Photoshop SIG |
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Tool Options |
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| Eyedropper (very useful) |
Sample Size on the option bar allows you to take an average color rather than sample an individual pixel. |
Menu Items |
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| File Menu - Revert (useful) |
Changes the open image back to the last saved version. |
| File Menu - Place |
Imports an EPS or PDF file into the open image as a layer. Allow you to resize it. |
| File Menu - Export - ZoomView |
Exports to the ZoomView format for distributing high resolution With the Viewpoint Media Player, users can zoom into or out of an image and pan the image to see its various parts. |
| File Menu - Automate - Batch (workflow automation) |
Lets you play an action on a folder of files and sub-folders. |
| File Menu - Automate - Create Droplet (workflow automation) |
Takes an action and creates an icon for it that can be placed on the desktop. The user drags files onto the icon to run the action. |
| File Menu - Automate - Conditional Mode Change |
Creates an action that allows you to convert a file from one color mode to another conditionally based on what mode it starts out as. Used for workflow automation. |
| File Menu - Automate - Fit Image |
Fits the current image to the width and height you specify, without changing its aspect ratio. This will resample the image. Use Image Size on the Image menu instead. |
| Edit Menu - Copy Merged (useful) |
Copies a merged version of all visible layers to the clipboard. |
| Edit Menu - Paste Into (useful) |
Pastes into a selection. What it really does is paste into a new layer and creates a layer mask based on the current selection. |
| Edit Menu - Clear |
Deletes the contents of the current selection. |
| Edit Menu - Purge (if you need to do this regularly, consider upgrading memory or getting another hard drive) |
Frees memory by clearing information Photoshop tracks, such as the clipboard and history. |
| Edit Menu - Fill |
Fills either the current layer or selection with a color. You can select foreground and background as well as opacity. |
| Image Menu - Adjustments | Whenever possible use an adjustment layer rather than an image adjustment. It give you much more flexibility. |
| Image Menu - Adjustments Gradient Map |
The Gradient Map command maps the equivalent grayscale
range of an image to the colors of a specified gradient fill. |
| Image Menu - Adjustments Invert |
Creates a negative of an image. Can be used for creating negatives or converting a negative to a positive. |
Image Menu - Adjustments |
Photoshop finds the brightest and darkest values in the composite image and re maps them so that the brightest value represents white and the darkest value represents black. Photoshop then attempts to equalize the brightness--that is, to distribute the intermediate pixel values evenly throughout the grayscale. |
| Image Menu - Adjustments Threshold |
Creates a black and white out of your image, no shades of gray. There is a slider to allow you to control the threshold for what is black and what is white. Useful for finding the darkest and lightest pixels in an image, also for special effects. |
| Image Menu - Adjustments Posterize (special effect) |
Reduces the number of level in each channel to create a poster or screen effect. |
Image Menu - Adjustments |
Shows an image with different color adjustments applied. Use it as a guide for making the same adjustments manually. |
| Filter Menu - Extract |
A tool to help you make hard to make selections, such as hair and leaves. It does not work well. However a commercial product is available to do this: Corel Knockout |
© Text Copyright Laura Balsam 2004