Photoshop stores settings for many different options in a Preferences file on your hard drive. The first time you run Photoshop after a new installation, you probably want to customize Preferences to suit your own needs.
You can access the Preferences dialog box by choosing Edit➪Preferences (Photoshop ➪ Preferences on the Mac). You can also press Ctrl+K (Ô+K on the Mac). The General Preferences dialog box (shown in Figure 6-1) pops up by default, but you can choose any of the other Preferences dialog boxes from the drop-down list. You can also move between the dialog boxes by clicking the Prev or Next buttons that appear in each of the Preferences dialog boxes. The next several sections give you a rundown of what you can do with the settings in the different Preferences dialog boxes.
Setting general preferences
The General Preferences dialog box is where you select some options that are, well, general in nature. You can select some choices from drop-down lists, and others are check boxes you can select or deselect to activate or disable that option. Here’s a rundown of options in the upper part of the dialog box:
-->Color Picker: Choose the familiar Adobe Color Picker to select precise colors or work with the Windows or Macintosh system color pickers, as desired. You might want to use the Windows color picker, for example, if you’ve previously defined some custom colors outside of Photoshop and now want to make them available for a Photoshop project.
-->Image Interpolation: When Photoshop resizes an image, it must either create new pixels (when making the image larger) or combine existing pixels (to make the image smaller). To do this, the program examines neighboring pixels and uses the information to derive the new or replacement pixels. You can select the type of mathematical algorithm Photoshop uses to do this. The Image Interpolation drop-down list offers these options:
-Nearest Neighbor (Faster): This is the fastest (and lowest quality) interpolation method, under which Photoshop examines only one pixel to perform its calculations. Use this method only if your work is not critical and your computer is relatively slow.
-Bilinear: This choice provides better quality and is almost as fast as Nearest Neighbor. With this method, Photoshop looks at pixels above, below, and on either side of the pixel being processed (four pixels in all).
-Bicubic (Better): This option is a new and improved version of the old Bicubic method. Most users will want to stick this option, which is the default setting. Photoshop takes a little longer to perform its calculations but generates an optimized pixel after looking at 8 surrounding pixels — one above, one below, two on the sides, and four in the corners.
-Bicubic Smoother: Like Bicubic, but provides the maximum amount of softening between pixel edges. A good method when upsampling, or enlarging, an image. Can slightly affect the sharpness of the resulting image.
-Bicubic Sharper: Again, like Bicubic, but applies just a little softening to pixel edges. This is a good method when downsampling, or reducing the size, of an image.
-->History States: Photoshop remembers how your document looks at various stages of editing, storing all the image information on your hard drive and listing the individual states in the History palette. Keeping track of every change you make requires lots of memory and hard drive space, so you can specify how many resources to use by typing a value into this box. The default is 20 (the max is 1000). If you have resources to burn and frequently find yourself stepping way back in time to modify or delete a step, you can type a larger number. If your resources are skimpy and you don’t anticipate making many changes to earlier steps (or are willing to take frequent snapshots or save interim images), you can enter a smaller number.
You can access the Preferences dialog box by choosing Edit➪Preferences (Photoshop ➪ Preferences on the Mac). You can also press Ctrl+K (Ô+K on the Mac). The General Preferences dialog box (shown in Figure 6-1) pops up by default, but you can choose any of the other Preferences dialog boxes from the drop-down list. You can also move between the dialog boxes by clicking the Prev or Next buttons that appear in each of the Preferences dialog boxes. The next several sections give you a rundown of what you can do with the settings in the different Preferences dialog boxes.
When the General Preferences dialog box is visible, you can switch to the other Preferences dialog boxes by pressing Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 (Ô+1, Ô+2 on the Mac), and so forth. These shortcuts can be useful if you need to frequently access particular dialog boxes.
Setting general preferences
The General Preferences dialog box is where you select some options that are, well, general in nature. You can select some choices from drop-down lists, and others are check boxes you can select or deselect to activate or disable that option. Here’s a rundown of options in the upper part of the dialog box:
-->Color Picker: Choose the familiar Adobe Color Picker to select precise colors or work with the Windows or Macintosh system color pickers, as desired. You might want to use the Windows color picker, for example, if you’ve previously defined some custom colors outside of Photoshop and now want to make them available for a Photoshop project.
-->Image Interpolation: When Photoshop resizes an image, it must either create new pixels (when making the image larger) or combine existing pixels (to make the image smaller). To do this, the program examines neighboring pixels and uses the information to derive the new or replacement pixels. You can select the type of mathematical algorithm Photoshop uses to do this. The Image Interpolation drop-down list offers these options:
-Nearest Neighbor (Faster): This is the fastest (and lowest quality) interpolation method, under which Photoshop examines only one pixel to perform its calculations. Use this method only if your work is not critical and your computer is relatively slow.
-Bilinear: This choice provides better quality and is almost as fast as Nearest Neighbor. With this method, Photoshop looks at pixels above, below, and on either side of the pixel being processed (four pixels in all).
-Bicubic (Better): This option is a new and improved version of the old Bicubic method. Most users will want to stick this option, which is the default setting. Photoshop takes a little longer to perform its calculations but generates an optimized pixel after looking at 8 surrounding pixels — one above, one below, two on the sides, and four in the corners.
-Bicubic Smoother: Like Bicubic, but provides the maximum amount of softening between pixel edges. A good method when upsampling, or enlarging, an image. Can slightly affect the sharpness of the resulting image.
-Bicubic Sharper: Again, like Bicubic, but applies just a little softening to pixel edges. This is a good method when downsampling, or reducing the size, of an image.
-->History States: Photoshop remembers how your document looks at various stages of editing, storing all the image information on your hard drive and listing the individual states in the History palette. Keeping track of every change you make requires lots of memory and hard drive space, so you can specify how many resources to use by typing a value into this box. The default is 20 (the max is 1000). If you have resources to burn and frequently find yourself stepping way back in time to modify or delete a step, you can type a larger number. If your resources are skimpy and you don’t anticipate making many changes to earlier steps (or are willing to take frequent snapshots or save interim images), you can enter a smaller number.
Setting Preferences in Photoshop Part 1
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