10 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
File Handling
The File Handling preference panel (Figure 1.11) contains options for file saving and compatibility.
If you have the entire Creative Suite installed, including Adobe’s Version Cue application, this
panel also offers you the option to enable Version Cue File Management.
Figure 1.11
The File Handling
preferences panel
Ask Before Saving Layered TIFF Files Photoshop allows you to save TIFF files containing
multiple layers. In fact, you may not realize it, but TIFFs can store anything that native Photo-
shop PSD files can. With this option enabled (which it is by default), Photoshop alerts you by
displaying a warning dialog box every time you save a layered TIFF. This dialog gives you the
option to save the file with layers or flatten them (as in a traditional TIFF). If you prefer to work
with layered TIFFs rather than PSDs in your workflow, you may want to turn this option off;
otherwise, the warning dialog will appear every time you press F/Ctrl+S.
Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility This preference gives you the option to include
data in saved PSD and PSB files that can improve compatibility with other applications and
with earlier versions of Photoshop. Doing so creates both a flattened and a layered version of
your file, and adds a considerable amount to the file size. If your workflow requires you to
open PSD or PSB files in other applications, such as old versions of Macromedia FreeHand,
which requires a flattened version, choose Always from the list. By choosing Ask (the default
option), Photoshop displays a warning dialog box every time you save a PSD or PSB (see Fig-
ure 1.12). To disable the maximize option (and the warning dialog), choose Never from the list.
Figure 1.12
The Maximize Com-
patibility warning
dialog box
Enable Version Cue Version Cue allows you to create and save alternate versions of an
image—and even better, it embeds all of the information into a single file. With Version Cue
installed and this preference enabled, you can access these versions from other applications in
PREFERENCES FOR PRINT DESIGNERS 11
the suite, including InDesign and Bridge. This type of workflow can prove to be very helpful
when working with picky, “high-maintenance” clients who can never seem to make enough
changes or swap out enough images in your layouts and designs (see “Version Cue Versions
and Alternates” in Chapter 11).
Performance
The Performance preference panel (Figure 1.13) is new to Photoshop CS3. It combines the Scratch
Disk options from the CS2 Plug-Ins & Scratch Disk panel with all of the options found in the CS2
Memory And Image Cache panel. It is also the only preference panel that contains a Description
area at the bottom. For a brief explanation of what each option does, hover the mouse cursor over
any one of them in the panel and refer to the Description area.
Figure 1.13
The Performance
preferences panel
Memory Usage This preference allows you to allocate a specific percentage of your system’s
available RAM to Photoshop. The natural tendency for designers is to overallocate RAM to
Photoshop, which is not necessary. For your average Mac or Windows system (1GB or less of
RAM installed), start out by setting the slider to 50%. If you have a large amount of RAM
installed (at least 3GB), try increasing the percentage. You’ll know you’ve set it too high if the
hard disk starts to make noise every time you launch another application (Windows Vista or
XP), or if you see the dreaded “spinning beach ball” (Mac OS X).
History & Cache The History States preference used to be located in the CS2 General panel, but
is now combined with the Cache Levels setting of the Performance panel. The value entered for
History States controls the maximum amount of history states accessible in the History palette.
The default setting is 20, but you can allocate as many as 1,000 history states. Increasing the
default value allows you to go further back in time when editing your images, but it also eats up
a lot of scratch disk space. Running out of scratch disk space can severely slow system perform-
ance and bring Photoshop to a screeching halt, leaving you unable to even save your images.
GPU Settings For the first time in Photoshop, image windows are displayed onscreen by
using the graphics processing unit (GPU) rather than the central processing unit (CPU), or
“processor.” . The GPU is a specialized logic chip devoted to rendering 2D or 3D graphics. The
GPU is used primarily for 3D applications and video games in order to display lighting effects
and object transformations.
12 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
Cursors
Photoshop CS3 contains two Cursors preference options (Figure 1.14), both of which apply to
Painting Cursors and the Brush tool.
