Lots of shortcuts and techniques for working with guides effectively
Using guides in Photoshop is a core principle that is essential for any precise work. This is especially true when working with graphical elements for importing into layout applications and putting together web page designs.
Stopping guide snapping
You may have noticed that guides sometimes snap to the edges of layer transparency, the edges of vector shape layers and the edge of your canvas! This can be very useful, but more often than not you just want to put a guide in a certain location and Photoshop seems not to let you! To switch this off, go to View>Snap to>None. Or if you are in the middle of moving a guide and still have this on, simply hold down Control to stop the guide snapping to anything and place your guides precisely.
Exact guide positioning
You may need your guide to be placed at an exact measurement. I have seen designers countless times zoomed right into their document placing a guide by eye, then zooming right out, then zooming right in on another area to place another guide. Well, as long as you can zoomed in enough to see the desired increments appear on your ruler you can make your guides snap to exact ruler increments by holding down shift - this is an everyday tip you really need in your life!
Guide conversion
You can convert a horizontal guide to a vertical guide, or visa-versa by simply holding down Alt. This may seem a fairly useless one to remember, but it allows you to add and delete guides wherever you are very quickly. Instead of dragging a vertical guide on the right hand side of your document right across to the left to delete it, click on it, hold down Alt and drag it up to the top ruler quickly to delete it… a little lazy, but very useful!
December 28th, 2006 at 2:29 am
I have been using Photoshop for a few years now and have always been one to zoom in to get a precise guide positions. Had no idea holding shift solved that. Thanks.
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:20 am
Yep, thanks for the “SHIFT” tip…very helpful