Real Quick Tips and Tricks for Photoshop

8/14/2019 Real Quick Tips and Tricks for Photoshop

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General Tips

Don't like the default Shadow/Highlights Defaults? Create your own:When you open Photoshop CS's Shadow/Highlight dialog, Adobe figures you have a

problem with your shadows so by default it opens your shadow areas by 50%.However, if you'd prefer to make that call yourself, you can set your own defaults.Start by lowering the Shadow setting to 0%, then click on the "Show more Options"

button. The dialog will expand and at the bottom of the expanded dialog press the button called "Save as Defaults," then uncheck the "Show More Options" checkbox.

Camera Raw Trick If you're using Camera Raw, there's a trick you can use to find out which parts of your image will turn white/black as you tweak the exposure. Just hold the Option key (PC:Alt key) while you're dragging the Exposure or Shadows slider and then look in thePreview window to see where pixels will become white (or black).

Miss that old Welcome Screen?Remember that Welcome Screen that came up the first few times you used the latestversion of Photoshop? Remember how, after a few times, you pressed the "Don't showthis screen again" checkbox so it wouldn't keep coming up? Well, if you miss it anddecide you want it back, just go under the Help menu and choose Welcome Screenand "it's back!" Greater sharpening controlFor a more intense type of sharpening, use Filter>Other>High Pass on a duplicate of the layer that you want to sharpen. Change the layer's Blend Mode to Overlay, Soft

Light, or Hard light. Smaller High Pass settings emphasize tiny details in the imagewhere you need to keep the tiny details (such as wrinkles) unsharpened. You canreduce the opacity of the sharpening layer and mask areas to keep them fromsharpening. It gives you total flexibility. How to get "Less" Metadata in the File BrowserIn the File Browser in Photoshop CS you have complete control over the fieldsdisplayed in the Metadata section. To select the fields that you want to see, chooseEdit>Metadata Display Options in the main menu of the File Browser. One-Touch rotateDid you know that you know have one-touch ability to rotate or flag images in theFile Browser? There's an easy-to-overlook set of icons to the right of the menus in thefile File Browser that provide a fast way to rotate (clockwise or counterclockwise),flag, search, or delete files.

Smart pixel reductionTo reduce the number pixels but at the same time keep some of the sharpness in animage, there's a new method in CS designed to do just that. Here's how: SelectImage>Image Size and in the dialog, click on Resample Image, then choose BicubicSharper from the drop-down menu.



Preview Your BrushesIn the Brushes palette, hover over a brush preset until the Tool Tips show up and thenrun your cursor over all the brushes to see a preview at the bottom of the Brushes

palette.

Healing Brush too dark?If the Healing Brush gives you a result that's a little too dark, choose Edit>FadeHealing Brush and lower the Opacity setting.

Exchanging type on a PathPhotoshop CS and Illustrator CS can exchange type on a Path, but here are a couple of things to keep in mind if you need to edit the type in the other program: Don't usePhotoshop Layer Styles. Save (Photoshop) or Export (Illustrator) in the .psd fileformat. Convert Photoshop layers to objects when opening in Illustrator.

Better color correctionsChoosing Image>Adjustments>Auto Color automatically color-corrects your image.For better results, however, choose Image>Adjustments>Curves, click the Options

button, and use the following settings: Find Dark & Light Colors, Snap NeutralMidtones, Shadow Clip .05, and Highlight Clip .05. Then turn on the Save as defaultscheckbox and click OK. The next time you use Auto Color, you should get better results.

Sample Any Color From Any WhereYou can use the Eyedropper tool to pick colors from all areas of your screen (not justan active document). Just click within a document first, and then drag outside of thatwindow onto the object you'd like to sample. Fit photos when printingMany new digital camera owners run into trouble when they try to print their photosand discover that the photos are too big to fit on the paper (even 8.5x11" paper). Howcan you make the images print? Choose Image>Image Size, uncheck the ResampleImage checkbox, and then change the Resolution to 300 ppi. By uncheckingResample Image, you tell Photoshop to make the pixels smaller but to use all of them.You can now print a high-quality image that preserves all of the original data. Preview your textures and patterns

