Lessons of Adobe Photoshop Basic

Adobe Photoshop Basics

This is the main page for the 
Adobe Photoshop Basics Online Course. 
Scroll down to find an outline of every lesson 
and every page in the course.
The lessons are intended to be worked through in the order presented, and at your own pace.
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Adobe Photoshop Basics Outline
The lessons have been written for Photoshop versions 5.0, 5.5, 6.0 including educational and academically-priced versions. When information in a lesson does not apply to all of these versions, notes and/or separate pages will be provided for each version where applicable. Users of Photoshop 7 and 8 (CS) can follow the navigation labeled for version 6, although new features in these versions will not be covered. Users of Photoshop 7 and 8 may encounter minor differences in the locations of some commands, but most of these are noted in the discussion forum threads that go along with each lesson. Portions of this course will not be applicable to Photoshop Elements, or the discontinued Photoshop LE (limited edition) that ships with some hardware products. To determine your version, choose Help > About from within Photoshop.

Read This First! - Preliminary Information

Scroll down for important information about the Photoshop Basics Course.

For each page in the course, there is a sidebar similar to the one to the right of this text. Using the sidebar, you can easily navigate back to this page, and to the other pages in a specific lesson. The Interactive Classroom portion of the sidebar offers links which take you to the discussion forum where you can go to get help with the lessons or post your homework.

Please post your questions and homework in the thread that is linked from the specific lesson page and do not start a new thread. Homework is not graded, but posting your homework is encouraged as it allows all participants to compare their results and discuss various techniques. If you are having a problem with a lesson, please read through the entire help thread in the interactive classroom before posting your question. Many questions have already been answered.

Just below the sidebar, each page contains a link to a "printer-friendly" version for those of you who wish to print the lessons out for offline study.

Before beginning any of these lessons, it is a good idea to set your Photoshop preferences back to default settings. By using the default settings, we can avoid any confusion that may arise from differences in preferences.

Notes for Version 6.0

Whenever instructions differ for a specific version of Photoshop, you will see a special notation in a box like this one. Notes and special instructions for version 6.0 also apply to version 7.0.

Getting Help
Help for this course will be provided in Classroom #2 of the discussion forum. You must fill out a brief registration form before posting to the forum, but it's free and it only takes a few minutes. Each lesson will contain a direct link to the help thread for that lesson. Just look for the Interactive Classroom heading in the sidebar of each lesson.

• Please read through the discussions in the thread before posting; most questions have already been asked and answered.


• If a lesson has a homework assignment associated with it, there will also be a link to a thread for posting your homework.


• Please post your questions and homework in the thread that is linked from the sidebar of the lesson. Do not create a new thread; I may not see your post if you do.


• Homework is not graded and it is not required. Unless you specifically ask for feedback, I do not comment on homework.

If you're ready to begin, continue on to the  Adobe Photoshop

This course is written for full versions of Photoshop 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, and 7.0 including educational and academically-priced versions. Photoshop 7.0 users should follow the navigation labeled for 6.0. To determine your version, choose Help > About from within Photoshop. Portions of this course will not be applicable to Photoshop Elements or the discontinued Photoshop LE (limited edition) that ships with some hardware products.

Notes About the Forum:

If you are already a member of About.com, you may need to enter the forum initially through this page. After you log in there, you'll be taken to the general graphics software forum. From there, use this This is where you'll need to go to post your assignments and discuss the lessons.

Once you've logged into the forum, make note of your Member ID so that you can log in directly from your class lesson page in the future.

The forum folders consist of Class Rooms, The Lounge, and Study Hall. The Class Room is where you post your assignments, get help, and discuss topics related to the lessons. There are several Class Room folders for multiple courses going on at the same time. The Lounge is your place to talk about anything with your fellow students. Study Hall is where you can post helpful URLs and links to downloads, tutorials, or anything else related to your course that you'd like to share with your fellow students.

Anyone can start a thread in The Lounge or in Study Hall, but only a Forum Helper or myself can start threads in the Class Rooms. To post in the class room, you should post your message as a reply to the existing thread related to your lesson or homework assignment. There will usually be one thread for required assignments, another thread for help and problems with the current week's lessons, and another thread for posting bonus work. Each of these threads will be linked from your class lesson page so you can jump to it quickly. Bonus work can beanything you want to share beyond what is required for the current week's lesson.

