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Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for Photographers
Memory & Image Cache
The image cache settings affect the speed of screen redraws. Whenever you are working
with a large image, Photoshop uses a pyramid type structure of lower resolution, cached
versions of the full resolution picture. Each cached image is a quarter scale version of the
previous cache level and is temporarily stored in memory to provide speedier screen
previews. Basically, if you are viewing a large image on screen in ‘fit to screen’ display
mode, Photoshop will use a cache level that is closest to the fit to screen resolution to
provide a screen refresh view of any edit changes you make at this viewing scale. The
cached screen previews can provide you with faster screen redraws and larger im-
ages will therefore benefit from using a higher cache level. A higher setting will pro-
vide a faster screen redraw, but at the expense of sacrificing the quality of the preview.
This is because a lower resolution cache preview is not as accurate as viewing the
image at Actual Pixels. You may sometimes notice how the layered Photoshop im-
age on screen is not completely accurate at anything other than the 100% magnifica-
tion – this is the image cache at work, it is speeding up the display preview at the
expense of accuracy. Note also that the number of cache levels chosen here will affect
the structure of a ‘Save Image Pyramid’ TIFF file.
Figure 6.8 If you are editing large images, increase the image cache setting to 5 or more. This will
speed up the screen redraws. Deselect the Use cache for histograms as this will give you more accurate
histograms at screen magnifications other than Actual Pixels (see Chapter Eight).
The PC Windows and Mac OS X memory management allocation is set as a percentage
of the total RAM available. Photoshop starts with a default setting of 75%. If more appli-
cations are required to run simultaneously, this percentage may need to be lowered, but
this then means that Photoshop will not run quite as fast. The ideal solution is to run
Photoshop entirely on its own and allocate the highest percentage of RAM memory to
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The work space
Photoshop that will reasonably allow you to run both the operating system and
Photoshop. I normally have over a gigabyte of RAM memory on my computers and
leave the percentage set at 85%.
Image window
The document window displays extra information about the image in the two boxes
located in the bottom left corner of the image window (Mac) or at the bottom of the
screen (PC). The left-most displays the zoom scaling percentage, showing the cur-
rent zoom factor. You can type in a new percentage of any value you like from 0.2%
to 1600% up to two decimal places and hit Return to set this as the new viewing
resolution. In the middle is the Work Group Server button, which you can use to
check in or check out a document that is being shared over a WebDAV server. Next
to this is the Preview box. Mousing down on the Preview box will display an outline
box of how the image will be scaled relative to the current Page Setup paper size.
The preview reflects the image dimensions at the current pixel resolution. The reso-
lution can be checked by holding down the Option/Alt key while you mouse down. This
will display both the dimensions and image resolution. Command/Ctrl + mouse down
shows the image tiling information. The Preview box also displays updated information
about the file. The display information can be changed by mousing down on the arrow
next to the box to select one of the following:
Document Sizes displays the current document size. The first figure is the file size of
a flattened version of the image. The second, the size if saved including all the layers.
Document Profile displays the current profile assigned to an open document.
Document Dimensions displays the physical image dimensions, as would cur-
rently be shown in the Image Size dialog box.
Scratch Sizes – the first figure displays the amount of RAM memory used. The
second figure shows the total RAM memory after the system and application over-
head available to Photoshop. The latter figure remains constant and only changes if
you quit Photoshop and reconfigure the memory partition. The amount of RAM
memory consumed can be minimized if you avoid making too many global changes
in a row to an image.
Efficiency summarizes the current performance capability of Photoshop. Basically
it provides a simplified report on the amount of Scratch Disk usage. Low percent-
ages warn that it may be advisable to purge the clipboard or undo memory (Edit >
Purge > Clipboard/Undo).
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Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for Photographers
Timing times Photoshop operations. It records the time taken to filter an image or
the accumulated timing of a series of brush strokes. Every time you change tools or
execute a new operation, the timer resets itself.
