SHORTCUTS.

SENDING A PALETTE TO THE EDGE.
Palettes are often in the way. One method of quickly moving a palette out of the way is to send it to the edge of the screen. To do so, press Shift and click the palette's title bar to snap the palette to the nearest edge of the screen, away from the centre of the image window.

NUDGING NUMBERS
You can incrementally adjust a highlighted option box value in just about any dialog box by pressing an arrow key. Press the Up or Down Arrow key to raise or lower the value by 1. Press Shift-Up Arrow or Shift-Down Arrow to raise or lower the value by 10.

SIZING A NEW IMAGE
You may have noticed that PhotoShop automatically adjusts the settings in the New dialog box to match the contents of the Clipboard. If you want to bypass this feature so that PhotoShop ignores the Clipboard and opens the New dialog box with default settings, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Mac and choose File, New.

IMAGE SIZING BY EXAMPLE
Although PhotoShop’s Image Size and Canvas Size dialog boxes are fairly straightforward, there is a hidden feature of which you may not be aware. While the Image Size or Canvas Size dialog boxes are open, you can match the image or canvas size and resolution of another open image. To do so, select the image you want to match from the Window menu.

REORDERING LAYERS IN PHOTOSHOP 4
You can change the order of layers without touching the Layers palette. To move a selected layer up one level, press Ctrl-] in Windows or Command-] on the Mac. To move a layer down one level, press Ctrl-[ in Windows or Command-[ on the Mac. In addition, Ctrl-Shift-] or Ctrl-Shift-[ in Windows (or Command-Shift-] or Command-Shift-[ on the Mac) moves a layer to the very top or bottom of the layer palette (excluding the Background Layer).

MOVING AROUND LAYERS
Very often an image in progress will have more layers than you can see on one screen. When this occurs, it's important to remember that you can use the keyboard to navigate up and down the Layers palette. To select the next layer up from the current layer, press Alt-] in Windows or Option-] on the Mac. To select one layer down from the current layer, press Alt-[ in Windows or Option-[ on the Mac. You can also press Shift-Alt-] or Shift-Alt-[ in Windows (or Shift-Option-] or Shift-Option-[ on the Mac) to switch to the very top or bottom layer.

SMOOTHING THE EDGE OF A SELECTION
Creating smooth and accurate selections is one of the hardest PhotoShop skills to master. One way to smooth a jagged selection is to switch to Quick Mask mode, blur the mask, use Levels to tighten the mask edge, and switch back to Normal mode. To demonstrate, use a selection tool to create a selection. Then press Q to switch to Quick Mask mode. Next, choose Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur. Enter 4 in the Gaussian Blur dialog box and click OK. Notice the edge of the mask is indistinct. Next, choose Image, Adjust, Levels to open the Levels dialog box. Move the Black and White points closer together until the blurred edge of the mask begins to have a distinct edge. Click OK to close the Levels dialog box. Then press Q to return to Normal mode. The selection now has a much smoother edge.
Note: Choosing Selection, Modify, Smooth would be a quicker way of smoothing a jagged selection. However, the Smooth function doesn't give us the control or visual feedback we want while we attempt to smooth out the jaggies of our selection. The Levels dialog box lets us immediately see the effects of the levels adjustments as we make them.

PHOTOSHOP HOUSEKEEPING
By default, Photoshop retains several things in memory--undos, items you've copied to the Clipboard, a documents action history, and defined patterns. These items can be an enormous drain of memory and are usually the source of low memory errors. Therefore, purge these items from memory as often as possible. To do so, choose Edit, Purge, All.

IMPROVING PHOTOSHOP'S PERFORMANCE.
There are several things you can do to optimise Photoshop's performance. For one, you can decrease the time it takes Photoshop to switch to another open program or shut down. First, choose File, Preferences, General. Then, in the resulting dialog box, deselect the Export Clipboard check box.
By default, Photoshop automatically creates a snapshot of an image as you open it. To open files faster, you can turn off this option. To do so, first select Window, Show History. Then, choose History Options from the History palette menu. Finally, deselect the Automatically Create First Snapshot check box and click OK.

To make it an easy habit to develop, create a Photoshop action for each option under Edit, Purge. Then, assign a keyboard shortcut to the action. This allows you to purge any portion of Photoshop's memory with the press of a key.

SCRATCH SPACE.
Photoshop utilises scratch disk space when it runs out of RAM. However, keep in mind that regardless of how much RAM your computer has, Photoshop will only use an amount of RAM equal to the amount of free space on your scratch disk. For example, if Photoshop is set to use 128 megabytes of RAM but the hard drive set as your scratch disk has 20 megabytes of free space, Photoshop will use only 20 megabytes of RAM. Therefore, be certain that the free space on the hard drive set as your scratch disk is greater than or equal to the amount of RAM you have allocated to Photoshop.

NAVIGATING AN IMAGE.
Monitors can be big but not big enough to suit Photoshop users. It seems we're always zooming in on an image until it's larger than the monitor screen. To help you navigate images at high magnifications, use the following shortcuts:
The Home key sets the view to the upper-left corner of the image.
The Page Down key moves the view one screen down an image.
Ctrl-Page Down in Windows or Command-Page Down on a Mac moves the view one screen to the right.
Ctrl-Page Up in Windows or Command-Page Up on a Mac moves the view one screen to the left.
The End key sets the view to the bottom-right corner of the image.

ALTER GIF IMAGES.
When you're creating or modifying GIF images, never scale or resize while the image is in Index Color mode. Because Index Color is essentially a bitmap, Photoshop cannot utilise anti-aliasing to produce smooth, clean results. Consequently, altering an image in Index Color mode will usually produce a jagged or blocky image. Therefore, switch to another colour mode, such as Greyscale or RGB.

CHOOSING TYPE FOR WEB GRAPHICS.
When choosing a typeface to place in a Web graphic, keep in mind that some typefaces work with anti-aliasing better at different sizes. For example, Chicago Bold is fine at 12 points or above, but set it to smaller point sizes and it becomes very soft and blurry.

CREATING AN ARROW IN PHOTOSHOP.
The easiest way to create an arrow in Photoshop is to double-click the Line tool to display the Line Options palette. Then, select the Arrowhead Start or End check box and use the Line tool to create a line with an arrowhead in your document.

SEEING DOUBLE.
You can save quite a bit of time while editing an image if you open a second view window. For example, you could have one view window open to 400 percent magnification and a second view window set to 100 percent magnification. This allows you to work in fine detail without losing sight of the overall effect of your modifications.

DIMINISH BANDING IN GRADUATED FILLS.
To reduce banding in feathered selections or graduated fills or even give a more realistic look to heavily retouched areas, you can apply the Noise filter to the image. Begin with a very subtle application using a very low noise value. Then reapply the filter until you're satisfied with the results.

CREATING DUOTONES.
If you're planning to use Duotones you've created in Photoshop in other applications, be sure to have the Short PANTONE Names option turned on. This ensures that the PANTONE names used in your image are exported in a manner that other applications can understand. To enable the option, first choose File, Preferences, General. Then, select the Short PANTONE Names check box and click OK.

DELETING PREFERENCES FILE.
You can solve a number of Photoshop problems by deleting the Photoshop Preferences file. In Windows, the Preferences file is Adobe Photoshop 5 Prefs.psp and is located in the application folder under Adobe Photoshop Settings. On the Macintosh, the Preferences file is in the System Folder.

LOADING ADDITIONAL BRUSHES.
Photoshop comes with many extra sets of brushes. To load these brushes, select Window, Show Brushes to display the Brushes palette, then choose Load Brushes from the Brushes palette menu. Navigate to the Photoshop application directory and the Goodies/Brushes directory, then select a brush set. Finally, click OK to load the set.

WORK ON A LOW-RES VERSION OF AN IMAGE.
If you're working on a very large file, you can create a low-resolution version of the file to work on and keep a notepad documenting the changes you make. This allows you the freedom to try different methods without sacrificing your time waiting for Photoshop to apply the changes to a huge file. Once you're satisfied with the changes you've made to the low-res version, use your notes to apply the changes you're happy with to the high-res version.
To save even more time, using the low-res image, record an action of the modifications. Then, open the original image and run the action before you leave for lunch or for the day. Photoshop will complete your modifications without your having to sit and watch.

GUIDES.
Guides are helpful when you create exacting work such as product skins, image maps, and so forth. In Photoshop 5.5, Adobe has blessed guides with a bit of intelligence. Now, it's easier than ever to place guides on and around objects. Photoshop 5.5 guides snap to the edges of the current selections and to 50 percent boundaries of alpha channels.
Even better, guides remember their position relative to your image. Now when you scale, flip, or rotate your image (dependent on 90-degree rotations), all your guides maintain their relative positions in the image.

RESIZING YOUR CANVAS.
The Crop tool in Photoshop 5.5 has a new trick. Now you can create a crop selection larger than the size of the canvas. Why would you want to? Using the new Crop tool, you can decrease or increase the current image's canvas without accessing the Canvas dialog box.
For example, to increase the canvas size of a 640 x 480 image, choose the Crop tool and select the entire image. Then, select one of the resize handles and drag it beyond the bounds of the image canvas. Then, press Enter to crop the image. As you'll see, the image's canvas size increases to match your crop selection size.

IMPROVED RUBBER STAMP TOOL.
The Rubber Stamp tool allows you to specify an area on your image, move the Stamp tool, and paint a clone of that area somewhere else in your image--a powerful resource for retouching and modifying photos and artwork. However, previous versions of the tool had one irritating drawback. Whenever you set the origin point of the Rubber Stamp tool near to where you began to paint, a repetitive, striped pattern would appear. In the latest version of Photoshop, Adobe has removed that irritating behaviour from the Rubber Stamp tool. Now the Rubber Stamp tool uses a version of your image as it appeared before your last Rubber Stamp paint stroke.

RESETTING THE DUOTONE DIALOG BOX.
Using the Duotone dialog box, you can create monotones, duotones, tritones, and quadtones. Monotones are grayscale images printed with a one-color ink (not black). Duotones, tritones, and quadtones are grayscale images overprinted with two, three, and four inks, respectively.
In Photoshop 5.5, you should be aware that Adobe has slightly altered the intricacies of the Duotone dialog box. First, when you open the Duotone dialog box, it will always show you the last settings that were used for Duotones. To reset the dialog box to a monotone with a single black ink, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Macintosh and click the Reset button. Caution: If you use this shortcut after you have begun to modify the settings in the Duotone dialog box, it will instead reset to the duotone settings that appeared when you opened the Duotone dialog box.