You can post your assignments as attachments in the Class Room by replying to a thread. Be sure the thread that you post your assignment to is the correct one for your lesson. When you reply to a thread you will have a new window to compose your message. At the bottom of the window, you will see more options. Note that there is a 10MB limit to the amount of space that About.com members can utilize, so you should make an effort to keep your file sizes small. In order to keep your attachments small, it's important that you crop or resize your work to less than 600 pixels either direction and save your final assignments as GIF or JPEG files. Please do not post PSD files.

Lesson 1a: Menu Bar

Let's get started by exploring the basic elements of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. In this lesson we'll be learning about the menu bar.

The Menu Bar

The menu bar consists of nine menus: File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window, and Help. Take a few moments now to look at each of the menus. You may notice that some menu commands are followed by ellipses (...). This indicates a command that is followed by a dialog box where you can enter additional settings. Some menu commands are followed by a right pointing arrow. This indicates a submenu of related commands. As you explore each menu, be sure to take a look at the submenus as well. You'll also notice that many commands are followed by keyboard shortcuts. Gradually, you'll want to get to know these keyboard shortcuts as they can be incredible time savers.

As we make our way through this course, we'll be learning the most useful keyboard shortcuts as we go along.

In addition to the menu bar, Photoshop often has context sensitive menus for accessing some of the most likely commands depending on which tool is selected and where you click. You access the context sensitive menu by right clicking in Windows, or pressing the Control key on a Macintosh.

One of the most convenient contextual menus can be accessed by right clicking/Control clicking on the title bar of a document for quick access to the duplicate command, image and canvas size dialogs, file information, and page setup. If you already know how to open an image, go ahead and try it now. Otherwise, you'll learn how in the next section.

Lesson 1b: Status Bar

Let's continue our exploration of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. We looked at the menu bars in the first section. In this lesson we'll be learning about the status bar.

The Status Bar

Now take a look at the status bar along the bottom edge of the Photoshop workspace. The status bar is often taken for granted or overlooked entirely, but it can be a valuable tool. You'll need an open document before the status bar will display any information, so let's open one now.

Go to the File menu and choose Open, locate an image file and open it now. If you don't have an image file handy, you can find several in the Stockart folder of the Photoshop application CD. Ctrl-O/Cmd-O is the keyboard shortcut to open a file. This is the same shortcut used by most applications, so it should be an easy one to remember. If you are a Windows user, you can quickly open a file by double clicking on the application background. (Since there is no application background on the Mac OS, there is not a Macintosh equivalent to this shortcut.)

To the far left of the status bar you will see the magnification level of the active document. You can swipe your cursor in this area and type in a new number to change the magnification of your document. Go ahead and try it now.

To return your document to 100% magnification, locate the zoom tool in the toolbox and double click the button. The keyboard equivalent to this shortcut is Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0. (We'll explore more of the toolbar a bit later.)

To the left of the magnification display on the status bar, you will see a display of document sizes. The number on the left displays the uncompressed size of the image if it were to have all layers flattened. The number on the right displays the uncompressed size of the document including all layers and channels. It's important to know that both of these numbers will usually be larger than the final file size of the saved document. For more on the Document Sizes display, look up Document Sizes option in the online Help file.

Next to the Document sizes display there is a small black arrow that pops up a menu. You'll find this arrow other places in the Photoshop workspace, so when you see it, remember that there is a menu hiding there. In this case, the menu allows you to change what is displayed in this area of the status bar. In addition to Document Sizes, you can optionally choose to display Scratch Sizes, Efficiency, Timing, or the current tool. You can look up each of these items in Photoshop's online Help for more information.

Next in the status bar, you can see useful information about the tool you have selected. If you still have the zoom tool selected, your status bar should say "Zoom In" if you are outside of the document area. Move the cursor into the document area and you will see the status bar display instructions for using that tool. Now hold down the Alt/Option key and the status bar will show "Zoom Out" and the cursor will change to a minus sign. Next try the Ctrl/Commandkey in conjunction with the zoom tool and observe the tips displayed in the status bar. Try the other key combinations such as Ctrl-Shift/Cmd-Shift, or Ctrl-Alt/Cmd-Option while observing the status bar instructions.

Let's review each of the zoom tool options:
No modifier key = click to zoom in; click and drag to zoom into a specific area
Double click = zoom to 100% magnification
Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0 = zoom to 100% magnification
Alt/Option = click to zoom out
Ctrl/Cmd = temporarily toggles to the move tool

Here are a few more zoom shortcuts we have not yet covered:
Double click the  Hand tool = zoom to fit the screen
Ctrl-0/Cmd-0 = zoom to fit the screen
Ctrl- /Cmd- (plus sign) = zoom in
Ctrl--/Cmd-- (minus sign) = zoom out

Lesson 1c: The Toolbox

Let's continue our exploration of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. We've already covered the menu bar and the status bar. In this lesson we'll be learning about the toolbox. Since this is a general overview of the toolbox, the materials here are useful for any version of Photoshop.

