i. Active image area displays the active open file.

e. The window containing an open file is also called the

ii. Palettes help you monitor and modify images. You can customize the palette locations in the
workspace and you can also show or hide palettes according to your need.

 Control behavior of its tools

 Windows menu displays a list of available palettes

 When selected, the palette will appear as a floating window on the opened workspace

 To activate a palette click on its tab

 Palettes help you monitor and modify images. By default palettes appear docked in the upper
right. You can
i. Move them - Click and drag them onto the workspace.
ii. Shrink them – Click the minimize button on top of the palette.
iii. Close them – Click the close button on top of the palette. The palette automatically
returns to the upper right docking area.
iv. To hide or show all palettes press Shift+Tab, or go to the windows menu.
 Layers palette - You can use the Layers palette to create, hide, display,
duplicate, merge, link, lock, and delete layers.
 History palette - You can use the History palette to revert to a previous state
of an image or to delete an image's states. Records and displays individual
changes made to an image and allows for changes to be undone

 Navigation palette - You can also use the Navigator palette to quickly change
the view of an image.
 Color palette- Displays the color values for the currently selected foreground
and background colors
Color:

Swatches: Displays a generic set of colors, but the true value of the Swatches
palette is in its ability to load custom swatch collections
LAYERS:
Every Photoshop image contains one or more layers which can basically be described as single
transparent sheets which hold particular pieces of an image. Every new file is created with a background,
which can be converted to a layer. When you scan an image and open it in Photoshop, it is placed on the
background. Layers are a fundamental part of Photoshop's versatility. These layers can contain images,
text, and vector graphics, and can be rearranged and grouped according to user needs. Layers are
controlled with the use of the Layers pane. Often times, when you find yourself frustrated with Photoshop, it
is because you are trying to perform operations on a layer that is not currently selected. Simply click on the
name of a layer in order to designate it as the current layer. Whenever you add text to an image in
Photoshop, the text appears on a new layer. You can "merge down" layers to consolidate them, and "flatten
image" to force the entire contents of the image onto one layer.

A layer is a transparency sheet with an image on it. You can edit, transform, or add filters to a layer
independently from other layers. You can make one layer alter the look of a layer above or below it. You
can save a file with the layers and easily change your design later, by editing one or more of the layers.

MASKS:
Masks can be used to block out one area of an image or protect it from manipulations. A mask is a
selection shown as a grayscale image: the white areas are selected, the black areas are not.

Some definitions to get you started:

.psd: A .psd file is the file format in which Photoshop saves documents by default. It is a multi-layer
document that retains its full editing options when saved.

Resolution: Resolution refers to the number of pixels in a full size image. An image with high resolution
contains more information than an image with low resolution, and therefore, one can always convert a high-
resolution image to a low-resolution image. However, because information is lost in the conversion, the
reverse is not true. If you were to increase the resolution of a low-resolution, the result would be fuzzy.

Screen resolution is close to 72 pixels per inch, so if you are working with graphics to be viewed only on
screen, 72 should be fine. Depending on the printer you are using, you would want to increase this above
72 for graphics that will be printed. 300 is usually an acceptable resolution for images to be printed; 150
would be the lowest acceptable resolution for printing.
Image Size: Resolution should not be confused with image size, which is also expressed in pixels. Image
size deals with the actual number of pixels tall and wide an image is. For an idea of how the two differ, go
to Image Size in the Image menu, and plug in different numbers for image size and resolution.

Color mode: Color mode refers to the types of colors you will be using in your image. CMYK and RGB are
the most important of these modes to be familiar with.

 CMYK is the setting for images that will be printed to paper. The letters refer to the four channels of
color used to create every color available: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

 RGB refers to the three channel color mode suitable for images to be viewed on the web: red,
green, and blue.

Selection: Selections refer to regions in an image that will be affected by the various tools. A selection in
Photoshop is similar to a selection that you highlight in a word processing application. Once you have
selected an area, you can apply a tool to it, such as paintbrush, or perform an operation such as copy or
crop. Selections can be any shape and size; the shape depends on which selection tool you are working
with.

Your selection will apply only to the current layer. If that layer is empty in the region selected, you will get
an error message. When this happens, go to the layers pane and select the correct layer.
There are several ways to select images or portions of images in Photoshop. Here are few basic methods
to do so:
You can select pixels in an image by dragging with the marquee tools or lasso tools, or by targeting color
areas with the magic wand tool.
a. Tools
i. Marquee
1. Rectangular or Elliptical.
ii. Lasso Tool
1. Select the lasso tool ( )
2. Drag to draw a freehand selection border.
3. To draw a straight-edged selection border, hold down Alt (Windows) or
Option (Mac OS), and click where segments should begin and end.
You can switch between drawing freehand and straight-edged segments.
4. To erase recently drawn segments, hold down the Delete key until you've
erased the fastening points for the desired segment.
iii. Magnetic Lasso
1. Select the magnetic lasso tool ( ), you may need to press and hold the
lasso tool to reveal the other lassoes.
2. Drag the tool around the border of what you wish to select. The tool
automatically snaps to edges based on areas of strength of edge. Click to
manually add an anchor point.
3. To add to a selection, click Shift-Marquee and draw.
4. To subtract from a selection, click Alt-Marquee and draw.

CROPPING AN IMAGE
Cropping is the process of removing portions of an image to create focus or strengthen the composition.
You can crop an image using the crop tool and the Crop command.

If an image is too large and you would like to cut it to just focus on one section of the image, you can “crop”
it to that size and area. Select the “Crop” tool, and click and drag around the area you want.

You can resize the area (or rotate it) with the mouse by clicking any of the corners. When you’re done, just
click over to any other tool and a window will appear asking you if you’d like to crop the image. Click yes,
and the image will be reduced to the area you’ve specified.
 b. Click on the View menu and select Zoom to focus on the area you wish to crop.
c. Drag the picture or the Navigation palette to focus on the part you wish to crop.
d. Click Crop tool
e. Drag over the part of the image you want to keep. When you release the mouse button,
the crop marquee appears as a bounding box with handles at the corners and sides.
Resizing an Image

If you don’t want to crop your image (meaning you want the ENTIRE image, just at a smaller size), you can
resize your image to any dimensions you wish. Select “Image Size” from the “Image” menu.

The default in Photoshop is to keep image resizing at “Constrain Proportions.” This means that if the height
is changed, the width will be changed at the same ratio. This keeps your image looking approximately the
same, only at different sizes. If you wish to change this, just un-click the “Constrain Proportions” check box
at the bottom of the “Image Size” window.

The Patch Tool

The Patch tool lets you repair a selected area with pixels from another area or a pattern. Like the Healing
Brush tool, the Patch tool matches the texture, luminosity, and color of the sampled pixels to the source
pixels. When repairing with pixels from the image, select a small area to produce the best result. The Patch
tool is MUCH more than a less important part of the Healing tool. It is an amazing tool that will speed up
your work and make your images look better very quickly.