EXPANDING UNDO.
Some would say Adobe has gone palette-happy in the last few years. Literally every menu option and command can now be accessed through one of the many Photoshop palettes. There are even palette commands not available through the main menus. Through all of this, a vital palette feature has been missing--the ability to undo a text change in a palette text field.
Photoshop 5.5 addresses this missing option. Now you can choose Edit, Undo (or press Ctrl-Z in Windows or Command-Z on the Macintosh) to remove the last palette change.

CREATING SELECTIONS AND MASKS.
As you probably know, almost every Photoshop task relies on the ability to create exact selections or masks. Although Photoshop provides many tools and features to help us accomplish this, human perception sometimes gets in the way. Often a Photoshop user will attempt to create a selection or mask shape based on what their perception tells them the shape should be, which is not necessarily what the image actually reflects.
To bypass this perception pitfall, zoom in on the edge of the target object so closely that you actually see the separate pixels of the image. This will force you to see the real edge of the object and not base your selection on your perception of the object.

THE MEASUREMENT TOOL.
In Photoshop 5.5, you no longer have to substitute the Line tool for a measuring device; Adobe has added a Measurement tool. You use the Measurement tool to measure objects in your image just as we advised you to use the Line tool. Select the Measurement tool, click on an edge of an object, and drag to the other side. Photoshop displays the distance in the Info palette.
In addition to measuring objects in your image, you can use it to determine angles. Determining exact angles is useful in many ways.
For example, suppose you scan an image, but once you view it in Photoshop, you notice that it's crooked. To straighten the image, select the Measurement tool and display the Info palette. Then, locate a line or an edge positioned horizontally. Click and drag the Measurement tool along the line or edge. Photoshop will display the angle in the Info palette.
To straighten the image, choose Image, Rotate Canvas, Arbitrary. Photoshop takes the angle value in the Info palette and places it in the Rotate text field of the resulting dialog box. To straighten the image, choose the appropriate rotation direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) and click OK.

SLOW STARTUP.
When you launch Photoshop, it must scan and load all the fonts that are available for the Type tools. Consequently, a large number of installed fonts on your computer can dramatically increase the time it takes Photoshop to start up. If you find your Photoshop application takes too long to launch, remove any unnecessary fonts from your system.
To remove fonts in Windows, choose Start, Settings, Control Panel. Then double-click Fonts. Next, select the fonts you want to remove and drag them to a new folder or press Delete. To remove fonts on the Macintosh, open the System Folder and then open Fonts. Select the fonts you want to remove and drag them into a new folder.

MAKING AN ANIMATION.
Although Photoshop is not designed to create cells of animation, you can utilise the History palette to do just that. Just choose Window, Show History to display the History palette. Next, open a new document and place a red square on the left side of the canvas. Now use the Offset filter to move the square .25 inches to the right.
To do so, choose Filter, Other, Offset. In the resulting dialog box, enter .25 in the Horizontal text field and click OK. Press Ctrl-F in Windows or Command-F on the Macintosh to reapply the Offset filter. Continue to reapply the Offset filter until the square is on the right side of the image.
Did you notice that the History palette recorded every application of the Offset filter? To create the images to act as cells of our future animation, select each Move entry in the History palette and choose New Document from the palette menu. Then, save the documents and compile them in your animation application.

NEW BRUSHES IN 5.5.
Photoshop brushes don't have to be just round or square. Photoshop 5.5 comes with several texture brushes. What's more, you can load many more brushes from the Brushes directory in the Photoshop application folder.
To load brushes into the Brushes palette, first choose Window, Show Brushes. Then, choose Load Brushes from the Palette menu. Locate the Brushes directory in the Photoshop application directory and select from the four brushes files: Assorted Brushes.abr, Drop Shadow Brushes.abr, Natural Brushes.abr, or Square Brushes.abr.

IMPROVING PERFORMANCE.
When Photoshop opens an image, the Digimarc Detect Watermark plug-in automatically scans the opening image for a watermark with copyright information. This automatic scan can degrade file-open times. To speed up file-open times, you can remove the plug-in (digiopen.8be) from the Plug-Ins directory in the Photoshop application directory. If you remove this plug-in, you can still choose Filter, Digimarc, Read Watermark to search for watermarks in an image.

IMAGE REDRAW.
It may sound insane to most print artists, but some Web developers actually work in Photoshop with their video driver set to 256 colours. They maintain they can see a more accurate rendition of how the image will look on the Web.
Unfortunately, when your video driver is set to 256 colours and you are editing an image with other images in the background, Photoshop doesn't redraw the images in the background.
To change Photoshop's redraw behaviour so that it redraws every open image, add the following line to the photos55.ini file located in the Adobe Photoshop Settings directory in the Photoshop application directory: REDRAWBKDOCS=1

ASYNCHRONOUS I/O FOR VIRTUAL MEMORY.
Asynchronous I/O allows Photoshop to overlap virtual memory operations. Depending on your machine, this can be a blessing or a curse. In some cases, enabling asynchronous I/O can make Photoshop seem to be more responsive. However, on some systems, asynchronous I/O slows down overall performance. In Photoshop 4.0 and later, asynchronous I/O is disabled by default.
To enable asynchronous I/O in your copy of Photoshop and test your system, add the following line, exactly as it appears, to your photos55.ini file located in the Adobe Photoshop Settings directory in the Photoshop application directory: VMASYNCIO=1
Then launch Photoshop. If you find Photoshop performs slower with asynchronous I/O enabled, simply delete the above line that you inserted in your photos55.ini file.

USING THE COLOUR CHANNELS.
Creating selections is integral to almost any Photoshop procedure. Although Photoshop provides many tools and features that make creating selections easier, don't overlook the manual approach.
In many RGB images, the best place to create a selection is through one of the Red, Green, or Blue channels. Search through the Colour channels for the image with enough contrast to easily identify the object you're trying to select. For instance, to select a blue sky from a landscape, you'd begin in the Blue channel. In the Blue channel, the darkest shape would be the landscape--ideal for selecting with the Wand selection tool. Keep in mind that creating selections through the Colour channels does require a little knowledge of colour theory; however, you can get pretty far by just experimenting.

CLICKING AND POINTING.
Unless you are extremely well co-ordinated with a mouse or you are lucky enough to have a drawing tablet, painting or drawing in Photoshop can be frustrating. The simple task of tracing a shape with a paintbrush tool can be daunting if you have to freehand it with a mouse. Luckily, Photoshop allows you to point-and-click-paint with every one of the Photoshop paint tools.
For example, to paint an outline of a shape, choose the Paintbrush tool from the toolbox and select a brush size from the Brush palette. Then, position the brush at a starting point around the edge of the shape and click. Move the brush to the closest point along the edge of the shape that can be reached with a straight line, then press Shift and click. Notice that Photoshop paints a straight line to the new point. Continue this process around the edge of the shape until you arrive at the starting point. You'll be amazed how much point-and-click painting can speed up your work.

HIDE THE ANTS.
Marching ants refers to the edge of a selection - you know, the blinking dashed line that appears to be ants marching around the selected object. Although an important interface feature, the selection edges often interfere with the ability to judge colours and shapes. Therefore, make a habit of removing the selection edges with the Hide Edges command. To temporarily hide the Selection marquee, press Ctrl-H in Windows or Command H on the Mac. To view the hidden Selection marquee press Ctrl-H or Command-H again.

TOOLS OUTSIDE THE ACTIVE WINDOW.
The majority of tools work outside the active window. For example, you can use the Rubber Stamp tool to set the source in one image window but copy the source area to another image window. To do so, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Mac and click in the source image window. Then, activate another image window and begin to paint with the Stamp tool.
Likewise, the Eyedropper tool works across windows. You can even specify a new foreground or background colour from another image window without making the source image window active. This allows you to use another window as a quick colour picker. To use the Eyedropper tool to select a new foreground colour, choose the tool and click on a colour. To select a background colour, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Mac and click a colour.

JUMPING BETWEEN PHOTOSHOP AND IMAGEREADY.
Photoshop 5.5 ships with ImageReady 2.0. Although they are two separate applications, Adobe has added features to both so that you can seamlessly jump between Photoshop and ImageReady.
One feature is the new Jump To button at the bottom of the Photoshop and ImageReady toolbox. For example, if you open an image in Photoshop and then click the Jump To button, ImageReady launches and opens the original file. Likewise, if you click the Jump To button on the toolbox in ImageReady, Photoshop launches and the opens the original file.

However, you aren't limited to Adobe-only applications in your Jump To menu. In addition to the Adobe applications the installer adds, you can include additional applications (including non-Adobe applications).
To add an application to the Jump To menu for Photoshop or ImageReady, first create a shortcut to the application in Windows or an alias of the application on the Mac. To do so in Windows, locate and right-click the target application. From the pop-up menu, choose Create Shortcut. On a Mac, locate and select the target application and choose File, Create Alias.
Next, select and drag the shortcut or alias to the Jump To Graphics Editor folder or the Jump To HTML Editor folder (ImageReady only) in the Helpers folder in the Photoshop application folder. Then, launch Photoshop or ImageReady to see the added application in the new Jump To menu.

CHANGING THE DEFAULT JUMP TO APPLICATION.
When you click the Jump To button at the bottom of the toolbox in Photoshop or ImageReady or press the equivalent keyboard shortcut (Shift-Ctrl-M in Windows or Shift-Command-M on the Mac), the default Jump To graphics application launches and opens the original file of the active image. The default Photoshop Jump To graphics application is ImageReady and the default ImageReady Jump To application is Photoshop. In this tip, we'll show you how to change the default Jump To graphics application.
To begin, close Photoshop and ImageReady and open the Jump To Graphics Editor folder in the Helpers folder of the Photoshop application folder. Notice that the ImageReady shortcut or alias has curly brackets {} and the Photoshop shortcut or alias has straight brackets [ ]. To specify a different default Jump To Graphics application for Photoshop, place a shortcut or alias to the target application in the Helpers folder and place curly brackets around the shortcut filename. To specify a new default Jump To Graphics application for ImageReady, place straight brackets around the filename of an application shortcut or alias. The brackets will not appear in the Jump To menu.
The next time you launch Photoshop or ImageReady, you'll be able to launch the new default Jump To Graphics application using the Jump To button in the toolbox or the Jump To keyboard shortcut.
Note: If no shortcut or alias is bracketed, the Photoshop Jump To button and keyboard shortcut launch ImageReady, and the ImageReady Jump To button and keyboard shortcut launch Photoshop.

EASTER EGG SUNSET.
An Easter Egg in Photoshop 5.5 is an alternate About Box that shows a box marked Strange Cargo floating out to sea while the sun sets. In addition to the pretty picture, if you wait a moment, you can see a scrolling credit list of all the people who brought you Adobe Photoshop 5.5. To speed-scroll through the list, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Mac. To see the Easter Egg About Box, press Ctrl-Alt in Windows or Command-Option on the Mac and choose Help, About Photoshop.

