For those of you who have worked in Photoshop in the past, the most obvious change will be this dark interface with the text and icons set in white. Now, I happen to like the dark interface. I feel like it allows me to focus in on my image without being distracted by the interface. However, you don't have to accept it if you don't want it. So in this movie, I'll show you how to set the interface to another shade of gray. If you're working on the PC, you go to the Edit menu. On a Mac, you go to the Photoshop menu in the upper left-hand corner, and then you drop down to the Preferences command--this command isn't that far down the menu on the Mac, and then choose Interface from the submenu.
And that will bring up the Preferences dialog box which allows you to select from four different color schemes. So I could go ahead and select the next scheme lighter in order to mimic the brightness of the old interface and now I will click OK. Notice now the text and icons are set in black. You also have a keyboard shortcut by the way, to either brighten or darken the interface. If you press Shift+F2, you'll advance to the next brighter interface. If you press Shift+F1, you'll go back to a darker interface, and you can actually go two shades darker than this. This is the darkest interface there is, and again, the text and icons are reversed out in white.
All right, I'm going to press Shift+F2 in order to restore the default interface. You also have control over this pasteboard color. This area of gray outside of the image when you're zoomed out from it. So if you're not seeing it, just go ahead and press Ctrl+- or Command+- on the Mac to back out a little bit. To change that pasteboard, just right- click inside of it and then choose your preferred shade of gray. For example, I could go with light gray or I could right-click inside the image window and I could choose Select Custom Color. Now I like to work with the Hue, Saturation and Brightness values.
You definitely want Hue and Saturation set to 0%, unless you want to end up with a distracting, colorful pasteboard. Presuming that you want to stick with gray, however, you would just modify this brightness value, 20% is the default setting, which is pretty darn dark, so I might go ahead and take it up to 35%, for example, and then click OK. And I'd end up with a pasteboard that more or less matches the brightness of the interface itself. One other little trick that you may want to know about here, I'm going to my Color panel, which I can get to by going to the Window menu and choosing the Color command, but in my case, it's already up on screen, so I don't need to choose the command.
And I'm going to click on the Panel flyout menu icon in the upper right-hand corner, and I'm going to switch to HSB sliders, which gives me control over Hue, Saturation and Brightness. And we'll talk about how those work in more detail in future chapters. But for now I'm just going to change the Brightness value, let's say to 25%, just so we get a different effect. And now, I'm going to drop down to the Gradient tool, click and hold on it and choose the Paint Bucket tool. Then you press the Shift Key and click in the background in order to assign the foreground color to that pasteboard.
So again, it's there if you want to take advantage of it. Don't worry about it if not. And now, I'm going to reset things to their defaults by right-clicking inside that pasteboard and choosing dark gray. And that's how you modify the brightness of the otherwise dark interface, here in Photoshop CS6.
Author
Released
4/26/2012- Opening an image from Photoshop, Bridge, or Camera Raw
- Navigating, zooming, panning, and rotating the canvas
- Adding, deleting, and merging layers
- Saving your progress and understanding file formats
- Cropping and straightening
- Adjusting brightness and contrast
- Identifying and correcting a color cast
- Making and editing selections
- Enhancing portraits by retouching skin, teeth, and eyes
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
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Q: Where can I learn more about graphic design?
A: Discover more on this topic by visiting graphic design on lynda.com.
Q: When I double click the welcome.psd file included with the exercise files, I get the following error message:
"Some text layers contain fonts that are missing. These layers will need to have the missing fonts replaced before they can be used for vector based output."
Unlike the TIF and JPEG files which display and open correctly, all the icons for PSD files are blank but other than the welcome.psd file, they seem to open correctly without the error message. Is this a problem that I should address (perhaps re-download the files or find the missing fonts)?
A: The TIFF and JPEG files are flat, so they don't contain fonts and the operating system can interpret them (and generate thumbnails) without help from Photoshop. The PSD files have two issues:
First, they may contain editable text complete with font info. The files are designed with fonts that ship with Photoshop, so you don't get error messages, but Adobe sells some versions of Photoshop without fonts. This may be your issue.
Second, the PSD files contain no flat previews. This makes for smaller files, but it means the operating system, Mac or Windows, cannot generate previews. That won't effect your experience in Photoshop, but it does mean you can't see the file until you open it.
Related Courses
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Deke's Techniques
with Deke McClelland155h 18m Intermediate -
Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Intermediate
with Deke McClelland9h 25m Intermediate
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1. Opening an Image
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Welcome to One-on-One2m 24s
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Opening through Camera Raw2m 32s
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2. Getting Around
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Navigating tabs and windows4m 32s
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Panels and workspaces4m 27s
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Zooming incrementally4m 29s
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Zooming continuously2m 43s
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Entering a custom zoom value2m 25s
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Scrolling and panning images2m 31s
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Cycling between screen modes3m 10s
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Using the Navigator panel3m 38s
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Adjusting a few screen prefs4m 16s
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3. Image Size and Resolution
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Digital imaging fundamentals1m 45s
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The Image Size command3m 27s
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Common resolution standards3m 20s
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Upsampling vs. real pixels4m 36s
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Changing the print size6m 16s
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Downsampling for print4m 12s
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Downsampling for email3m 11s
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The interpolation settings5m 22s
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Downsampling advice4m 36s
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Upsampling advice6m 10s
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4. Using Layers
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The layered composition1m 40s
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Introducing the Layers panel4m 12s
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Dragging and dropping layers4m 36s
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Stack, reveal, and rename2m 58s
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Applying a clipping mask3m 58s
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Finishing off your artwork3m 13s
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Layering tips and tricks7m 2s
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5. Saving Your Progress
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Saving layers to PSD6m 38s
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Saving print images to TIFF4m 48s
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Saving a flat photo to JPEG4m 18s
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6. Crop and Straighten
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Honing in on your image1m 43s
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Editing your last crop3m 1s
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Filling in missing details6m 44s
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7. Adjusting Luminance
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First, there is brightness2m 12s
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How luminance works4m 18s
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The three Auto commands3m 27s
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Editing adjustment layers3m 52s
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Introducing the histogram4m 58s
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Measuring an adjustment3m 34s
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8. Adjusting Colors
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And second, there is color1m 31s
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Identifying a color cast3m 34s
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Changing the color balance6m 10s
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The Hue/Saturation command5m 26s
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9. Select and Edit
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The freeform Lasso tools3m 59s
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Creating rays of light4m 44s
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Quick Selection and Similar4m 11s
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Integrating image elements2m 39s
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Magic Wand and Grow5m 17s
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10. Retouch and Heal
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Content-Aware Fill6m 11s
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Using the Spot Healing Brush5m 36s
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Meet the Clone Source panel3m 53s
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Caps Lock and Fade4m 57s
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Intensifying eyes4m 43s
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Conclusion
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Goodbye51s
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Video: The dark vs. the light interface