The Toolbox
You got a jump start on learning about the zoom tool while we were studying the status bar in the last section. Now let's explore more of the Photoshop toolbox. If you have the Quick Reference Card that came with Photoshop, it would be a good idea to locate it now. If you cannot locate a copy, Version 6.0 users can find a PDF file of the Quick Reference card on the main level of your Photoshop installation CD. Version 5.x users can find a diagram of the toolbox and all hidden tools on page 25 of the Photoshop 5.0 User Guide.

When you look at the toolbox, notice how some of the buttons have a tiny arrow in the lower right corner. This arrow indicates that other tools are hidden under that tool. To access the other tools, click and hold down on a button and the other tools will pop out. Try this now by clicking on the rectangle marquee tool and changing to the elliptical marquee tool. The hidden marquee tools are shown here.

Now hold your cursor over one of the buttons and you should see a tooltip appear that tells you the name of the tool and its keyboard shortcut. All the marquee tools have a shortcut of M. An easier way to switch between the different hidden tools is to use the keyboard shortcut along with the Shift key modifier. For the marquee tools, theShift-M combination toggles between the rectangular and elliptical marquee tools. The single row marquee tools are less often used and must be selected from the toolbox flyout. Another shortcut for cycling through the hidden tools is to Alt/Option click on the toolbox button.

Take a few moments now to familiarize yourself with the tool names using the tooltips. Use the shortcuts you've just learned to explore all the hidden tools. As you select each tool, note the hints provided in the status bar area for each tool. Don't worry about using each tool for now; we'll get to that soon enough. For now, you should just get to know the tool locations and their icons.

Moving down in the toolbox, we come to the color swatches. This is where the foreground and background colors are displayed. The tiny arrow to the top right allows you to swap foreground and background colors. The tiny black and white swatch symbol to the lower left allows you to reset the colors to the default of black foreground and white background. Hold your cursor over those two areas to learn the keyboard shortcuts. To change a color, simply click on either the foreground or background color swatch and select a new color in the color picker. Experiment by changing the foreground and background colors and then resetting them back to defaults.

The next two buttons on the toolbox allow you to toggle between quick mask and selection mode. We'll learn more about this later in future lessons.

Below that you have a set of three buttons that allow you to change the appearance of the workspace. Hold your cursor over each button to see what it does. Notice the keyboard shortcut for all three is F. Hitting F repeatedly toggles between all three modes. Try it now.

This is a convenient place to mention a few more shortcuts for modifying the workspace appearance. Feel free to try them out as you read. When in either of the full screen modes, you can toggle the menu bar on and off with the Shift-F key combination. In any screen mode you can toggle the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off with the Tab key. To hide only palettes and leave the toolbox visible, use Shift-Tab.

The last button on the toolbox is for moving your document to ImageReady. We will not be exploring ImageReady in this course.

Before we move on to the palettes, let's review what we learned about the toolbox:

1. An arrow indicates a flyout of hidden tools.


2. Each main tool has a single letter keyboard shortcut assigned to it.


3. The Shift key combined with a tool shortcut allows you to toggle the hidden tools.


4. D = resets the foreground color to black and background color to white.


5. X = swap foreground and background colors.


6. F = toggles screen modes


7. Shift-F = Turns menu bar on and off in full screen modes


8. Tab = toggles the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off


9. Shift-Tab = toggle only the palettes on and off

Lesson 1d: Palettes

Let's continue our exploration of the Photoshop workspace. There are four main counterparts to the Photoshop workspace: the menu bar, the status bar, the toolbox, and the palettes. All that's left to cover now are the palettes. Since this is a general overview of the palettes, the materials here are useful for any version of Photoshop. You'll need to have an image open for this lesson, so go ahead and open one now.

The Navigator Palette grouped with the info and Options Palettes.

The Palettes

Notes for Version 6.0

In version 6, the options palettes is replaced with the options bar. The brushes palette has become part of the options bar, and three new palettes have been added: Styles, Character and Paragraph.

When you first open Photoshop, the palettes are stacked along the right edge of your screen in palette groups. The first group contains the Navigator, Info, and Options palettes. Next is the Color Swatches, and Brushes palettes. Below that are the History and Actions Palettes. Finally, you have the Layers, Channels, and Paths Palettes.