CYCLE THROUGH THE AVAILABLE TOOLS.
Photoshop has so many tools that the folks at Adobe had to stack similar tools into the toolbox. For example, the Rectangle, Oval, and Single-Row, Single-Column selection tools and the Crop tool occupy the same spot in the toolbox.
To choose a tool from a tool stack, click the tool position and hold down the mouse button. After a moment, a sub-toolbar will appear listing the available tools for that spot. However, this method takes an eternity when you are under a deadline to get a job out by the end of business today. A quicker way to choose the tool you want (besides memorising the keyboard shortcut for each Photoshop tool) is to cycle through the available tools. Once the tool you want comes to the top, stop cycling. To do so, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Mac and click a tool. The next available tool becomes the active tool. Click again to see the next tool, and so on.

However, if you're more of a shortcut key Photoshop user, you can achieve the same result by pressing Shift and the tool shortcut key. For instance, to duplicate the results of the previous example with the Type tools, press Shift and T to switch the active Type tool to the next Type tool in the tool stack. Press Shift and T again to choose the next Type tool, and so on.

SAVING AN RGB IMAGE AS A GIF.
To save an image as a GIF in previous versions of Photoshop, you had to use the Export GIF89 filter or perform the laborious mode conversion from RGB to Indexed Colour before saving the file. In Photoshop 5.5, you can simply use File, Save A Copy to save RGB images directly in GIF format. Once you choose the GIF file format in the Save A Copy dialog box and click Save, Photoshop displays the Indexed Color dialog box. Here you can choose your desired indexed-colour conversion settings to save the file as the image in the GIF file format.

ZEROING IN WITH THE CROSSHAIRS.
Have you ever swung your cursor across the screen only to discover that the brush tool you thought you had is now a thin crosshair? Curses! You must have inadvertently pressed the Caps Lock key instead of the Tab key. When you punch the Caps Lock key again, the crosshair cursor returns to the familiar brush shape.
As useless as the crosshair cursor may seem to most people, it can make a big difference when you clone an image with the Rubber Stamp tool. In many cases the Rubber Stamp tool obscures the area you're working in or the image area you want to target. However, with a quick press of the Caps Lock key, the Rubber Stamp tool changes to the crosshair cursor. Now you should have no problem with applying detailed changes with the Rubber Stamp tool. Once you've finished with the tool, simply press the Caps Lock key again to return the cursor to the active tool cursor.

SETTING THE COLOURS PALETTE TO WEB-SAFE COLOURS.
When you design for the Web, it's important to use the 216 Web-safe colours in your images to ensure your arts visual consistency across Web browsers and platforms. However, it's not immediately apparent how to use Web-safe colours in Photoshop. Fortunately, Photoshop 5.5 has added a few options to the Color palette that make choosing Web-safe colours very easy.
To demonstrate, launch Photoshop and open a new document. Then, choose Window, Show Color to display the Color palette. Next, set the Color palette to show only Web-safe colours. To do so, choose Web Color Sliders from the Color palette menu. Then, select Make Ramp Web Safe. Now any colour you choose from the Color palette will be Web safe.

But let's face it, the Web-safe Color palette is very limiting. However, when you present a Web image comp to a client and the first question asked is always "Is this image using Web-safe colours?" What's a Web designer to do? The answer is to make new Web-safe colours. To do so, simply combine colours from the Web-safe palette into checkerboard patterns to create new colours. Then, save the patterns as source files you can use later.
For example, launch Photoshop and open a new document with a canvas size of 10 x 10 pixels. Then, set the Color palette to show only Web-safe colours. To do so, choose Web Color Sliders from the Color palette menu. Then, select Make Ramp Web Safe. Now any colour you choose from the Color palette will be Web safe.
Next, choose the Pencil tool and set the brush to the smallest size available. Then, pick two or more Web-safe colours and begin to create a checkerboard pattern in the image document. As you fill the 10 x 10-pixel canvas with the checkerboard pattern, you'll see a new Web-safe colour.

COLORSAFE.
In a previous tip, we described how you can use Photoshop to create new Web-safe colours. As you may recall, the tip explained how to use two or more Web-safe colours to create a checkerboard pattern of colour pixels. When viewed at a normal magnification, the checkerboard patterns of Web-safe colour pixels merge into a new Web-safe colour.
Unfortunately, the process can be a bit tedious. If you don't have the time or the inclination to use this process to create new Web-safe colours, you may want to consider ColorSafe.
ColorSafe is a Photoshop plug-in that gives you an almost infinite number of colours created from the 216-color Web palette. Using ColorSafe, you can choose almost any RGB colour and ColorSafe re-creates the colour with a tiny pattern of four pixels made of up two colours from the Web palette. For more information about ColorSafe, go to http://www.boxtopsoft.com/

USE THE SAME PALETTE FOR GIF ANIMATION FRAMES.
To maintain tight control over file size and colour consistency, it's important to use the same Color palette on each frame of a GIF animation. Even changing a small part of the overall picture from frame to frame may cause the Color palette to shift and significantly increase the image file size. To ensure that each frame of your animation contains the same Web-safe palette, build each frame on layers in Photoshop. Then, open the image in ImageReady to apply the animation settings.

CHANGE SETTINGS AS YOU OPEN PHOTOSHOP.
As you may know, there are several Photoshop Preference settings (such as memory adjustment and image directories) that require you to quit and restart the application. If changing these is a common task for you, you may want to consider freeware Photoshop Starter.
Photoshop Starter allows you to adjust several settings as Photoshop launches. Upon launching Photoshop Starter, you can choose a new Plug-in directory, change the amount of memory Photoshop uses, and set the default image directory Photoshop opens when you select File, Open. For more information about Photoshop Starter, go to http://www.icnet.de/intl/pssinfo.html

ENSURING CONSISTENT DESIGN.
When you are designing for the Web, precision control over design is virtually impossible. You simply cannot predict the typefaces users may have on their computers or the configuration of their browsers. Therefore, to ensure that your designs always display the way intended, create your design in Photoshop. Then switch over to ImageReady and slice the Photoshop image into several smaller images. Next, recompose your design in your favourite HTML editor.
Ordinarily, slicing your image into components can be complicated. However, Adobe ImageReady (included with Photoshop 5.5) makes it a simple task. First, use the new Slice tool to mark your image for dissection. Then, save the image. Adobe ImageReady cuts and saves each slice as an image and creates the HTML required to reconstruct the original image from the image slices.
To demonstrate, open an image in Adobe ImageReady and select the Slice tool. Then, click and drag to create slice guides to mark how ImageReady should dissect your image. Next, choose File, Save Optimized As. In the resulting dialog box, enter a filename for the HTML document and click Save. ImageReady saves the HTML document and places the sliced images in an Images folder.

DOWNLOAD ACTIONS.
Photoshop Actions are objects that can automate repetitive tasks or duplicate complicated image processes. Although a very useful feature, not many designers have the time to transfer their imaging methods into actions. Fortunately, a few kind souls on the Internet do have the time and make the Photoshop actions available for us to download and use. You can find a particularly useful Photoshop action Web site offering four different action sets containing 40 actions in total at http://www.elated.com/toolbox/actionkits/
To use the actions, place the .atn files into your Photoshop application folder and launch Photoshop. Then, choose Window, Show Actions to activate the Actions palette. To load the actions, choose Load Actions from the Layers palette menu. In the resulting dialog box, locate and select the .atn file, then click the Open button.

MANAGING YOUR IMAGES THROUGH CONTACT SHEETS.
An inherent by-product of working with Photoshop is gathering an extensive collection of images. Unfortunately, it can be difficult archiving and browsing such a rapidly growing image collection. Fortunately, Photoshop offers you a quick way to create your own contact sheet reference guide to your image collection. To make contact sheets of your image collection, launch Photoshop and choose File, Automate, Contact Sheet. In the resulting dialog box, click Source and navigate to the directory that holds your images. Select the directory and click OK.
Next, choose the layout for your contact sheet. Then, click OK. Photoshop will open each image in the directory, create a thumbnail, and place the thumbnail and the filename as a caption on a contact sheet. Photoshop creates as many contact sheets as needed for the images in the selected directory. Afterwards, you can print the contact sheets for reference.

If you're using Windows 98, you have another image-management tool at your disposal. You can set Windows to display a preview of any image you select in Windows Explorer. This lets you quickly browse through images without actually launching Photoshop and opening each one. To turn on this feature, select Start, Programs, Windows Explorer from the taskbar. Then, choose View, As Web Page. Windows adds a margin to the Explorer windowpane and displays a selected image file's property information and a thumbnail of the image.

BUILDING BOLD TYPE.
You may have noticed that some typefaces do not have a bold version. Luckily, Photoshop 5.5 has a Faux Bold option to create a bold version of any typeface. However, if you're just not happy with the bold version of a typeface or the Faux Bold Photoshop style, you can build your own bold version.
For example, to create a bolder version of the typeface Parisian, you use the Type tool to create some text, render the type as an image, select the image, and apply a thin stroke. To do so, launch Photoshop and open a new document. Then, choose the Type tool and click inside the image document. In the resulting dialog box, enter a string of text, select the string, and choose Parisian from the Font list box. Next, set Size to 20 points and click OK.
Now, you need to convert the type to an image. To do so, choose Layer, Type, Render, then select the text. Choose Select, Load Selection. In the resulting dialog box, set the channel to the current Layer Transparency and click OK. The final step is to apply a thin stroke to the text selection. To do so, choose Edit, Stroke. In the resulting dialog box, set Width to 1 and Location to Center. Then, click OK. As you'll see, Photoshop will create a bolder version of the text. Experiment with different stroke widths to increase or decrease the boldness of your text.

Similarly, you can create a custom italic version of a text string. To demonstrate the technique, launch Photoshop and open a new document. Choose the Type tool, click in the image document, and enter some text in the Type Options dialog box. Then, click OK.
Now, choose Layer, Type Render to render the type. Now you need to skew the text to create the italic effect. To do so, choose Edit, Transform, Numeric. In the resulting dialog box, enter -20 in the Horizontal text field and 0 in the Vertical text field. Click OK to apply the transformation. As you'll see, Photoshop creates a new italic version of the text. Experiment with different transformations to increase or decrease the angle of italics.