Tool Selection displays the name of the tool you currently have selected. This is a
useful aide-mémoire for users who like to work with most of the palettes hidden.
Title bar proxy icons (Macintosh)
Macintosh users may see a proxy image icon in the title bar. This is dimmed when
the document is in an unsaved state and is reliant on there being a preview icon;
many JPEGs will not have these until saved as something else. Control-drag the
proxy icon to copy and relocate the saved file to another location. Command-click to
view the file’s folder heirarchy and jump to a specific folder location.
Managing document windows
You can create a second window view of the image you are working on by choosing
View > New View. The image is duplicated in a second window. For example, you
can have one window with the image at a Fit to Screen view and the other zoomed in
close-up on a detailed area. Any changes you make can then be viewed simulta-
neously in both windows. If you refer back to the chapter on color management you
will remember you can use multiple window views to soft proof the image in differ-
Figure 6.9 The window layout of a Photoshop document as it appears on the Macintosh. If you
mouse down on the arrow icon next to the status information box, you can select the type of the
information you wish to see displayed there.
Hold down the Option/Alt key to display
the file size and resolution information.
Hold down the Command/Ctrl key to
display the tiling.
Mouse down to display a scaled preview
of the size the image will print with the
current page setup.
Preview box options
Title bar proxy icon
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137
The work space
ent color spaces. You can arrange the way all the document windows are displayed
on the screen. Choose Window > Documents > Cascade to have all cascading down
from the upper left corner of the screen. Choose Window > Documents > Tile to have all
the currently opened image windows tiled edge to edge.
Figure 6.10 To open a second window view of a Photoshop document, choose View > New View.
Changes applied to the close-up view are automatically updated in the full frame view. New view
document windows can usefully be used to display the same image with different color proof setups
applied, so you can preview an RGB image in a different CMYK color space in each new view window.
Photo: Eric Richmond.
Rulers, Guides & Grid
The Grid provides you with a means for aligning image elements to the horizontal
and vertical axis (go to the View menu and choose Show Grid). To alter the grid
spacing, go to the General preferences and select Guides & Grid. To see a practical
example of using Guides in a project that involves a PageMaker layout created partly
in Photoshop, see the tutorial at the end of Chapter Eleven about preparing a flyer
design for Ocean Images, swapping between PageMaker and Photoshop. Guides can
flexibly be positioned anywhere in the image area and be used for the precise posi-
tioning and alignment of image elements. Guides can be added at any time, provid-
ing the Rulers are displayed (View > Show Rulers). To add a new guide, mouse
down and drag out a new guide from the ruler bar. Release the mouse to drop the
guideline in place. If you are not happy with the positioning, select the move tool
and drag the guide into the exact required position. But once positioned, it is a good
idea to lock the guides to avoid accidentally moving them again.
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Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for Photographers
‘Snap to’ behavior
The Snap option in the View menu allows you to toggle the snap to behavior for the
Guides, Grid, Slices, Document bounds and Layer bounds. The shortcut for toggling
snap to behavior is Command-semicolon (;). When the Snap to is active and you
reposition an image, type or shape layer, or use a crop or marquee selection tool,
these will snap to one or more of the above. It is also the case that when snap is
active, and new guides are added with the Shift key held down, the guide will snap to
the nearest indentation on the ruler. Objects on layers will snap to position when
placed within close proximity of a guide edge. The reverse is also true: when drag-
ging a guide, it will snap to the edge of an object on a layer at the point where the
opacity is greater than 50%. Furthermore you can Lock Guides and Clear Guides. If
the ruler units need changing, double-click anywhere on a ruler to call up the Ruler
Units preferences dialog box. If the rulers are visible but the guides are hidden, drag-
ging out a new guide will make the others reappear. You can even position a guide
using New Guide Enter the exact measurement coordinate for the horizontal or
vertical axis in the dialog box.
