- Introduction
- Setting General Preferences
- Modifying File Handling Preferences
- Working with Display & Cursors Preferences
- Controlling Transparency & Gamut Preferences
- Working with Units & Rulers
- Working with Guides, Grids & Slices
- Selecting Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks
- Allocating Memory & Image Cache
- Working with the File Browser
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Setting General Preferences
Photoshop's General preferences help you configure some of the more common features of the program. Image quality settings, as well as the new History log are setup in General preferences. Other options such as showing Tool Tips, beeping when an operation is finished, and using Smart Quotes, can all be turned on or off in the options area. The new History Log lets you save all the History States performed on a particular document. For example, when you open an image, all the adjustments and actions performed can now be saved in a document file. This gives you access to valuable information, and lets you reproduce the steps performed on one image, to correct the contents of another.
Work with General Options
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Click the Edit (Win) or Photoshop (Mac) menu, and then point to Preferences.
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Click General.
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Click the Color Picker list arrow, and then select Adobe or another operating system (Windows or Macintosh).
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Click the Image Interpolation list arrow, and then select Nearest Neighbor (Faster), Bilinear, or one of the Bicubic options.
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Enter the amount of History States steps you want to keep as undos, you can enter up to 1,000.
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Select the various options you want to use:
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Export Clipboard. Transfers a copied image to the operating systems clipboard.
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Show Tool Tips. Shows labels when your cursor is placed over an option.
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Zoom Resizes Windows. Forces the image window to resize when zoom is selected.
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Auto-Update Open Documents. Creates a link between the open image and the image file on disk.
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Show Asian Text Options. Allows you to see characters in Asian text.
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Beep When Done. Sounds when an operation is complete.
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Dynamic Color Sliders. Previews color effects within the slider bars.
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Save Palette Locations. Defaults the palette locations.
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Show Font Names In English. Shows Fonts Names in English.
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Use Shift Key For Tool Switch. Allows you to use the keyboard shortcut when two tools share the same slot in the toolbox.
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Use Smart Quotes. Creates a matched pair of quotation marks around a work or group of words.
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Select the History Log options you want to use.
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Click OK.
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Figure
3.1NOTE
Important!
History States impact Photoshop's performance by holding the History States in RAM memory. The more History States used, the more RAM memory is required. Using an extensive number of History States can impact Photoshop's performance.
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Figure
3.2NOTE
Working with Image Interpolation
When you change the resolution of an image, Photoshop adds or subtracts pixels to comply with the new settings. For example, when you change the resolution of an image from 72 PPI (Pixels Per Linear Inch) to 144 PPI, Photoshop must add more pixels. Conversely, if you reduce the resolution, Photoshop must remove pixels. The image interpolation method determines how Photoshop completes this process. You can use the Nearest Neighbor method for the fastest way, but it produces the poorest visual image. Or, you can use the Bicubic Sharper method which takes the longest to perform, but produces the best visual results.