Setting up Photoshop before work. Working with panels in Photoshop CS6 Photoshop cs6 settings and getting started
A designer spends up to 80% of his working time in Photoshop. It is one of its main ones. But the brakes and glitches of the program negatively affect both the deadlines for delivering the layouts and the iron nerves of the designers.
Therefore, now we will talk about how to properly configure Photoshop to increase its performance several times.
General
You can go to the settings via Edit > Preferences > General (Edit - Settings - General), or Ctrl + K. If you have MacOS: Photoshop > Preferences > General, or Cmd+K.
Image Interpolation
By default, interpolation is set to Bicubik (best for smooth gradients). You need to change it to Bicubik Sharper (best for reduction).
I won’t tell you what interpolation is; you can read about it on Wikipedia. However, it is worth noting that this parameter greatly affects the quality of the optimized images.
Export to clipboard (Export Clipboard)
The essence of how this parameter works is as follows: When creating a layout, you can copy it to the clipboard and paste it into any other program. On the one hand it is convenient. But, as you know, the size of images can vary indefinitely...
Use Shift Key For Tool Switch
If you enable this option, you can scroll through tools of a certain category using Shift + tool hotkey.
If the option is turned off, moving between tools of a certain category is carried out by several clicks on the same hotkey.
ZOOM
If you want to change the zoom using the mouse wheel, check the box next to Zoom with scroll wheel. The checkbox next to the Zoom resizes windows parameter will allow you to automatically resize the window when you change the scale. Zoom clicked point to center - a parameter that is responsible for centering the image in the place where you clicked with the Zoom tool.
Interface
Now let me show you how to customize the Photoshop interface by going to the Interface tab.
Working field boundary
By default, a shadow, or a barely noticeable frame, is added to the border of the working field. In our opinion, this is not very convenient and even interferes with the comfortable development of layouts. It is possible to disable these options by setting the Border column to None.
Document Tabs
By default, new files always open in tabs. Photoshop settings allow you to change this and open files in floating windows. To do this, simply uncheck the Open Documents as Tabs option.
To be able to dock windows, check the box next to Enable Floating Document Window Docking.
Interface font size (UI Font Size)
If you have poor eyesight, you can easily increase the font size of the interface. To do this, select one of three options in UI FONT SIZE.
File Handling
Go to the File Handling tab.
Maximum compatibility of PSD and PSB files
An important parameter that is responsible for the compatibility of the file you create with other versions of Photoshop. On the one hand, compatibility is great, but on the other? File sizes become significantly larger when this option is enabled.
However, you must understand that by removing compatibility, you risk losing some layers when opening outdated files. By the way, you can read about how to properly organize layers in your layouts.
List of recently opened files
Just change the Recent File List parameter if 10 is too little/too much for you.
Performance
The most important Photoshop settings that directly affect performance are located in the Performance tab.
Memory Usage
When it comes to memory, Photoshop is insatiable like a wild beast - it will devour everything you can offer it. If your computer does not have high RAM performance, you need to change the parameter from 70% to 90%.
History & Cache
This parameter allows you to set the allowed number of steps “backwards”. It greatly affects the amount of memory consumed, so there is no need to get carried away.
Scratch Disks
When choosing backup disks, it is advisable not to select the one on which the program itself is installed. It is also not recommended to use USB drives due to the low connection speed.
Enable OpenGL
If you have a modern video card, then it would be a good idea to enable OpenGL. To do this you need to install special drivers.
Units & Rules
You can correctly configure the ruler units by going to the Units & Rulers tab.
If you work with the web, put pixels; if you work with printing, put cm, or mm.
In conclusion
Setting up Photoshop will not take you much time, but it is an important step towards speeding up your workflow, especially on weaker PCs, especially for
Starting to work in the graphic editor Photoshop, we need to make some changes to the settings of this program. Default settings are not always optimal for a particular system configuration, so we will configure photoshop for yourself. To open the settings window, we can use the main menu: “Editing”, “Settings”, “Basic”, or simply press the key combination “Ctrl+K”.
In the main settings window, as a rule, there is nothing special to change. The default settings here can be left as is, or as in the screenshot above.
If you want all your editing actions to be duplicated in a text file, to do this you just need to check the “Change history” checkbox, then select the recording method and the path to the directory where this file will be stored. This duplication of editing steps can be useful when complex photo editing techniques are being implemented. For example, if suddenly after some time you need to repeat similar processing, and you have already forgotten some processing techniques, in this case, open this file and repeat all the steps one after another. This recording may also be useful to another person who wants to repeat similar processing.