The Photoshop palettes
The Photoshop palettes can be positioned anywhere you like on the screen by mous-
ing down on the palette title bar and dragging to a new location. You can change the
depth of a palette by dragging the size box at the bottom. To return a palette to its default
size, click the zoom box at the top (Macintosh) or click the minimize/maximize box
(Windows). One click will resize, a second click collapses the palette. Double-clicking
Figure 6.11 These windows show the Grid (back) & Guides. To display the Grid, chose View > Show >
Grid. To position a Guide, choose View > Show Rulers and drag from either the horizontal or vertical ruler.
Hold down the Shift key as you drag to make the guide snap to a ruler tick mark (providing View >
Snap is checked). Command/Ctrl-H will toggle hiding/showing Extras like the Grid & Guides. Hold down
the Option/Alt key to switch dragging a horizontal guide to dragging it as a vertical (and vice versa).
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139
The work space
the palette tab will collapse the palette. If an uncollapsed palette is positioned on the
bottom of the screen display, the palette collapses downwards when you double-click on
the palette tab and open upwards again when you double-click.
Palettes can be grouped together. To do this mouse down on the palette tab and drag
it across to another palette. When palettes are grouped this way they are like folders
in a filing cabinet. Click on a tab to bring a palette to the front of the group. To
separate a palette from a group, mouse down on the tab and drag it outside of the palette
group.
Palette docking
The Photoshop palettes can be arranged in individual
groups (as in the default work space layout setting) or they
can be docked together as shown right. If you have a lim-
ited sized screen this is a convenient way of arranging the
palettes and it also makes it easier to expand and shrink
the height of individual palettes so as to allow more room
to expand to one or more of the other palettes.
To set up palette docking, first separate all your palettes
and position one palette (like Color) immediately below
another (the Navigator/Info/Character & Paragraph set)
and slowly drag the tab of the lower palette up to meet the
bottom edge of the one above. As the palettes dock, you
will see the bottom edge of the upper palette change to a
double bar. Release and the two palettes are joined. Drag
the Swatches and Style palette across to rejoin the Color
palette. Repeat by separating the History and Actions pal-
ette and doing the same with the History palette, dragging
the tab up to the base of the Color palette set.
When the cursor is positioned over the palette divider, you
will see the icon change to a double arrow, indicating that
you can adjust the relative height between two sets of pal-
ettes (where allowable). If you drag on the lower height
adjustment/grow tab in any palette, you can adjust the over-
all height of the docked palette grouping.
Figure 6.12 The Photoshop 7.0 palettes shown with vertical docking.
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Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for Photographers
Workspace settings
If you are searching for a particular palette and can’t find it, the palette may just be
hidden. Go to the Window menu and select the palette name from the menu. The Tab
key shortcut will toggle hiding and showing all the palettes. Tab + Shift will toggle
hiding/showing all the currently visible palettes except the Tools palette and Options
bar. This is useful to remember if all your palettes seem to have disappeared. Try
pressing the Tab key to get to view them again.
If at any time you wish to restore the palette positions, go to the Window > Workspace
menu and select Reset Palette Locations. You can save the current palette arrange-
ment as a custom Workspace. Go to the Window menu and choose Workspace >
Save Workspace A dialog box will pop up that will ask you to name the workspace
and save it. The next time you visit the Window > Workspace menu you will see the
saved workspace appear in the menu listing. This is a real handy feature that enables
you to switch quickly between different custom palette arrangements. If you want to
be extra clever, you can record the loading of a saved Workspace setting as an action
and assign a hot key to play the action. This will allow you to switch workspace
settings using a single keystroke. If you want to remove a workspace setting, use the
Delete Workspace command. If you have a second monitor display, you can ar-
range for all the palettes to be displayed nestled on the second screen, leaving the
main monitor clear to display the whole image.
Figure 6.13 The Save Workspace menu in
Photoshop 7.0 can be used to save custom
palette workspace setups. These can be re-
called by revisiting the menu and highlighting
the workspace name. To remove a workspace,
choose Delete Workspace from the menu.
