Five Simple Photoshop Tricks I Bet You Don’t Know
I’ve been using Photoshop since I first got my hands on a copy in 1996 (and yes, it was legit). Over the years I’ve learned so much about how to use it and so decided to share several of my tips that I’ve noticed some people around me don’t yet know.
- Pressing the shift key constrains proportions when you resize objects. Simple yet obviously not everybody knows this one. If you don’t hold shift, it stretches. Honestly, I think Adobe products should automatically hold proportions.
- Using the erase or pen tool, you can press erase once and then holding down the shift key press somewhere else to draw a straight line: Simple yet effective and works with other tools like the pen tool.
- Shift + Backspace fills a selection. Yup, another super-simple one. It’s the same as going to Edit… Fill…
- Set your Units of Measurement to pixels. If your artwork is destined for on screen display you should set your Rulers to display units as pixels (it can display inches or whatever unit of measurement that you might want). Often times when I receive someone elses Photoshop file that has guides in it, I find the guides are not snapped to the edge of the pixel. This is because the guide was placed when the unit of measurement was something other than pixels.
- Use the sharpen tool on photos. Especially if your photo is destined for web use (or email) and you just resized a big picture to small dimensions. It makes your photos crisp and makes everything and everybody clear. I wrote more about this in April.
That wraps up my Photoshop tips for today. Thanks for attending class.
More From Brainfuel
- People Don’t Scroll
- What kind of person are you?
- Top 10 Photoshop Tips and Techniques from BrainFuel
- I won!
- A Ditty 4 You
Brainfuel Recommends
- I wouldn’t read my blog. (Brian Shaler)
- Even If You Don’t Expect It (Brian Shaler)
- Trying a Triathlon, crazy I know. (Aaron Post)
![Recommend [ChrisTingom: Brainfuel]](http://s3.amazonaws.com/arkayne-media/img/logo-recommend-us.png){kind=logo}
I just wanna add some more tips to your otherwise great list.
Pressing Alt + Backspace fills the layer (or selection) with the background color.
If you right click (or ctrl click) on the ruler you car switch between different measuring units.
The previous Comment was posted on December 1, 2005 at 3:35 am
=) I bet everyone knows those…
The previous Comment was posted on December 1, 2005 at 4:53 am
1. Use it all the time
2. Didn’t know, thanks!
3. Vaguely aware, but out of habit I use the Edit > Fill…
4. Always! First thing I do after a new install.
5. Usually use the sharpen filter
Great stuff man. Thanks!
The previous Comment was posted on December 1, 2005 at 8:21 am
No, that’s not the case
The previous Comment was posted on December 1, 2005 at 8:21 am
Hey, two comments at same time, mine was meant in response to the first one…
The previous Comment was posted on December 1, 2005 at 8:22 am
I was inspired by this post and wanted to add my own little list of tricks. So I did here:
http://theubergeeks.net/2005/12/01/more-photoshop-tips/
The previous Comment was posted on December 1, 2005 at 10:01 am
Hidden features that I use more than anything else in photoshop! Perfect tips for a beginner/average photoshop user.
Bravo Chris
The previous Comment was posted on December 1, 2005 at 10:43 am
I didn’t even know you could go Edit>Fill…
Is that bad?
I always have known about the command+delete and alt+delete…i think it was the first thing someone showed me…
The previous Comment was posted on December 1, 2005 at 9:21 pm
You could also do a Shift + F5 if you wanna fill with a pattern or so…
The previous Comment was posted on December 5, 2005 at 6:21 am
Another handy thing I found in CS2 is the history panel does not truly do all undo steps, like for instance if you turn a text layer off and on, it will not show up in the history list. In order to get every action you do to show up in your history list go to the history options by clicking on the little arrow in the top right hand corner and click on “Make Layer Visibility chsnges undoable” and you all set.
The previous Comment was posted on April 7, 2006 at 6:07 am
alt + background fills with foreground color
ctrl + background fills with background color
shift + background brings up the fill dialog
The previous Comment was posted on April 13, 2006 at 4:25 pm
you all are freaks
The previous Comment was posted on November 12, 2008 at 8:21 am
i think every one knows it .
any tricks more
The previous Comment was posted on July 11, 2009 at 11:08 am