Photoshop CS general preferences settings


The overall Preferences panel is to select some options that are, well, general in nature. You can select some choices from drop-down lists, yet others are check boxes you can select or deselect to activate or disable that option. Here is a rundown of options in the upper part of the pane:

Color Picker: Make use of the familiar Adobe Color Picker to pick precise colors or use the Windows or Macintosh system color pickers, as desired. You might like to make use of the Windows or Apple color picker, for instance, if you have previously defined some custom colors outside Photoshop and today wish to make them readily available for a Photoshop project.

HUD Color Picker: The HUD (heads-up display) Color Picker enables you to quickly select colors inside the image window without needing to access the colour Picker. Choose whether you'll need a strip or wheel of color.

Image Interpolation: When Photoshop resizes an image, it has to either create new pixels or combine existing pixels. To get this done, the program examines neighboring pixels and uses the info to derive the brand new or replacement pixels. You can choose the kind of mathematical algorithm Photoshop uses to get this done, if you likely wish to stay with the default option, Bicubic.

In the Options area of the General Preferences dialog box, you discover nearly twelve check boxes that you can select or deselect, as described in the following list:

Auto-Update Open Documents: When you are focusing on an image and proceed to another application to operate on the same image, you'll likely want the alterations made in the other application to mirror in the document still open in Photoshop. Select this check box so that Photoshop monitors the document and updates its version whenever the document is modified in the other application.

Beep When Done: I recall unhealthy old days when computers were slow and Photoshop would have a few minutes to use the Gaussian Blur filter or perform calculations when merging even moderate-sized image layers. The Beep When Done signal was my cue to prevent watching tv and resume dealing with Photoshop. Although most operations are a lot faster today, if you are dealing with large images or just enjoy being notified whenever a step is completed, the beep option can be handy.

Dynamic Color Sliders: The sliders in the Color panel change colors to complement the settings you make. If your computer is on the slow side, you can switch off this feature to enhance performance.

Export Clipboard: If this feature is active, Photoshop transfers its private clipboard (used only within Photoshop) towards the general Windows or Macintosh Clipboard so that you can paste information into other applications. If you activate this method, switching from Photoshop with other applications requires a bit more time, and Photoshop's clipboard contents replace whatever was in your system Clipboard whenever you switched.

The clipboard generally is a poor vehicle for moving image data between applications since the transferred information might not be of the highest quality. Instead, save your file and open it up in the other application. If you do that, you can switch off the Export Clipboard option, helping you save a while when switching between applications. Additionally, many applications offer the dragging and dropping of files between programs.

Use Shift Key for Tool Switch: If this feature is active, you can vary from one tool in the Tools panel to a different in the same flyout menu (say, to alter in the Gradient tool towards the Paint Bucket tool) by pressing the Shift key and also the keyboard shortcut for that tool.

Resize Image During Paste/Place: Automatically, whenever you place or paste files that are bigger than the document they're being pasted or place into, the files are resized to suit. Deselect this method to achieve the file import using its exact dimensions.

Animated Zoom: This method allows you to zoom in smoothly, instead of in increments, when holding on the mouse button or pressing Ctrl+plus/equal sign.

Zoom Resizes Windows: Select this check box if you want your document windows to develop and shrink to suit your document while you zoom in and out. Deselect this check box if you want the document's window to continually stay the same size; you might like to deselect the check box if you frequently use several documents alongside and do not would like them to alter relative size while you zoom in and out.

Zoom with Scroll Wheel: This handy option enables your mouse scroll wheel to become zooming tool, no matter which tool you use.

Zoom Clicked Indicate Center: If selected, whenever you click the Zoom tool in a specific location, that location then becomes the middle of your image window.

Enable Flick Panning: If selected, whenever you quickly drag and release using the Hand tool, the image is constantly on the move, slowly decelerating to some stop.

Place or Drag Raster Images as Smart Objects: Select this method to produce Smart Object layers while using the File Place command or when dragging and dropping raster images using their company applications in the browser or from your desktop.

In the History Log area, you can have Photoshop record all your editing commands. A brief history Log feature is handy if you wish to present a finished, fully edited image to some client or manager, but need in order to show the steps of the way you arrived. Or you desire a record of the steps so that you can repeat them on other images and do not wish to depend on your memory. You've got a few formats in which you can save your history log:

Metadata: Saving the log to metadata (information embedded in your image file) enables you to see the log in the Bridge window and in the History tab of the File - File Info dialog box.

Text File: You can save the log to some text file. Click the Choose button use a name and placement for that file.

Both: This method saves the log as both metadata along with a text file.

Edit Log Items: You decide on Sessions Only, Concise, or Detailed. The Sessions Only option records your editing before you close the file or quit Photoshop. The Concise option looks after a comprehensive log (multiple sessions), but in short and sweet steps. The Detailed option supplies a comprehensive, detailed log. For instance, a tight log entry might be just Crop, whereas an in depth log entry might be Crop to rectangle, also supplying the original and cropped dimensions, the angle, and also the resolution values.

The final option in the General Preferences dialog box may be the Reset All Warning Dialogs button. If you have switched off the display of certain warnings by choosing the Do not show Me This Dialog Box Again check box, you can reactivate all of the warnings by clicking this button.

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This article was sent to us by: Randy Daniels at 09282011

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