Figure 1.14
The Cursors prefer-
ences panel
Full Size Brush Tip Enabling this option causes the circle cursor to act as a full-size brush, so
that the edge of the cursor is the edge of the brush. This edge indicates the point where the
brush stops affecting the image. Normal Brush Tip (the default setting) displays the halfway
point at which the color will disappear gradually, particularly when working with soft brushes
and pressure sensitivity from a graphics stylus. Some users find the accuracy of the full-size
brush tip easier to visualize and work with, whereas others are simply used to working with
the normal brush tip and feel no need to switch to full size.
Show Crosshair In Brush Tip Enabling this option causes a small crosshair to appear in the
center of the circle brush cursor. This can be especially useful when using the Full Size Brush
Tip option (Figure 1.15), because it can help you visualize exactly where the center of the brush
is when painting with such a large cursor.
Figure 1.15
Choose to show a
crosshair in your
brush cursor.
Normal brush Full size brush tip Full size brush tip
with crosshair
PREFERENCES FOR PRINT DESIGNERS 13
Transparency & Gamut
One of the most powerful features of Photoshop is the ability to work with transparent layers. Of
the few options available in this preference panel (Figure 1.16), Grid Colors is one you might want
to change from time to time, especially when the grid color is conflicting with the image you are
editing, making it difficult to identify stray pixels.
Figure 1.16
The Transparency &
Gamut preferences
panel
Grid Colors If the default gray-and-white transparency checkerboard makes it difficult to see
the edge of a selection, especially when working with certain tools such as the Background
Eraser, you can change it here. Click either color swatch (below the Grid Colors menu) to access
the Color Picker. Proceed to change the default colors to something that offers better contrast
with your image.
Units & Rulers
Print designers and production artists depend on accurate measurements. That’s why Photoshop
lets you set the default ruler units (Figure 1.17) to whatever measurement system you’re most
comfortable working with.
Rulers Photoshop uses inches as the default measurement for displaying document dimen-
sions, but you can change this in the Units & Rulers panel of the Preferences dialog box. Select
your preferred unit of measurement from the Rulers menu. Options include inches, centime-
ters, millimeters, pixels, points, picas, or percentages.
New Document Preset Resolutions You can also set the default settings for new preset print
resolution and screen resolution documents. The values entered in these fields are the settings
used for print and screen document size presets chosen from the File ➢ New dialog box Preset
menu. Although the default suggested print resolution is 300ppi, modern studies prove that an
image really needs to be only 220ppi at 100% of its intended print size to produce a high-qual-
ity print. If you are creating an image to be displayed on the Web or exclusively onscreen, the
image resolution should be set to 72ppi at 100% of its intended viewing size.
14 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
Figure 1.17
The Units & Rulers
preferences panel
Guides, Grid, Slices, & Count
The Extended version of Photoshop CS3 has added a new Count tool to the Guides, Grid, Slices &
Count preference panel (Figure 1.18). This is where you can change the default colors used by
these tools. Although the Count tool is really intended for use by medical professionals and not
print/production designers, it uses a guide color to count with, and that’s why it’s included here.
Guides: Color Sometimes the default cyan guides can conflict with the colors of the image
you’re working with. When this happens, choose a different guide color from the menu. If the
color you’d like to apply is not featured in the preset menu list, choose Custom to access Photo-
shop’s Color Picker dialog box and select that color.
Figure 1.18
The Guides, Grid,
Slices, & Count pref-
erences panel
PREFERENCES FOR PRINT DESIGNERS 15
Plug-Ins
Plug-Ins now has its very own preference panel in CS3 (Figure 1.19) and no longer has to share
with Scratch Disks. Its former roommate has moved to the new Performance panel.
