Choosing a Screen Mode in Photoshop

Photoshop’s working area can become horribly cluttered. And here’s a secret: The more adept you become, the more cluttered the desktop becomes. Just when you begin to appreciate a neatly docked Options bar and the convenience of displaying palettes, you realize that you’ve gobbled up all your free working space.

Photoshop has three different screen modes (or maybe five, depending on what you consider to be a screen mode). Each mode shows or hides some of the elements on the screen at the press of a key or click of the mouse button. Three screen modes are on the Tools palette; two more are hidden but easily accessible.

Press the F key to cycle between the three screen modes.

In the Full Screen mode, Standard Screen mode, or Full Screen mode with menu bar, you can still press Shift+Tab and the Tab key to hide the palettes and/or Options bar.

If you hide the Tools palette when in either Full Screen mode, you can’t click the icons to return. Press Tab or Shift+Tab to reveal the Tools palette, or simply press the F key to cycle among the screen modes.