Palette groups can be moved around in the workspace by clicking on the title bar and dragging. Each palette group has a collapse and a close button in the title bar area. Try the collapse button for each of the palette groups now. You'll notice the button works as a toggle, clicking the button a second time after the palette is collapsed will expand the palette again. You may also notice that some palettes do not completely collapse. Try collapsing the color palettes and you'll see that the color ramp is still visible.

Color Palette Expanded

Color Palette Partially Collapsed Color Palette Completely Collapsed

For palettes that partially collapse, you can completely collapse them by holding down theAlt/Option key as you press the collapse button. You can also collapse a group by double clicking on any of the palette tabs. To display a collapsed palette, just click once on the palette tab if it's in the back of the group, or double click if it's in the front of the group.

Palettes can be resized either by holding your cursor over an edge and dragging when the cursor changes to a double pointing arrow, or by clicking and dragging on the right corner. Only the Color, Options, and Info palettes are not resizable.

Notes for Mac Us

• Enter or Return = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)


• Double click tool button = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)


• F5 = Show/Hide Brushes Palette


• F6 = Show/Hide Color Palette


• F7 = Show/Hide Layers Palette


• F8 = Show/Hide Info Palette


• F9 = Show/Hide Actions Palette

And don't forget these which we learned in the last lesson:

• Tab = Show/Hide Toolbar and all Palettes


• Shift-Tab = Show/Hide all Palettes

To bring a grouped palette to the front of the group, click on the palette's tab. You can also ungroup and rearrange the palettes by clicking on a tab and dragging it outside of the group or to another group. Try it now by dragging the navigator palette out of it's default group. Then put it back by dragging it back onto the palette group.

Notes for Version 6.0

skip

In version 6, several palettes can be grouped in one large super-group. To do this, drag a palette to the bottom edge of another palette group. An outline will appear long the bottom edge and then you can let go. Now the two palettes will be attached, but not overlapping. You can attach several palettes this way to create one massive palette collection. Docking two palettes Two palettes that have been docked Also in Photoshop 6.0, you have a palette well in the options bar. You can drag palettes to this area and they will remain there hidden until you click on the palette tab to reveal it. (If you cannot see the palette well of the options bar, you will need to adjust your screen resolution to at least 1024x768 pixels.)

Another common feature of all the palettes is the palette menu. Notice the small arrow in the upper right corner of each palette. If you recall from our lessons on the menu and status bar, this indicates a pop-out menu. Whenever you see me refer to a palette menu throughout these lessons, you'll know I mean this menu for whichever palette is being discussed. Take a look at the palette menu for each of the palettes now. Notice that each individual palette has a unique menu.

Practice showing, hiding and moving the various palettes, click on the palette tabs to familiarize yourself with each palette, and take a look at each of the palette menus while you're at it.

If you'd like to return the palettes to the default locations after you finish experimenting, go to File > Preferences > General and click the button to reset Palette Locations. If you always want to start Photoshop with you palettes this way, uncheck the box "Save Palette Locations" box while you are there. If you work with many large images you may prefer to keep your palettes collapsed along the bottom edge of the Photoshop workspace to give you the maximum space for documents. We'll take a closer look at each of the individual palettes in future lessons

Lesson 1: Review

It may not seem like we have covered very much so far, but you may be surprised at what you've learned. Let's review what we have studied in Lesson 1.

You learned how to find hidden menus and tools when you see a small arrow on a menu, palette, or tool button.

You learned how to identify many of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts.

You learned how to take advantage of tool tips and hints in the status bar area.

You learned how to open a file.

You learned how to change the foreground and background colors, swap colors, and reset colors to defaults.

You learned how to change screen mode, as well as hide and show the toolbar, palettes, and menu bar.

You learned how to move, arrange, group, hide and show the palettes.

You learned how to access additional palette options through the palette menu.

You learned several ways to zoom in and out of documents.

Let's review each of the keyboard shortcuts and commands we've discussed so far:

Zoom shortcuts:

• No modifier key = click to zoom in; click and drag to zoom into a specific area


• Ctrl- /Cmd- (plus sign) = zoom in


• Double click the Zoom tool = zoom to 100% magnification


• Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0 = zoom to 100% magnification


• Double click the Hand tool = zoom to fit the screen


• Ctrl-0/Cmd-0 = zoom to fit the screen


• Alt/Option with zoom tool = click to zoom out


• Ctrl--/Cmd-- (minus sign) = zoom out


• Type any number into the status bar magnifation level display.