Have you ever created a pattern or texture that you really liked and then wonderedwhy it looked so insignificant when you printed it? Your monitor shows you theimage at between 72 and 96 ppi, whereas print resolution is typically 300 ppi.Anything you see on your monitor, therefore, is much smaller in print. Here's a way to

preview the pattern: Change your view of the image to 25%. If you can see your pattern, texture, or design element clearly at that small screen size, you'll be able toview it in print. Sharpening an imageWhen you reduce an image's size or import it from a digital camera, it usually needssome sharpening—the amount depends on the output method for the image. Several

books recommend changing the image into Lab mode and only sharpening theLuminosity channel, but here's an easier way to do the same thing: Choose





subjects. Although I've been using the High Pass filter to sharpen images for morethan a year, there's an even sharper variation.

Here's how it works:

1. Duplicate the Background layer by typing Command-J (PC: Control-J).2. Set the Blending Mode of the copy layer to Overlay.3. With the copy layer selected, run the Other>High Pass filter. Starting with a lowvalue, move the slider until edges in the image show. This is strictly a judgment call

but a value of 5 seems to be a good starting point. Click OK 4. Flatten image and Save.

Lower the Opacity without lowering the OpacityIf you've applied a Layer Style (such as Drop Shadow, Outer Glow, etc.) to an object(or type) on a layer, you can take advantage of the new Fill field in the Layers palette.This control is different than just lowering the Opacity. If you lower the Opacity, theentire layer becomes transparent, but if you lower the Fill amount, only your object

becomes transparent—your Layer Style shadow (glow, etc.) stays at the same Opacitythat was originally applied.

Troubleshooting tipBy now you've heard the tip that if Photoshop starts acting weird, the first thing to dois delete Photoshop's Preferences file and restart Photoshop. This will build a factory-fresh set of Preferences that will usually cure the problem. Now, Photoshop can makethis "trashing-the-Prefs" routine even easier. Just hold the Shift-Option-Commandkeys (PC: Shift-Alt-Control) when you first launch Photoshop, and you'll be greetedwith a dialog box asking you if you want to delete the Photoshop settings file. Click OK, and Photoshop will then build a new, factory-fresh set of Prefs for you.

Shortcut: Changing the unit of measureTo quickly change your unit of measure (die: from inches to pixels, etc.), make your rulers visible by pressing Command-R (PC: Control-R), then hold the Control key(PC: Right-click) and click anywhere within your ruler and a pop-up menu willappear where you can choose your measurement unit.

Highlighting option fieldsIn Photoshop's Options Bar, you donut have to click-and-drag to highlight any of the

options fields, just click directly on the field's name and it will highlight the field for you.

Scrubby Sliders Trick In Photoshop CS Adobe introduced Scrubby Sliders, which makes changing thenumber in any of Photoshop's fields much quicker. Instead of clicking within a field(to type in a new number), you just click directly on the field's name and a two-headed arrow/hand appears and you drag left (or right) to move the value in the fielddown/up (respectively). That's not the trick. Here it is: if you hold the Shift key whiledragging a Scrubby Slider it moves a dramatically larger increments, making larger changes much faster. Give it a try and you'll see what we mean.



Undocking the Options BarAlthough the Options Bar appears up top, just below Photoshop's menu bar, you canmake the Options Bar into a floating palette, or you can dock it to the bottom of your screen. Just click and drag on the little tab that appears on the far right of the OptionsBar, and the bar will become a floating palette. If you close the Options Bar (when its

a floating palette) you can bring it back up by double-clicking on any tool in theToolbox. To make the Options Bar dock to the bottom of your screen, simply drag itto the bottom left-hand corner of your screen and it will snap into place.

Resizing Paths trick If you've drawn a path, and want it bigger, smaller, etc., get the Path ComponentSelection Tool (the solid black arrow tool--but NOT the Move tool), and when youclick on your path, look up in the Options Bar. You'll see a checkbox for "ShowBounding Box". Click on it, and a Free Transform like bounding box will appear around you path, enabling you to click and drag your path to your desired size.

Drop Shadow Effect:Rather than setting the Distance and Angle numerically, you can move your mouseoutside the dialog box, right into your image window, and click on the shadow itself and drag it where you'd like it. Do this once and you'll never use the numeric wayagain.