Figure 1.19
The Plug-Ins prefer-
ences panel
Additional Plug-Ins Folder If you have previous versions of Photoshop on your system and
third-party plug-ins installed, you can load the plug-ins into Photoshop CS3 without having to
reinstall them. Click the Choose button and navigate to the Photoshop X/Plug-Ins folder. If a
plug-in requires the serial number of the installed legacy version of Photoshop, enter it in the
field below. You can also load compatible third-party plug-ins located in different directories, or
in the plug-ins folder of other applications such as Corel Painter.
Type
When designing for print, it is recommended that you set the bulk of your type in a layout applica-
tion such as Adobe’s InDesign or Quark’s QuarkXPress. Type always outputs sharper when set in a
layout application, or in a vector drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator or FreeHand. Ulti-
mately, Photoshop rasterizes type, or converts it to pixels, which makes it appear overly soft on the
printed page—a very undesirable effect. However, there are certain instances when you may need to
work with type in Photoshop. For example, you can use Photoshop to create transparent type effects,
or use type with Layer Comps to develop a series of initial designs to present to a client. Here are the
preferences (Figure 1.20) that matter most when working with type in Photoshop.
Use Smart Quotes You should keep this option enabled so that quotes will always display as
typographer’s quotes (curled), as opposed to displaying as inch marks (straight).
Enable Missing Glyph Protection This new preference is intended for typography experts
who work predominantly with large character set languages and who sometimes run into
problems with missing glyph characters. This option (on by default) tells Photoshop to auto-
matically substitute a font if a document containing text encounters a missing glyph. If you’re
working with large character sets, it’s a good idea to keep this new preference turned on.
16 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
Figure 1.20
The Type prefer-
ences panel
Font Preview Size Enabling this option allows you to preview fonts at the size you choose in
the available font menus. Choose Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, or Huge. By disabling
this option, fonts are displayed at the last chosen size. You must re-enable the preference to
change the font preview size. Viewing the fonts at larger sizes can make it a lot easier to iden-
tify which ones you’d like to work with. Viewing fonts at smaller sizes preserves more space in
the font menu and results in less scrolling.
Setting Up a Workspace for Print Design/Production
Making the most of your screen real estate is important no matter what type of image editing
you’re doing in Photoshop. Even with a large monitor, or even dual monitors, there just never
seems to be enough room to work. In this section, you’ll take a look at how you can maximize
your screen space through good palette management, and then save your favorite workspace
environments.
Managing Palettes
To conserve screen space, you can regroup palettes by docking them together. You can also stack
palette windows together into a vertical column. Palettes and palette groups can also be collapsed
vertically to create more room for you to work. In addition, Photoshop now allows you to dock
palettes into resizable side wells on either side of your screen, and even reduce them to icon size.
Regrouping Palettes
One really efficient way to save screen space is to regroup your most frequently used palettes
together. By doing so, you can essentially combine three or four palettes into one (see Figure 1.21).
To group individual palettes together, simply click the tab of one palette and drag it into
another, as shown in Figure 1.22. Hold the mouse button down until a blue outline appears
around the palette window that you are dragging into; then release. The palettes become grouped
together inside the same window.
SETTING UP A WORKSPACE FOR PRINT DESIGN/PRODUCTION 17
Figure 1.21
Keeping a lot of indi-
vidual palettes open
can eat up a lot of
your screen (top),
but regrouping your
most frequently used
palettes together cre-
ates a lot more room
to work (bottom).
Figure 1.22
Drag a palette onto
another to group
them.
Clicking a grouped palette’s tab brings that palette to the front of the group. To ungroup a
palette, click the tab, hold the mouse button down, and drag it out of the window. Release the
mouse button to place the free-floating palette somewhere else on your screen, or group it into
another window or side well.
18 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
Collapsing Palettes
Another great way to save screen space is to collapse palette windows. Collapsing palettes hides
everything except for the palette tabs (see Figure 1.23). This is the best way to clear your screen.
Figure 1.23
Photoshop’s palettes
can take up a large
portion of the screen
(left), but collapsing
them gives you
much more room to
work with (right).