Opening a File:

• File > Open


• Ctrl-O/Cmd-O


• Double click the application background (Windows Only)

Screen Mode and Display:

• F = toggles screen modes


• Shift-F = Turns menu bar on and off in full screen modes


• Tab = toggles the toolbox, status bar, and palettes on and off


• Shift-Tab = toggle only the palettes on and off

Palettes:

• Enter or Return = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)


• Double click tool button = Show/Hide Options Palette (V5.x only)


• F5 = Show/Hide Brushes Palette


• F6 = Show/Hide Color Palette


• F7 = Show/Hide Layers Palette


• F8 = Show/Hide Info Palette


• F9 = Show/Hide Actions Palette

Other Shortcuts:

• D = resets the foreground color to black and background color to white.


• X = swap foreground and background colors.


• M = marquee tool


• Shift-M = toggle rectangular and elliptical marquee tools

Lesson 1: Quiz

Here's a short quiz of 5 questions to test your knowledge of what we have studied in this lesson. Carefully read each choice before selecting your answer. Good luck! ( Scroll down to begin...)

Question 1Which of the following is not a way of setting the zoom level to 100% magnification?

 Type 100 in the status bar

 Ctrl-Alt-0/Cmd-Option-0

 Double click the Hand tool

 Double click the Zoom tool

Lesson 2a: Navigator Palette and Hand ToolNow that you've gotten familiar with the Photoshop interface, I'm sure you're eager to get started working with documents. Let's get right to it. In lesson one, we learned several ways to zoom in and out of documents. Now let's look at the Navigator palette and hand tool for even more ways of navigating a document. (Continued below...)

First, the Navigator palette. If yours is not showing, display it now using any of the methods you learned previously.

You'll also need to open a document. In the center of the Navigator palette, you'll see a small thumbnail representation of your image, surrounded by a red outline representing the visible area of your document. If your entire image is visible, the outline surrounds the entire thumbnail. If you look at the palette menu, you can choose palette options to change the color of the outline.

 Below the thumbnail, we find even more controls for zooming. The text entry field lets you type in any magnification number, and the slider lets you adjust magnification up and down, and the two buttons on either side of the slider allow you to zoom in and out by set intervals.

If you move the slider all the way to the right, you'll see the maximum zoom level is 1600%. Move the slider back and forth a few times slowly and observe the red outline in the Navigator preview. As you can see, it gives you a visual clue as to what part of your image you are viewing. Click anywhere in the Navigator preview to move the focus to that area of the image. Click and drag in the preview to pan around your document. Remember, you can drag the edges of the navigator palette to change its size. The preview will increase as you increase the palette size.

 Another way to pan around a document is with the Hand tool. When the hand tool is selected you can just click and drag in your document to pan the visible area. Try it now. Okay, now that you've tried it... make that the last time you ever use the Hand tool because I am going to tell you the one keyboard shortcut you will find yourself using all the time: Spacebar= Hand tool.

No matter which tool is active, the spacebar always temporarily activates the hand tool. Learn it; use it; and never look at the hand tool again. I'm not even going to bother telling you the shortcut and modifiers for the Hand tool; if you're curious, you know by now how to find that out.

At any time while working, when you need the most accurate representation of what you're working on, you should set the magnification to 100%. At any other magnification, there is going to be some level of distortion. Remember the current magnification level will always be displayed in the status bar, the navigator palette, or in the title bar of the document window.

Lesson 2b: New View and DuplicateWhile we are learning about zooming and panning, it's a good place to introduce the New View command. (Continued below...)

Choose View > New View (Window > Documents > New Window in Photoshop 7) and another window containing the same document will appear. This is not a duplicate image (notice the file name displayed in the title bar is exactly the same). It is merely a second view of the very same image. Any edits you make in either window will appear in both windows. This allows you to set two different magnifications for the same image simultaneously. You'll find this very useful when you need to zoom way in on part of a document for editing fine details, and at the same time you can see the results of your editing in actual size.

And that leads us right to the Duplicate command. This command is found under the Image menu, but I find it most convenient to access by right clicking on the title bar (Windows only). Choose the Duplicate command now and you'll be prompted for a new file name. By default, Photoshop appends the word "copy" to the end of the original file name.

Duplicating an image is a handy thing to do when you want to preserve your original, or if you want to continue editing, but you think you may want to return to a certain state at some point in the future. Duplicate, continue editing, and if things go wrong along the way you can just do away with the duplicate and return to the previous version. (The snapshot feature of the history palette is actually a better way to do this, but we'll learn about that later.)

The next command on the title bar context-sensitive menu is the Image Size command (also found in the Image menu). This is where you change the size and resolution of your images. Before we get into using the Image Size command, we need to cover some fundamentals of image size and resolution. This is always a confusing topic for many people, so you might want to take a break now and approach the next section with a clear head.

