ICT

Fit Screen

: Click to fit the image within the image window.

Zoom All Windows

: If you have multiple images open and select this check box, zooming with the zoom tool zooms all open documents simultaneously.

Zoom percentage

: This figure shows you the current zoom level as a percentage. You can edit the text by typing values between 5 and 3200.

Photoshop Document

A .psd file is the file format in which Photoshop saves documents by default. It is a multi-layer document that retains its full editing options when saved. In many cases, you will export web graphics from a .psd document file format.

Creating graphics in photoshop

An advantage of Photoshop over basic photo editing software is the ability it gives you to create your own graphics. There are numerous tools in Photoshop. Most of the functions these tools perform are based on your selection in an image. The effect or tool only operates within a selection. Make a small selection and select the paintbrush tool. Move the mouse over your selection holding down the mouse button. You'll see that the image is only altered within the selection.

Zoom slider

Click the down-pointing arrow to open a slider bar. Drag the slider left to zoom out or right to zoom in.

1:1

Click this button to zoom the current window to a 1-to-1 ratio, showing the zoom level at which the file will be printed.

fill screen

Click to zoom the current window to fill the screen

Print size

Click to zoom the image to the size of the print file. Often, this option shows you the same size as 1:1.

Paintbrush Tool

Make a selection and choose the tool from the toolbar. You can change the size of the brush in the options bar, as well as the behaviors of the paint. The best way to learn what these options do (and some of it is pretty surprising) is to experiment. Remember, you have multiple undo's and layers so do not worry about ruining your image

layers

Photoshop documents are composed of ____, which can basically be described as single transparent sheets which hold particular pieces of an image. These layers can contain images, text and vector graphics. They can be rearranged and grouped according to user needs. Layers are controlled with the use of the Layers pane.

Image size

Resolution should not be confused with --, which is also expressed in pixels. It deals with the actual number of pixels tall and wide an image is.

Resize Windows to Fit

Select this check box to resize the window along with the image zoom. Deselect the box to zoom in and out of an image while the image window remains at a fixed size.

Selections

Selections refer to regions in an image that will be affected by the various tools. A selection in Photoshop is similar to a selection that you highlight in a word processing application. Once you have selected an area, you can apply a tool to it, such as paintbrush, or perform an operation such as copy or crop. Selections can be any shape and size; the shape depends on which selection tool you are working with. Your selection will apply only to the current layer. If that layer is empty in the region selected, an error message will appear. When this happens, go to the Layers pane and select the correct layer.

Foreground/Background Color

The foreground color, which will be applied by tools like the paintbrush, is represented by the top square in the middle of the toolbar.

Stroke and Fill

The most basic ways to apply colors to an image are to use Fill and Stroke, both available on the edit menu. Make a selection, and choose fill from the edit menu. A dialog will appear asking you to make some decisions about colors and transparency.

menus

They contain all sorts of options, but since these are not as visible as panes or the toolbar, they are often only partially explored.

Colors and Graphics

To change this color, double click the square. This reveals the color picker, where you can pick a color with several different methods, including RGB values, hexadecimal codes and by simply selection. If you are making an image for the web, it is best to check the "only web colors" box to ensure that no dithering (reductions in color quality) will take place. Once you have picked your color, click ok, and you are ready to go.

Photo Retouching

Traditional analog image editing, ____, using tools such as an airbrush to modify photographs, or editing illustrations with any traditional art medium.

Zoom in/Zoom out tools

You can choose Zoom In or Zoom Out as separate tools to avoid using the Alt key to toggle between the two.

window menu

allows you to toggle back and forth between hide and show for each interface element. This is the first place you should go if you lose track of a particular window while you are working.

Panes

are also important features of the Photoshop interface. All sorts of information are displayed in these panes. They display location information, tool options, and history, among other things.

Raster Image

are stored in a computer in the form of a grid of picture elements, or pixels. These pixels contain the images color and brightness information. Image editors can change the pixels to improve the image in many ways. The pixels can be changed as a group, or individually, by the refined algorithms within the image editors.

File Menu

contains all of the stuff you expect. It lets you open and close documents with a few extras including import, which deals with scanning, and save for web, which allows you to export a web-ready image from your Photoshop file.

Select Menu

deals with selections you make. Selecting the specific parts of an image you would like to change is a difficult part when working with Photoshop. This menu gives you some options regarding selections, including the ability to save selections, reverse them, or add to them. Learning the options on the ____ an really save you some time.

Filter Menu

is probably what most people think when they work with Photoshop. Allows you to apply filters to any part of your image. These filters include ways to change the texture of the image, with some potentially radical results.

Layer Menu

is similar to the image menu. It allows you to make changes to an image without altering your original image data. It contains options that affect only current or selected layers. Just understand that an image in Photoshop consists of stacked transparent layers. Options in the ____ affect these pieces of the image rather than the complete image.

CMYK

is the setting for images that will be printed to paper. The letters refer to the four channels of color used to create every color available: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

View Menu

is where you change the view settings. You can use this to show and display guidelines on the image and to zoom in and out, among other things.

Options Bar

located directly underneath the menus is a useful tool when working with the different Photoshop tools.

Options bar

located directly underneath the menus is a useful tool when working with the different Photoshop tools.

Pencil Tool

much like the Paintbrush, but draws a distinct line rather than a feathery painted one. Click and hold the paintbrush icon to reveal the pencil.

Item

on the image menu affect a whole image for the most part. Here you will find color adjustments, size adjustments, and any other changes you need to make globally when working with a Photoshop file.

Resolution

refers to the number of pixels in a full size image. An image with high resolution contains more information than an image with low resolution and therefore, one can always convert a high resolution (hi-res) image to a low resolutions (lo-res) image. However, because information is lost in the conversion, the reverse is not true. If you were to increase the resolution of a lo-res image, the result would be fuzzy.

RGB

refers to the three channel color mode suitable for images to be viewed on the web: red, green and blue.

Color Mode

refers to the types of colors you will be using in your image. CMYK and RGB are the most important of these modes to be familiar with.

Edit Menu

s another familiar menu. In Photoshop, edit houses all of the expected options as well as fill and stroke, and other image-altering functions.

Image editing

the processes of altering images, whether they are digital photographs, traditional analog photographs, or illustrations.

Eraser Tool

works much like the Paintbrush and Pencil, but rather than fill the selected region with a color, it actually removes whatever is in the selection and reveals the background. This is a very useful tool for cleaning up images with rough edges.