Photoshop offers three ways to collapse free-floating palette windows (that is, palettes not
placed in the side wells): click the title bar, double-click the palette tab, or click the Collapse Win-
dow button in the upper right of the palette (next to the Close button).
Stacking Palettes
One other way that you can save screen space is to stack your palette groups together. Doing so
allows you to reposition or collapse all of your palettes at once (see Figure 1.24).
To stack palette windows together, click the tab of one palette, hold the mouse button down,
and drag the palette over the bottom edge of another (as shown in Figure 1.25). Release the mouse
button when a thick blue line appears at the bottom edge of the window you’re docking to. The
palette windows become docked together in a vertical column.
Using the Side Palette Well
The palette well that was previously available in the Options palette in CS2 has now been replaced
with new resizable side wells located on the right- and left-hand sides of your screen. You can use
these wells to store individual palettes, docked palette groups, or stacked palette windows.
SETTING UP A WORKSPACE FOR PRINT DESIGN/PRODUCTION 19
Figure 1.24
Palette groups can
also eat up a lot of
your screen (left),
but stacking them
together allows you
to reposition and
collapse them all at
once (right).
Figure 1.25
You can dock palette
windows to each
other vertically.
20 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
To add a palette window to either side well, click the title bar and drag it to either side of your
screen. Hold the mouse button down until a vertical line appears in the well, and then release for
the palette window to snap into place. Certain palettes docked in the window, such as Layers or
Swatches, automatically resize vertically to fill the column. You can also add multiple columns of
docked palette windows at a time (Figure 1.26).
Figure 1.26
Multiple side docks
on the right side of
the screen
When you click the gray bar above a docked palette column, the palettes are minimized to dis-
play small palette icons and palette names (Figure 1.27). You can minimize these even further and
display just the icons by clicking the gray area at the top or side of the palette and dragging it in
toward the screen.
Click once on a palette icon to expand the window, as in Figure 1.28. The expanded window
snaps into position next to the well and can be resized by clicking and dragging the bottom of the
palette up or down.
Here are some more helpful tips when working with the side palette wells:
◆ You can reposition a docked palette vertically in the well, whether expanded or minimized
to an icon, by clicking and dragging up or down. When you see a thick blue horizontal line
appear, release the mouse button to drop the palette into place.
◆ When repositioning an expanded palette into a docked icon group, the palette minimizes to
an icon and snaps into place.
◆ You can add more palettes to a docked palette group by dragging them over the icons or
the expanded palettes in the well.
◆ At any time, docked palettes—expanded or minimized—can be undocked and reposi-
tioned anywhere on the screen by simply clicking and dragging the icon or palette tab out
of the well.
SETTING UP A WORKSPACE FOR PRINT DESIGN/PRODUCTION 21
Figure 1.27
Icon palettes: top,
docked and labeled;
bottom, docked
22 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
Figure 1.28
An expanded icon
palette
Saving a Workspace
Photoshop allows you to save your workspace environment so that you don’t have to spend time
repositioning palettes on the screen every time you launch the application. You can create and
save a custom workspace for every type of image-editing work you do. For instance, a production-
oriented job might require a totally different set of palettes than a design-oriented one. No prob-
lem! Photoshop lets you save a workspace for each.
To save your preferred work environment, choose Window ➢ Workspace ➢ Save Workspace.
When the Save Workspace dialog box appears, enter a name for your workspace and click OK.
You can now restore your workspace whenever you like by selecting it under the Window ➢
Workspace submenu or from the Workspace drop-down list in the Options palette.
To save changes made to your custom environment, choose Window ➢ Workspace ➢ Save
Workspace, and enter the name of the workspace you want to update. Click OK when the dialog
box asks whether you want to replace the workspace.
Figure 1.29 shows a production-oriented workspace, with the Info, Histogram, Paths, and Lay-
ers palettes made visible, and the Color, Navigator, Swatches, History, and Actions palettes
docked nearby.
