Here you are a lot of hidden shortcuts and little tricks for Photoshop
Those tricks are taken from the mailing list "a tip a day" made by www.planetphotoshop.com an excellent portal about Photoshop
To toggle between Photoshop and ImageReady, press
Shift-Command-M (PC: Shift-Ctrl-M)
To temporarily switch any tool you're working with to the Grabber Hand, just
hold the spacebar.
Anytime you're using a painting tool you can change its opacity setting
(or pressure setting when using tools like the Airbrush or Dodge and Burn)
by pressing the desired percentage on your keyboard (ie: for 67% opacity,
just type 67).
To return to a 100% preview view, double-click on the zoom percentage in
the filter dialog box (works in most filter dialogs, but not all. Go
figure).
To visually adjust the baseline shift (great for adjusting trademark and
registration mark symbols) highlight the letter you want to affect and press
Shift-Option-Up Arrow and of course use the same shortcut with the down
arrow to move text below the baseline.
If you see banding when you print your gradient, go under the Filter menu,
under Noise, and add 4 pixels of Monochromatic, Gaussian Noise. In most
cases, it1ll hide the banding.
To kern (adjust the space between two individual letters) click your cursor
between the two letters on Mac press Option - Left Arrow/ Right Arrow to adjust accordingly,
On PC press Alt - Left Arrow/ Right Arrow.
Dialog Box Trick
To quickly change any number that appears in a dialog box, make sure at least
the text area where the number is located is selected, then use the up and
down arrow keys to change the number. Hold Shift to change the number in larger
increments.
If you have any paint tool (Brush, Airbrush, Pencil, Eraser, etc.) you can
temporarily switch to the Eyedroppper tool (used for sampling any existing
color from a image) you can just hold the Option key (PC: Alt).
To zoom in on the preview image in a Filter dialog box, hold the
Command-key (PC: Ctrl) and click in the preview window . To zoom out, Option-click (PC: Alt) in the preview window.
Toggle your color spectrum
To toggle the color spectrums in the color chooser window, all
you have to do is Shift-click in the spectrum and it will cycle
through each of the spectrums.
Lighten A Brush Stroke
You can lighten any brush stroke that you've just painted by going under the Filter
menu and choosing "Fade..." The lower you slide the slider, the lighter and less
opaque the brsuh stroke will become.
When you're using the Crop tool, you can rotate while you crop by just
moving your cursor outside the bounding box that appears around your image
when you choose the crop tool. You'll see that your cursor temporarily
changes into a double-headed arrow, which enables you to freely rotate your
object. When it's rotated just the way you like it, you have two choices:
Double-click inside the bounding box, or just press Return to make the
rotation permanent. If you're using the Crop tool and decide you don't want
to crop the image after all, just click once on the Crop tool icon in the
tool palette. A dialog box will appear giving you the option to "Crop" or
"Don't Crop."
Better Eyedroppper Readouts
When reading printing dots percents with the Eye Dropper, double-click
the Eye Dropper tools and in the Options Palette change the Sample Size
to 3x3 Average. This will give you a more accurate dot percent reading for
presswork.
>Instant Selections from a Path<
If you have drawn a path, as long as you still have the Pen Tool,
you can instantly convert that Path into a selection by pressing the
Enter key on the NUMERIC keypad of your keyboard.
>Crop Tool Snappiness<
When you get to the edge of your document, the Crop
tool wants to snap to the edge, to get around this, hold
the Command key (PC: Ctrl) when you get near the edge
and you can position it precisely where you want it.
>Panning and Spotting an Image<
You can use these key commands to quickly navigate your image:
Home: Scrolls to upper left corner
End : Scrolls to lower right corner
Page Up: Scrolls one full screen up
Page Down: Scrolls one full screen down
Command/Ctrl - Page Up : Scroll one full screen left
Command/Ctrl - Page Down : Scroll one full screen right
Make sure the Info Palette is open and the rulers are set to
Pixels. Move your cursor to where you want it and remember
the location from the Info Palette. Option/Alt click on the
preview window to bring up the numeric location box and
enter the numbers from before.