Lesson 2c: Image Size and ResolutionIf you're not familiar with the various ways for defining resolution, visit my glossary entry for and spend some time studying the related resources there. For this course, we'll only be discussing images in terms of pixels per inch, or ppi. First we need to understand some fundamentals about resolution

Contrary to what you might think, ppi is not the same as dpi. Almost everyone these days has a inkjet printer so let's think about your inkjet printer for a moment. How many colors of ink are in your inkjet printer? Most of them have at least four and possibly six ink colors. When your printer lays down ink, it lays it down in overlapping dots of these four or six colors. Images are made up of and Photoshop defines resolution in pixels per inch. In a typical RGB image, a single pixel represents one color out of the millions of colors that can be reproduced on-screen.

So how can a printer with only six colors of ink reproduce millions of colors? Well, certainly not by printing a single dot for each pixel in your image! In reality, for each pixel in an image, your printer may lay down several dots of overlapping color that mix together to make up the color of that single pixel. All this is said to help you understand why you would use an image resolution setting of 150 ppi in Photoshop in order to output an image with a printed resolution of 300 dpi. It's simple; your printer needs to use more than one dot to represent the color of a single pixel.

To clear up another confusing matter, resolution (ppi or dpi) has no bearing at all for images that will be viewed on screen. The only thing that means anything for screen display is the pixel dimensions; that is, the number of pixels that make up the width and the number of pixels that make up the height of the image.

If you've been told that you need to use 72 or 96 ppi for the Web, it's only because that is approximately what a typical monitor can display. But, because we have the ability to adjust the pixel dimensions of our monitor, and because monitors come in varying sizes, an image with the same pixel dimensions is not always going to appear the same size on screen on every system and with every monitor. However, an image that is 100 by 200 pixels will always be 100 x 200 pixels, unless you that image. And that brings us right back to the image size dialog box...

Lesson 2d: Image Size Dialog Box

If you haven't yet, choose the Image Size command now and let's take a look at this dialog box. 

First we have the pixel dimensions of the image. The drop-down menu allows you to change the dimensions using percentages instead of pixel values.

The next section is the Print Size. The default here is inches, but you can change it to cm, points, picas, or percent. For this course we'll only be dealing with inches. Also under print size is the resolution setting defined in either pixels/inch (ppi) or pixels/cm.

Notes for Version 6.0

In version 6, this section is labeled "Document Size" instead of "Print Size." In my opinion, Print Size was less confusing, but who can say what the reasoning was behind the change.

Now notice the link icons to the right of both the width and height entry fields. This means the height and width are linked together, so when you change the value of one, the other is changed proportionally. Try typing a number into any of those fields and observe how it effects both the height and width. To unlink the height and width, you can uncheck the constrain proportions check box. You'll rarely want to do this, though, because it distorts your image.

The Resample checkbox determines whether or not you preserve the pixel data in the image and it has a direct effect on the resolution field of the image size dialog. Resampling an image always involves a change in the pixel dimensions. The general rule is this:

• When you are changing the onscreen size of an image you usually want to select the resample checkbox, modify the pixel dimensions, and set the resolution to 72.


• When you are changing the print size of an image you will generally want to leave the resample box unselected, and either adjust the print dimensions or the resolution to get the results you need.
  
  
  
  • As you increase the print dimensions, your resolution decreases (thus, print quality decreases).
  
  
  • As you increase resolution, the print size must decrease based on the amount of pixel data available.

If you do not have enough pixel data to get the print size and resolution you need, then you'll have to the image and Photoshop will create new pixels. This often results in poorer quality print results, so you need to judge which is the lesser of two evils: the loss in quality from reduced resolution or the loss in quality from resampling.

Next to the resample check box, you'll see the menu where you can choose the method Photoshop uses to create new pixels.

• Bicubic is the default and gives you the best results.


• Bilinear is faster but not as accurate as Bicubic.


• Nearest Neighbor does not at all and is very fast, but because it does not blend the pixels, it results in a jagged appearance.

Next we're going to experiment with the image size command so you can get comfortable working with it. Choose your Photoshop version below to go to the appropriate page.

Lesson 2: Image Size Exercise for Version 5.x

Go to the Stockart folder on your Photoshop 5.x CD and open the image IND_007.jpg. If you don't have access to this folder, use one of your own images. Let's start by duplicating the image so we're not working on the original. You do how to do that, don't you? 

Choose the Image Size command. Note the pixel dimensions of this image are 2100 by 1400 pixels. The print size is 7 by 4.667 inches with a resolution of 300 ppi.