SAVING A SMALLER FILE.
Regardless of the final destination (Web, interactive, print), most Photoshop users prefer to keep image files as small as possible. To help keep your images as small as possible, Photoshop 5.5 offers a simple way to save a file without including all the extraneous information usually saved with a file, such as alpha channels, path information, guides, grids, thumbnail previews, and EPS previews.
To keep your image file size as small as possible, choose File, Save A Copy. In the resulting dialog box, select the Exclude Non-Image Data check box. Then, click Save. Photoshop saves only the image data to a file.
Keep in mind that selecting Exclude Non-Image Data when you save an image in the Photoshop format can have adverse effects on your image. For example, Photoshop will down-sample the resolution of the image to 72 dpi, convert Duotone images into greyscale, and discard any alpha channels, previews, and guides.

MANUALLY ADJUSTING SPACING.
While Adobe has vastly improved type handling in Photoshop 5 and 5.5, some fonts have inconsistent spacing at certain sizes. For example, one letter can be slightly out of sync with the kerning Photoshop applies to the rest of the word. Fortunately, there is an easy way to manually adjust the kerning between letters.
To decrease or increase kerning, deselect the Auto check box next to the Kerning text field in the Type Tool dialog box. Then, place your cursor between the letters you want to affect. Next, press Alt in Windows (or Option on a Mac) and the left arrow key (to decrease the spacing of the letter) or the right arrow key (to increase the letter spacing). Each arrow key press adjusts the letter spacing up or down 1/1000 of an em space.

USING CURVES.
The many options and features of the Curves dialog box (located under Image, Adjust) intimidates many beginning and intermediate Photoshop users. However, remember that most image alterations can be accomplished by adding and manipulating only three or four points on the Curves grid. Adding more than three or four points to the Curves grid becomes complicated and will hinder your work more than help it.
In addition, a good rule of thumb for using almost every function or filter in Photoshop is to do a little at a time, then reapply. In terms of curves, don't try to correct every image problem at once. Apply changes in small steps.

PAINTING FROM THE ORIGINAL.
If you find that you have gone too far down a path to undo the damage to an image, don't immediately throw away your work. Photoshop has modified the Rubber Stamp tool to allow you to paint from the original image and spot-correct areas of your image.
To begin, choose the Rubber Stamp tool. Then, choose Window, Show Options. In the Show Options palette, select From Saved from the Option list box. Then, click in the area of the image you want to paint over and begin to brush the original image into your image document.

CONVERTING TYPE TO AN IMAGE.
To transform type into an image layer, choose Layer, Type, Render Layer. This converts the type to an image and converts the Type layer into a normal layer.

CREATING ANIMATION FROM THE HISTORY PALETTE.
Although Photoshop's History palette can be a lifesaver when you have to undo several actions, it can also be a great aid when you want to create an animated GIF. The History palette allows you to export history snapshots as new documents. So, to create an animated GIF, simply alter your Photoshop image document and create each frame of the animation. Then, when you've completed all the modifications, review the steps in the History palette. Next, choose the History steps that will best create the animation cells and create a new document for each. To do so, select the History step and choose New Document from the History palette menu.

START AT THE BEGINNING.
Although Photoshop has a tool or a feature to manipulate or correct almost any image anomaly, never settle for a poor-quality scan and expect to correct all the anomalies in Photoshop. The best Photoshop artists know that the better the original image scan, the less time they'll spend doctoring the image in Photoshop. With this in mind, use the following guidelines the next time you scan an image.
Determine the size, colour, and resolution of the final image before you scan an image. If you're scanning from a printed piece, use the Descreen option to prevent Moire patterns. Only scan the image you need. Scanning superfluous image data adds unnecessarily to file size and slows down your workflow.

CUSTOM CROPPING AN IMAGE.
Did you know you can use any custom shape to crop a Photoshop image? For example, you can create a custom shape to outline a foreground object and crop out the image background. This custom crop is called a Clipping Path.
Although you can create a Clipping Path any number of ways, the most popular method is to create a selection to define a shape. Next, choose Make Work Path from the Paths palette menu. Save the work path. Then, transform the work path into a Clipping Path. To do so, select the saved path and choose Clipping Path from the Paths palette menu. Finally, save your image as an EPS.

REMOVING THE WHITE IN AN IMAGE.
Many Photoshop users spend a lot of their time removing backgrounds from layers so only the foreground objects overlay the layers underneath. For example, if you have a black logo on a white background and you want just the logo to show on the blue layer below, you may think the best method is to turn the logo's white background transparent.
However, the easiest method is to simply change the logo layer mode. As you may know, Photoshop's Layers palette has various modes you can employ to set the under layers to ignore the background of a layer. In our example, we can set the logo layer so only the dark pixels of the logo appear on the blue background layer below. To do so, choose Darken or Multiply from the Layers palette.

DESKTOP COLOR SEPARATION.
The Desktop Color Separation (DCS) EPS file format is a great way of sharing high-resolution Photoshop files with other applications such as Adobe PageMaker and QuarkXPress. DCS allows you to create a low-resolution preview image to place in your desktop publishing document and a high-resolution file for each channel (CMYK or Alpha) in the image. When you send the publication to the printer, the high-resolution CMYK images are substituted for the low-resolution image.

To create a DCS EPS file, choose File, Save As. Then in the resulting dialog box, select Photoshop EPS or DCS 1 or 2 from the File Format list. Choose a low-resolution preview type and click Save. Then choose Multiple File With Color Composite from the resulting dialog box. Finally, place the low-resolution image in your DTP document.

OPENING CORRUPTED DCS FILES.
DCS allows you to save a Photoshop image as a low-resolution image to use for placement, and as a high-resolution image that is sent to the printer. Unfortunately, separating one file into five possible files (preview, CMYK) has its drawbacks - particularly when the DCS EPS preview file is corrupted. Fortunately, there's an easy fix for a corrupted DCS preview file. First, open the four CMYK files (.c, .m, .y, .k) in Photoshop. Then, choose Merge Channels from the Channels palette menu. Photoshop will combine all four images into one CMYK image. Then, save the document as a DCS EPS again to generate the preview image.

PREVENTING THE TYPE HALO EFFECT.
Although it's very easy to create type on a transparent background in Adobe ImageReady, it's not readily apparent how to prevent the white halo effect from appearing in the image when you place the transparent image on a colour HTML page. If you haven't experienced the halo effect I'm referring to, I'm sure you've at least seen it. It's a thin white edge outlining type on a colour background.
To avoid the halo effect in Adobe ImageReady, specify a Matte colour in the Optimize palette. To do so, first select Choose Options from the Optimize palette menu to expand the palette. Then click the Matte list box and choose a Matte color to match the HTML background colour in which you plan to place the text. Now ImageReady will use the chosen Matte colour as the edge background for your transparent text instead of white.

CREATING A NEW IMAGE WITH MULTIPLE LAYERS.
Very often, you will need to create a new image from specific layers in your current image. The easiest way to accomplish this is to create an image with identical Canvas and Image specifications as the current image. Then drag the layers you want to the new image.
Fortunately, you do not have to drag layers over one at a time. Simply link the layers together and drag them to the new image. To link layers, turn on the Eye icon by each layer you want to link and turn off the Eye icon for all other layers. Then, turn on the Link icon for each visible layer. Finally, drag a layer to the new image. Photoshop will move all the layers linked to the layer you move.

FILM SLIDES FROM PHOTOSHOP.
What are the best resolution, size, and file format to output a Photoshop file as a 35mm slide, unfortunately, there isn't just one answer for this question. In most cases, a 300-dpi resolution Tiff image at a 3 x 2 aspect ratio will produce adequate results. However, the final specifications depend greatly on where you plan to output the image.

CREATING AN EGG SHAPE.
Need to create an egg shape in Photoshop? Sometimes the simplest tasks are the hardest to uncover. To create an egg shape in Photoshop, choose the Elliptical Selection tool and create a Round selection. Then fill the selection with black. To do so, choose Edit, Fill. In the resulting Fill dialog box, choose 100% and Black and click OK.
Next, use Perspective Transformation to create the egg shape. To do so, choose Edit, Transform, Perspective. Next use the mouse to grab move the top handles slightly together. When you are happy with the egg shape, press Enter to complete the transformation.

THINK OUTSIDE THE IMAGE.
While painting and selecting objects and areas in a Photoshop image, you'll often see the need to start painting the selection in the grey area that surrounds the image in the document window. However, it can be tedious to grab the mouse and resize the document window so you can see the grey area.
A quick way to size your image and the document window is to increase the magnification size of the image and the size of the document window and then decrease only the image. To do so, press Ctrl-Alt-Plus Sign in Windows or Command-Option-Plus Sign on the Macintosh. Then press Ctrl-Minus Sign in Windows or Command-Minus Sign on the Macintosh.

SELECTIONS ACROSS LAYERS.
There are several ways to create a duplicate layer that contains only the retouched area of each layer. The fastest method is to select the area and copy all visible layers. Then create a new layer and paste the Clipboard contents into the layer. To copy all visible layers, press Shift-Ctrl-C in Windows or Shift-Command-C on the Macintosh. Then choose New Layer from the Layers palette and press Ctrl-V in Windows or Command-V on the Macintosh. Photoshop will paste a composite selection of all visible layers into the new layer.

FONT TROUBLESHOOTING.
Every now and then, inexplicable things happen, such as installed fonts disappearing from the Font list. When this happens, there are several things you can do to correct the problem.
When a font doesn't appear in the Type menu, the first step to take is to be certain the font is installed on your system. To do so, look for the font by its PostScript or Outline filename in the Fonts folder of your system. To open the Fonts folder in Windows, choose Start, Settings, Control Panel and then select Font. To open the Fonts folder on the Macintosh, open the Fonts folder in the System folder.
Unfortunately, finding the filename associated to a missing font isn't as straightforward as it sounds. The filename of a font can be vastly different from the font name. The best way to begin is to search for the font filename in the font's original documentation. If that fails, look for font filenames that begin with the name of the font manufacturer. For example, fonts created by ITC typically begin with ITC.
If you don't find the font files in your system, try installing the fonts. If you do find the font files in your system, they may be corrupted. Remove or delete the files and reinstall.
If the fonts are still missing, you may have too many fonts installed for your system to accurately display. In this case, your only choice is to reduce the number of installed fonts. To do so, search through the Fonts folder for rarely used font files and remove them from the directory. Then restart your application.
If the missing fonts still do not appear in the Type menu, the next step is to search your system for a file named Adobefnt.lst and then delete it.
Adobefnt.lst lists fonts available to Adobe applications. If this file becomes damaged, Adobe applications like Photoshop, ImageReady, and PageMaker may not see all the available installed fonts. To search for Adobefnt.lst files in Windows, choose Start, Find, Files Or Folders. To search for Adobefnt.lst on the Macintosh, choose File, Find. Then enter Adobefnt.lst in the resulting Windows or Macintosh dialog box and click Find. Select and delete any instances of the file. Then launch an Adobe application and look for the missing font in the Type menu.
However, if slimming down the amount of installed fonts still does not solve the disappearing font problem, you can actually pick the fonts you want Photoshop or ImageReady to load first. To specify a font to load as Photoshop or ImageReady launches, place copies of the target font files in the Adobe Fonts folder. The Adobe/Fonts folder is in the Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Fonts folder in Windows.