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The work space
File Browser
The File Browser is one of the star attractions of Photoshop 7.0. More detailed infor-
mation about the File Browser can be found in the preceding Chapter Five on file
management and output. The Browser palette behavior is a cross between a Photoshop
palette and a document window. It makes sense to use the File Browser big on the
screen and you will probably want to open it up first as a separate window and scale
it up as big as you can make it and then either close or dock it to the palette well in
the Options bar. The next time you open the File Browser up, the size setting will be
remembered. Personally, I prefer to dock the File Browser to the palette well. This
allows me to select an image from the thumbnail pane area, and when I double-click
to open the image, the File browser will close as the selected image(s) opens (Option/Alt
+ double-clicking will keep the File Browser open on screen). If you have a two
monitor setup then of course you can always have the File Browser permanently left
open as an undocked palette window. Using this setup, the File Browser will always
remain open after you use it to open an image. It is useful to know that you can use
the F5 keyboard shortcut if you want to refresh the list tree view of folder informa-
tion and update it to recognize a recently created folder.
Figure 6.14 The File Browser palette.
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Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for Photographers
Navigator
The Navigator is usually grouped
with the Info, Character and Paragraph
palettes. The Navigator offers an
easy and direct method of scrolling
and zooming in and out of the image
window. The palette window con-
tains a small preview of the whole
image and enables you to scroll very
fast, with a minimum of mouse
movement by dragging the colored
rectangle. This colored rectangle in-
dicates the current view as seen in
relation to the whole image (other
rectangle colors can be selected via
the palette fly-out menu options). To
operate the zoom, hold down the
Command/Ctrl key and drag the
mouse to define an area to zoom to.
Alternatively, with the slider control at the bottom, you can quickly zoom in and out
or click on the ‘little mountain’ or ‘big mountain’ icons to adjust the magnification in
increments. You can also type in a specific zoom percentage in the bottom left corner
up to two decimal places and hit Return or Enter to set the new zoom percentage. It
is also possible to resize the palette as shown in the illustration here, by dragging
the bottom of the palette window out – this will provide you with a bigger preview.
Info
This palette reports information relating to the position of the
cursor in the image window, namely: pixel color values and
coordinate positions. When you drag with a tool, the coordi-
nates update and in the case of crop, marquee, line and zoom
tools, report back the size of a dragging movement. The
submenu leads to Palette Options Here you can change
the preferences for the ruler units and color readouts. The
default color display shows pixel values for the current selected color mode plus the
CMYK equivalents. When working in RGB, illegal colors which fall outside the
current CMYK workspace gamut are expressed with an exclamation mark against
the CMYK value.
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The work space
Tool Options bar
When you first install Photoshop, the Options bar will appear at the top of the screen,
snapped to the main menu. This is a very convenient location for the tool options,
and you will soon appreciate the ease with which you can make changes to the op-
tions with minimal mouse navigation movement. The Options bar can be unhooked,
by dragging the gripper bar (on the left edge) away from the top of the screen. The
Options bar contains a ‘palette well’ docking area to the right, which will be visible
whenever the Options bar is docked at the top or bottom of the screen and your monitor
pixel display is at least 1024 × 768 pixels (although ideally you will want a larger pixel
display to see this properly). Palettes can be docked here by dragging a palette tab into the
Options bar palette well. Palettes docked this way are made visible by clicking on the
palette tab. One advantage of this arrangement is that you can use the Shift+Tab key
shortcut to toggle hiding the palette stack only, keeping just the Tools palette and Options
bar visible. The individual Options bar settings for each tool are shown throughout the
rest of this chapter. To reset a tool or all tools, mouse down on the tool icon on the left.
The ‘tick’ and ‘cross’ icons are there to make it simpler for users to know how to exit a
tool which is in a modal state.
In Photoshop 7.0 you can change the palette tab order by Control/Right mouse-clicking
on a palette tab that is in the well. A contextual menu will enable you to select to
move the palette tab left or right or to the beginning or end of the palette well.
Figure 6.15 The Tool Options bar and palette
well showing the contextual menu.
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