Each master configures the program interface based on personal preferences. Therefore, in this case I will not advise which program settings to choose. The main rule of the interface is that it is convenient for you to work with the program, and everything else is not so important. You can use the settings that are set in the screenshot above.
File processing
In this window you can set the parameters of the built-in RAW converter - “Camera Raw”.
By clicking on the “Camera Raw Settings” button, the “Camera Raw Settings” window will open, see the screenshot below.
Here it is important to specify the directory for storing the RAW cache memory of the “Camera Raw” converter.
What is this for? This is necessary so that the cache does not fill the disk space of the local drive C when converting files. By default, it is in drive C that the data of this program is cached. But you and I don’t want the system disk to turn red because of some cache. Therefore, we select a directory for the cache on another drive, for example, on the “F” drive, in the “Temp” folder, see the screenshot above.
Performance Settings
Depending on the power of your system, you need to select the optimal performance parameters for the graphics editor. The screenshot above shows the system settings on which 4 GB of RAM is installed. In this case, 57% of the OP is allocated for Photoshop, which is quite enough for high program performance.
You can set the caching settings and action history as in the screenshot above, or select other parameters. It all depends on the power of the video card - the graphics processor. If during the editing process you notice some delay in displaying objects on the editor's desktop, set other caching parameters. To get more information about this settings menu, hover over the History and Cache settings area. After this, look at the information in the “Description” window (click on the picture to enlarge).
You can get more information about the GPU settings options by hovering over the "Graphics Settings" settings area. processor”, after which, read the information in the “Description” window. For optimal editor performance, you should select the drive with the largest free disk space, for example, drive “F”, but not the system drive “C”, see the screenshot below (click on the picture to enlarge).
If the OpenGL module is installed on your machine, additional settings for parameters and mode selection of this module will be available, see the screenshot below. If your machine does not have the OpenGL module, I recommend downloading and installing it. This is done simply: enter the word OpenGL in the search field of your browser and download. The installation is simple: you run the installer, and the program will do the rest itself - it will find a place in your machine, and of course, on the system drive “C”.
Why is this "OpenGL" needed? You can do without it, but if you want, for example, scaling or moving an object on the editor’s desktop to occur smoothly and gracefully, that’s what this module is for. OpenGL is not only used on your machine to improve rendering in Photoshop, it is also used by many other 3D programs installed on your computer. In general, they installed “OpenGL” once and forgot...
Units of measurement and rulers
The settings for the “Units of Measurement” parameters are purely individual; for some it is more convenient to use centimeters or millimeters, but for me it is more convenient to use pixels. We set the default resolution for new documents as shown in the screenshot above. Print resolution (photos, graphics) - 300 pixels/inch; for screen display, for web pages - 72 pixels/inch.
Guides, Grid, and Slices
“Guides” menu - here we set the color and style of the guide lines that we will use when positioning objects. The grid that we will use to group/arrange objects can be adjusted based on the file size and the number of objects being edited. Grid settings sometimes have to be changed to more convenient ones, therefore, the example in the screenshot above is just one of the options.
Menu “Cutting fragments” - cutting the file into fragments. This tool is usually used by web designers to cut out a template for a future web page. We will talk more about this tool in one of the following publications. For now, we leave the parameters as shown in the screenshot above (click on the picture to enlarge).
Fonts are an integral part of any graphics editor, and Photoshop is no exception. To make it convenient to search for the desired font in the font menu, you can set the size to large to view a sample of the font, see the screenshot above.
3D Settings
The construction of 3D objects in Photoshop is used extremely rarely (I think so). For these purposes, there are many special programs, for example, 3D Max, or the same Adobe Illustrator CS. But still, you can also build 3D objects in Photoshop, but read about how to do this in the following articles.
To edit 3D objects, a large amount of video memory is required. If your video card has at least 500 MB of memory, this may be enough for optimal editor performance. The larger the video memory, the faster the process of editing 3D objects. Don't skimp on video memory for Photoshop, this will save your time editing 3D objects.
Keyboard shortcuts
You can leave the keyboard shortcuts as default. But if you prefer to use other key combinations, this is easy to change. Find the desired item in the main menu: “Editing”, “Keyboard shortcuts”, or press the key combination “Alt+Shift+Ctrl+K”. In the “Keyboard Shortcuts” settings window, select one or another menu item, for example, “Editing,” open it, and begin changing the standard hotkeys to your own.