Applying RGB Filters to CMYK ImagesWhen you're working in CYMK, you've probably noticed that many of Photoshop'sfilters are grayed out and cannot be applied to your CMYK image. Here's aworkaround: just go to the Channels palette, click on the Cyan channel and now allthe filters are available again. Apply your filter, then click on the Magenta channeland apply the same filter with the same settings. Repeat for Yellow and Black.

Getting Back to The Default ColorsTo 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. Toswap the foreground and background colors, just press the letter "X".

Choosing the Size You Want For Your SelectionsIf you want to make a precise selection (one that is, say 72 pixels by 72 pixels) click on the Marquee tool and up in the Options Bar, you can enter a fixed size in the

Height and Width fields. Then when you click the Marquee tool, it will automaticallydraw a selection box that is 72 pixels by 72 pixels. If you want to add a soft edge toyour selections, you can also choose to Feather the edge by entering a value in theFeather field in the Options Bar.

Layer Tips

Trash linked layersCommand-clicking (PC: Control-clicking) on the Trash icon at the bottom of theLayers palette will delete all the layers that are linked to the active one.



Opacity Shortcut:You can use a keyboard shortcut to set the opacity for any active layer. To set theopacity down to 40% just press the number 4 on your keyboard. For 80%, press 8,100% press 0, etc. You can also dial in an exact percentage of opacity (if you can typefast). Just type in both numbers (die: 83 for 83%.)

Hiding Multiple Layers Shortcut:There's a shortcut for displaying or hiding multiple layers. Just hold the Option key(Alt key on a PC) and click once on the eyeball icon next to layer you want to remainvisible. All other layers will instantly be hidden. To view all the hidden layers again,repeat the same steps: Hold the Option (Alt) key and click the eyeball again.

Blend Modes Shortcuts:You can now select Blend modes for layers with keyboard commands. For example

press Shift-Option (PC:Shift-Alt) and the first letter of the blend mode you desire.(For example, to switch the blend mode to Multiply, press Shift-Option-M, or toswitch to Color mode press Shift-Option-C.) You can also cycle through the differentmodes by choosing any selection tool then pressing Shift-+ (plus) or Shift-- (minus).

Hiding and Displaying Layers Shortcut :Another shortcut to quickly hiding or displaying layers, is the fact that you can click-and-drag your cursor up and down the column of eyeballs, and as you drag, eachactive layer is hidden. Shortcut for Moving Multiple Layers to Another Document:If you have a document open with multiple layers, and you want to move a number of layers to another document, there's a shortcut that will save you from clicking anddragging each individual layer over one by one. In the layers palette, click on anylayer that you want to move, then click in the second column (between the eyeball andthe layer's name) for every other layer you want to move. This temporarily links themtogether. When you have them all linked, just click-and-drag the whole lot to your new document.

Move Layers Between Documents:Another way to move layers between documents is to use the Apply Image feature,found under the Image menu. It enables you to choose any layer, from a pop-up list,and move that layer to a new document (also chosen from a pop-up list.) You can also

move the entire image as a flattened file, even if you haven't flatted the file yet.

Preserve Transparency Shortcut:There's a keyboard shortcut for turning off and on Preserve Transparency. It's theforward slash key (/) on your keyboard.Putting a Selection Around Everything On A Layer There's a shortcut for selecting all the elements on the active layer. Just Command-click (Control-click on a PC) on the Layer's name in the Layers palette. For example,if you have text on a layer, to instantly select all the text, Command-click the layer'sname.



Merging Active Layers Shortcut:There's a keyboard shortcut for merging the active layer with the one below it. This isextremely handy when you've created a drop shadow for text, or an object, and youwant to make the shadow and object one layer. Just press Command-E (Control-E ona PC) to Merge Down. Big time saver!

Select One Letter of Text:If you have text on a layer, but only want to select one letter of text, you have toRender your Type layer, then you can drag a Lasso selection around the letter. Thenhold the Command key (Control key on a PC) and press the up arrow key and thedown arrow key. This makes the letter a Floating Selection and now you can move theletter any way you'd like (we usually use the Arrow keys on the keyboard to move theselection). When you're done editing this floating selection, press Command-D(Control-D on a PC) to drop the floating selection back down to the layer where youstarted.

