Photoshop CS3 for Screen Printers- P4 potx

Use the Dock to organize palettes that you’d like to keep available but out of the workspace.. If you have specific cli-ents who require mainly text-related jobs, you can create a worksp

] Tip:

Creating your own preset tool library can be quite helpful if you use the

same tools often to perform specific tasks Revisit this part of the chapter

after you’ve finished this book and create a library of your favorites using the

Preset Manager available from the additional options

Other Common Terms and Options

There are several options that you’ll see off and on when accessing toolsand using the options bar Words like tolerance, anti-alias, contiguous,flow, and others will pop up, depending on the tool selected These wordsare defined briefly in this section

] Tip:

Bookmark this page and refer to it when using tools and the options bar

This section is meant to serve as a reference and should be referred to

when questions about the items in the options bar arise

n Actual Pixels/Fit Screen/Print Size: Used with the Zoom and

Hand tools, these options allow you to configure how the imageshould look on the screen after modifying it

n Align and Distribute: These options allow you to align and

distrib-ute layers or selections within an image There are several ways toalign or distribute objects: top, vertical center, left, horizontal center,and right

n Aligned: Aligned is used when repairing flaws in images (such as

with the Healing Brush or Clone Stamp tool) Place a check in theAligned box if you need to release the mouse button while workingand still keep the sampling point; sampled pixels are thus appliedcontinuously Uncheck the box to apply the pixels from the originalsampling point each time

n Anti-alias/Anti-aliasing: Anti-aliasing is the process of smoothing

edges around a selection It differs from feathering in that it does notblur the edges but instead softens them by blending the colors of theouter pixels with the background pixels This results in no loss ofdetail You must choose anti-aliasing before selecting; it cannot beadded after a selection has been made

n Area: Area is used with the Art History Brush to specify the

paint-ing area diameter

n Auto Erase: Available with the Pencil tool, checking the Auto Erase

box allows you to paint the background color over areas of ground color This, in essence, erases what has been previouslydrawn with the foreground color

fore-n Contiguous: This is used with tools such as the Magic Eraser, Paint

Bucket, Magic Wand, and others to specify how colors will be

selected, applied, or erased When Contiguous is checked, the ing selection only includes pixels that are adjacent to each other.Otherwise, all pixels of the preferred color are selected

result-n Dither: Dither reduces visible banding related to gradients when

using the Gradient tool

n Exposure: This sets the amount of exposure (coverage) used by the

Dodge and Burn tools

n Feather: Feathering is the process of blurring edges around a

selec-tion Blurring the edges helps the selection blend into anotherobject, file, or selection when it is moved, cut, copied, and/or pasted.Feathering causes loss of detail and should not be used with spotcolor artwork However, feathering can be useful when working withphotos, especially if you plan to cut from one photo and paste intoanother

n Flow: Flow is used to specify how quickly paint is applied when

using a brush tool like the Airbrush A heavier flow lays on morepaint more quickly; a lower flow lays on less paint

n Front Image and Clear: Used with the Crop tool, Clear removes all

text from the text boxes, while Front Image uses the settings fromthe front image for the width, height, and resolution

n Impressionist: This adds an impressionist effect (like Monet’s art)

when the box is checked while using the Pattern Stamp tool

n Limits: Limits allows you to choose from Contiguous,

Discon-tiguous, and Find Edges when using the Background Eraser tool.Contiguous erases colors that are next to the original sample,

Discontiguous erases underneath the brush, and Find Edges looksfor and finds the edges of an image and erases to those edges

n Protect Foreground Color: When erasing, check this box to

pro-tect the foreground color from being erased

n Range: This is used with the Dodge and Burn tools and allows you

to select a tonal range to lighten or darken (midtones, highlights, orshadows)

n Refine Edge: Use this option with the lasso tools to define the

lasso’s sensitivity to the edges of the selection you’re trying to round Values can range from 0 percent to 100 percent A lower valuedetects low-contrast edges (those that don’t have much contrast withtheir backgrounds), and a higher value detects edges that contrastsharply with their backgrounds Configuring this prior to and during aselection can make manually selecting an object much more efficient.(Combine with the Zoom tool for best results.)