In order to change the key combination, click on the desired menu item and enter your own version of the hot keys, see the screenshot above. After this, confirm the changes made with the corresponding buttons located on the right. Keyboard shortcuts- This is a very convenient thing, thanks to which you can save a lot of time. It is very important to remember and get used to these hotkeys, since in the process of working in Photoshop, you will have to use them very often.
Menu items in color
Colored menu items.
For beginner Photoshop artists, this feature will be very useful. For example, you need to return to the main menu “Edit”, “Settings” several times to find the “Performance” item, see the screenshot below.
You can set up quick access to this menu using hotkeys, but in Photoshop there are so many submenu items and hotkeys that you may not remember them all at once. And in order to quickly find the one you need among the numerous menu items, they are tinted in different colors.
How to do this: - select a menu, menu item, set visibility and color, save the settings, see the screenshot above.
For different purposes and editing methods, you need to use different tools. Photoshop palettes and toolbars are convenient to keep at hand, so to speak. That is, in a certain place where a particular tool is located, its palette can be quickly opened. For example, if when editing, you often turn to the help of recorded actions, in this case, activate the “Operations” palette in the “Window” menu by simply clicking on the menu item, see the screenshot below. Palettes can be grouped according to certain logical criteria, shuffled among themselves, etc. etc.
So that every time you open Photoshop, you don’t have to go back to searching for certain necessary palettes, you can remember their location by creating a working environment. How to do this - read below.
Working environment- this is the arrangement of certain palettes, windows, tools in a form and place convenient for you. By default, Photoshop comes with a range of workspaces, but if you want to customize your workspace to suit your requirements, you can create one very easily.
Before creating a work environment, it is necessary to open and properly arrange tools, palettes, etc. in the right places and in the right order, so that all the necessary tools are at hand while working.
You can group palettes as you wish, the main rule is that it is convenient for you to work with them. The screenshot on the right shows one example of the arrangement of palettes. There can be many tools in one palette, but you shouldn’t put 10 tools in one palette. Such a number of tools in one palette, in my opinion, is not convenient to use. I recommend keeping up to 6 tools in one palette. For one work environment this is more than enough.
When the palettes with the necessary tools are collected, we can save this work environment. To do this, click on the “New working environment” item, assign a name - here “proFoto”, and save, see the screenshot on the right and below.
This way you can create any number of working environments in the graphical editor for a variety of purposes.
That’s basically all I wanted to tell you today about setting up the Photoshop CS graphic editor. If you have any questions on this topic, I’m waiting for them in the comments.
That's all for now, thanks for your attention.
Like any other professional tool, Photoshop needs to be configured to work comfortably in it.
Interface
Since Photoshop is created not only for photographers, but also for designers, artists and other creative office plankton, I must warn you that we will talk about customization. At the same time, we will remove everything else in Photoshop. Hiding the excess is vital, because if you display all possible panels in Photoshop, it will look something like this.
It looks cool, of course, but it’s absolutely not viable, even if you have three huge monitors (like in those science fiction films about crazy hackers).
I recommend keeping the following panels: vertical toolbar, Layers, Channels, History, Operations, Navigator, Histogram and panel Info. My Photoshop interface looks like this:
As you can see, I dragged the vertical toolbar to the right so as not to rush the mouse across the entire monitor from one corner to another - so all the controls are concentrated in one place. It’s better to hide everything that you don’t use so that it doesn’t take up space and doesn’t get confused under the cursor.
Any panel can be displayed through the “Window” menu - just click on the panel name, and a check mark will appear next to it. To hide the panel, just uncheck the box.
Panels can be “glued” to the edges of the window and to other panels; to do this, you need to “grab” the panel window by the gray strip and drag it to the edge of the window until cursor won't touch window borders. At this point, a blue stripe will appear indicating that the panel will dock to that edge.
Now a little trick. When you create a layer, Photoshop adds a blank mask to it, which in my opinion clutters up the Layers panel. To disable this disgrace, you need to display the “Correction” panel and uncheck the “Add default mask” checkbox in the panel settings.
Once you've customized the interface of your dreams, it's worth saving it. To do this, click the button in the upper right corner and select the item in the menu that appears New work environment. In the window that appears, enter a name for your interface and click Save.
Now, if there is any confusion in the panels, just select the item in this menu "Reset...", and all panels will return to the saved version.
Program settings
After debugging the interface, we move on to the program settings. They are on the menu Editing - Settings - Basic. But it's easier to press the keys Ctrl + K, This will open the Photoshop settings window. In order not to bore you with unnecessary details, we will analyze the most important ones.
Basic tab.