Baseline Adjust
In order to make those cool TM symbols look correct, all you have
to do is select the letter and press Shift-Option/Alt-Up Arrow to
adjust the baseline. Use the down arrow to move the letter below the baseline.
From the Layers Menu choose Duplicate Layer. In the dialog box, under Destination,
choose the other document, or a new document. Your copied layer will appear in the
exact position on your new document as the old one.
Move Layers in the Layers Palette
To move the currently selected layer up, type Command/Ctrl - ]
To move the layer down, press Command/Ctrl - [
Better Grayscale Conversions
>To create better grayscale conversions, try this: First convert your image to LAB
Color under the Image-Mode menu. Then go to the Channels palette and trash
the A and B channels.
>Swapping Color Managed Images
If you're using 5.0+ and someone is using 4.0, here's a way to maintain the color
between versions: Before you save your file, switch to LAB color mode. This will
maintain the onscreen color without the color management features kicking in.
Color Palette Trick
If you hold the Shift key while clicking on the color spectrum in the Color Palette
and Photoshop will toggle between the various color modes (RGB, CMYK, Grayscale,
HSB, Lab)
If you're tired of pulling your hair out trying to learn Photoshop or Illustrator, you'll absolutely love these video training tapes from KW Computer Training. It's like being one-on-one with a Photoshop guru while he takes you step-by-step through the most important techniques, sharing the inside tricks of the trade, plus the amazing shortcuts that will save you an unbelievable amount of time and frustration.
>Layer Jumping<
You can jump to any layer with using the Layers Palette by selecting the Move Tool,
then holding Command/Ctrl, click on an object in your document and it will
automatically select that layer.
>Curves Trick
To find out exactly what the brightest and darkest shades of gray are in the current
image, Option/Alt click on the Auto button and set the Black and White clip values to
0, then click the Auto button.
HIDING PALETTES
To hide all of your palettes, press the Tab key. To hide all the palettes except the Tools Palette press Shift-Tab.
Digital Slide Shows
Option/Alt click on the eyeball icon to the left of the active layer to view only that layer,
then type Option/Alt [ or ] to switch between layers.
-Fixing the Magic Wand Tool-
To get rid of unwanted single-pixel selections that are common after using the
Magic Wand tool, open the Select menu, choose modify and then Smooth. Use
a setting of 1.
-Getting Rid of Fringe Pixels-
When collaging images, you may see a little bit of fringe around the edges of one of the images.
You can hide the fringe by going under the Layers menu and under Matting, choose Defringe. When
the dialog box appears, try the default setting. If that doesn't work try increasing the setting to 2 or more.
-Fixing the Magic Wand Tool-
To get rid of unwanted single-pixel selections that are common after using the
Magic Wand tool, open the Select menu, choose modify and then Smooth. Use
a setting of 1.
Trouble Shooting Actions
You can slow down the actions in Photoshop, in case of an error by going to the pop-up menu in the Actions Palette and choosing Playback Options. You can change
the performance speed to "Step By Step" or choose a time interval delay between
each step.
HIDDEN GRADIENTS
Some of Photoshop's best Gradients are on the Photoshop CD-ROM in
a folder called More Goodies. Load them into the Gradient Editor and you
will have access to them anytime you need them.
DRAG COPY A LAYER
To make a copy of an entire layer, click and then hold Command-Option/ CTRL-ALT
and drag. This makes a duplicate copy of the layer.
to see any tools Options (they appear in a floating options palette) just
double-click the tool. In many case, some of the options for these tools
have a field where you can enter a value. For example, the Magic Wand
options palette has a field for entering the tolerance (how many pixels out
it will select) via your keyboard.
When you're using the Crop tool, you can rotate while you crop by just
moving your cursor outside the bounding box that appears around your image
when you choose the crop tool. You'll see that your cursor temporarily
changes into a double-headed arrow, which enables you to freely rotate your
object. When it's rotated just the way you like it, you have two choices:
Double-click inside the bounding box, or just press Return to make the
rotation permanent. If you're using the Crop tool and decide you don't want
to crop the image after all, just click once on the Crop tool icon in the
tool palette. A dialog box will appear giving you the option to "Crop" or "Don't Crop."