FINDING SOURCE ART.
In order to create a Photoshop image or design, you typically start with source art. However, finding the source art to build your project usually entails a lot of time-intensive, trial-and-error searching.
Luckily the Web is a great resource for speeding up your search for source art. For example, there are several photo catalogues on the Web where you can find and purchase photos of just about anything. A great site to start your search is PhotoDisc. PhotoDisc offers a collection of 75,000 images available for immediate download. To check out PhotoDisc, follow this URL: http://www.photodisc.com
However, if you're looking for a cheaper (read free) resource, you should browse over to Clip Art Review.
Clip Art Review helps you navigate through hundreds of collections of free clip art available on the Web. If you need an image and the budget is zero, this is a great site to search. http://www.webplaces.com/html/clipart.htm

LET PHOTOSHOP DECIDE.
If you're just not sure which Web graphic settings to choose but you do know you want your Web graphic under a certain file size, you can let Photoshop complete the configuration. For example, to save an image as a Web graphic under 7K, choose File, Save For Web. In the resulting dialog box, choose Optimize To File Size. Then, choose Auto Select GIF/JPEG, enter 7 in the Desired File Size text field, and click OK. Photoshop will try various configurations until the optimised graphic is below the 7K file size limit.

PREVIEWING WEB GRAPHICS IN BROWSERS.
Although the Save For Web dialog box has previewing capabilities, nothing can substitute for comparing how a Web graphic looks in Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Luckily, you can launch the browsers to preview your Web graphic all from within the Save For Web dialog box.
To do so, first choose File, Save For Web. Assuming you have both browsers installed, select the browser of your choice from the Browser list box located at the bottom-right corner of the Save For Web dialog box. Photoshop will create a temporary HTML file containing your Web graphic, launch the selected browser, and display your graphic in the temporary HTML file. Furthermore, Photoshop will list the file specifics of Web graphics and show you the HTML it's using to display the graphic.

SAVING INTERLACED GIFS AND PNGS.
As you've probably seen on the Web, most images render top-to-bottom. In today's immediate-gratification Web world, the second or two wait for the full image is an eternity. Luckily, both the GIF and PNG formats have an option that immediately displays a low-resolution image and gradually builds the full image as the graphic download completes. This creates the illusion of a faster download.
To create an interlaced GIF or PNG file, choose File, Save For Web. In the resulting dialog box, select GIF or PNG-8 or PNG-24 from the File Type list box in the Settings section. Then, select the Interlaced check box and click OK. Finally, name your file and click Save.
As good as interlaced images seem, they do have drawbacks. For example, interlacing an image can increase file size, and some older browsers have problems displaying interlaced images correctly. Furthermore, some Web components simply aren't suited for interlaced images. For example, background images or table background images do not display until completely downloaded. Consequently, interlacing a background image serves no purpose. Therefore, if you decide to use interlaced GIFs or PNGs, limit their use to simple graphics on the HTML page.

CREATING CLIPPING PATHS FOR PHOTOSHOP.
If you've ever used Photoshop's drawing tools to create a path, you know they are somewhat limited. If you have Adobe Illustrator, you can quickly move your work path to Illustrator, modify it, and then bring it back to Photoshop.
To do so, simply select the work path from the Paths palette and choose Edit, Copy. Then, open an Illustrator document and choose Edit, Paste. Next, use Illustrator to modify the path.
To move the path back to Photoshop, copy the path in Illustrator and paste it into Photoshop. Photoshop will ask if you want to paste the item as pixels (an image) or as a path. Choose Path.

MOVING OBJECTS.
As you may know, there are several ways to move an object in Photoshop. First, you can select an area and click and drag. Second, you can press Shift to constrain movement to a 90-degree axis. Third, you can press Ctrl in Windows or Command on the Macintosh and press the Up, Down, Left, or Right Arrow key. Fourth, you can choose Edit, Transform, Numeric, and enter X and Y values in the resulting dialog box.

UNSHARP MASK: AMOUNT.
Although the name is something of an oxymoron, the Unsharp Mask filter is the best method for sharpening images. Unlike the other Photoshop sharpen filters, the Unsharp Mask filter has three settings you must configure--Amount, Radius, and Threshold.
For the uninitiated, these settings can be daunting. However, once you understand the settings, the Unsharp Mask filter will be a powerful tool in your Photoshop arsenal. To begin, the Amount value determines how much to increase the contrast of pixels. Adobe recommends 150 percent to 200 percent for high-resolution images.

RADIUS:
Radius specifies the number of pixels surrounding the edge pixels that the Unsharp Mask will affect. In general, a Radius setting of 1 or 2 produces optimum results. However, for high-resolution print images, divide the final output resolution by 200.

THRESHOLD:
The Threshold setting specifies the edge pixels that the Radius setting affects. To identify edge pixels in your image, a pixel must vary from a neighbour pixel by at least the Threshold setting value. A Threshold value of 0 sharpens every pixel in your image. To prevent introducing noise, experiment with values from 2 to 20.

THE NUMBER ONE GUIDELINE:
The absolute best guideline for properly using the Unsharp Mask filter is to apply the filter in small increments--that is, use small values in the Amount, Radius, and Threshold settings. Then, apply the filter several times. This way, you can see subtle changes, and you can easily undo a change if the filter modifies the image too much.

Let's talk about one more Unsharp Mask tip. If while applying the Unsharp Mask filter you notice the bright colors of your image become overly saturated, undo the Filter application, convert the image to Lab mode, and apply the filter to the L channel.
To do so, first choose Edit, Undo to remove the Unsharp Mask filter application. Next, choose Image, Mode, Lab to convert the image. Choose Window, Show Channels to display the Channels palette. Then, select the Lightness channel and apply the Unsharp Mask filter. Finally, choose Image, Mode, RGB to return your image to the correct colour mode.

CREATING A LINE DRAWING FROM AN IMAGE.
Although Photoshop doesn't have a trace feature per se, you can easily convert an image into a line drawing using the Smart Blur filter. To do so, open your image and choose Filter, Blur, Smart Blur.
The resulting Smart Blur dialog box has four settings: Radius, Threshold, Quality, and Mode. Set Quality to High and Mode to Edge Only. Then, set Radius to 2 and Threshold to 50. Use the Preview window to examine the filter effects and change the Radius or Threshold setting to optimise the result. Then, click OK.
As you'll notice, the filter creates white lines on a black background. To set the image to black lines on a white background, choose Image, Adjust, Invert.

CREATING THE WOOD BLOCK EFFECT.
In our previous tip, we explained how you can use the Smart Blur filter to transform an image into a line drawing. In today's tip, we'll show you how to use the line drawing to create a wood block stamp effect. To do so, after transforming an image into a line drawing, choose Filter, Other, Minimum.
In the Minimum dialog box, enter 2 or 3 in the text field and click OK. The Minimum filter will thicken each line, resulting in an effect much like a wood block stamp.

SAVING A PNG FILE FROM PHOTOSHOP.
Keeping up with the latest Photoshop and Web trends and standards is challenging. One of the emerging standards is the PNG graphic file format. PNG was developed as an alternative to the copyrighted GIF file format.
As GIFs, PNG files support several different colour bit-depths. Moreover, the PNG compression scheme is just as aggressive as GIF compression. Therefore, you can save high-colour images at small file sizes. In addition, you can choose to set the PNG file to load progressively in a Web browser.
To save an image in the PNG file format, choose File, Save For Web. Next, choose PNG-8 or PNG-24 from the File Format list box. Then, click OK, and name and save the file.

IMPROVED CONTACT SHEET PLUG-IN.
If you've used the Contact Sheet feature in Photoshop 5, then you know that you cannot control the order that the images appear on the page. While seemingly a small oversight, this missing feature made Contact Sheet relatively useless.
Fortunately, there is a new and improved Contact Sheet in Photoshop 5.5. This Contact Sheet allows you to automatically create a Contact Sheet from the images in a directory, set the order of appearance, and even print the name of the file underneath the thumbnail image. It's located under the File, Automate menu.

PHOTOSHOP AND POWERPOINT.
Creating presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint often requires graphics, and we don't have to tell you the best graphics tool on the market is Adobe Photoshop. But getting your Photoshop images to display properly in PowerPoint can be difficult.
For example, most PowerPoint slides have gradient backgrounds. For those gradient backgrounds to show through once you place your Photoshop graphic on a slide, you must remove the background from the graphic and save your graphic in a file format that supports transparency. Although there are two formats that support transparency - GIF and PNG - we recommend PNG.
The PNG file format supports 24-bit colour and multiple levels of transparency--which results in a smoother image edge. PowerPoint versions for Office 97, Office 98, and Office 2000 support the PNG file format.

A NO-IMAGE SLICE.
As you probably know, Adobe ImageReady allows you to cut an image into pieces, called slices. Later you can export the image into multiple images based on the slices you've created and the HTML to combine the images into one image in a browser. However, you may not be familiar with the "No-Image" slice.
A No-Image slice allows you to specify that a cell in the generated HTML table should be empty. To create a No-Image slice, select a slice with the Slice Selection tool and choose No Image from the Type list box in the Slice palette.
Why would you want such a thing? Say you want to embed text in the centre of an image. The first step is to open the image in ImageReady and separate it into three rows and three columns of slices. Normally, ImageReady would export the slices into nine images and generate an HTML table to combine the images into the original image. However, if you make the centre slice a No-Image slice, ImageReady will export the slices as eight images and generate a table that combines the images into one image with an empty cell in the middle.

USING THE RETOUCHING TOOLS: THE SMUDGE TOOL.
Most image-modification techniques centre on image-wide changes using layers, levels, and curves. However, there comes a time when you must focus your efforts on one portion of an image. When this occurs, Photoshop has a suite of retouching tools created specifically for this purpose: the Smudge tool, the Focus tools, and the Toning tools.
The Smudge tool allows you to grab a bit of colour in your image and drag or push it in a direction, similar to dragging your finger across a wet painting. When you use the Smudge tool, always begin subtly. Set the tool options to a very low opacity and begin with a small brush.

THE FOCUS TOOLS.
As you can guess, you should use the Blur tool to soften hard edges. However, you can also use the Blur tool to reduce the detail or obvious pattern in an image area. Use the Sharpen tool to bring areas of your image into the foreground and focus more of the viewer's attention. As with the Smudge tool, you should use the Blur or Sharpen tool gradually build an effect. To do so, set the tool pressure very lower and be sure to use an anti-aliased (soft-edged) brush.

