Main

June 24, 2009

Reverse the Layer Order

Select Layer > Arrange > Reverse to reverse the stacking order of the selected layers. Note: if the layers are in different groups this option is not available.

June 23, 2009

Moving Layers

Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + “[“ or “]” moves the layer up or down. This is a very useful shortcut when recording actions as the specific name of the layer is not recorded.

June 22, 2009

Targeting Layers via the Keyboard

• Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) + “[“ or “]” targets the layer above or below the currently targeted layer.
• Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) +Shift + “] “or + “[“ adds the next layer up or down to the targeted layer(s) (note when you get to the top or bottom of the layer stack, Photoshop will “wrap around” to continue adding/subtracting layers).
• Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) + “,“ or “.” targets the bottom/top -most layer.
• Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) + Shift + “,“ or “.” targets all layers that fall between the currently targeted layer to the top or bottom of the layer stack.

Note: these shortcuts are essential when recording actions as they help to select layers, but do not record the specific “name” of the layer in the action.

June 15, 2009

Creating New Documents

Option-Command (Mac) / Alt-Control (Win) + N will enter the last numeric entry in to the “New” dialog box (instead of whatever dimensions were last copied).

March 20, 2009

Smart Guides

When aligning layers, it’s best to turn on Smart Guides. Use the Move tool to reposition the layers - Smart Guides automatically appear when they are aligned at top, center, bottom, left or right.

March 18, 2009

Additional Guide Shortcuts

Place a guide numerically using View / New Guide and Lock using View / Lock Guides or Command + Option (Mac) / Control + Alt (Win) + “;” . And finally, when dragging out a guide from the rulers, Option (Mac) / Alt (Win) toggles the orientation of the guide (vertical to horizontal).

March 16, 2009

Repositioning Guides

To reposition a guide using the Move tool, position the Move tool directly on top of the guide. When the icon changes to a double headed arrow, click and drag to reposition the guide. Drag a guide outside of the image area to quickly delete it. Shift-drag a guide to snap it to the ruler tic marks even is the “snap to” option is turned off (View / Snap To...).

March 6, 2009

Changing Ruler’s Point of Origin

The point of origin (or the starting or zero point of the rulers) can be changed by simply clicking and dragging the box in the upper left corner of the rulers (where they meet) to reposition. Double clicking at the intersection of the rulers resets the point of origin to the upper left corner of the open document.

March 5, 2009

Finding the Center of an Image

In order to quickly find the center of an image, set the rulers to percentage. Setting the rulers to percentage can also be helpful when recording action that will be run on files of different sizes where you might want an effect to be applied to a certain percentage of an area.

February 11, 2009

Arrange Document

The Arrange Documents feature (in the Application Bar) is a fast and flexible way to display multiple documents at once. The first row of icons will “Consolidate All” open documents in Tabs and “Tile all Images in Grid” or “Tile All Images Horizontally or Vertically”. The second set of icons become available as multiple images are opened to provide a variety of layouts (from 1-6 images). In addition, instead of having to go to the Window / Arrange menu to search for display options, you can use the Arrange Document icon to choose to Float all Windows, Create a New Window (not a new file, but a secondary view of a single file), zoom to Actual Pixels and Fit on Screen and choose to Match Zoom, Mach Location and Match Zoom and Location. Note: when working with multiple images, use the Zoom All Windows or Scroll All Windows (in the Options bar) to zoom and pan all images in tandem (holding the Shift key temporarily toggles these options).

So great, we have all of these options for navigating multiple documents. However as I started working, I found that I primarily needed to toggle between seeing one image and seeing all images (tiled in my workspace). To eliminate wasting valuable time looking through menus or trying to find icons, I made my own Keyboard shortcuts! I choose Window / Workspace / Keyboard Shortcut & Menus. Under the “Shortcuts for Application Menus” I selected Window and found “Tile” and “Consolidate to Tabs” I added my own shortcuts that made sense to me (Shift + Command + T for Tabs and Shift + Command + R for Consolidate to Tabs - or, in my mind, “Return to primary image”).

January 30, 2009

Document Information

You can probably see that the document size is displayed by default at the bottom of the document window in the Status Bar, but did you know that clicking on the arrow to the right displays additional display options (such as document profile, dimensions etc.)? And, regardless of what information is displayed, if you click and hold on the information, the documents width, height, channels and resolution are displayed.

January 28, 2009

Moving Through Documents

When retouching images (especially when checking for dust or imperfections), I like to systematically move through the document starting at the upper right, moving down screen by screen, then, at the bottom, I move over one screen and start moving up again. In order to do this, the following shortcuts can be truly lifesavers.

  • The Home key moves to upper left corner, the End key moves to lower right.
  • The Page Up / Page Down key moves up / down one full screen.
  • Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + Page Up / Page Down moves left / right one full screen.

January 27, 2009

Open as Tabs and Cycle Through

In my opinion, the new Open as Tabs feature in Photoshop CS4 is a much easier way to work with multiple images at one time. Instead of each image cascading down the monitor when opened, Photoshop CS4 defaults to opening them all in a single tabbed window. Simply click on a tab, to view the image. Use the new shortcut Cmd (Mac) / Ctrl Win) + ~ (tilda) to cycle through the images (this was changed to align Photoshop with the other Creative Suite applications) or use the traditional shortcut Cmd + Tab (adding the Shift key will reverse direction).