To instantly reset the Tool palette's color picker to it's default settings
of Black for foreground and White for background, just press the letter "D"
on your keyboard. To swap the foreground and background colors, just press
the letter "X".
USING CLOUDS FOR A SELECTION
If you don't want an area to be evenly selected, turn on the Quick Mask mode by
pressing the letter "Q", select an area, then apply the Clouds filter (Under Render).
You might need to use the Levels dialog to enhance the results. Then to get back
to the regular selection, press "Q" to exit Quick Mask mode.
CHANGING STACKING ORDER OF MULTIPLE LAYERS
If you drag the bottom layer of a group up or down in the layers stack, all layers within
the group are moved. To group multiple layers, link them and the choose Group Linked
from the Layer Menu. To ungroup them, click on the bottom layer and choose Ungroup
from the Layer menu.
Lighten The Brush Stroke
You can lighten any brush stroke you've just painted by going under the filter menu
and choosing "Fade..." The lower you slide the slider, the lighter and less opaque
the brush stroke will become.
Add Photo Inside of Text
To add a photo to the shape of a text layer, all you have to do is position the photo-layer
above the type layer in the layers palette and press Command/Ctrl G. Make sure the
text is black though.
Easy Jump to Blend Modes
To easily jump to your favorite blend mode for a Layer, all you have to do is hold
Shift and Option (or Shift and Alt) and then press the key of the first letter of the blend
mode you want. For example, if you want the blend mode to be Multiply, type Shift-Option-M.
Easy Type Trick
Many people might not know this, but it's pretty useful. Before you render a Text Layer,
you can use the Transform function on it (Command/Ctrl - T) to change the size without
getting the jaggies.
Ask Photoshop for RAM
At the bottom of your document window is an info bar that displays the document size. Click on the little pull down and choose "Efficiency." If your reading is 100% then Photoshop is running in all RAM. If it reads less than 100%, you might want to get some more RAM.
//PANTONE COLORS FROM THE SWATCHES PALETTE//
You can access the Pantone swatches in your Swatches palette by going to the drop-down menu of the Swatches
Palette and choosing Replace Swatches. Look inside your Photoshop folder under Goodies and find Color Palettes.
Choose Pantone Coated and click OK.
//MORE PRECISE CURSORS//
You can change your Paintbrush cursor to a more precise Crosshair cursor
at any time by pressing the Caps Lock key.
-COLOR SWATCHES TIPS-
Option/Alt clicking on a color swatch changes the background color.
Command/Ctrl clicking on a color deletes it from the swatch.
To add your current foreground color to a swatch, Shift-click on any open space.
- CHANGE PAINT OPACITY FROM KEYBOARD -
If you're using the Paintbrush or any other tools that have any opacity slider, you can use
the 1-9 keys on your keyboard to adjust the opacity. 1 = 10%, 9 = 90%, and if you type two
numbers quick enough, it will give you the exact opacity.
//Avoiding Low Memory Problems
To avoid low memory conditions, set up Photoshop with fewer Undos. Set the History Palette options to have a maximum History state from around 1-5. the default is 20, which is too much for most.
//Adding Arrowheads//
Most people don't know this, but you can add arrowheads to your lines. Just double-click the line tool and under Arrowheads, click Start or End, then draw your line.
Today's Photoshop Tip: Access Grayed-out Filters in CMYK
I'm sure many of you have noticed that there are a number of filters that you can't access when in CMYK mode. Well here's the way to get around it: Go to the Channels palette
and select a channel. You can now choose the filters that were grayed out before. You have to apply the filter to each channel so it is a bit more tedious.
Instead of having to go up to the Options bar everytime you want to change your brush hold Control-Shift and
click anywhere in the document. It should then bring up the brushes palette right where you are.
Create a Personalized Plug-ins Folder
The more Plug-ins you have in your plug-in folder, the more RAM is used and the slower Photoshop Loads. All you have to do is create a new folder and seperate the
plugins as you want to. Then when you want to change folders, hold Command-Option or Control-Alt while Photoshop loads. It will then ask you to choose a plug-ins folderto load.
Instead of exiting a dialog box window in the case of you've made the wrong changes, just hold down the Option/Alt key and the Cancel button changes to a Reset button.