THE TONING TOOLS.
The Dodge and Burn tools mimic photographic techniques of under or over-exposing a portion of an image to achieve an effect. Typically, you would use the Dodge tool to lighten an area and the Burn tool to darken an area. Both tools can affect only isolated tonal ranges of an image, highlights, midtones, and shadows. This allows you to adjust specific areas of tonal range without selecting or manipulating the entire image. Again, use these tools subtly. Set them to a very low exposure and apply the tool again and again until you achieve the desired effect.

THE SATURATION TOOLS.
The Sponge tool is actually two tools in one. You can set the Sponge tool to saturate or desaturate the colour in an image. Typically, you would use the Saturate tool to increase the intensity of colour, possibly to focus more attention toward an area in the image. You would use the Desaturate tool to decrease colour intensity, decreasing the amount of attention toward an area. As with all of the retouching tools, you should set the pressure to a very low value and slowly build your saturation or desaturation effect through several applications.

PAINTING A 3D CYLINDER.
Although 3-dimensional objects aren't Photoshop's forte, you can certainly paint the illusion. In today's tip, we'll show you how to use the Smudge tool to paint a 3-dimensional tube.
To begin, launch Photoshop and create a two-layer image document. Fill the bottom layer with black. (Although not completely necessary, the effect does look better on a black background.) Now, choose the Smudge tool and select a brush size from the Brushes palette. Take note of the brush size.
Next, choose the Rectangle Marquee tool and click and drag a square selection roughly the size of the brush size. Now, choose the Linear Gradient tool and click and drag a black-to-white gradient inside the square selection. Now choose Select, Deselect to deselect the selection.
Here's the fun part. Select the Smudge tool again. Position the brush in the middle of the black-to-white gradient. Click and drag the tool around your document. The Smudge tool pulls the gradient tones around the image, creating a 3-dimensional tube wherever you drag the tool.

APPLYING A TRULY RANDOM PATTERN GENERATION.
As you may know, you add detail to blurred or under or over-exposed areas of an image by applying a slight noise texture. However, the Add Noise filter often generates too even of a texture fill. For better control over the noise pattern, use a selection tool to select the area of the image you want to add detail to. Then use a Paint tool with a brush set to a very wide spacing value to paint a texture into the selection.
To demonstrate, choose the Pencil tool and double-click a small brush size. When you double-click a brush, Photoshop selects that brush and opens the Brush Options dialog box. Set the Spacing option to 400 and click OK
Now, place the Pencil tool inside the selection, click and press the mouse button, and quickly move the mouse around the selection. As you can see, as Photoshop tries to keep up with the mouse path, it randomly paints bits of colour here and there. Continue to paint until you're satisfied with the texture.

DRAWING AND SELECTING FROM THE CENTRE.
You know that in order to create perfect squares and circle selections, you press the Shift key as you drag the Rectangle Marquee or Oval Marquee Selection tool. You may also know that to cause a selection to originate from the centre, you press the Alt or Option key. Likewise, pressing the Spacebar as you create a selection allows you to move the selection around the screen.
What you may not know is that any of these selection modifier tricks complements the others. For example, press the Alt or Option key and the Shift key to draw a perfect circle with the Oval Marquee Selection tool. As you create the selection, press the Spacebar and move the selection an inch to the right. Release the Spacebar and continue creating the selection. The ability to use these modifier keys in conjunction with each other really comes in handy when you're creating a complex selection.

HOW TO USE PHOTOSHOP FILTERS IN ILLUSTRATOR.
Photoshop and Illustrator work so well together that you can even use Photoshop filters in Illustrator. However, since Illustrator is a vector, drawing-based program and Photoshop is a raster, paint-based program, you must first convert your Illustrator drawing into a bitmap graphic before you can apply a Photoshop filter.
To convert, or rasterize, your drawing in Illustrator, choose Object, Rasterize. In the resulting Rasterize dialog box, choose your target color model and resolution, and click OK. At this point, Illustrator converts the drawing to a bitmap graphic. Now you can apply a Photoshop filter.

UPSAMPLING.
One of the most common mistakes when resizing an image is upsampling. Upsampling occurs when you scale an image larger than the original.
When Photoshop upsamples an image, it must create pixels where none previously existed. Unfortunately, Photoshop is not an accomplished guesser and often chooses the wrong colour pixel to create. The result is a loss in sharpness and tone. Therefore, if you must upsample an image more than 20 percent, it's best to scan the original image at a larger size.

TRANSFORMING A LAYER INTO A BACKGROUND LAYER.
You cannot transform a transparent layer into a background layer. While this is intrinsically true, you can merge or flatten a transparent layer into a background layer.
To merge a layer into a background layer, simply position the transparent layer directly above the background layer and choose Layer, Merge Down. Alternatively, to merge all transparent layers into a background layer, choose Layer, Flatten Image.
To convert a background layer into a transparent layer, simply double-click the background layer. In the resulting Make Layer dialog box, enter a name, then click OK. Photoshop converts the background layer into a transparent layer.

GETTING TO KNOW COLOR MODELS.
You're probably familiar with the Bitmap, Greyscale, Indexed, RGB, and CMYK colour models available through Photoshop. If your colour model familiarity stops there, you're missing a great resource--the LAB colour model.
The LAB colour model is a colour model defined by three values: a Lightness channel and an A and B colour channel. This model contains colours that span both the RGB and CMYK spectrums. In fact, Photoshop uses the LAB colour model internally as a template for converting one colour model to another.
The LAB colour model is ideal for independently adjusting the luminance or colour of an image. In addition, you can create superior greyscale versions of your colour images if you convert the image to LAB, isolate the Lightness channels, and apply the Sharpen filter.

TRANSFORM A COPY OF A SELECTION.
If you're familiar with Adobe Photoshop's Free Transform tool, you know how much it simplifies normally complex scaling, skewing, and rotating. To use the Free Transform tool, you select an area of an image and choose Edit, Free Transform. Or you can press Ctrl-T in Windows or Command-T on the Macintosh.
In addition to transforming a selection in an image, you can create a copy of the selection and transform the duplicate selection. To do so, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Macintosh as you choose Edit, Free Transform. Or press Alt-Ctrl-T in Windows or Option-Command-T on the Macintosh.

QUICKLY REMOVING LAYER EFFECTS.
Layer effects are easy to apply; removing layer effects isn't as easy, on the surface. Normally, to remove a layer effect, you'd select the layer, then choose Layer, Effects with the effect highlighted. In the resulting dialog box, you'd deselect the Apply check box.
Fortunately, there's an easier way. To remove layer effects from a layer, first select the layer. Then press Alt in Windows or Option on the Macintosh and double-click the Layer Effects icon located on the right side of the selected layer. Photoshop will remove all effects applied to the selected layer.

LOCKING COLOURS.
Some of us simply don't trust Photoshop or Image Ready to keep the correct colours as we save or down sample an image for the Web. To prevent Photoshop or Image Ready from down sampling a colour out of your image, you can choose to lock certain colours in the Color palette. Once a colour is locked, Photoshop or Image Ready will include it in the Web-ready version of your image.
To lock a colour in Image Ready, first choose Window, Show Color Table. Then select the colour you want to lock and click the Lock icon at the bottom of the palette. To lock a colour in Photoshop, choose File, Save For Web. In the resulting dialog box, select a colour from the colour table and click the Lock icon. Both Photoshop and Image Ready place a white square in the lower-right corner of the colour swatch to denote a locked colour.

Unlocking a colour is very similar. In Image Ready, choose Window, Color Table to activate the Color Table palette. In Photoshop, choose File, Save For Web to open the Save For Web dialog box and the Web colour table. Then select a locked colour and click the Lock icon.

KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR SCRATCH DISK.
If you're using Photoshop on a machine with a small or almost full hard drive, performance can decrease dramatically as Photoshop gobbles up more and more of the scratch disk. Here's a tip that will let you keep an eye on how much scratch disk Photoshop is using and how much is left.
In the bottom-left corner of the Photoshop window, there's a menu. Click the menu and choose Scratch Sizes. To the left of the menu, Photoshop will display the scratch disk amount currently in use and the total scratch disk amount available.

ACHIEVING THE PERFECT TONE OR INTENSITY.
If you have trouble intensifying a tonal area with Photoshop's manipulation tools, try this trick. Select the area you want to affect and duplicate it onto a new layer. Then you can adjust the layer modes and opacity to fine-tune the area of your image.
To create a duplicate of a selection on a new layer, first select the area. Then choose Edit, Copy and Edit, Paste. Photoshop will place a duplicate of the selection on a new layer.

KEEP A HANDLE ON ANIMATION SPEED.
Adobe ImageReady allows you to create animated banner GIFs. However, to keep the cells in the animated banner from flashing by too quickly to read or view, you can maintain a minimum 2-second frame rate.
To set the frame rate for all the cells in your animation, press Shift and select each cell in your ImageReady document. Then choose Other from the Frame Delay Time menu. In the resulting dialog box, enter 2 in the text field and click OK.

WML, WAP, WBMP.
Just when you think you've got a handle on the latest Web technology and graphics, something new comes along. The latest platform you'll soon be asked to design for is WAP (Wireless Application Protocol).
WAP allows people-on-the-go to use wireless devices, such as cellular phones, to surf the Net. Web pages for wireless devices use WML (Wireless Markup Language) to deliver content. WML has quite a few page width, length, and formatting limitations. In addition, WML and WAP support only one graphics file format, WBMP. Although the WML, WAP, and WBMP acronyms may be new to you, get used to them--most likely you'll be designing for this new community of Internet users very soon.

WBMP is the only graphics format optimised for WML use. The WBMP format is a 1-bit (black and white) format. Additionally, the WBMP image should not be larger than 150x150 pixels. In most cases, the WBMP images should be much smaller. Nokia phones, for example, have only a 96x65 pixel wide display.
Currently, core Adobe Photoshop does not support the WBMP graphics file format. However, there are BMP-to-WBMP converters that can convert a Photoshop 1-bit BMP to a WBMP.To download a free BMP-to-WBMP converter application, go to http://www.gingco.de/wap/ 

Macintosh Photoshop users won't have to wait until the next Photoshop update; Macintosh users can download a WBMP plug-in that allows them to save Photoshop images as WBMP files. To download the plug-in, go to http://www.creationflux.com/laurent/wbmp.html

LOOKING FOR A PLUG-IN.
Photoshop's power and ease of use continually make it the number one graphics application available. However, one application can't be the perfect answer for every need. Expanding Photoshop's feature set is where plug-ins come in.
Adobe plug-ins allow you add new or enhance existing Photoshop features. To find out how far you can take Photoshop, go to the Adobe site and check out the extensive list of third-party plug-ins at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/plugins.html

ILLUSTRATOR/PHOTOSHOP PASTING WORKAROUND.
You may have noticed that copying a shape from Adobe Illustrator and pasting it into Adobe Photoshop often has inconsistent results. Sometimes the shape will insert into your Photoshop document just fine. Other times, areas of the pasted shaped are cut off or appear incorrectly.
A simple way to avoid this problem is to place a no-fill, no-stroke rectangle around the shape you plan to copy. Then, select the rectangle along with the shape and copy. When you paste into Photoshop, your shape will appear correctly.