sur-n Resize Windows To Fit: This option resizes the active window to

fit in the workspace area

n Resolution: Resolution determines how many pixels are shown per

unit (such as inch or centimeter) in an image Higher resolutionscontain more pixels (thus more detail) than lower resolution images.You can set the resolution when you crop images

n Reverse: This reverses the chosen gradient’s colors and is used

with the Gradient tool

n Sample All Layers: To apply the tool to all of the layers in the

image, place a check in this box For instance, when using the MagicWand to select a specific color, you can choose to apply the selection

to all of the layers in the image instead of the default of only theactive layer The same is true for Quick Selection tool, Blur tool, andothers

n Sample Size: The eyedropper can be used to take a sample of a

color for multiple uses, including choosing a foreground color Thesample size of the eyedropper can be changed in the Sample Sizebox It is usually best to keep the sample size small You can choosefrom Point Sample, 3 by 3 Average, 5 by 5 Average, and more

n Sampling: Sampling is used with the Background Eraser tool to

specify how pixels will be erased (Continuous, Once, or BackgroundSwatch) Continuous erases as you drag, Once erases only the colorswhere you first click, and Background Swatch erases only colors thatmatch the current background color

n Set to enable airbrush capabilities: This option, accessed by

clicking the Airbrush icon on the options bar, simulates traditionalairbrush techniques by gradually adding paint, similar to the way youuse a spray paint gun or a spray paint can

n Source (Sampled or Pattern): This is used when repairing flaws in

images (perhaps with the Healing Brush) to determine how exactly

an image will be repaired Sampled uses pixels from the currentimage, and Pattern fills the area with a pattern you select from thepattern pop-up palette

n Source and Destination: These are options used with the Patch

tool to specify what pixels should be repaired (Destination) and withwhat pixels (Source)

n Strength: Strength is used with the Blur, Sharpen, and Smudge

tools and specifies how strong the stroke should be Lower numbersreduce the strength; higher numbers increase the strength

n Toggle the Brushes palette: This allows you to toggle the Brushes

palette on and off This is a small button located on the far right ofsome options bars, such as Burn, Dodge, Sponge, Blur, Sharpen, andSmudge It’s on the right side of the options bar, not the left

n Tolerance: This option is available with several tools and is used to

set how “tolerant” a tool is with regard to the colors with which it isworking For instance, when using the Paint Bucket tool to fill anarea with color, the Tolerance level determines how close the colormust be to the original color (where you click) before it gets filled.Values can be between 0 and 255 A lower number only fills colorsvery similar to where you click; a higher number fills a broader range

of colors Tolerance can also be set for the Magic Eraser, BackgroundEraser, Art History Brush, and Magic Wand tools

n Transparency: To use a transparency mask for the gradient fill,

place a check in the Transparency box Doing so allows you to ify gradient transparency (which is kind of like opacity for solid fills)

spec-n Use Pattern (Pattern): This offers a pop-up palette from which a

pattern can be chosen to fill the selected area and patch it

n Width and Height: This allows you to set the width and height for a

marquee or shape by manually typing in the dimensions Width andheight can also be set this way for the Crop and Slice tools

You can also change the order of the palette list in the Dock byright-clicking on any tab and choosing to move it left or right, or begin-ning or end Each palette’s additional options have a choice to go to theDock automatically (without dragging).

] Tip:

In the next chapter we create some workspaces that are personalized for

specific industries, jobs, or clients Use the Dock to organize palettes that

you’d like to keep available but out of the workspace

Summary

In this chapter, you learned about the options from the options bar Somecommon options include Style, Mode, Opacity, Brush, and adding to orsubtracting from a selection or shape There are other less-commonoptions also; these options were detailed for use as a reference Refer tothis chapter often when questions arise concerning an item on theoptions bar

Personalizing the

Workspace

Now that you understand all of the interface elements, let’s personalize,configure, and save a workspace for a specific job or industry Perhapsyou are a screen printer working mainly with spot color images and logosand you rarely use styles You can remove the Styles palette from theworkspace and save the resulting configuration If you have specific cli-ents who require mainly text-related jobs, you can create a workspacethat contains the Character and Paragraph palettes and open this

workspace each time that client’s file needs work

In essence, Photoshop can be configured to suit the needs of justabout any industry or artist The suggestions in this chapter can help youdecide what your particular space should look like As you streamlineyour business, you can also streamline the interface

In addition to configuring the interface to meet the needs of the task

at hand, you’ll also need to configure preferences from the Edit menu,configure the Preset Manager, configure the color settings, and calibrateyour system These are generally one-time tasks, and are necessary toget Photoshop and the machine up and running and ready for handlingyour screen printing needs Calibration and configuring color settings arevery important parts of personalizing the system, and in-depth projectsare included to assist you with these tasks

71

Removing Items from the Workspace

When working with certain artwork, you might find that the toolbox,options bar, palettes, and other items impede your work by taking upmuch-needed space on the screen These items can be removed in sev-eral ways

The Window menu has a list of many of the items that can be shown

in the Photoshop workspace, and there are checks by those that areshowing To remove the item from the workspace, simply uncheck theitem from the Window menu Figure 5-1 shows the Window menu withall of the items unchecked Notice that the Dock is still available on theright, but it’s collapsed to icons