Here, I switch the image interpolation to Bicubic (best for smooth gradients). In this case (unlike the default option Bicubic automatic) the photo will not be sharpened after reduction. Because I prefer to increase the sharpness myself. If you do not sharpen your photos, it is better to leave the default option - Bicubic automatic.
I also recommend turning off the option Enable Drawing Capture. It is impossible to guess what this setting is, because it was translated by the same brain that writes the titles of films in Russian box office. This checkbox causes the document to slide when you move it by hand. That is, when you want to move your picture a little, but it suddenly slides off the screen, this is it. It's terribly inconvenient - I always turn this thing off.
Interface tab
In the section Appearance I turn off various frames and set the background color to “Dark gray”, although it is easier to change the background color by right-clicking on this background while working.
File Processing Tab
Here at the point Maximize PSD and PSB file compatibility it's worth turning on the setting Always. This will add a final image to the file that is the result of all the layers, allowing the PSD files to be read by other programs such as Lightroom and ACDSee.
If you use third-party programs (other than Photoshop) to view and work with PSD files, select the setting Always. If other programs are not used, you should select Never– at the same time, PSD and PSB files will become one pixel layer lighter.
Performance tab
Engine Memory usage is responsible for how much RAM Photoshop will use. You should not set values close to 100%, because memory is also required by the operating system and other applications. A value of 50-80% will be optimal.
To the right is the section History and caching with three buttons:
1. Small, multi-layer
2. Medium (default)
3. Large, few layers
When you hover over these buttons, details appear in tooltips. For photography, the default option is suitable - Average.
Below are GPU Settings, that is, video cards.
Using a video card greatly speeds up many operations in Photoshop. But if you have problems with reliability: the program freezes or crashes, then you can try unchecking Use GPU. If after this the problems stop, then the video card is to blame. In this case, you should try updating the video card driver or, as a last resort, turn off this setting.
Action history. Here it is worth increasing the number of memorized steps to 100 (up to 200 is possible). 20 is too little in my opinion.
Working disks. Here you need to specify as the working disk the disk that has the most free space - this will improve the speed of Photoshop. Insufficient space on the hard drive or its fragmentation will cause terrible “brakes” or even “freeze” and “crash” of the program. In my opinion, you need at least 5 GB of free space on your hard drive to work smoothly in Photoshop.
For the best speed, you should select a disk that is not occupied by the system (not drive C) and located on a different physical disk. The read/write speed from such a disk will be faster, which means Photoshop will become more efficient. For best performance, use an SSD type drive.
Changes to this tab will take effect after restarting the program.
The remaining tabs can be left unchanged. It is noteworthy that if you are confused in the settings and want to return everything as it was, then just click the button in this window Alt. In this case, the button “ Cancel" will turn into a " button Reset", clicking on which will return all settings to standard.
But that's not all. The Adobe RGB enemy space remains in the Camera RAW module, which is used when working with RAW files.
Launch the Camera RAW module by simply opening any RAW file in Photoshop. The blue line below the image will indicate the color space to which the RAW will be converted. If it says anything other than sRGB, click on it and turn on sRGB in the window that opens.
Now everything will be fine)
Saving settings
For example, the Curves templates that I use to work with color and Actions are stored there.
Workspaces (interface settings) are stored here:
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6\Adobe Photoshop CS6 Settings\WorkSpaces
Depending on your version of Photoshop and operating system, the location of these files may vary. But no one canceled Google)
Good luck and comfortable work in Photoshop!
Before working with Adobe Photoshop on your computer, you first need to optimally configure this graphic editor for yourself. This is necessary so that future work in the program does not cause you any difficulties or problems. Working in such an editor should be convenient, pleasant and fast. In this material we will go through the basic settings and customize some of them to suit ourselves. Now let's get to work!
Basic
So, go to the menu “ Editing» —> « Settings» —> « Basic". After this, the settings window opens. Now we will look at the basic settings (picture can be enlarged):
- Color palette- leave it on " Adobe«;
- HUD color palette- leave it at " Hue wheel«;
- Image interpolation— select the mode “ Bicubic, sharper (best for reduction)". Very often we have to reduce our image for posting on the Internet or in preparation for printing. And since we often reduce our image, that’s why we choose this mode.
Let's now see the following options in the " tab Basic". We won’t change anything much here except for the point “ Change tool with Shift key". Usually, to change a tool in one tab, we press the Shift key and at the same time, which relates to this tool. This is not entirely convenient for us. Therefore, you can uncheck this item. This way you can change the tool with one hotkey. It's very convenient! But if you want, you don’t have to uncheck this item.