CONVERTING LAYER EFFECTS INTO LAYERS.
Although Photoshop's layer effects allow you to quickly apply special effects to a layer, adjusting an effect is a bit more limiting than run-of-the-mill layers. Fortunately, you can easily convert a layer effect into its component layer pieces.
To convert a layer effect into layers, select the layer with the layer effect from the Layers palette. Then choose Layer, Effect, Create Layer. Photoshop removes the effect from the selected layer and creates new layers that have the same effect.

IMPROVE YOUR PREVIEW.
Most Adobe Photoshop and Adobe ImageReady features and functions give you the option of previewing their effect on your image before actually applying the effect. However, the accuracy of the preview depends on the current image magnification. Larger or smaller magnifications can make the preview appear darker than the final result.
For the truest preview, set your image to 100 percent magnification before you preview a change. To set your image to 100 percent magnification, choose View, Actual Size in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe ImageReady. Alternatively, press Ctrl-Alt-0 in Windows or Command-Option-0 on the Macintosh.

FILL IT WITH COLOR.
While lower-end paint applications limit you to crude tools such as a paint bucket to fill image areas with colour, Adobe Photoshop offers a more sophisticated approach. The Adobe Photoshop Fill function allows you to fill a selection or layer with the foreground colour, background colour, white, black, or grey. Further, Fill allows you to set the opacity of the fill and to choose a fill mode.
To use the Fill feature, use the Selection tools to create a selection in your Photoshop image. Then choose Edit, Fill. In the resulting dialog box, choose the colour, opacity, and mode to fill the selection and click OK. Photoshop fills the selection with the chosen colour.

FILL IT FASTER.
As with most Photoshop features, there are keyboard shortcuts that allow you to achieve the same goal in a quarter of the time. For example, to fill a selection with the colour in the foreground colour slot, press Alt-Delete in Windows or Option-Delete on the Macintosh. To fill a selection with the colour in the background colour slot, press Ctrl-Delete in Windows or Command-Delete on the Macintosh. It's important to note that pressing the keyboard shortcut without an active selection will fill the entire layer with colour.
However, you aren't limited to just the last saved version. You can create snapshots during your image's development and pick which snapshot to use as a source for your History fill.
For example, suppose you open an image that requires significant modifications. You begin simply and complete the overall tonal adjustments. At this point, choose Window, Show History. In the History palette, choose New Snapshot from the palette menu.
Moving on, you complete the next several modifications on selected portions of your image. However, the modifications cause too great a loss of detail in one area of the image. Using the Fill History feature, you can fill only that area with content from your last snapshot.
To do so, first select that area with a Selection tool. Then, set the target of the Fill History feature to your snapshot, and select the History Source check box next to the snapshot in the History palette. Then, choose Edit, Fill and choose History from the Fill list box in the Fill dialog box. Now click OK. Photoshop fills the selected area with the content from the snapshot.

REMOVING HALOS FROM LAYER OBJECTS.
Regardless of the care we take when selecting and extracting an object from its background, it's inevitable that artefacts remain around the edge of the selected object. We typically refer to these background artefacts as halos--colour pixels inadvertently pulled from the original background of an object. Fortunately, you have several ways to rid your selected object of these colour artefacts.
The most straightforward method to remove the halo from an object on a transparent layer is to use the Matting Defringe function. The Defringe function replaces pixels along the outside edge of the nontransparent pixels in the object. To use the Defringe function, choose Layer, Matting, Defringe. In the resulting dialog box, enter a range of pixels to Defringe along the edge of the object. It's best to begin with a setting of 1 or 2 and reapply the function until you see acceptable results.

However, if you're lucky enough that the background the halo was created from is black or white, you can simply use the Remove White Matte or Remove Black Matte function.
To remove a white halo from a layer object, activate the appropriate layer and choose Layer, Matting, Remove White Matte. To remove a black halo, choose Layer, Matting, Remove Black Matte. Photoshop determines the appropriate pixel range along the edge of the layer object and removes it.

The last method we'll discuss to remove a halo around a layer object utilizes a layer's ability to blend pixels based on the pixels in another layer.
For example, to remove a blue halo from an object set on a transparent layer over a white layer, first activate the layer with the object. Then choose Layer, Layer Options. In the resulting dialog box, choose Blue from the Blend If list box. Then drag the White point slider in the This Layer colour scale to the left until the white halo disappears from the preview image. Click OK to apply the new blending options.

RESIZE WITHOUT LOSING QUALITY.
How to decrease or increase the size of an image is a basic function every Photoshop Web user must learn. However, there is one step almost every beginning Photoshop Web user forgets when attempting to resize an image. Before you resize a Web image, you must convert a GIF image from Indexed Color mode to RGB mode.
To maintain sharpness and prevent the dreaded bitmap edges, Photoshop needs access to a full-colour palette as it scales an image. Indexed Color mode has access only to a specific and short list of colours. This list does not lend itself well to resizing. The RGB mode, however, allows Photoshop to pick from any colour imaginable in order to maintain sharpness.

CREATING AN ARROW IN PHOTOSHOP.
Often the simplest tasks take the most time. Take an arrow, for example. It's a very simple shape, but if you are forced to create an arrow with the Photoshop selection or shape tools, it could consume a lot of your time.
Fortunately, Photoshop offers an easy way to create an arrow. To do so, double-click the Line tool in the toolbox to display the Line Options palette. Then click the Arrowhead Start or End checkbox. Next, click and drag the Line tool in your image document to create a line with an arrowhead in your document. 

CHECKING YOUR IMAGES ON A MACINTOSH AND WINDOWS.
A great application for multiple views of the same image is using Adobe ImageReady for Web-image production. As you know, Macintosh and Windows can present Web graphics very differently. One way to check for image discrepancy is to open a Macintosh view and a Windows view of your image.
To do so, choose View, New View twice to create two additional views of your image. Now activate a secondary view and choose View, Preview, Standard Macintosh Color. Next, activate the other secondary view and choose View, Preview, Standard Windows Color. Now you can see how your original image will appear on a Macintosh and on a Windows computer. In addition, you can make changes to the original image and immediately see the effect in the Macintosh and the Windows views.

TARGETS.
Photoshop has a number of preset gradients you can use to create simple blends, metal textures, rainbows, and so forth. In particular, the Transparent Stripes gradient allows you to quickly paint a target.
To demonstrate, open a 500x500-pixel image in Adobe Photoshop. Then click the Foreground colour slot and choose a Red colour. Next, click and hold the Gradient tool and choose the Radial Gradient tool from the tool submenu. Next, double-click the Gradient tool to activate the Gradient Tool Options palette. Choose the Transparent Stripes gradation from the Gradient Tool Options palette.
Now you're ready to paint your target. Position your Gradient tool in the image, click, drag, and release. As you can see, Photoshop paints a perfect red-and-white-striped target.

MAKING YOUR TYPE POP.
You may have noticed that some typefaces and type colours aren't as visible as they should be. For example, Blue Times New Roman on a grey background is very difficult to read.
Fortunately, there's an easy fix for these type and colour problems. To make your type pop, you can insert a halo of another colour between the type and the background layer. To do so, create a new layer and position it between the type layer and the background layer. Then select the new layer and load the type as a selection. To do so, choose Select, Load Selection. In the resulting dialog box, choose the Type layer transparency and click OK.
Next, slightly blur the selection edges. To do so, choose Select, Feather; enter 3 in the Feather text field; and click OK. Finally, fill the blurred selection with another colour. To do so, choose Edit, Fill. In the Fill dialog box, choose a colour and click OK. As you can see, the halo helps to define the edges of the type, making it easier to see and read.

LOADING LAYER TRANSPARENCIES AS SELECTIONS.
As you probably know, you can load a layer's transparency as a selection. To do so, choose Select, Load Selection. In the resulting dialog box, choose the layer transparency and click OK.
However, you may not know that you can bypass the Load Selection dialog box and quickly load a layer's transparency as a selection with a click of your mouse. To do so, press Ctrl in Windows or Command on a Macintosh and click the layer in the Layers palette.

ADDING TO YOUR SELECTION.
In our previous tip, we explained how you can bypass the Load Selections dialog box to quickly load a layer's transparency as a selection. As you may recall, to do so, press Ctrl in Windows or Command on a Macintosh and click the layer.
Once you've loaded a layer transparency as a selection, you can add to it just as easily. For example, in an image with three layers, let's load the second layer as a selection in the first layer. Then let's add the third layer transparency to the existing selection in the first layer.
To begin, select the first layer. Then, press Ctrl in Windows or Command on a Macintosh and click the second layer. As you can see, Photoshop loads the second layer transparency as a selection in the first layer.
Now, to add the third layer transparency as a selection to the existing selection, press Shift-Ctrl in Windows or Shift-Command on the Macintosh and click the third layer in the Layers palette.

THE ART HISTORY BRUSH.
The next time you want to create a very unique visual effect, try the Art-History brush. The Art-History brush allows you to paint using stylised strokes, such as tight or loose strokes, dabs, or tight or loose curls. Like the History brush, the source of your paint is a current or past history event or snapshot.
The fastest way to learn the Art-History brush is to practice with it. To do so, open an image in Photoshop. Then fill the image with white. Next, choose the Art-History brush and set the source to the history event to the original image. Next, choose Windows, Show Options to display the Art-History Brush Options.

Next, begin painting with the Art-History brush. To experiment, alter the Art-History Brush Strokes, Opacity, Fidelity, Area, and Tolerance settings in the Options palette.
In addition to experimenting on your own, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Begin your painting with a very low Opacity setting. As you further your painting, increase the Opacity setting to increase paint coverage. 
• To prevent brush patterns from forming, vary the Brush size as you paint. 
• To preserve original colours, increase the Fidelity settings.