Delete an Active Layer:There's another way to delete an active layer besides dragging it into the trash. Whilethe layer is active, you can just click-once on the trash can and a dialog box willappear asking you if you want to delete the active layer. Click yes to trash it, no if youmade a mistake. To bypass that annoying dialog box, you can Option-click (Alt-click on a PC) the trash can. And yes, if you trash a layer by accident, you can immediatelychoose Undo Delete Layer from the top of the Edit menu. (Command-Z on a Mac,Control-Z on a PC.)

Covert your Background Layer to a Layer:To convert your Background Layer to a layer, just double-click on the BackgroundLayer in the Layers palette, and a dialog will appear with the default layer name"Layer 0". However, any white areas of this new layer will remain solid white, andnot transparent like a regular layer. Here's a work around for that. If you want the

background to be it's own layer, but you want to be able to make the white areastransparent, just make a copy of the background layer. It will be named BackgroundCopy. Then make the original background layer active, select all (Command-A, or Control-A on a PC) and hit delete to erase the original background. Now you

background layer is blank (white) and your old background is on its own layer. Now,go back to your Background Copy layer, and use the magic wand tool to select anywhite area. Then go under the Select menu and choose Similar (this will select all

white areas in your image) and then hit Delete to make those areas transparent. Create a New Adjustment Layer Shortcut:If you hold the Command key (Control key on a PC) when you click the New Layer icon, you get the dialog box to create a new Adjustment Layer. Copy Layer Effect to New LayerYou can copy any layer effect (or set of effects) to a new layer in Photoshop just bydragging the effect label in the Layers palette onto the desired layer thumbnail.

Repositioning the Background layer

The Background layer is locked by default and cannot be moved. Not only that, youcan't unlock it (the lock icon at the top of the Layers palette is grayed out). But you're



not out of luck--to move the Background layer, in the Layers palette, double-click onthe Background layer and the New Layer dialog box will appear. It will rename your Background layer as Layer 0 and now it will be unlocked and movable.

Applying Styles

Want to apply a style to a layer using the Styles palette? Just click, drag, and drop thatstyle on your object. The advantage of this "dragging and dropping?" You can dragand drop your style on any object on any layer, not just the current layer.

One-click color-codingWant to color-code one of your layers (for easy visual identification) in a snap? Go tothe Layers palette, hold the Control key (PC: Right-click), and click on the Eye iconnext to the layer you want to color-code. A pop-up menu will appear and you canchoose the color you want from this pop-up list.

Don't have a Background Layer? Make One!If you're working on a document that doesn't have a Background Layer and you wantto add one, simply create a new blank layer, then go under the Layer menu, under

New, and choose Background from Layer.

Shortcut: Duplicate Your layerTo duplicate your current layer, press Command-J (PC: Control-J).Float Selection into a Layer:To "float" any selection and instantly make it its own layer, just press Command-J(Control-J on a PC).

Layers palette shortcutsHere are a few quick ways to move layers around in the Layers palette:1. To move the top layer down "behind" the layer below—Send Backward:Command–[ (PC: Control–[)2. To move the second from the top layer to the top of the layer stack—BringForward: Command–] (PC: Control–])3. To move the top layer to the bottom of the stack (above the Background layer)— Send to Back: Shift-Command–[ (PC: Shift-Control–[)4. To move the layer above the Background layer to the top of the stack, Bring toFront: Shift-Command–] (PC: Shift-Control–])5. To make the higher layer active: Option–] (PC: Alt–])

6. To make the lower layer active: Option–[ (PC: Alt–[)7. To make the top layer active: Shift-Option-] (PC: Shift-Alt-])8. To make the Background or lowest layer active: Shift-Option-[ (PC: Shift-Alt-[).

Brush Tips

Rearranging your BrushesWant to change the order of your brushes in the Brushes palette? Just go under theEdit menu and choose Preset Manager. Choose Brushes from the pop-up menu, thenclick on a brush, and drag it to any place in the palette you'd like. Better yet, Shift-click on multiple brushes, and you can move them around the palette as a group.