Uncheck the resample box and change the resolution to 72. Notice the pixel dimensions remain the same but the Document size is now 29.167 by 19.444.

Click OK. Make the document window as large as possible and choose View > Print Size. The image will display quite large and probably fill the entire document window. Practice panning with the spacebar shortcut we learned earlier. Go to File > Print Options and you'll see in the Print Preview that the image is larger than the page.

Let's assume we want to print this image on a high quality printer, so we want a resolution of 300 ppi. Go back to Image Size and make sure that constrain proportions is checked and resample is unchecked, then type 300 in the resolution box. Notice what happens to the document size... it changes to 7 by 4.667. This is the maximum size you can print the image in order to get a high quality print.

Now change the width to 10 inches. The resolution field changes to 210. This resolution will still give us a fairly good quality print and allow us to print at 10 by 6.67 inches. It seems like a happy medium, so we're going to accept those numbers. Before you click OK, however, take a look at the pixel dimensions... as you can see they have not changed from the original size.

Now click OK. Your image onscreen should look exactly the same. So, how do you know it has changed? Choose View > Print Size. The image will be resized to the approximate print size that we chose: 10 by 6.67 inches. If you were to actually print the image it would print at this size, and if you save the image, the print size is generally retained with it (unless you use the Save for Web command to save the image). By changing the resolution of the image we have not changed the pixel data at all. You've only given Photoshop information about how you want the image to be printed. You can go to Print Preview again to verify this.

Now we are going to do another experiment that resamples the image.
Choose the Image Size command.
Check Resample.
Type 20 in the Width field for document size and observe the following: Resolution remains at 210, but the width and height double to 4200 by 2800. Also notice the file size readout. It should say 33.7M (was 8.42M). The file size quadruples as we double the pixel dimensions!

Click OK now and let's see what happens to our image. Set the magnification to 100% and look at some of the areas where there was a lot of detail in the original, such as where the two gears come together. You'll notice these areas will be a bit blurrier than the original.

Next let's assume we want to post this image on the Web. The original size of 2100 by 1400 is much too large to post on the Web because it will not even fit within the screen dimensions of most monitors. Most Web surfers have at least a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, so we'll use that to cater to the lowest common denominator.

Close the duplicate we've been working with and make a new duplicate off the original. Choose the Image Size command. Set the resolution to 72, constrain proportions, and resample checked. Since we need the image no more than 480 pixels high, go ahead and enter 400 in the height (we'll go smaller since most browsers have title bars, menus and scroll bars that also take up screen space). Notice that the file size decreases considerably.

Click OK and set the magnification to 100% to see the image the actual size it would appear on the Web.

This covers the typical uses of the Image Size dialog box, but I am going to encourage you to go back and spend some time experimenting with all the options in Image Size, just to get a feel for what they do. For instance, try all three of the interpolation methods for resampling, change the pixel dimensions without the constrain propertions box checked, resample an image repeatedly and then compare it to an original to observe the effects of repeated resampling.

It's also worth mentioning that Photoshop has an Image Size wizard/assistant in the Help menu. Choose Help > Resize Image to access this wizard/assistant, and Photoshop will walk you through the process of resizing your image based on the output you choose. When you use the Resize Wizard/Assistant, Photoshop automatically makes a copy of the original image. So why didn't I tell you about this until after mucking around in the Image Size box? Because the Image Size box is much faster and it's important that you understand what effects these settings have on your image.

Lesson 2: Image Size Exercise for Version 6.x

Go to the GoodiesStockart folder on your Photoshop 6.x CD and open the image 0006811.jpg. If you don't have access to this folder, open one of your own images. Let's start by duplicating the image so we're not working on the original. You do how to do that, don't you?

Make the document window as large as possible and choose View > Print Size. The image will display quite large and probably fill the entire document window. Practice panning with the spacebar shortcut we learned earlier.

Choose the Image Size command. Note the pixel dimensions of this image are 880 by 1100 pixels. The print size is 12.222 by 15.278 inches with a resolution of 72 ppi.

Let's assume we want to print this image on a high quality printer, so we want a resolution of 300 ppi. Make sure that constrain proportions is checked and resample is unchecked, then type 300 in the resolution box. Notice what happens to the print size... it changes to 2.933 by 3.667. This is the maximum size you can print the image in order to get a high quality print.

That's a bit small, so let's change the width to 4 inches. The resolution field changes to 220. This resolution will still give us a fairly good quality print and allow us to print at 4 by 5 inches. It seems like a happy medium, so we're going to accept those numbers. Before you click OK, however, take a look at the pixel dimensions... as you can see they have not changed from the original size.