Also in these parameters there is an item “ Zoom with mouse wheel". If you wish, you can check this box and save the settings. Now, when scrolling with the wheel, the photo scale will change. Quite a convenient feature. If you need it, then check the box next to this function. If you do not check the box, then to change the image scale, you will need to hold down the ALT key and simultaneously scroll with the mouse wheel.
Interface
So, when we have set the basic parameters, go to the “ Interface"to view the settings for . We don't change anything in the basic color settings. But in the settings " Border" leave all points " Don't show«.
What will this give us? By default, a shadow appears on the borders of the photo. I consider this to be an unnecessary beauty of the program, but it interferes with the work. It can be confusing whether this shadow is real or whether it was added using a separate effect. Therefore, in order to avoid confusion in the future, it is better to turn off the shadow display.
Below in the settings " Panels and documents"put a tick on" Auto-show hidden panels". We don’t touch any more settings here. Also make sure that your interface language is Russian and the font size in the menu is set to small.
File processing
Go to the tab " File processing". We do not change the file saving parameters.
In file compatibility, in the “” item, set “ Always". Then the program will not ask us when saving whether to maximize compatibility or not. The program will do this by default. We leave everything else unchanged.
Performance
Let's go to the performance settings of the Photoshop program. In the memory usage scale, you can configure the use of RAM to suit the needs of the program. Usually the maximum value of 100% is set here so that the program does not slow down in the future.
In settings " History and cache"We'll make some minor changes. In paragraph " Action history“I set it to 80. In the process of work, it will be better if we have a big story. We may make some mistakes while working with the program and we should have a good opportunity so that we can always return to the previous action. If the story is small, it won't be enough. I recommend making the story large, at least 60 points. Usually history is set to 100. However, I will say that this parameter loads the system a little. If you don’t have a particularly powerful computer, then set it to 60. This way Photoshop won’t freeze often.
And here is the tab " Working disks"very important. Under no circumstances should you set the system drive C as the working disk. You can select other drives where you have the largest amount of free space. But we never touch the system disk.
Also in GPU settings (if it supports), you need to enable OpenGL rendering. Here you can also configure “ Additional options", but in these parameters I left the mode " Ordinary". It may happen that the GPU settings may not have this feature. This means that this option is not supported by your video card.
Cursors
After you have configured the program performance, go to the “ Cursors". Here you can customize the cursor appearance. Here I personally did not change anything and left everything as standard. If you wish, you can play around here and customize your cursor display.
Transparency and color gamut
You can configure a warning when the color gamut is exceeded, as well as the display of the transparent areas themselves. I didn’t change anything here either and left everything as default. If you wish, you can play around with the settings.
Here you can configure the units of measurement for rulers, columns for text, and the default resolution for new documents. I didn't change much here. But in " Rulers"I chose to display in " mm«. « Text"I put it in " pix". This way I will know approximately what size my letters are depending on the size of the image in pixels.
Guides, Grid, and Slices
As a rule, in the “ Guides, Grid, and Slices"You can customize the grid to suit your needs. However, I personally did not change anything here, and left all the settings as default.
External modules
Here you can select a folder for external modules. When you add various plugins there, Photoshop will subsequently refer to this folder. In paragraph " Extension panels"All settings must be checked.
Fonts
I didn't change anything here either. I left everything as it was.
3D
In the " 3D» you can configure settings for working with 3D images. Here you can set the % of video card memory usage. I kept it 100%. There are also rendering settings, quality settings and other settings for working with 3D objects. I did not touch all these settings and left everything at default.
In this tutorial, we'll learn how to manage and organize your work with the various panels that make up a fairly large part of the Photoshop CS6 interface.
We use panels very often when working in Photoshop. For example, when we add, remove, select, and arrange layers in our document, we are working in the Layers panel. Also, when working with this panel, we add layer masks and various effects. When we create adjustment layers and subsequently work with them, we use the Adjustments and Properties panels.
We can select colors using the Color and Swatches panels, work with individual color channels using the Channels panel, return to a previous action in our work using the History panel, and much more. Having so many panels can be confusing when working with Photoshop, especially if you're new to the field, which is why it's important to know how to manage the panels and how to arrange them on the screen.
Before we start looking at panels, let's make sure we have the same panels in the same places on our screens. To do this, we must be sure that we have a standard operating environment for the program installed. In other lessons, we looked at what the program's working environment is. Essentially it is a way for the program to remember which panels should be placed on the screen and where they should be located.
