- 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
Working with Display & Cursors Preferences
We communicate with Photoshop using various devices, such as a drawing table, mouse, touch screen, track pad, and a keyboard. Photoshop communicates with us using visual cues, the most prominent one is the shape of the cursor. For example, when a cursor looks like an I-beam, this typically means it's time to enter text, or when the cursor looks like a magnifying glass, clicking on the image expands the view size. Working with the Display & Cursors preferences, gives you control over how Photoshop communicates with you.
Work with Display and Cursors Options
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Click the Edit (Win) or Photoshop (Mac) menu, and then point to Preferences.
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Click Display & Color.
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Select the Display options you want to use:
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Color Channels in Color. Allows you to view channels in the Channels palette in color.
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Use Diffusion Dither. Uses a pixel blending scheme to make images appear smoother (does not affect printing).
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Use Pixel Doubling. Creates a low-resolution copy of the selected pixels during the drag, and then restores the dragged area to its original, high-resolution when you release the mouse (does not affect printing). Select this option to speed up the selecting and dragging of large areas of an image.
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Select the Painting Cursors options you want to use:
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Standard. Painting cursors appear as their toolbox buttons.
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Precise. Painting cursors appear as cross-hairs.
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Brush Size. Painting cursors appear with the shape of the active brush tip.
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Select the Other Cursors options you want to use:
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Standard. Painting cursors appear as their toolbox buttons.
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Precise. Painting cursors appear as cross-hairs.
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Click OK.
For example, the red channel displays using shades of red, the green channel using shades of green, and the blue channel using shades of blue. When this option is not selected, color channels display, using shades of gray (does not affect printing).
NOTE
Did You Know?
You can toggle between precise and standard tools. Pressing the Cap Lock key while using a painting cursor, toggles the tool between the precise and brush size options, and pressing the Cap Lock key when using any other cursor, toggles between standard and precise.