Now click OK. Your image onscreen should look exactly the same. So, how do you know it has changed?

Choose View > Print Size. The image will be resized to the approximate print size that we chose: 4 by 5 inches. If you were to actually print the image it would print at this size, and if you save the image, the print size is generally retained with it (unless you use the Save for Web command to save the image). By changing the resolution of the image we have not changed the pixel data at all. You've only given Photoshop information about how you want the image to be printed.

Now we are going to do another experiment that resamples the image.

Choose the Image Size command.
Check Resample.
Type 8 in the Width field for print size and observe the following: Resolution remains at 220, but the width and height double to 1760 by 2200. Also notice the file size readout. It should say 11.1M (was 2.77M). The file size quadruples as we double the pixel dimensions!

Click OK now and let's see what happens to our image. By going to View > Print Size we can see it's approximately 8 by 10 inches on screen.

Now set the magnification to 100% and look at some of the areas where there was a lot of detail in the original, such as the ducks legs, or where the gravel meets the edge of the wheelbarrow. You'll notice these areas will be a bit blurrier than the original.

Next let's assume we want to post this image on the Web. The current size of 880 by 1100 is much too large to post on the Web because it will not even fit within the screen dimensions of many monitors. Most Web surfers have at least a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, so we'll use that as a basis to cater to the lowest common denominator.

Close the duplicate we've been working with and make a new duplicate off the original. Choose the Image Size command. Set the resolution to 72, constrain proportions, and resample checked. Since we need the image no more than 480 pixels high, go ahead and enter 400 in the height (we'll go smaller since most browsers have title bars, menus and scroll bars that also take up screen space). Notice that the file size decreases considerably.

Click OK and set the magnification to 100% to see the image the actual size it would appear on the Web.

This covers the typical uses of the Image Size dialog box, but I am going to encourage you to go back and spend some time experimenting with all the options in Image Size, just to get a feel for what they do. For instance, try all three of the interpolation methods for resampling, change the pixel dimensions without the constrain proportions box checked, resample an image repeatedly and then compare it to an original to observe the effects of repeated resampling.

It's also worth mentioning that Photoshop has an Image Size wizard/assistant in the Help menu. Choose Help > Resize Image to access this wizard/assistant, and Photoshop will walk you through the process of resizing your image based on the output you choose. When you use the Resize Wizard/Assistant, Photoshop automatically makes a copy of the original image. So why didn't I tell you about this until after mucking around in the Image Size box? Because the Image Size box is much faster and it's important that you understand what effects these settings have on your image.

Lesson 2e: Canvas Size

The next command on the title bar context-sensitive menu (Windows only) is the Canvas Size command This command is also found in the Image menu and must be accessed from the Image Menu on Macintosh. 

Canvas Size allows you to change the overall size of the document canvas without altering the contents of the document. When you increase the document size, the new canvas area is added in the current background color or it will be transparent if you have no background layer. Normally you'll only be using Canvas size to increase the size of the canvas, but it can be used to decrease (or crop) the canvas also.

Open an image and choose the Canvas Size command so you can look at the dialog box now.

As you can see the current size is shown at the top. There are fields for entering new width and height dimensions. You can enter your dimensions as percentages, pixels, inches, cm, points, or picas. The anchor diagram lets you specify how the canvas is modified. By default, the middle box is selected which adds an equal amount of new canvas on all sides of your image (assuming you're increasing the canvas size). When you select any of the other squares, the canvas is modified in the opposite direction. For example, pressing the bottom middle square will add space to the top of your canvas.

Try it now by entering new numbers in the width and height to increase the canvas size, leaving the middle anchor square selected. Assuming your background color is the default white, you should have extra white space added all all sides of the canvas. Choose Edit > Undo (or Ctrl-Z/Command-Z) to undo the change and then choose a different background color. Try the Canvas size command again using a different anchor selection and see how it effects your image. Experiment with Canvas Size until you're comfortable with it.

By the way, if you enter some number in the dialog box and you change your mind and want to get the original numbers back, hold down the Alt/Option key and the Cancel button will change to a Reset button. Pressing reset will return all values to what they were. This trick works in just about all of Photoshop's dialog boxes, and it comes in very handy, so you'll want to add this one to your essential shortcuts list.

The Canvas Size command is fine when you want to add an equal amount of space to your canvas, or when you know the exact dimensions you need to adjust, but there is a much more intuitive and flexible way to increase, and decrease, your canvas size visually.