The program works with several built-in working environments, from which we can choose the ones we need and even create our own at our discretion. Currently, if you look in the upper right corner of the program interface, you will see a window for selecting the “Work Environment” option. The phrase “Workspace” itself is not specified anywhere, but by default the “Essentials” parameter should be set there. If another parameter is set, click on the window and from the list that appears, select the top one - “Main working environment”:
In the Options window, "Primary Workspace" must be selected
Next, let's reset all settings and reload the "Primary Workspace" option so that all panels return to their original positions. Most likely, they are already located in their original places if you have not yet worked with the interface, but to be completely sure of this, click on the word “Primary workspace” in the options window and select “Reset Primary workspace” ( Reset Essentials) at the bottom of the list:
Reset all settings and reboot the “Main working environment” parameter
Now that you and I are convinced that we see the same panels, let's learn how to manage them and how to organize them. Photoshop's panels are arranged in columns on the right side of the screen. By default, there are two columns with panels - the main column on the right and a secondary, narrower one on the left (in the figure below, both columns are highlighted):
The panels are located in two columns along the right edge of the program interface
Let's take a closer look at the main column with panels. By default, Photoshop has three panels - the Color panel (at the top of the column), the Adjustments panel (in the middle), and the Layers panel (at the bottom of the column). . How do we know that we are working with the Color, Adjustments, and Layers panels? We'll understand this based on the title tab that each panel has at the top:
Three panels - Color, Adjustments and Layers - open in the main panel column
You may have noticed that although only three panels are open, there are actually more panels located in the main column. We can clearly see other tabs with different panel titles. For example, the top Color panel has a heading on the right side called Swatches, the Adjustments panel has a heading called Styles, and the Layers panel has two other headings called Channels. ) and “Contours” (Paths). What's the matter? Since working in Photoshop involves constantly dealing with multiple panels, Adobe had to find a way to avoid excessive screen clutter. A solution was proposed - to combine, “mount” two or more panels into separate groups of panels. Thus, several panels can take up the space of one panel!
How does this work? Let's look again at one of the panels we currently have open - the "Color" panel. We know this is the Color panel because the panel title at the top says Color. Next to it there is another tab with the heading “Samples”. This is an additional title for a panel that is grouped together with the Color panel, but is currently hidden behind the Color panel. Only one panel can be active at a time in a group, and we can always tell which panel it is because the titles of other inactive panels are dimmed and grayed out. To switch between panels in a group, simply click on their tab titles. In my case, the Color panel is active, but if I click on the tab titled Swatches, the Swatches panel becomes active, coming to the front. The Color panel will be hidden behind the Swatches panel, but I can easily make it active again at any time by clicking on its heading:
To switch from the Color panel to the Swatches panel, click on the title
I'll do the same with the Adjustments panel, which is currently active in its own group. I can see that the Styles panel is in the same group behind the Adjustments panel. To switch to the Styles panel, I'll click on its title. This action will cause the Styles panel to become active and the Adjustments panel to hide behind it. When I need to make the Adjustments panel active again, I'll simply click on its title:
Switch between the “Adjustments” and “Styles” panels by clicking on their titles
Notice that the Adjustments panel is located first in the group, and the Styles panel is second. There is no specific reason why the Adjustments panel is in first place, and in fact, changing the order of the panels is easy. All we need to do is click on the tab with the title of the desired panel and, while holding the mouse button pressed, move the tab to the left or right. In my case, I selected the Adjustments panel by clicking on it and, without releasing the mouse button, moved the panel to the right on the other side of the Styles panel:
Click on the tab with the title of the “Adjustments” panel and move it
After moving the panel title tab to the desired location, I release the mouse button and the panel moves to its new position. Now the “Styles” heading is the first in the group of panels, and the “Correction” heading is second:
The order of the headings was easily changed
What if, instead of just changing the order of the headings within one group, I wanted to move the panel to another group? Let's say, for example, that I want to move the Styles panel into the same group as the Color and Swatches panels. To do this, I just need to click on the tab with the title "Styles" and, again holding down the mouse button, begin to move the tab up into the new group of panels until a blue highlight border appears around the new group:
A blue highlight border appears around a group of panels that I want to add a new panel to
The blue frame signals that I can release the mouse button, at which point the program will merge the Styles panel into a group containing the Color and Swatches panels. Notice that the Adjustments panel now sits alone in its own group, which is still a group even though it only has one panel (after all, we can add to that group at any time other panels):
In the programPhotoshop is very easy to move panels from group to group.