You don’t have to remove everything, certainly, and you can pick andchoose what you want to leave in the workspace For most of your workthough, you’ll probably want to leave the options bar, the toolbox, the sta-tus bar, and a few palettes checked and available

Figure 5-1: Removing everything from the workspace

] Tip:

To reset the palettes, choose Window>Workspace>Reset Palette

Loca-tions, which we’ve mentioned several times Everything will return to its

original place

You can also clear the workspace of all palettes and tools by pressing theTab key on the keyboard This includes even a collapsed Dock This tog-gles the workspace from having nothing in the workspace to what youhave configured by default Pressing Shift+Tab removes only the

palettes

When you close Photoshop, the positions of the palettes are saved The

configuration will be the same the next time Photoshop is opened, unless

you configure Edit>Preferences otherwise

Docking Palettes

Use the Dock to hold palettes that you want to keep handy but don’t want

on the screen This was discussed in Chapter 4, but deserves a reminderhere Use the Window menu to choose the ones you want to show, andclose the ones you don’t Then, once you have the toolbox, the optionsbar, and the palettes the way you want them, you can save them usingthe Window>Workspace>Save Workspace command

Creating a Text-based Workspace

There are plenty of industries that are generally text based, such as set print shops, graphic design shops that create yard signs, banners, andmagnetic signs for cars, CAD cutters, and printers that create businesscards, print ads, menus, and similar items While many of these artistshave word processing programs that they use for much of their work, andperhaps even vector-based programs, Photoshop can play an importantrole too, especially since Photoshop supports vector-based text in thelatest versions of the software For those artists who use Photoshop fortheir print work, a text-based workspace certainly increases efficiency

off-] Tip:

You can make many changes now to a type layer and still edit the type,

including but not limited to: changing the orientation, applying anti-aliasing,converting between point and paragraph type, and using layer styles

There are several palettes designed specifically for working with text,including the Character and Paragraph palettes From the Character pal-ette, a language can be chosen for checking the spelling in a file, and font,font size, and other text attributes can be set The Paragraph palette can

be used for configuring how paragraphs of text should be laid out

In addition to these palettes, the Layers palette is also useful sinceadding text also adds layers to the image and those layers can be chosenand manipulated using this palette

Finally, consider adding the History and Actions palettes to theworkspace In the additional options for the Actions palette, add the texteffects actions A sample palette group is shown in Figure 5-2

Figure 5-2: A sample text-based palette group

Even though I’ve put all of the palettes together in a single box, you canseparate them into two, three, or even four boxes and configure them tofit on the screen any way you want However, when the palettes aredocked together as one, as shown in Figure 5-2, you can very easily drag

it around the screen, moving it out of the way to optimize the workspace.Once you’ve arranged the text-based workspace the way you want it,choose Window>Workspace>Save Workspace and name the newworkspace Text-Based The new workspace will appear in the Window>Workspace options and will be available anytime you need to work withtext (When saving the workspace, make sure to check Keyboard Short-cuts and Menus if you’ve made additional changes to those items.)

] Tip:

You can even dock the palettes in the Dock if desired, and then collapse theDock This will further keep the work area clean

Creating a Screen Printing Workspace

Screen printers use some palettes for almost every job and other ettes very rarely Since there’s no point in having the workspace

pal-cluttered with unnecessary palettes, in this section we set up a space that suits most screen printers’ needs

work-There are a few palettes that you should certainly include: the ers palette, the Channels palette, the Info palette, and the Tool Presetspalette The History palette is also important but only if you are comfort-able with it Some prefer to use the Undo command from the Edit menu.You probably won’t do as much with the Navigator, Styles, Swatches,

Lay-or Actions palettes, so you can remove those You can open those whennecessary from the Window menu Figure 5-3 shows a sample screenprinting workspace (it’s the way mine is configured) My setup alsoincludes the Paragraph and Character palettes

] Tip:

Some palettes are docked together by default, such as the Info and tor palettes If you remove the Navigator palette from the workspace by

Naviga-unchecking it from the Window menu, the Info palette is removed as well

To remove a single palette that is docked with others, drag its tab out intothe workspace to make it a separate palette, and then click the close (X)

button on the palette to remove it

In this figure, the Info and Histogram palettes are docked together; theHistory, Paragraph, and Character palettes are docked together; the Lay-ers, Layer Comps, and Channels palettes are docked together; and theBrushes and Clone Source palettes are docked and minimized; all in theDock area The Tool Presets have been dragged to the lower left side ofthe workspace, under the toolbox, which is configured to show tools intwo columns instead of one To save this workspace, choose Window>Save Workspace, and type Screen Printer, then click Save