A NEW AVENUE OF SUPPORT.
The Adobe Web site, partnering with ePeople.com, now offers a technical support auction. You can submit your technical questions to the Adobe Support Exchange. Your question will go out to thousands of experts who bid to answer your questions. At that point, you can choose the technical support expert with the price you're most comfortable with.
You have 24-hour access to the Adobe Support Exchange through the Adobe Web site. Registration is free. For more information, go to http://www.adobe.com

FINDING THE NUMBER OF PIXELS SELECTED.
To see the number of pixels selected in a selection, first open an image in Photoshop. Then, use one of the Selection tools to create a selection. Next, choose Image, Modify, Histogram. In the resulting dialog box, Photoshop will list the number of pixels selected.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP SHORTCUTS.
We can all agree that Photoshop is thick with features. Further, it's a virtual impossibility that you will remember every shortcut key to access every one of the Photoshop features. Therefore, a cheat sheet would be very helpful.
Deke McClellan has dubbed his all-inclusive Photoshop shortcut table "The Great Grandmother of All Shortcut Tables." We agree. Deke has incorporated every Photoshop shortcut key in an easy-to-use table. To download the table, go to http://www.thunderlizard.com/handouts/ps_table.html

IMPORTING A MICROSOFT PUBLISHER FILE INTO PHOTOSHOP.
The easiest way to bring a Microsoft Publisher page into Adobe Photoshop is to transform the Publisher page into an Acrobat PDF. To do so, you will need Adobe Acrobat Distiller. Open your Microsoft Publisher document. Set the document to print a PostScript file. Then, launch Acrobat Distiller (or Acrobat Exchange) and transform the PostScript file into an Acrobat PDF document. Now you can open the PDF document in Adobe Photoshop.

ADJUSTING SLICE LABELS.
As you may know, Adobe ImageReady places a label on each slice you create in an image. However, by default, these labels are fairly small and hard to read, and hinder viewing your image. Fortunately, you can alter the size and opacity of the labels to make them more useful.
We suggest increasing the size of the slice labels while decreasing their opacity. This allows you to easily read the label and still see the image behind it. To do so, choose File, Preferences, Slices. In the resulting dialog box, choose the largest icon in the Numbers And Symbols section. Then, adjust the Opacity setting to 50%. Click OK to save your changes. Now you're able to see all of your image and tell which slice is which.

However, slice labels, even modified, can still get in the way. Fortunately, there is a quick way to turn slice labels off and then back on.
To toggle the slice display off, click the Hide Slices button below the Foreground Color/Background Color Swatch on the toolbar. To toggle the slice display on, click the Show Slices button next to the Hide Slices button. Alternatively, you can press Q in Windows or on the Macintosh to toggle the slice display on or off.

DUCKS GALORE.
Everyone likes to have fun in his or her job, and the folks at Adobe are no exception. Why else would they hide Duck Easter eggs throughout Adobe ImageReady? The Easter egg easiest to see is behind the image at the top of the Adobe ImageReady toolbar. To see the Easter egg, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Macintosh. Then, click the image. The image at the top of the Adobe ImageReady toolbar switches to an image of a duck. To return the image to normal, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Macintosh and click the image again.
Another fun Easter egg replaces the default greyscale block grid with a grid of ducks. To see this Easter egg, first you must have the Transparency grid display turned on. To turn the grid display on, choose File, Preferences, Transparency. In the resulting dialog box, choose Large from the Grid Size list box. Then, click OK.
Now you're ready for the Easter egg. Create a new image with a transparent layer. To do so, choose File, New. Then, select the Transparent checkbox from the Contents Of The First Layer section and click OK. At this point, you should see an image with a light grey block grid. To transform the block grid into a grid of ducks, type the word duckerboard on your keyboard.

We've been discussing some of the fun Easter eggs Adobe has hidden throughout the Adobe ImageReady application. We suppose the duck theme came from the original splash screen of the beta version of Adobe ImageReady. This splash screen pictured a small duck peering into several funhouse mirrors. You could see his distorted reflections in the mirrors.

Speaking of the beta splash screen, another Adobe ImageReady duck Easter egg shows you the splash screen. To view the splash screen, press Ctrl in Windows or Command on the Macintosh and choose Help, About ImageReady. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl in Windows or Command on the Macintosh and click the image at the top of the Adobe ImageReady toolbar.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 6.0 REDESIGNED FOR 800 X 600 SCREEN.
Fair warning, Adobe Photoshop 6.0 has been designed for a minimum 800 x 600 screen (not that we think any of you are actually using Adobe Photoshop set to 640 x 480 resolution). What this means is that Adobe has redesigned the palettes so you can more easily manage all of the objects on your screen.
One handy feature that allows you to manage the palettes on your screen is the Palette Well. The Palette Well is on the Options Bar. You can drag any palette onto the Palette Well and Adobe Photoshop turns the palette into a drop-down palette. You can click on a drop-down palette to temporarily display its options. Once you've finished, the palette collapses back into the Palette Well.

HIDDEN TOOLS ARE EASIER TO RECOGNIZE IN ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 6.0.
Adobe Photoshop 6.0 has solved a user interface problem that many novice Adobe Photoshop users have complained about. To find the name of a hidden tool in previous Adobe Photoshop versions, you must select the hidden tool and then place the cursor over a tool and wait for the ToolTips label to appear.
In Adobe Photoshop 6.0, Adobe found a way to list both the name and icon of hidden tools in the toolbox submenu. Now when you click a tool to display the hidden tool submenu, you can see the tool icon, tool name, and even the keyboard shortcut for the tool.

PREVIEWING WEB GRAPHICS IN BROWSERS.
As you may know, Adobe Photoshop displays a preview of your Web graphic before you save it in the Save For Web dialog box. Although this preview is useful, Adobe recognizes nothing can substitute for previewing a Web graphic in Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Therefore, it built the ability to preview your Web graphic by launching a browser from the Save For Web dialog box.
To preview your Web graphic in a browser, first open the Save For Web dialog box by choosing File, Save For Web. If you've installed both browsers on your computer, select the browser of your choice from the Browser list box located at the bottom right of the Save For Web dialog box.

INTERLACING GIFS AND PNGS.
As you've probably seen on the Web, images download and display top-to-bottom. However, the second-or-two wait for the full image to render can lose the attention of your Web visitor. Fortunately, there is an easy-to-use alternative that immediately displays a low-resolution version of an image and gradually displays the full image as the download completes. As you can imagine, this creates an illusion of a faster download.
To set your images to display as we described, simply save your images in the interlaced GIF or PNG format. To do so, launch Adobe Photoshop and open your image. Then, choose File, Save For Web. In the resulting dialog box, select GIF or PNG-8 or PNG-24 from File Type list box in the Settings section. Then, select the Interlaced check box and click OK. Next, name your file and click Save.
To test the Web display of your saved image, open a Web browser and enter the image file path in the Address field. As you'll see, a low-resolution version of the image appears first. In the next second, the full-resolution version appears.

INTERLACING ISN'T FOR EVERYONE.
In our last interlacing tip, we discussed how to create the illusion of faster download rates by creating interlaced GIFs and PNGs. Interlaced images immediately display a low-resolution image and gradually build to the full-resolution image.
However, interlaced images are not the perfect solution. Interlacing an image can slightly increase file size. In addition, some older browser versions do not properly display interlaced images.
In other scenarios, interlaced images offer no benefit. For example, since background images or table background images won't display until the image is completely downloaded, interlacing a background image serves no purpose.
Therefore, keep interlaced GIFs or PNGs in mind for Web graphics, but limit their use to simple graphics displayed in an HTML page.

SPEEDING UP YOUR WORK WITH CONTEXT MENUS.
Adobe Photoshop 6.0 is out and with it comes several new and rearranged context menus. You may think there's no point learning these new keyboard commands when you can simply use your mouse. But, as incredible as it sounds, taking the few seconds needed to move your mouse cursor from the image to Photoshop's menu or toolbar, choose a item, and move the cursor back to the image is extremely inefficient. Believe us, those precious seconds quickly add up.
To increase your Photoshop efficiency, avoid trips to the menu bar. The easiest way to do so is to use the context menus. In almost every scenario, a right-click in Windows or an Option-click on the Macintosh presents you with a pop-up menu of choices targeted to the currently selected object.

GETTING TO HIDDEN TOOLS.
Photoshop and ImageReady have so many tools Adobe decided to stack similar tools in the toolbar. Normally, to choose a hidden tool, you click and hold a tool in the toolbox for a second or two until a list of stacked tools appears. Then, you select the tool you want.
As we've mentioned before, those seconds you wait quickly add up to a lot of wasted time. The next time you want to use a hidden tool, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Macintosh and click the tool in the toolbox. Each click will cycle to the next hidden tool. Pressing Shift while you Alt-click or Option-click will cycle to the previous hidden tool.

PRESERVING TRANSPARENCY.
Most Adobe Photoshop users know you can use selection to confine your painting, filters, and editing to a specific area of an image. However, you may not know you can use the Preserve Transparency option on the Layers palette to accomplish the same goal.
For example, to modify an object (add special effects, apply colour, or manipulate tonal levels) without affecting the areas of the layer in the transparent area outside an object, first choose Window, Show Layers to display the Layers palette. Then, activate the target layer and select the Preserve Transparency check box. Now you can paint or apply any modification to the layer without affecting the transparent area outside the existing object.

TOGGLING PRESERVE TRANSPARENCY ON AND OFF.
In our previous tip, we discussed how to use the Preserve Transparency option to confine your modifications to the object on a layer. Much like selecting an area of an image, Preserve Transparency preserves the transparent area around the existing objects on a layer.
This is a great feature, but it can get in the way when you want to add pixels to a layer. Fortunately, you can quickly toggle Preserve Transparency on and off with a keyboard shortcut. In Windows or on the Macintosh, press / to turn Preserve Transparency on or off.

PRESERVE TRANSPARENCY FOR TYPE LAYERS.
We've discussed using the Preserve Transparency option to confine painting or editing to the existing object on a layer. For example, if there were a red ball on a layer with Preserve Transparency turned on, you could choose a paint brush, sloppily paint all around the layer, and still change only the colour of the red ball.
You cannot turn Preserve Transparency on in type layers. The only way to affect the transparent area of a type layer is to convert the type layer into a normal layer. To do so, choose Layer, Type, Render Layer. At this point, you can turn Preserve Transparency on and off as you normally would.

COLOR-CORRECT YOUR IMAGE IN 16-BIT MODE.
Although most people work in 24-bit RGB colour mode, Adobe Photoshop is capable of converting images from 2-bit to 64-bit colour. Why would you want to change the bit depth of the image you're working on? One reason is for colour correction. The 16-bit colour mode more accurately displays colours and colour modifications. To change the bit depth of the image you are working on to 16 bits, flatten the image and choose Image, Mode, 16 Bits/Channel.
If the 16-bit colour mode more accurate