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Easy Photoshop Tips

1) Use the Paint Brush tool to "paint away" color to black and white while working on a color image to make a section of your image stand out dramatically. From the Paint Brush Options palette, change the blend mode to Color and then paint to remove the color from the image.

2) Press Shift to add more to the selection or Alt to take away from the selection when using your magic wand tool.

3. Follow steps FILE > Automate > Web Images Gallery to have Photoshop's image gallery build a webpage of thumbnailed images for you. Great if you have a lot of images to display.

4) To automatically select the entire text layer, double click on the 'T' on a Type layer in the Layers Palette.

There are at least two ways to switch between the different measurement units that Photoshop displays.

5. Option one is to change them in your Preferences by choosing Units & Rulers (in Photoshop 7 under Mac OS 9, Preferences is found under the Edit menu) in the Photoshop menu under Preferences. At this point you can change the ruler units and click OK.

6. Option two is to open the Info Palette (go to the Window menu and choose Info) and click on the small triangle next to the cross in the lower left quadrant. This will bring up a menu that will permit you to change units.

7) To cycle through different screen modes, simply press the F key

8. By holding the Cmd/Ctrl key and clicking the mouse on that layer in the Layers palette, you can select only the pixels and not the transparency area of the layer

9. Do you have a layer style you like to use a lot? You can save that layer style as a style that will show up in your styles palette. In the Blending Options, just under OK and Cancel you'll see 'Save Style'. Name it and save it. You'll then find this new style in the Styles palette. Note: the style must be in its own layer.

10. Sometimes when you combine multiple images, there will be a bit of fringe around the edges of the composite images. Often you can hide this by going to Layers > Matting > Defringe. At the dialogue box, choose the default setting; it that doesn't work, undo it, and try Defringe again at a setting of 2.

11) If you have too many layers, simply select the right layer by using the move tool (V). Right click the mouse over the layer and a drop down list will appear.

Alternatively, you can put your layers in layer sets. On the bottom of your layers palette, click the create new layers set (looks like a folder), name the new layer set, and just drag the layers you like in that set. Great for coping a set too. Highlight the set right click and copy.

12) Press Shift-Command-M (Mac)/ Shift-Control-M (PC) to toggle between Photoshop and ImageReady.

13) To reach the Save for Web dialogue swiftly, press Shift-Command-Option-S (Mac)/ Shift-Control-Alt-S (PC).

14. If you want to duplicate your current layer, press Cmd/Ctrl J.

15) To bring up the Extract dialogue box, press Command-Option-X (Mac)/ Control-Alt-X (PC). Within the Extract dialogue box, switch to the Extract Edge Highlighter tool by pressing the letter "b.", the Fill tool by pressing the letter "k.", and change the Edge Highlighter's brush size by holding the ] key to make it larger and the [ to make it smaller.