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   Photoshop CS3 found in Computers & Technology  :  Software  :  Adobe A   A   A
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Photoshop CS3
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Adobe Photoshop is the world’s leading image editing software. This guide shows you how to use Photoshop CS3 (and earlier versions) to take your digital photos to the next level. Put your pictures in their best light by learning to:
  • Navigate the Photoshop workspace
  • Use key features such as selections, layers, and layer masks
  • Fix red eye, remove imperfections, improve color and contrast, and more
 
 
 
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The Photoshop Workspace

The Photoshop workspace—the main layout you see when you open up Photoshop—contains several key components that you need to know in order to get started working with images. The main parts of the Photoshop CS3 workspace are explained below and labeled in the image shown here.

The Tools Palette

Photoshop includes several dozen tools that you can use to modify and manipulate images. These include brushes, selection tools (for selecting specific parts of an image to work with), retouching tools (for removing flaws from images), and many more. You can access all the tools using the Tools palette, a long, vertical column of icons located on the left side of the workspace.

In earlier versions of Photoshop, the palette was shorter and arranged into two columns. To change to this two-column version, click on the tiny double-arrows at the top of the palette. To select a tool, click on it. Your cursor will then take the shape of the tool that you’ve selected.

Accessing “Hidden” Tools

Note that the icons for some tools are “hidden” behind other icons in the Tools palette. Icons with other icons hidden beneath them include a tiny black triangle in the bottom right corner of the icon. To access the “hidden” tools behind these icons, click and hold any icon that contains the tiny black triangle. A submenu will appear to the right of the Tools palette from which you can select the tool you want to use.

The Menu Bar

The menu bar is a horizontal strip at the top of the Photoshop workspace that contains drop-down menus that give you access to nearly every Photoshop feature and function, from filters and layers to commands such as opening, saving, and closing files. To access the choices in the menu bar, click on a heading (File, Edit, Image, etc.) and then click on the specific option you’d like to access in the drop-down menu that appears.

Keyboard Shortcuts

You can access almost every function in the menu bar more quickly by using keyboard shortcuts than by using the mouse. For instance, rather than go to File > Open to open a file in Photoshop, you can just type Ctrl+O on a PC (or Command+O on a Mac). For a complete list of hundreds of Photoshop keyboard shortcuts, see the Quamut guide to Photoshop CS3: Keyboard Shortcuts.

The Options Palette

Located just below the menu bar, the Options palette (often called the Options bar) lets you access options related to the Photoshop tool you’re currently using. For instance, when you’re using the Brush tool, the Options palette will include various brush-related options, such as brush size, shape, and so on. When you switch to another tool, the options in the Options palette will change accordingly.

The Document Window

The Document window is the central part of the workspace and contains the image you’re currently working on. Though you can have more than one Document window open simultaneously, only one can be active at a time—any work that you do will affect only the image in the active Document window. You can tell which Document window is active by looking at the bar across the top of the window. The active window’s bar will be boldly colored, while inactive windows will have a faintly colored bar. To make an inactive Document window active, click anywhere within the window.

Palettes (Panels)

In addition to the Tools palette and Options palette, Photoshop contains several other palettes. The purpose of each palette is to put all the features related to that particular palette’s main feature in one place. For instance, the Layers palette contains icons and drop-down menus that let you do everything you need to do when working with layers, such as creating, deleting, and renaming layers.

The Tools palette typically stays anchored to the left side of the workspace; other palettes appear in a two-column vertical stack on the right side of the workspace.
  • The right column: Contains the active palettes (the palettes you’re currently using). Each active palette contains a series of tabs that let you access various “sub-palettes” within that palette. For instance, within the Layers palette you can click on Channels and Paths to gain access to those palettes and their specific features. Note that versions of Photoshop prior to CS3 include only this single column of palettes—CS3 has an additional left column of palettes, described below.
  • The left column: Contains the palettes that don’t fit in the right column. Rather than display these palettes full size, Photoshop shows these palettes in collapsed form so that typically only their names and icons are viewable. To collapse these palettes completely so that only their icons appear, click on the three tiny vertical bars in the top left corner of the left column and drag toward the right column of palettes. Whenever you click on the icon or name of a palette in the left column, the full palette expands outward to the left and can be used just as you would use a palette in the right column. You can also move palettes from the left column into the right column (where they’ll appear in fully expanded form) by clicking on the horizontal gray bar at the top of the palette and dragging the collapsed palette into the right column.
     
 
 
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Photoshop CS3 Chart