Getting the old Brushes palette back If the huge new Brushes palette is freaking you out, you can return to the floating

palette of yesteryear by choosing "Expanded View" from the Brushes palette's pop-down menu.

Creating Temporary BrushesAt any time you can create a temporary brush by clicking directly on the currentlyselected brushes thumbnail (in the Options Bar). This brings up a dialog box whereyou can choose a new size or shape. Make your choices, click OK, and start painting.When you switch to another brush size, the temporary brush you just created is gone.However, if you fall in love with your temporary brush and want to save it, before youchange brush sizes, click on the brush thumbnail icon again, and when the dialog boxappears, click on the New Brush icon in the upper right-hand corner. Moving the Brushes paletteTo move Photoshop brushes palette from the Options Bar to a new location withinyour image window, just Control-click [PC: right-click] to have the palette show up ina different location.

Changing Brush Sizes While You Work To change the size of your current brush, press the Left Bracket key on your keyboardto make the brush smaller, and the Right Bracket key to make it the next size larger.(note: the bracket keys are located to the right of the letter "P" on your keyboard).They look like this: [ and ].

Jumping to the next Preset BrushWant to quickly jump to the next preset brush size? (i.e. 35, 45, 65, 100, etc.). Then

just press the comma key to jump down, the period key to jump upward.

Navigating the Brush PickerWhen you have the Brush Picker open, you can jump from brush to brush by usingthe Arrow keys on your keyboard.

Closing the Brush Picker TricksIf you've opened the Brush Picker and decide you don't want to actually change

brushes, just press the Esc. key on your keyboard. If you want to change brush andhave the picker automatically close when you do, just double-click on the brush size

you want.

Painting Straight LinesTo paint a straight line, just click the brush once in your image area, then move your cursor where you want the end of your straight line, hold the Shift key down, thenclick and a straight line will be painted between the two points.

Turn off Brush dynamic settingsPhotoshop's Brush Engine is wonderful, enabling you to use Brushes, such as theGrass Brush, that paint onto the Canvas with a mind of their own, using variants of your active color. What if you don't want Photoshop's Brushes to "think" for

themselves? You can easily make an "active" Brush stay where you want it and paintin the specified color by unchecking all of the small boxes on the left of the Brushes



palette. By doing so, you're turning off the dynamic settings that make the Brushmove.

Type Tips

Hiding the Text BaselineWhen editing type in Photoshop CS, you may find the visible baseline distracting.After clicking inside the type object with the Type tool, mouse to the View menu anddeselect Extras to temporarily hide the baseline.

Spell Checker tipsIf you understand how Photoshop's spell checker works, it'll save you some time (andfrustration) when spell-checking your documents. Basically, it works like this: If youhighlight a word before you run the spell checker, it just checks that word; however, if you don't highlight anything, it checks all the type on every Type layer. Remember,

that if you rasterize any Type layers, Photoshop doesn't see those layers as typeanymore (because they're not); it sees them as an image, so make sure you run thespell checker before you rasterize your Type layer.

Rendering your Type LayerTo quickly rasterize your Type layer, hold the control-key (PC: Right-click) on thelayer's name and a pop-up menu will appear. Choose Rasterize Layer from the menu.

See your Fonts on screenHere's a trick for seeing how your type would look in various typeface (fonts). Simplycreate your type, highlight the type, then click once in the Font field (up in the

Options Bar) then use the Up/Down arrow keys to scroll through your fonts. As youdo, the typeface on screen will change.

Seeing your type as you change colorPhotoshop lets you highlight any character, group of characters, or just one wordwithin a sentence and change the color of just that highlighted area. However, whileyour type is highlighted, you can't actually see your type in color because of thehighlighting. To get around this, press Command-H (PC: Control-H) and it willtemporarily hide the highlighting, enabling you to see the color of your type as youadjust it. Set the Tracking Tighter:To visually (rather than numerically) set the tracking tighter (removing space betweena group of letters) make sure your text is highlighted (within the text dialog box) then

press Option-Left Arrow (PC: Alt-Left Arrow) to tighten. Press Option-Right Arrow(PC: Alt-Right Arrow) to add space between a selected group of letters or words.

