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10 Simple Adobe Photoshop Tips
1. Get into the depth of keyboard shortcuts
Knowing and learning the keyboard shortcuts would aid you in speeding up the overall processing workflow. Some of the most widely used keyboard shortcuts include the following:
- Space bar – this serves as a temporary hand key
- D – this sets the background/foreground colours to default
- F – this toggles through the display screen modes
- B – this acts as the paintbrush tool
- E – this works as the eraser tool
- X – this shortcut allows you to swap between foreground and background colors
- W – this acts as a quick selection tool
- S – this serves as a stamp or cloning tool
- Ctrl+j – this shortcuts is used for duplicating the selected layer
In addition to above, there are many other shortcuts, which if known to the fullest can improve your productivity by a great leap.
2. Undo for eliminating your sketching mistakes
As a web designer, you might be into the habit of undoing every mistake done on the sketching part. Well, this is something that can help you in troubleshooting key issues with your photpshop designs. Typically you press Ctrl+Z each time you’re interested in undoing any of your previous actions. But, if you need to undo multiple times, then Photoshop offers you a simple shortcut to this as well. All you need to do is press Alt+Ctrl+Z and you’ll be able to undo multiple times.
3. Opt for the ‘Paste in Place’ function
Once you’re done with making a selection either in the current document or a new one, simply copy using the traditional technique of choosing Edit-> Copy. After viewing this document, for pasting it use the shortcut keys viz: Ctrl+Shift+V in case of Windows and Cmd+Shift+V in case of Mac.
4. Set the styles in an interactive way
While adding a drop-shadow layer style, it is recommended to move the dialogue box to a specific side. You can use your mouse for moving the shadow to the layer which is casting the shadow.
5. Enable the option for saving the history of changes made to the layer visibility
There are situations wherein you may tend to lose the layer visibility settings while having a glimpse at the individual layers. It is here that selecting the checkbox for enabling history state for layer visibility comes into action. After selecting this checkbox, you can conveniently use the keys Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+Z for stepping backwards across the history of changes which have been made to the visibility of individual layers.
6. Proper organization of files is mandatory
There are chances of going wrong when it comes to naming and organizing files while working with Adobe Photoshop. Follow proper naming conventions and color code your layers for building an absolutely stunning design.
7. Moderate the brush size and hardness
While the size of the brush within Photoshop can be changed using the square bracket keys [ and ], it is possible to change the hardness of this brush by simply holding down the ‘Shift’ key while tapping on [ and ].
8. Apply filters to your images
If you’ve just started off with designing websites using Adobe Photoshop, it is recommended to apply filters to your images. Each filter will allow you to add a special effect to the images, thereby making them look more appealing.
9. Scrub the mouse over multiple input values
If you’re interested in changing the opacity of a particular layer, then instead of clicking into the opacity field of layers panel, it is better to click and drag on the specific value for the opacity. Here, a scrub to the right would increase the opacity and a scrub to the left would reduce it.
10. Make the most of photoshop’s screen sharing feature
Recently, Photoshop has been equipped with the ability to share the screen with other users. To get started with this, all you need to do is Choose File-> Share My Screen, followed by logging in using your Acrobat.com username/password. Additionally, you’ll also be able to chat and share webcam footage for maximum collaboration on a particular website design project.
Wrapping Up
After having acquainted yourself with the above mentioned quick Photoshop tips, I’m sure it’d become easier for you to get on with designing brilliant stuff for your clients who’re always on a look out for perfect websites.
Author Bio
Samuel Dawson is a serious developer in creating very interactive web applications in very less time. He is working in Designs2HTML Ltd- an exuberant company to convert psd to html having long years of experience. Samuel also plays tennis, hockey and badminton.