As we have already noted, the “Correction” panel is now in a separate group. In fact, we can create a new group from any panel. Let's say I want to place the Color panel, which is currently grouped with the Swatches and Styles panels, into its own group, and I also want to position this new group just above the Adjustments panel. To do this, I'll click on the tab titled "Color" and, while holding down the mouse button, begin to move the tab towards the Adjustments panel until a blue highlight rectangle appears between the two existing panels. It's important to note that this time we're waiting for the highlight rectangle to appear, not the bounding box:
A blue highlight rectangle appears between two groups of panels
Once the highlight rectangle appears, I'll release my mouse button and Photoshop will place the Color panel in its own group between the other two groups:
A new group has been created for the Color panel
We can temporarily collapse panel groups to make more room for panel content in other groups. To temporarily collapse a group, double-click any tab with a title in that group. While the group is collapsed, all you see in it is a list of tabs with panel titles. In my case, I double-clicked the Swatches tab to collapse the group it belonged to:
Double-click any tab with a title to collapse a group of panels
To again display the entire contents of the group, click on the panel title tab once, which is what I did in my example with the Swatches tab. Double-clicking the mouse button collapses the contents of the group, single-clicking displays all the contents of the group:
Click on any tab with a title once to expand the panel group
If you no longer need an individual panel in a group and want to close it, click on that panel's title tab to make it active, and then click on the menu icon located in the top right corner of the panel. In my case, I click on the Color panel menu icon:
Each panel has its own menu, which can be accessed by clicking on the corresponding menu icon
From the menu that appears, select the “Close” command:
From the list of commands in the Color panel menu, select “Close”
This action will close one specific panel while the other panels in the group remain open. In my case, the Swatches panel remained open and the Color panel closed:
The Color panel has closed, but the Swatches panel remains open
If you want to close a group of panels entirely, click on the same menu icon in the upper right corner:
Click on the menu icon again
This time, to close the entire group of panels, from the list of menu commands that appears, select the “Close Tab Group” command:
Select the command “Close tab group”
And now a whole group of panels have disappeared (the Color and Swatches panels):
Column of panels after closing the group containing the Color and Swatches panels
To reopen a panel after closing it, or to open any other program panels, go to the “Window” section in the menu bar at the top of the screen:
In the menu bar, select the “Window” section
This action will lead to the opening of a menu section where, among other items, you can see a complete list of panels available to us in Photoshop. A check mark next to the panel name means that this panel is open and placed on the screen:
To view the full list of panels, go to the "Window" section
To open a panel that is not yet displayed on the screen (which does not have a checkmark next to it), simply click on its name in the list of panels. I'll reopen the Color panel by clicking on it:
Select the “Color” panel in the “Window” section»
And now the Color panel has reappeared in the main panel column. Notice that the Swatches panel has also appeared on the screen. This happened because the Color panel was grouped with the Swatches panel before closing, and Photoshop remembered this. The program also remembered that the Color and Swatches panel group was located directly above the Adjustments and Styles panel group. By remembering the location of the panels, the program greatly simplifies our work:
The Color panel (and Swatches panel) has been re-mirrored on screen
Before we continue, I'll add a small but important note - when we view the full list of panels in the Window section of the menu, a check mark next to the name of an individual panel means not only that it is open, but also that it is currently currently active in her group. Other panels can also be open in a group, but if they are not active (their contents are hidden behind the active panel), they will not have a check mark next to their name. For example, if we look at the Layers panel, we see that it is grouped with two other panels, Channels and Paths. But the Layers panel is currently active in the group:
The Layers panel and the Channels and Paths panels behind it
If we look at the list of panels in the Window menu section, we will see that the Layers panel, of course, has a checkmark next to its name. However, despite the fact that the Channels and Paths panels are also open on the screen, there are no checkmarks next to their names, since they are not currently active panels:
Only the Layers panel has a checkmark next to its name (unlike the Channels and Paths panels)
I'll click on the panel tab titled "Channels" to make it active in the group, causing the Layers panel to fade into the background along with the Paths panel:
Switch to the “Channels” panel
And now, if we look again at the list of panels in the “Window” section, we will see that a check mark has appeared next to the “Channels” panel. The Layers panel is still open (if I had closed it the way we walked through earlier, it would have disappeared from the screen completely), but since it is no longer the active panel in the group, there is no check mark next to its name. And of course, there is no checkmark next to the name “Contours” either. Sometimes this checkbox can confuse us. The presence of a checkmark means that the panel is open and active, the absence of a checkmark means that the panel may be closed (it is not reflected anywhere on the screen) or simply inactive and hidden behind the active panel in its group:
There is now a check mark next to the name of the “Channels” panel, and there is no longer a check mark next to the name “Layers”
So far we have only looked at the main column with panels, but to the left of the main column there is also a secondary column. At first glance, this column seems a little strange because, by default, the panels in this column are presented as icons:
The second column with panels is located to the left of the main column
Initially, this second column contains two panels - the History panel at the top and the Properties panel below it. You may be thinking with irritation: “How can we figure out what these panels are by looking at the strange icons?” First, if you have the Show Tool Tips option checked in the Settings section (it's checked by default), as soon as you hover your mouse over each icon, the panel names will appear on the screen.