Kerning:To kern (adjust the space between two individual letters) click your cursor betweenthe two letters and use the same keyboard shortcut as shown above (Option-Right andLeft arrows to adjust accordingly).



Adjusting the Leading:To visually increase the space between lines of text (called "adjusting the Leading")

press Option-Down Arrow (PC: Alt-Down Arrow)to increase the space, Option-Uparrow (PC: Alt-UP Arrow) to decrease the space.

Increase Text Size:To visually increase the text size, while your text is still selected, click once inside thesize field then use the Up Arrow key to increase one point at a time.

Increase Text Size 10 Points at a Time:To visually increase the text size 10 points at a time, while your text is still selected,

press Shift-Option-Up Arrow (PC: Shift-Alt-up Arrow), and to decrease in 10 pointincrements press Shift-Option-Down Arrow (PC: Shift-Alt-Down Arrow).

Baseline ShiftTo visually adjust the baseline shift (great for adjusting trademark and registrationmark symbols) highlight the letter you want to affect and press Shift-Option-UpArrow (PC: Shift-Alt-Up Arrow) and of course use the same shortcut with the downarrow to move text below the baseline.

Colorize Your TypeYou can colorize your type within the Type dialog box. Just click on the color swatchto bring up the Color Picker, choose your new color and click OK. Your type will nowappear in the color you've selected. (Unfortunately, all your type will be this newcolor, you can't just pick one word, or letter, and have it in a different color.)

Exact Size for Text ColumnsYou can create a column of text that behaves like a column in a page-layoutapplication by clicking and dragging the Type tool before you enter your type.However, if you Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the Type tool instead, a dialog box willappear where you can enter the exact size you'd like for your text column.

Select all your Type with Once Click.To quickly highlight all the type on a Type layer, just Double-click on the letter "T"thumbnail that appears in the Layers palette.

Changing Type without the Type Tool

If you want to change the attributes of your type (Font, Size, Leading, etc.), you don'thave to get the Type tool first and highlight your type, just click on the Type Layer you want to edit and then open the Character Palette and make your changes.

Move Your Type While You're Editing ItYou don't have to switch to the Move tool to reposition your Type while your either creating your type, or editing it. Just move your Text cursor away from the area whereyou're typing and it will temporarily change into the Move tool. Just click right thereand drag to reposition your type. When you move back close to the text, the Textcursor will return.



Creating custom typePhotoshop enables you to create custom type in the same way that Adobe Illustrator does--by converting your type from a typeface, into paths you can freely edit (as if you had drawn the type with the Pen tool). To do this, create your type, then go under the Layer menu, under Type, and choose Create Work Path. This converts your type

into paths that are not fully editable using the Pen tools.

Tool Tips

Get the Eyedropper Any Time You're PaintingIf you have any paint tool (Brush, Airbrush, Pencil, Eraser, etc.) you can temporarilyswitch to the Eyedropper tool (used for sampling any existing color from a image)you can just hold the Option key (Alt-key on a PC).

Get the Zoom Temporarily

To temporarily switch any tool you're working with to the Magnifying Glass tool, justhold the Command-Spacebar (Control-Spacebar on a PC). Tip for working while zoomed in closeTo temporarily switch any tool you're working with to the Grabber Hand, just hold thespacebar. Perfect for navigating while zoomed in close, because the Scroll Bars movetoo far, and are too unpredictable when zoomed in. Rotate and Crop at the Same TimeWhen 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 likeit, you have two choices: Double-click inside the bounding box, or just press Returnto make the rotation permanent.

How to Cancel a CropIf you're using the Crop tool and decide you don't want to crop the image after all, justclick once on the Crop tool icon in the tool palette. A dialog box will appear givingyou the option to "Crop" or "Don't Crop."

Getting Straight Lines from your Lasso ToolThe Lasso tool is used for drawing freeform selections, but if you decide you'd like touse it to make straight line selections, just press "L" to get the Lasso tool, then press itAGAIN to get the Polygon Lasso tool, which draws straight lines that are connectedto each other.