By contrast, in Figure 1.30 we have a design-oriented workspace, with the Info, Histogram,
Layer Comps, and Layers palettes made visible, and the Brushes, Clone Source, Color, and
Swatches palettes docked nearby.
Deleting a Workspace
Custom workspaces are such a cool feature, and so easy to use, that you may find yourself saving
dozens of them in no time at all. But after a while, you may realize that you really use only a hand-
ful of them. No problem. You can always delete a saved workspace by choosing Window ➢ Work-
space ➢ Delete Workspace. When the Delete Workspace dialog box appears, select the workspace
you want to delete from the list (sorry, you can delete only one at a time). Click Delete, and it’s
gone forever.
SETTING UP A WORKSPACE FOR PRINT DESIGN/PRODUCTION 23
Figure 1.29
A production-
oriented workspace
Figure 1.30
A design-oriented
workspace
Restoring the Default Workspace
Maybe the default workspace is perfect for your design needs and you just want to return to the appli-
cation’s original palette arrangement. Well, pat yourself on the back for being exceptionally “low-
maintenance” and then choose Window ➢ Workspace ➢ [Default]. You can also restore the Default
Workspace from the Workspace drop-down list in the Options palette.
24 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
Using Screen Modes
By applying good palette management and saving your ideal workspace settings, you can con-
serve space on your screen. Standard Screen Mode is what you’re probably used to working in,
but if you truly want to use the entire screen, without wasting even the tiniest bit, try using the Full
Screen Modes.
You can apply the different screen modes by clicking the Mode icon at the very bottom of the
Tools palette (Figure 1.31) or by pressing the F key.
Figure 1.31
Switch screen
modes via the icon
at the bottom of the
Tools palette.
Standard Screen Mode In Standard Screen Mode (the application default), all four sides of
the document window are displayed (see Figure 1.32). The name of the document is always
shown at the top, and scroll bars appear on the right and bottom sides when the image is too
large to fit in the window. When the Tools palette is displayed in double-column format, you
can apply Standard Screen mode by clicking the Mode icon on the far left.
Figure 1.32
Standard Screen
mode
Maximized Screen Mode In Maximized Screen Mode, the document window is maximized
to fit within the boundaries of the palette docks, and the title bar is hidden (see Figure 1.33).
Scroll bars appear on the right and bottom sides when zoomed in on the image.
SETTING UP A WORKSPACE FOR PRINT DESIGN/PRODUCTION 25
Figure 1.33
Maximized screen
mode
Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar In Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar, Photoshop hides the
document window boundaries and fills the entire screen with the image (see Figure 1.34). Any
visible palettes are automatically positioned over the image, while the menu bar is still accessi-
ble at the top of the screen. There are no scroll bars in this mode, so if part of the image becomes
cropped off by the screen, you must use the Hand tool to navigate around the document. You
can access the Hand tool quickly by holding down the spacebar. If you zoom out far enough for
the document not to fill the entire screen, Photoshop fills the surrounding areas with gray.
When the Tools palette is displayed in double-column format, you can apply Full Screen Mode
With Menu Bar by clicking the middle Mode icon.
Figure 1.34
Full Screen Mode
With Menu Bar
26 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
Full Screen Mode In Full Screen Mode, Photoshop fills the entire screen with the image and
hides the menu bar as well as the document window boundaries (see Figure 1.35). To apply
menu commands, you must switch back to one of the other two screen modes in order to access
the menu bar, or use the keyboard shortcuts (if applicable). If you zoom out far enough for the
image not to fill the entire screen, Photoshop fills the surrounding areas with gray.
When the Tools palette is displayed in double-column format, you can apply Full Screen Mode
by clicking the Mode icon on the far right.
Figure 1.35
Full Screen Mode
This can be a great way to work when editing an image with brush tools. To make even more
room on the screen as you edit, press Tab to hide the palettes (see Figure 1.36). You’ll be left
with nothing but the image displayed across the entire screen.