Figure 5-3: A screen printer’s workspace

Creating a Client-based Workspace

When clients come to the shop to bring in their own artwork for printing,

I open up the client-based workspace that I’ve configured It contains theNavigator and Info palettes so we can talk about colors and the size of theimage, Swatches so they can see the colors available, and Brushes sotouch-ups can be made to photographs and other artwork on the fly.Figure 5-4 shows a sample client-based workspace that I’ve config-ured The Brushes palette is docked but is minimized because it’s quitelarge If any editing needs to be done to the image during the client visit,the Window>Tools option isn’t far away, nor is the screen printer

workspace configured earlier

] Tip:

In addition to this workspace, consider connecting a large TV to your tor so that the client can see what’s on your screen on a larger scale Manynewer computers connect easily with an S-video or composite cable

moni-Figure 5-4: A client-based workspace

Creating an Artist’s Workspace

Artists require different workspaces than screen printers Artists willcertainly need layers but perhaps not channels Performing tasks onchannels is the job of the screen printer or the person in charge of colorseparating the artwork Unlike a screen printer, the artist requires easyaccess to brushes, swatches, styles, color, paths, and actions, as well astool presets and possibly even the Character and Paragraph palettes Ifyou’ve got a serious artist or graphic designer on your staff, consider let-ting him or her create and save a custom workspace

Figure 5-5 shows a workspace configured for a graphic artist in mycompany A similar workspace might work for yours As with the othersections in this chapter, it’s still a matter of personal preference, but eachoffers a good place to start, especially when an employee is in training

In Figure 5-5, the Dock contains the Brushes, Clone Source, Tool sets, Navigator, Info, Color, Swatches, and Styles palettes The History,

Pre-Figure 5-5: An artist’s workspace

Actions, Character, Paragraph, and Layer Comps palettes are docked andminimized.

Editing Preferences

Photoshop comes preconfigured with preferences that its creators feelsuit most users As you already know though, a screen printer isn’t theaverage user! Changing these preferences is a big part of personalizingthe workspace and can prove to be quite useful However, the configura-tion changes that you make to the Edit>Preferences choices will apply

to all of the saved workspaces configured on your computer, so if ple people use the computer, make sure you keep those users in mindwhen making changes

multi-There are plenty of things to change, and in the following project, Iwalk you through making these changes There are a few that can bequite helpful to a screen printer or graphic artist, and you’ll be prompted

to make these changes However, if you feel the change isn’t necessary

or doesn’t fit your organization’s needs, certainly leave the default orchoose another option

Project 5-1: Setting Optimal Preferences

To configure the preferences in Photoshop for optimum results in ascreen printing facility:

1 Choose Edit>Preferences>General.

2 From the General preferences settings, notice the Color Picker isAdobe, Image Interpolation is Bicubic, and UI Font Size is Small.Leave the color picker the same, make changes to the interface fontsize as desired, and consider changing the Image Interpolation set-ting (Interpolation occurs when an image is resized, as the pixelshave to be reapplied to a new pixel map.)

The options are:

a Nearest Neighbor — This option requires the least processingtime because it only considers one pixel, the closest one to theinterpolation point Because of this, edges may appear jaggedwhen this option is selected

b Bilinear — Like Nearest Neighbor, this option considers theclosest 2 x 2 neighborhood for remapping pixels It looks at pix-els in groups of four, and takes the average

c Bicubic — Takes the interpolation process up a notch by ing 4 x 4, or 16 pixels This is the default and is best for smoothgradients

averag-d Bicubic Smoother — This option will give you better resultswhen enlarging an image It creates an average using more pix-els than the other choices and helps suppress film grain andnoise

e Bicubic Sharper — This option will give you better results whenreducing an image This results in sharper edge transitions

3 While still in the General preferences, check Automatically

Launch Bridge (more about that in Chapter 6) You might also

con-sider selecting Zoom with Scroll Wheel Click the Next button to

bring up the next set of preferences

4 From Interface, select Show Channels in Color (You’ll learn more

about channels in Chapter 22.) Configure the other options as

desired For instance, if, when you open Photoshop CS3 you’d rathersee the palettes the way you left them the last time you used the

program, deselect Remember Palette Locations You may also want to select Auto-Collapse Icon Palettes Click the Next button

to bring up the next set of preferences

5 From File Handling, accept the defaults Click the Next button to

bring up the next set of preferences

6 In Performance, you can configure how much RAM you want

Photoshop to use You’ll see an ideal range listed If you generallywork only with Photoshop and don’t use any other programs simulta-neously, move the slider to the highest number in the Ideal Range.(You can type the number if desired.) Additionally, select your harddrive as your scratch disk Change History States as desired Click

the Next button to bring up the next set of preferences.