and choose "copy layer style", then highlight (PS CS2) all the layers you also want changed and right-click, choose "paste layer style".

2 Is there any way to duplicate several layers at once?

Highlight the layers then drag them down to the New Layer Button at the bottom of the Layers Palette. All the layers will be duplicated.

Both of these answers only work for Photoshop CS2.

[cryptoguy]

Both of these answers only work for Photoshop CS2.

Aww, really? I thought it would be easy... Oh, well
Ok, thanks again, Out!

[OuTpaTienT]

Aww, really? I thought it would be easy... Oh, well
Ok, thanks again, Out!

Well, tell me what version of Photoshop you are using.

The "copy layer styles" trick should work with any version of Photoshop now that I think about it.

And to duplicate multiple layers in older versions of PS, the easiest way would be to link the layers, then group all linked layers into a single layer group with sub-layers. Then just drag that group down to the new layer button.

[Dj-Icer]

Incredible links. Thanks. It's hard to find a time with my Photoshop

[cryptoguy]

I am using CS 1, yes, I see the copy layer style works here too. And yeah, grouping them and duplicating is probably the easiest way. Thanks!

[cryptoguy]

Sorry to bother you again, but ONE last question, please.

I made a really bad mistake of making a file in Photoshop really big (like 400in x 400in). I have no idea how I did that, but it happened. So I decreased the size of the file to normal sizes (adjusting the resolution accordingly), and it looked fine. But now I look and I see in the Image Properties 72px/cm resolution. Which makes it 182px/in resolution. Now obviously, I need to decrease the resolution to 72px/in. Is there any way of doing that without losing quality? If not, is 72px/cm an inappropriate resolution for a logo? Thanks for any help.

[OuTpaTienT]

Sorry to bother you again, but ONE last question, please.

I made a really bad mistake of making a file in Photoshop really big (like 400in x 400in). I have no idea how I did that, but it happened. So I decreased the size of the file to normal sizes (adjusting the resolution accordingly), and it looked fine. But now I look and I see in the Image Properties 72px/cm resolution. Which makes it 182px/in resolution. Now obviously, I need to decrease the resolution to 72px/in. Is there any way of doing that without losing quality? If not, is 72px/cm an inappropriate resolution for a logo? Thanks for any help.

Well first off, a logo should be resolution independent, which basically means it should be vector based. Vector art has no resolution because it's not based on pixels.

Next, whenever you do create graphics that are not vector based (including logos) and that are intended for print then you want their resolution to be at least 300px/inch. Higher is better but generally higher than 300 - 400 pixel per inch is unnecessary. (Of course it's the output device that you intend on using that determines the best resolution to use, but in general 300px/in. is sufficient.)

Now, you say your creation is currently at 182px/in. As you can see that is just a little over half of the recommended resolution of 300px/in.

Try this, in Photoshop goto IMAGE / IMAGE SIZE, and in this dialog box uncheck "Resample Image". Now change the resolution to 300 pixels/inch. When you do this the width and height will change to reflect the actual physical size of your image when printed at 300 dpi.

Bottom line is this, there is only one factor to consider when thinking about image size, that is it's size in actual pixels. Not pixels per inch or per centimeter or dpi. It's the number of pixels wide and the number of pixels high that actually define the image. Whenever you resize the image and the number of pixels of height or width changes then you are changing the image and thus losing quality. But as you can see when you uncheck "resample image" in the Image Size dialog box, you can then alter the width, hight, and resolution without affecting the quality of the image at all.

That make any sense?

[OuTpaTienT]

Oh and one last thing, please just start new threads when you have Photoshop questions. Trust me you are NOT the only one with these questions. You'd be helping others by putting questions in separate threads and not clumping everything into this thread.

[cryptoguy]

Yes, makes sense, thanks a lot. I know logos should be vector based, I will make sure I do it in Illustrator from now on . And don't worry, I'll start new threads now. I was just afraid that if I started new threads I'd get flamed for Graphic Design topic crapping.