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Introduction to Adobe Photoshop
Webworks – A Workshop Series in Web Design (Session Three)
Table of Contents:
- What is Photoshop?
- About the Work Area
- Resizing Images and Size Guide
- Selection
- Cropping
- Modify Color and Effects
- Layers
- Text Editing
- Gradients
10. File Type: GIF or JPG
1. What is Photoshop?
Adobe Photoshop is a professional image editing software package that can be used by experts and novices alike. While this handout offers some very basic tips on using the tools available in Photoshop, more comprehensive guidance can be accessed on the web or in the help menu of your version of Photoshop. The version used for this tutorial is Adobe Photoshop CS.
2. About the Work Area
The work area can be intimidating to work with because of all the complex functionality but with a quick breakdown of the available features and their uses, you will be ready to comfortably navigate the work area with ease. The work area in Photoshop has the following basic functionality and features:
- Menu Bar – this is where you can access most of the commands and features in
Photoshop
- Drawing Palette – where the image being worked on will appear
- Options bar
- content sensitive display of tool options – changes as different tools are selected
- display using Window > Options or Click a tool in the toolbox.
Lasso options bar
- Tool box - for creating an editing images (display or hide using Windows > Tools)
- Palettes - to monitor and modify images (there are 5 palettes by default)
- Palette Well - to organize palettes in work area
- Drag a palette’s tab into the palette well to store it in the palette well
- Once in the palette well click on the palette tab to use it
- Resizing Images and Size Guide
When working with images for a website, you will need to resize your images to suit your particular purpose. Here is a basic guide that can help you decide on what is suitable. (The units used here are
pixels, which are standard units across all computer platforms. The conversion between pixels and
inches is roughly 1” = 72 pixels or 1cm = 28 pixels) To use this particular unit of measure you will need to adjust you preference settings by selecting Edit > Preferences > Units and Rulers and changing the units and rulers to measure in pixels.
Type of picture Size in Pixels
Background 1024 x 768 Standard personal picture of yourself for a personal website
200 x 200
Title bar e.g. Google title bar on the Google homepage
276 x 110
To resize a picture look on the menu bar and select Image > image size
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- To make a new layer, click the New Layer button (F) or selecting Layer > New > Layer in the menu bar
- The background layer cannot be removed, since it has to serve as the background” for the entire image.
- To work on a different layer, click on that layer. The eyeball will appear next to that layer.
- You can drag layers up and down the list.
- Remember – create a new layer for each part of your image. This allows you to go back and edit the layers individually.
F
Photoshop Layers palette: A. Layers palette menu B. Layer set C. Layer D. Layer thumbnail E. Layer effect F. new layer icon
eyeball
- Text Editing
To edit text on the type layer:
- Always use a new layer to create text
- Select the horizontal type tool or the vertical type tool.
- Select the type layer in the layers palette (which will appear with the icon next to it), or click the text flow to automatically select a type layer.
- Click to set insertion point or select one or more characters you want to edit
- Enter text and format as desired using the character palette (display character palette using: Window
Character or click Character palette tab if the window is open but not visible)
- Commit changes to type layer by either:
- Click the Commit button in the options bar
- Press the Enter key on the numeric keypad.
- Press Ctrl+Enter on the main keyboard (Windows) or Command+Return (Mac OS).
- Select any tool in the toolbox, click in the Layers, Channels, Paths, Actions, History, or Styles palette, or select any available menu command.
- Gradients
Gradients are a great way to introduce flashy, eye-catching graphics in your pages. Word of caution – use them carefully! Abusing gradients may result in confused visitors.
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Locate this button on the toolbar and click on it.
Notice that the toolbar underneath the menus have changed to:
Click on the small bar next to the mini-gradient (this is a preview of the actual gradient), and a menu of various gradients will show up:
You can also change the properties of the gradient by clicking on the gradient preview box. A new dialog box titled “Gradient Editor” will open.
Picking any box is fine, but for now, just pick the box with an orange background and a yellow stripe. Create a new image, and take your cursor and drag it across. Depending on how you drag the mouse, you will get a gradient. Have fun experimenting!
