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Getting Started in Photoshop
By David Leggett in Basics, Photoshop | April 14, 2008
Photoshop can be a confusing place to first time users. This lesson will show you what’s what, and how to navigate through the Photoshop.
The Welcome Screen
When you first open Photoshop, you’ll likely be presented with the “Welcome Screen”:
Leave this screen alone. Let it come up every time when you open Photoshop because you may need it and not be able to find it.
Mrs. Bowman
The Welcome Screen is a great area for new users to see what’s possible with Adobe Photoshop, but really isn’t necessary by any means. If you’d like to stop the Welcome Screen from popping up on the start, you can unmark the “Show this dialog at startup” in the lower left corner. The Welcome Screen will always be available for viewing later on if you go to Help > Welcome Screen.
To begin working with Photoshop, Close out of the Welcome Screen.
The Work Area
Upon first glance, Photoshop can be a big and scary place. Let’s break the Work Area into smaller components to make things easier to understandA. Menu Bar - An organized menu area categorized by the type of task being handled. B. Options Bar - Contains options for the currently selected tool.
C. Tool Bar - Contains a wide selection of available tools in Photoshop, as well as the Foreground Color, Background Color, and other features.
D. Document Window –This is the name of the document you’re working on now.
E. Active Image Area - The Document Window contains the Active Image Area (Shown in White above). This is the area an artist works in.
F. Navigator - A small version of the current documents active image area. Used for navigating large images, or when zoomed in.
G. Color Palette - A palette used to select foreground and background colors for painting / drawing with.
H. History –This is your “undo” button. Very good to know about!
I. Layers - If Photoshop were a giant cheeseburger, layers would be the toppings & condiments. Layers in Photoshop allow you to work on a single canvas, letting some things appear above or below others.
Creating a New Document
To create a new document in Photoshop, select File > New from the Menu Bar.
A dialog box will appear such as the one shown below:
A. Document Name - Set the document name here (optional).
B. Presets - Choose a document size from a list of presets.
C. Document Dimensions - Set the width and height of the document here.
D. Document Units - Set the units of the dimensions of the document. Pixels should be your typical choice for any work you’re displaying on the web or on a monitor.
E. Resolution - Set the Resolution of the document. Resolution typically means thenumber of dots (or pixels) per inch. In printing, you typically want a high value here (300 or higher), which will also increase the documents size. However, for web based work, or working in photoshop, 72 is the default resolution (the normal size).
F. Color Mode - You will be working with RGB Color (Red/Green/Blue).
G. Background Contents - Set up the background for your document.
The dialog shown above would create an 800×600px document with a white background. The document name would be “Document Name”, and the resolution would be perfect for on-screen work.
Saving and Closing a Photoshop Document
To save a Photoshop Document, select File > SaveAs from the Menu Bar.
WARNINGWARNINGWARNINGWARNING WARNINGWARNING
When saving, be sure to enter a file name you will recognize, and also select “Photoshop (*.PSD)” as theformat.If you save it as something else you CAN NOT go back and work on your pictures with layers again. You will have to start all over.
To close a document, select File > Close from the Menu Bar. To close all open documents, select File > Close All.