Bringing up the Free Transform, Ctrl/Command T, allows you to skew, distort, etc. To perform other Transform options, Control click or Right-click inside the bounding box and a pop-up menu will appear with the other commands.
To make dialog boxes come up with the last setting you used instead of the default, just add the Option/Alt key when doing the keyboard shortcut for the commands. Example: Command/Ctrl + Option/Alt + L brings up the levels dialog box.
Unjagged Brushes
To make your brushes a little bit smoother, double click on a brush in the Brush palette and set its spacing setting to 1%.
To duplicate your current Layer, press Command/Ctrl - J.
To run Auto Contrast, press Shift-Command-Option-L or Shift-Ctrl-Alt-L.
To switch to the Fill tool in the Extract dialog press K.
To bring up the Extract dialog, press Comman-Option-X or Ctrl-Alt-X
To save for Web press Shift-Command-Option-S or Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S
You undo multiple times press Command-Option-Z or Ctrl-Alt-Z
To toggle between Photoshop and ImageReady press Shift-Command-M or Shift-Ctrl-M.
Press Shift-Y to toggle between the regular History brush and Art History brush.
Press Command-E or Ctrl-E to toggle between the different Erasers
To get rid of color on an image in only certain areas, double-click on the Paintbrush tool to bring up the Options, then select the Mode to Color. Press 'd' to change the foreground to black and start painting away.
Control/Command click on a Layer in the Layers Palette to select everything on that layer, this also works in the Paths palette and Channels palette. If you hold Shift also, you can add to the current selection, Option/Alt subtracts.
To move the Layer up in the Layers Palette press Command/Ctrl - ]. To move the Layer down, press Command/Ctrl - [.
To find out the brightest and darkest shades of gray are on an image,
Option/Alt click on the Auto button and set the black and white caps to 0,
then click the Auto button. This will pull in the endpoints to indicate the
lightest and darkest parts of an image.
An easy way to fine tune a selection is to switch to Qucik Mask Mode by pressing 'Q'. This will provide a more graphic display of what you are selecting. You can even control the feather in certain sections
Did you know that you can copy a layer effect from one layer and paste it on another? All you have to do is Command/Right-Click on the little "F" in the layer that has the effects, select Copy Effects, then Command/Right-Click on the other layer and choose Paste Effects.
Make sure the Info palette is open by going to Window and Show Info.
Now move your cursor to where you want the lens flare to be and remember/write down
the coordinates given to you in the Info Palette. Now when you go to the Lens Flare filter
you can Option/Alt click on the little preview window and enter the X and Y coordinates.
When you've created some type and the layer is still active and you switch back to the type tool, you can bring up the Character Palette and make changes to your type, even though it isn't highlighted.
You can move two Layers in the Layers Palette at the same time by link them (clicking on the open box next to the eye icon.)
The shape clipping path can be repositioned with the the Path Component Selection tool or an appropraite Pen tool.
You don't have to click and highlight the field value to change it when in the Option bar. Just click on the field's name and it will highlight it.
Just a tip: When you shrink an image, using the transform or image size dialogs, run the Unsharp Mask Filter under Filters>Sharpen to get rid of some of the blur.
To zoom in on the preview image in a Filter dialog box, hold the
Command-key and click in the preview window . To zoom out, Option-click in
the preview window
Once you have copied a Layer effect, to paste it into multiple layers all you have to do is link the layers and then when you right/control click on a linked layer, the option for Paste Effects to Linked.
Use the Select Color Range under the Select menu to define a specific color, then you can use the Image>Adjust menu commands to change that specific color.
A change in the new version is the options of snapping to when moving a selection. You can change your snap options by going under View and the Snap To pullout menu.
If you don't need the Vector Shapes when using the Shape tools, click on the Third Icon from the left in the Options bar, it looks like a plain square.
Now when you make a text box, you can select the text, go up to the Options bar, highlight the typeface and use the up/down arrows on your keyboard to scroll through the fonts.
To select a layer automatically, hold down Control-Option (PC: Ctrl-Alt)
while on the Move tool. You will see white and black arrows - click on any element
to switch to that layer.