Editing GradientsTo bring up the Gradient Editor, get the Gradient Tool, then click on the currentGradient up in the Options Bar. To create your own custom gradient, click below thecolor bar to add another color to the gradient. To assign either the foreground or

background color to this new color, click the "F" marker for foreground, or the "B"marker for background. To choose a different color altogether, just click on therectangular swatch next to the F and B markers and the Color picker will appear,enabling you to choose any color you'd like. To delete a color, click and drag down to





• "Y" for Pencil tool

Other useful keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut: Eraser ToggleTo toggle between the regular Eraser tool and the Background Eraser, and MagicEraser, press Shift-E.

Shortcut: Extract Dialog BoxTo bring up the Extract dialog box, press Command-Option-X (PC: Control-Alt-X). Shortcut: Extract Edge HighlighterWithin the Extract dialog box, switch to the Extract Edge Highlighter tool by pressingthe letter b.

Shortcut: Extract Fill ToolWithin the Extract dialog box, switch to the Fill tool by pressing the letter k.

Shortcut: Extract Edge Highlighter's Brush SizeWithin the Extract dialog box, change the Edge Highlighter's brush size by holdingthe right Bracket key to make it larger and the left Bracket to make it smaller.

Shortcut: Auto ContrastTo run Auto Contrast, press Shift-Command- Option-L (PC: Shift- Control-Alt-L).

Shortcut: Save for Web

To Save for Web, press Shift-Command-Option-S (PC: Shift-Control-Alt-S).

Shortcut: Toggle Between History and Art History BrushPress Shift-Y to toggle between the History brush and the Art History brush. Pen Tools:To cycle through the standard pen, freeform pen, and magnetic pen tools: press Shift-P.

Add Anchor :To select the Add Anchor Point tool press "+".

Subtract Anchor :To select the Subtract Anchor Point tool press "-".

Direct Select Pen:To get the Direct Select Pen (the hollow arrow) press "A" (note: you can also hold theCommand key [PC: Control-key]) to get this tool anytime you have another Pen toolselected.

Convert Point Shortcut:Hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) to get the Convert Point tool when any other Pen isselected.



Healing Brush:Press J to get the Healing Brush.

Ruler Tool:Press U to get the Measure tool. (Cool tip here: when you use the new Ruler tool, theInfo box automatically appears, but here's the cool part. If you measure somethingthat's crooked, the measurement automatically appears in the Rotate Canvas box for you and the proper rotation [clockwise or counterclockwise] is already selected for you. Pretty slick).

Marquee Tools:Pressing Shift-M toggles back and forth between the rectangular marquee and circular (Elliptical) marquee tools.

Web Tips

Create slices exactly the same sizeTo create multiple slices that are exactly the same size, draw one slice thatencompasses the full width you'd like all the slices to take up, switch to the SliceSelect tool, and then click the Divide Slice button in the Options Bar and choose your options in the resulting dialog.

Normal in the Over state?Hold Command and Option (PC: Control and Alt) when clicking the Create Layer-Based Rollover at the bottom of the Rollovers palette to use the Normal stateanimation in the Over state as well.

Create patterns with transparencyThe Pattern Maker filter can create a pattern even when there's transparency in a layer.If you position the Marquee over an area that contains transparency, you'll gettransparent areas in the final pattern. By creating several different patterns from thesame image and overlaying them on top of each other, you can build up a much morecomplex pattern/texture this way.

Creating Background TransparencyAnother way to create background transparency is to put the object you want on itsown layer. Then, before you go to the Save for Web option to optimize the graphic,delete the Background Layer (leaving you with just Layer 1 in your Layers palette).After you do this, you'll notice that the checkbox for Transparency in the Save for Web dialog box is no longer grayed out. To create the transparency, click thecheckbox on.

Copy the Color AND the HTML codeIf you want to copy a color, and the HTML code used to create it, instead of justclicking on the color with the Eyedropper, instead Control-click (PC: Right-click) on



the color and choose "Copy Color as HTML" from the pop-up menu that appears.Then you can paste this HTML code directly into your HTML editor, and theHexadecimal code will transfer along with it. Try it by copying a color than Paste intoa text document and you'll see what we mean.