This website is recovering after some trouble... service will be resuming normally!
It can be frustrating working with text in Photoshop - especially when you want to create a new text layer that overlaps an existing text layer. With the type tool selected, Photoshop will edit an existing text layer, rather than create a new one.
(more…)
When you are working with lots of layers, it makes sense to use layer groups so you don’t end up with just a huge list of unorganised layers in the palette. However, as you are building more complex files in Photoshop, the problem you can get is too many layer groups!! I’ve experienced this with very complex compositions and in-particular when I’m designing website visuals.
I often see Photoshop files where the background is filled with a flat colour. The simple way to do this is to simply select all and fill with the desired colour - but what if you change your canvas size… back to step one because your left with a rectangle filled with one colour surrounded by your background colour! There is a simpler, more flexible way of-course!
Being able to control layer order in Photoshop is fundamental to working quicker. Rather than keep on taking a trip over to the layers palette, now you can keep you eyes on your image composition!
Wow, this has gotta be one of the most powerful shortcuts in Photoshop, it does two clever things (almost 3!) in one keyboard shortcut!
As Photoshop documents get more and more layers in them you should make sure you keep your document organised by using layer sets which keeps your layers in nice little folders. There is a couple of new shortcuts in Photoshop CS3 that allows you to organise your layers super fast!
Here’s a nice tip - when you are drawing a marquee selection in Photoshop (little marching ants selection) did you know you can move the selection WHILST you are still drawing it - nope me neither until very recently!
Sometimes you need to merge all the existing layers in your document into one layer to either manipulate in a new document or in the existing document - and there is a great little shortcut for this!
This is a great little tip, especially if you have a-lot of layers! Sometimes you want to move a layer up or down in the layers palette and at the same time keeping an eye on your artwork to see how it is effecting your composition.
It can be a little frustrating sometimes when you create layer masks that by default they apply as a white filled layer mask, meaning that the layer is not effected by it. Annoyed by having to keep selecting all and filling with black… you’ll like this one then!