Figure 1.36
Full Screen Mode
with palettes hidden
CUSTOMIZING MENUS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 27
Screen Mode Shortcuts
If the Tools palette is hidden, you can cycle through the three screen modes by pressing F on your
keyboard.
Customizing Menus and Keyboard Shortcuts
Photoshop CS3 is so flexible that it even allows you to hide and show menu commands. Being
able to customize your workspace like this ensures that you’ll always be working in a comfortable,
uncluttered environment. Photoshop also allows you to customize keyboard shortcuts, which can
make remembering them a whole lot easier, but can also make life much harder for designers
working in a collaborative environment and sharing computers—unless of course, everyone on
the design team agrees on using the same new shortcuts.
Editing Menus
Photoshop is an application used by all types of creative professionals—from web designers, to
video editors, to forensic experts—and that’s just to name a few. Therefore, as a print designer, it’s
unlikely that you will use all of the menu commands available. More often than not, you’ll wind
up wading through a lot of unused clutter. If having to do this slows your workflow down, try
customizing the interface to display only the menu commands that you really use.
Choose Edit ➢ Menus, and click the Menus tab at the top of the dialog box that appears. Unless
you’ve changed it, the set currently displayed should be Photoshop Defaults (Note: You can choose
from various other built-in task specific presets. See the “Workspace Presets” sidebar later in this sec-
tion). Choose which menu type (application or palette) that you’d like to edit from the Menu For pop-
up list. Toggle the triangle next to each menu name to view the various commands (see Figure 1.37).
Figure 1.37
The Menus tab of
the Keyboard Short-
cuts and Menus dia-
log box
28 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED
You can hide or show menu commands in any of the default sets by clicking in the Visibility
column. You can also add or change the highlight colors for the menu commands by clicking in
the Color column and choosing a color from the pop-up menu (see Figure 1.38). When you’ve fin-
ished editing the menus, click OK to exit the dialog.
Figure 1.38
Click in the Color
column and choose a
color from the pop-
up menu that
appears.
Photoshop automatically adds the Show All Menu Items command to the bottom of any menu
list containing hidden items (Figure 1.39). Choose this command to see everything that’s been hid-
den. You can also view hidden commands by F/Ctrl+clicking the menu name.
Figure 1.39
Some menus have
hidden commands
that can be
displayed.
CUSTOMIZING MENUS AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 29
You can also create and save your own custom sets by clicking the Save button next to the Set
drop-down list. When the Save dialog box appears, name the set and click the Save button. Your
custom set is added to the Set drop-down list.
Workspace Presets
Photoshop CS3 ships with a number of built-in workspace presets. There are 11 presets already set up for
you under the Window ➢ Workspace submenu or from the Workspace drop-down list located on the far
left of the Options palette. Each preset applies menu highlights and keyboard shortcuts for a specific
editing task in Photoshop (Note: These presets can change the palette arrangement onscreen). To highlight
the new features in CS3, choose the What’s New In CS3 preset. Note that these are the same presets found
in the Set drop-down list in the Keyboard Shortcuts And Menus dialog box.
Editing Keyboard Shortcuts
Photoshop allows you to change any of the keyboard shortcuts in the default set. To do so, choose
Edit ➢ Keyboard Shortcuts. Then from the Shortcuts For drop-down list, choose Application
Menus, Palette Menus, or Tools. Photoshop displays the chosen shortcuts in a list box underneath
the drop-down list (see Figure 1.40).
For the Application Menus and Palette Menus lists, toggle the triangle next to each menu or
palette name to view the various commands. Existing shortcuts are displayed in the Shortcut col-
umn. If no shortcut is displayed, none is currently assigned to the command.
To change or assign a shortcut, click in the Shortcut column and then type the shortcut. Any
conflicting shortcuts will appear in a warning directly below the list box (see Figure 1.41). Click
the Accept button to remove the conflicting shortcut (if any) from its former command and apply
it to the currently selected command. You can always reapply the original shortcut by clicking the
Use Default or Undo buttons.
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