Secondly, and this is much more convenient, you can hover your mouse over the left edge of the column and it will turn into a double-headed arrow. Once the arrow appears, click on the edge of the column and, while holding down the mouse button, drag the edge to the left to resize the panel. As we move the edge, the names of the panels will appear near the icons, which will be much more useful for us. Once you've added enough space for the panel titles to fit in, release your mouse button:
Change the width of the second column with panels to display the panel names next to the icons
The secondary column is especially suitable for placing panels on it that we need open not all the time, but periodically. The good thing about displaying panels as icons is that in this form the panels do not take up much space on the screen, and we can quickly access them. If we click on the panel icon (or its name), Photoshop will temporarily expand the panel to its full size so we can work with it. In my case, I'll expand the History panel by clicking on its icon/title:
Click on the icon/title of the “History” panel to expand it to full size
To collapse the panel back to icon view, we can either click on its icon/title again, or click on the little double arrow icon:
Click on the small double arrow icon to collapse the panel
We can expand all the panels in the second column at once by clicking on the smaller double arrow icon in the top right corner of the column:
In order to collapse all panels even further - to the view of only icons, move the mouse cursor over the line dividing the main and secondary column. When your cursor turns into a double-headed arrow, click on the dividing line and drag it to the right until only the panel icons remain visible. When working with columns, where all panels are presented only in the form of icons, a lot of free space is freed up on the screen, however, for the work to be effective, you must remember the names of all the icons well. I wouldn't recommend this way of displaying panels, but that's just my opinion:
Now all panels in both columns are presented as icons
To quickly expand the main column of panels to full size, click the double arrow icon in the top right corner again:
Click on the double arrow to expand the main column with panels to full size
And now the main column is presented in its original expanded form, which is how I usually leave it:
The main column is now presented in its original expanded form
Moving panels between columns
We can move panels from one column to another with the same ease as between groups. In my case, I opened several more panels (Histogram, Info, and Navigator) by selecting them from the Window menu. The program placed the panels in a secondary column, along with the History and Properties panels that were originally in the column:
Three new panels have been added to the second column
Let's say I want to group the Properties panel, which is located in a secondary column, with the Adjustments panel in the primary column. To do this, you just need to click on the title of the “Properties” panel and, while holding down the mouse button, begin to move the panel in the main column to the “Adjustments” panel until the familiar blue highlight frame appears:
Move the “Properties” panel into the group with the “Correction” panel
I'll release the mouse button and the program will place the Properties panel in a new group in a new column. We can do the same thing in the opposite direction by clicking on the bar and moving it from the primary to the secondary column:
The Properties panel is now grouped with the Adjustments and Styles panels
Finally, I suggest you consider a few useful keyboard shortcuts for temporarily hiding all panels on the screen. Pressing the Tab key once will cause all panels on the right side of the screen, the toolbar on the left side, and the settings panel at the top of the screen to temporarily disappear. In other words, all panels except the menu bar will disappear. Pressing the Tab key again will cause all panels to appear in place.
To hide panels located only on the right, press Shift+Tab once. Pressing Shift+Tab a second time will bring the panels back:
The panels located on the right will temporarily hide after pressing a key combinationShift+Tab
With hidden panels, move your mouse all the way to the right side of the screen and the panels will temporarily appear on the screen. If you move your mouse cursor away from the right side of the screen, the panels will disappear again:
Moving the mouse cursor to the right side of the screen will temporarily display the panels
I'll add a small note at the end... If during our lesson you worked with the panels yourself, making some changes on the screen, and now want to return the original settings of the panels back, simply reload the "Main work environment" parameter, guided by the steps that we discussed in at the very beginning of our lesson.
And now we're done! We've taken a closer look at the different ways you can work with the panels that make up a large part of the Photoshop CS6 interface! To further explore the program, visit our Photoshop Basics section for various tutorials on layers, selections, interface, and other elements of the program, or explore other topics that interest you!
Translation: Ksenia Rudenko
