*** From the Archives ***

This article is from September 29, 2006, and is no longer current.

Photoshop Quick Tips


Quick Color Change
To change the color of an image, press Cmd/Ctrl+U to open the Hue/Saturation dialog box (Figure 1). Then move the Hue slider to change the color. Use the Saturation control to adjust color intensity, and Lightness to adjust… well, the lightness. Click on Colorize to add color to a grayscale image or to add a duotone effect to an RGB/CMYK image.


Figure 1. The Hue/Saturation dialog box.

 
I also like to use Hue/Saturation’s Colorize checkbox to restore some luster to an image after converting from RGB to CMYK.
Close Multiple Windows
You’ve got a zillion Photoshop windows open, and now you want them all to go away. How long would it take you to close them manually? No need — just hold down the shift key when you go File> Close and Photoshop will close all the open documents.
Use RGB Filters While in CMYK
Some filters, such as the Render filters, are disabled in CMYK. To get around this, work in RGB mode with CMYK preview turned on (CTRL/CMD+Y). Build your file as normal; when you are finished, convert it to CMYK. This will allow all the filters to work, give you a smaller file, and you won’t lose your colors when you convert the file. Only use CMYK for going to a commercial printing press.
Custom Gradients Made Easy
When you are making a new color gradient and you want to use the same color more than once, don’t recreate it. Just hold down the Option/Alt key and drag a copy of the slider.
Easily Load Layer Styles
Start Photoshop. Navigate to the layer styles files on your hard disk and right-click/Option-click, then select Open. Photoshop automatically loads the style set.
Reset Preferences
A lot of Photoshop problems can be fixed by dumping the Preferences file. While launching Photoshop, hold down Alt+Ctrl+Shift on the PC or Cmd+Option+Shift on the Mac. When asked to reset the preferences, choose Yes.
But before you do this, save your custom Patterns, actions, styles, brushes, gradients, shapes, and color palettes. These will also be reset, and you don’t want to lose them forever. You can even create an action to do this, so you have a one click backup! (Don’t forget to save the backup action first.)
Make a New Document from a Layer
In the Layers palette, when you choose Duplicate Layer, you can change the document setting to “New” to create a brand new picture from any layer. I wish I knew about this one a few years ago!
Straight Lines with Brushes
To draw a straight line with any of the brush tools, just click, hold the Shift key, and click again where you want the line to end. Photoshop will draw a straight line between the two points! This trick also works with most tools, including erasers and even the highlight tool in the Extract filter.
Keyboard Shortcuts
There’s nothing like keyboard shortcuts to save time and ease strain on your fingers. Print out the following shortcuts until you memorize them.
Change the brush size. Press the [ ] keys. If you hold the shift key down and press the [and ] keys, the brush gets softer and harder, respectively. (You can change the level up to five times.) Try it, it rocks. And it works for a bunch of Photoshop tools.
Quick fills. To fill a layer or selection with the foreground color, press Alt/Option+Delete. To fill a layer or selection with the background color, press Command/Ctrl+Delete. Now to get really cool: To fill just the area with pixels, hold down the Shift key as well as the keys I mentioned above. This toggles the Preserve Transparency option. Press Shift+Backspace to open the Fill dialog box.
Bring up the Free Transform tool. Ctrl/Cmd +T. Scale and rotate the object by dragging its handles. Right-click (Cmd-Click on the Mac) to do lots of cool things, such as skew and distort.
Hide the “marching ants” (selection marquee). Press Ctrl+H (Command+H on the Mac).
Select all pixels on a layer. In the Layers palette, click on the layer thumbnail while holding down the Cmd/Ctrl key.
Move a selection to its own layer. Press CMD+J (Ctrl+J on Windows) to copy the selection. To cut and move a selection, press Shift+Cmd+J (Shift+Ctrl+J on Windows).
Suck out all the color. Press Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+U to remove all the color (called “Desaturate”) and make your image grayscale while still in RGB mode. Note: using the channel mixer will produce a better result. Click on the Grayscale option.
Auto-select a layer. Hold down the Cmd/Ctrl key while clicking on a layer in Photoshop’s main image window.
Hide and seek. Press the F key to cycle through different screen modes. Press Tab to hide the tools.
 

  • anonymous says:

    Hello,
    To close all opened windows, there is a quicker shortcut:
    option-command-w on Mac.
    I guess it’s with control in Window…

  • anonymous says:

    they speed up the workflow

  • anonymous says:

    Auto Select Fill: Adding the Shift key did not do anything in Windows and CS2.
    Quick Layers: In Windows you need to right-click to auto-select a layer.
    Liked the one on Create a New Document from a Layer. Thanks. Yes, I could have used this one many times also. I use Merge All Layers into a New Layer often. Let me know if you don’t know that one.
    Thanks.
    Joe Butts

  • >
    Notice: We use cookies on our websites to give you a great online experience. If you keep browsing, we'll assume you're ok with this. For more information, see our privacy policy. By closing this banner, you agree to the use of cookies.I AGREENo