Photoshop Tools and Features User Log

The purpose of this log is for you to record what tools and features you used in the creation of your digital graphics. You should try to use as many as possible and you must
record how, why and when you used them. You do not need to record repeated actions but each single new action should be recorded. An example of this would be setting
up a new Photoshop file/image which would cover the ranges; Image Settings (all) and part of Menus (some of). You only need to do this once. Remember that where the
e.g. appears in a range, as many of the items should be covered as possible but not all of them; your tutor will guide you here. Where possible you should also provide a
screen dump to illustrate the action (see sample image below).
Tools and features
How, why and when used.
Screenshot
Menus:
Open; Go to file and click open and this lets
you open an already saved file from
your documents.
save; This allows you to keep it in your
documents and save as allows you to
save it where you want, what you
want to call it and what file formal you
want to save it as.
import; This lets you bring files from places
into this document in Photoshop.

export; Export allows you to make a copy of it

as something external such as
something that can be used on the
web or a PNG.

edit; Edit allows you to change things within

the document such as undo, cop and
paste, and messing around and
filtering the things you have on canvas.

view; This lets you change the way you see

the screen, such as the zoom or the
page size itself or add guides and grids
to the canvas which helps the user line
things up correctly.

help Help is supposed to give you advice if

you get stuck with the program or if
you want to know more.

Image settings:
size; --- > Pixels
Inches
Centimetres
Millimetres
Points
Picas
Columns
Resolution; --- > Pixels/Inch
Pixels/Centimetre
Height and Width; This sets the size of the canvas you are
doing to be using. This can be
measured in pixels, inches,
centimetres, millimetres, points, picas
and columns.
colour mode; --- > Bitmap
1 bit
Grayscale
8 bit
RGB Colour
16 bit
CMYK Colour
32 bit
Lab Colour
background; --- > White
Background Colour
Transparent
Other

transparency; Transparent background allows you to

convert the graphic into a picture and
to be put on any background because
it doesnt have a certain colour for the
background.
aspect ratio, --- > Square Pixels
D1\DV NTSC (0.91)
D1/DV PAL (1.09)
D1/DV NTSC Widescreen
HDV 1080/DVCPRO HD 720 (1.33)
D1/DV PAL Widescreen (1.46)
Anamorphic 2:1 (2)
DVCPRO HD 1080 (1.5)
file name There are two ways to change the file
name. you can either change it when
you open a new one but changing the
name or you can do File, Save as
the it will bring up a menu of where to
want to save it and what you want to
call it.
Drawing tools:
tool options; There is a bar at the side with all the
tools and if you hold them they give
you more within that particular tool.

brush;

If you right click while drawing, this

pops up. It includes size, hardness and
different types of brushes.

pencil; If you right click while drawing, this

pops up. It includes size, hardness and
different types of looks for the pencil.

duplicate; This is so you have two of the same of

the same layer and maybe move it
slightly so they are exactly the same or
mirrored.

clone; This tool allows you to clone as you

draw, you set a point using Alt+Click
when you want it to clone from then
start drawing and it will re draw from
where you first clicked.
fill; The fill tool allows you to fill a shape
that has been drawn so that do dont
have to colour it which takes more
time than to just fill it.
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text; The text tool allows you to type

horizontally and vertically easily.
line; The line tool lets you make straight
lines just by setting the starting point
and dragging to the finishing point.

stroke; This allows you to make curly line with

points on the page.

shape; This tool lets you make easy shapes

such as rectangles, arrows, elipse etc.
with just a click and drag.

zoom;

guides and rulers;

Zoom allows you to zoom in on a

certain part of the graphic/page.
This gives a border to help measure
out the distance from the edge of the
page, this also helps to make things
neat and tidy.

Grid; Adding a grid can help align objects on

the canvas to make the graphic even
and neat. You can change the amount
of lines on the screen to whatever you
want and the amount that suits you or
what you are doing.
Snap; Snapping helps with precise placement
of selection edges, cropping marquees,
slices, shapes, and paths. However, if
snapping prevents you from correctly
placing elements, you can disable it.

Paletts, e.g. colour,

gradients, layers,
object, brushes,
history, actions, size,
resolution;

These are the two colour pallets, one

has shades of the colour you pick and
the other has set colours that you can
choose from.

Layers, e.g. copying,

saving, arranging;
flattening; colour
selection,

Layers can help you work easier. Each

line can have a layer which means it
only has the one line to mess with, this
can sometimes be easier to edit so
then you dont have to struggle to find
the individual line to select, you only
have to find the layer then edit it on
this. When youre on a certain layer,
anything that isnt on this layer cannot
be changed or edited.

Colour selection, e.g.

foreground,
background, colour
swatch, eyedropper

Editing tools:
Selection, e.g.
marquee, lasso, magic
wand, magnetic lasso,
deselect;

This tool allows you to choose a colour

anywhere on the canvas to reuse. It
picks up the colour and lets you use it
as if you would have chosen, made or
mixed it. This is good for when you lap
colours that mix together, instead of
having to remake it you can just use
this tool to pick up the colour.

This allows you to select a certain part

of the graphic to be selected and
moved without moving any other part
of it. There are different types of this
tool. You can either do it automatically
when you click and it will highlight a
large amount or you could click and
draw with it to highlight the wanted
parts or you can youre the marquee
tool which gives you a shape to use to
highlight.
Transform, e.g. scale, Go to edit and go down to
rotate, skew, flip; cut; transform. This gives you another
copy; paste; crop; menu which lets you scale, rotate,
trim; erase; undo; fill skew, distort, perspective, warp,
rotate and flip the thing that you are
on.

Advanced tools:

Effects, e.g. layer

effects, filters,
channels; image
adjustments,

Image adjustments,
e.g. brightness and
contrast, hue and
saturation, colour
balance, gradients,
transparency, invert;
masks;

The effects allows you to create a

more interesting graphic by giving you
the choice of being able to make
things 3D, making it blurry, distort it,
add noise, pixilate it, render it,
sharpen, stylize, or others.

The allows you to change the whole

graphic. For example, the brightness
makes the whole image lighter or
darker, the transparency makes it
either transparent or translucent.

Paths, e.g. vector This makes it easy to create a line for

paths, converting text text to follow. You can then move the
to paths; image text or line away and
slicing.

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