a nest of bees in graphic design

tips for tools used in photoshop and other webdesign and print design software

Did you know that….
Despite the fact that both the Edit » Fill command and the Paint Bucket tool [G] are disabled for type layers, Alt+Backspace (fill with foreground color) and Ctrl+Backspace (fill withbackground color) still work!
sooo go ahead and trick those fill layers commands!

i’m sure you use photoshop’s crop tool!
and yes, i’m sure you’ve noticed that if you crop images in photoshop (using the crop tool [C] or edit » crop), you will lose all pixels outside the crop boundaries.
but are you sure you want that?!
To crop your image without losing any data, use canvas size [...]

are you in a hurry? are you interested in copying your favorite drop shadow settings faster?
you can do that using the eyedropper tool:
1. select objects you want to apply “drop shadow” to.
2. press I to switch to the eyedropper tool and click directly on the frame edge of the object containing the drop [...]

Hold down the Alt key when selecting a color with the eyedropper tool [ I ] to define a background color in photoshop.
easy, isn’t it?

To draw a straight line with any paint tool, click on the image, move the mouse, and then Shiftclick.
Photoshop will join the two points with a straight line using the current tool.