The Adobe Gamma in 6.0 Adobe moved it into back into your Control Panels folder, so now you can access it from there.
To change a text color, you have to highlight the text and change the color, the problem is that you can't see the new color, so... press Command/Ctrl H to temporarily remove the highlight.
Hold the Control key, and click (or Right-Click) the Eyedropper tool on any color in the image. A pop-up menu will appear where you can choose "Copy color as HTML." Then you can insert that color as HTML text in your Web app's HTML editor
Since the Type Mask tool doesn't give you a preview, use the regular Type Tool, then
just Ctrl/Command click on the layer to bring up the selection. You can then throw the
layer away or save the selection.
When clicking on a color, control-click or right-click to bring up a pop-up menu. You can then select "Copy Color as HTML." This will give you the HTML color code for the color so you can paste it right into your HTML editor.
The Select Similar command bases its tolerance off of that of the Magic Wand tool. So change the tolerance for the Magic Wand and you change the tolerance for the Select Similar command.
When using the Type Tool in Photoshop 6.0, all you have to do to is drag the cursor about an inch away from the type box and it will automatically change into the move tool. It's an easy way to reposition your text.
To bring up the Curves palette with the last used Curve setting in place, press Option-Command-M/Alt-Control-M.
Instead of having to go to the Paths Palette and choosing Create Selection, you can now press Command/Control Enter.
To toggle through the different color channels in the Curves dialog, press Command/Ctrl-1 or 2 or 3, etc.
Removing Moire Patterns from Gradients
If you're getting obvious breaks in color from a gradient when you print, reopen
the file in Photoshop. Then go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Use the settings of
Amount:4, Distribution: Gaussian, and check the Monochromatic checkbox. You'll
see noise on the screen, but not on your printing.
A quick way to choose a new brush in Photoshop 6.0 is to hold Control-Shift-Click/Shift-Right-Click and drag to the new brush you want. Then let go.
Smoothing Selection Edges
After you draw out your selection using the Lasso tool, press 'Q' to enter the Quick Mask mode. Now go to Filter>Noise>Median. As you adjust the Radius, your
edges will smooth out. Once you're done, press 'Q' to go back to your normal selection.
You can quickly name your Layers by holding Option/Alt and double-clicking on the Layer. This will bring up the Layer Properties dialog.
If you already applied a Layer Effect to a Layer and want to change the color, you can click on the Half-Black/Half-White Icon at the bottom fo the Layers Palette.
If you don't have a background Layer and want one, create a new Layer then
choose "Background from Layer" and it will move your blank layer to the bottom
of the layer stack and convert it into a Background Layer.
Type Editing Tip
When you need to run a filter on a Type Layer, you have to Render/Raserize it
first, which means it loses its editability. Try making a copy of the Type Layer before
you render it, then hide that Layer in case you want to change it.
Press Command/Ctrl - T to bring up the Transform box (object must be on a layer) and just drag guides to the centers of the adjustment boxes.
3D Glasses Effect
Open an RGB photo and click on the Channels Palette. Select the Red channel, then go to
Filter>Other>Offset. For horizontal
choose -5. For undefined area select Repeat Edge Pixels, then click OK. Click on the RGB channel to show the effect. Then choose the History Brush to paint away what you don't want to have the effect applied to.
Crop Cancel
Somewhat of a beginner's tip; when using the crop tool, and you don't want to
crop the selection anymore, just press the ESC key to get out of the cropping box.
Quick Steps to Lightning
This takes some basic know-how, but makes a pretty cool effect. First set the default colors
by pressing 'd'. Draw a gradient across your image. Run Filter>Render>Difference Clouds.
Press Command/Ctrl - I to invert the image. Press Command/Ctrl - L to bring up the Levels dialog.
Drag the middle slider to the right to create the Lightning look. Click Ok. Now go to
Image>Adjust>Hue/Saturation to change the color.
Removing Moire Patterns
To remove a moire pattern, try going under the Filter>Noise>Median. Enter 1 pixel and click OK.
When you drop an image into another document, you might notice that little white
border around it. To get rid of this, go to Layer>Matting>Defringe. Use the default setting of 1-pixel
