a nest of bees in graphic design

25 Great Keyboard Shortcuts for Photoshop

2nd bee — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:02:32 +0000

1. Drag-Zoom
Command/Ctrl + Space + Click and Drag Left or Right. Fastest way to zoom in and out with one keyboard shortcut (only in CS5 and only with GPU enabled).

2. HUD Color Picker
Alt + Shift + Right Click (Win) or Control + Option + Cmd + Click (Mac). Gorgeous color picker with a color wheel (only in CS5 and only with GPU enabled). Preferences are under General tab.

3. Bird’s Eye View
Hold Down H + Click, Reposition View and Let Go of the Mouse to Zoom Back). Works great with large images, when you need to work closely. Fast way to fit the image to screen and then zoom back into another area with the previous zoom ratio quickly.

4. Brush Size & Hardness
Ctrl + Alt + Right Click (Win) or Control + Option + Click (Mac). Drag your mouse to right/left to change the size and up/down to change the hardness. It only works with CS5 in both directions. In CS4 only the size change works. You can change the color of the brush preview under Preferences/Cursors. You also need GPU turned on under the Performance tab to be able to see the brush preview.

5. Draw Straight Lines
Hold Down Shift. Works with nearly every drawing tool.

6. Move
Hold Down Command/Ctrl. Fastest way to move something quickly and then switch back to the previous tool.

7. Pan (Shift + Space) and Zoom Simultaneously in all Documents
Shift + Ctrl + Space (Win) or Shift + Command + Space (Mac). Best way to compare or work on more than images at the same time.

8. Hide Panels
Hit Tab. You can always show them again by pressing Tab once more, or just simply hover over the edges to show the panels and toolbar temporarily.

9. Full Screen Preview of Files From Mini-Bridge
Space and Then Arrow Keys. It works the same way as in Bridge. Make sure that you deselect the images in MiniBridge or collapse the panel when you continue working in Photoshop.

10. Text Size
Command/Ctrl + Shift + . or , you can use it for selected text. It won’t work by only selecting the text layer.

11. All Caps for Text
Command/Ctrl + Shift + K. Quick way to switch between lowercase and uppercase text. Make sure you type without Caps lock to be able to use this.

12. Tracking and Kerning
Alt/Option + Left and Right Arrow Keys. Useful way to make equalize the distance between characters. If you select a word, a line or a whole paragraph then you change the Tracking. If you click between two characters you change the Kerning.

13. Leading
Alt/Option + Up and Down Arrow Keys. Quickly change the distance between selected lines.

14. Baseline Shift
Alt/Option + Shift + Up and Down Arrow Keys. Easy way to use one text layer but have different positions for the text.

15. Fill
Command/Ctrl + Backspace – Foreground Color, Alt/Option + Backspace – Background Color, Shift + Backspace – Fill Options. Great way to fill color into selections or change the color of text and vector shape layers.

16. Reset Any Dialog Box
Alt/Option + Click on Cancel. Instead of canceling a dialog box and returning to it try Reset and save time and effort.

17. Changing Opacity and Fill Opacity
Numeric Keys, Shift + Numeric Keys. This will change the opacity and fill of the selected layer (or even more than one layer at the same time in CS5) and it will change opacity and fill of the tool if you select a drawing tool.

18. Invert Colors of Selected Layer or Layer’s Pixel Mask
Command/Ctrl + I. This is a fast way to invert visible parts of a layer if you invert the colours of the layer mask.

19. Switch to Precise Cursors for Drawing Tools
Hit Caps Lock. If you don’t want to see the edges of the brush you can switch to precise mode easily by having Caps lock on.

20. Reset Preferences
Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Win) or Command + Option + Shift (Mac) When Loading Photoshop. If you want to start with the default settings and user interface hold down these buttons while Photoshop is loading.

21. Switch Foreground/Background Colours
Press (X). Fast way to switch between the selected colour.

22. Mask View
Alt/Option + Click on a Layer Mask. Great way to clean up the mask after you save it from a selection. Using it again will switch back to normal view again.

23. Disable Mask
Shift + Click on a Layer Mask. You can quickly show the original contents of the layer with this keyboard shortcut. Using it again will enable the mask again.

24. Intersection of Selections
Alt/Option + Shift + Click With a Selection Tool Over Another Overlapping Selection. Easy way to keep only a specific part of a selection.

25. Merge All Visible Layers to a New Layer
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E (Win) or Command + Option + Shift + E. If you want to keep all your layers but you also need to merge them together to be able to use something you can convert them all into one Smart object or use this keyboard shortcut to make a duplicate merged layer.

Bonus (Easter-Egg) Keyboard Shortcut
Alt/Option + Click on Panel options under the options of Layers panel.

http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/tools/awesome-keyboard-shortcuts-photoshop/

Turn Around Apostrophes

webee — Mon, 30 May 2011 06:47:23 +0000

When Use Typographer’s Quotes (Preferences > Type) is on, InDesign automatically converts straight or “dumb” quotes into curly or “smart” quotes during text entry. That’s usually desirable; however, this automatic conversion can produce unwanted results. For example, the presence of a space before abbreviated years like ‘11 for 2011 incorrectly produces an opening single quotation mark. To produce the correct apostrophe in this situation, press Option/Alt-Shift-].

Review: Adobe InDesign CS5

2nd bee — Wed, 12 May 2010 10:02:00 +0000

Pros: Span- and split-column paragraphs, multiple page sizes, Illustrator-style Layers panel, numerous simplified transformation options, dynamic metadata captions, text track changes, and an expansive new set of animation and interactivity features.

Cons: SWF export doesn’t include scalable animations, no split columns in table cells, longstanding rotation behavior removed, Document-installed Fonts feature on Mac platform supports OpenType and TrueType only.

InDesign CS5 delivers some long-requested features and many little things that add up to a lot. The new version also introduces impressive new features that let print designers stretch themselves into the new paradigm of document creation, which now includes interactivity, animation, and video.
Some of this new features are:

1. Multiple Page Sizes; Span, Split, and Balance Columns
2. Simplified Transformations and Selections
3. The Gap Tool; Gridified Frames and Super Step-and-Repeat; Layers Rebuilt
4. Metadata Captions; Mini Bridge
5. Interactive Documents
6. Workflow and Collaboration; (Not Quite) All The Little Things
7. Buying Advice

Hyphenate Words Your Way

2nd bee — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:25:32 +0000

To tell InDesign exactly where to hyphenate a word, open InDesign and go to Edit > Spelling > Dictionary. Do this with no document open to set the default for all new documents. Type the word in the Word field and then click Hyphenate. The tilde (~) characters indicate how InDesign will hyphenate the word. To change those settings, retype the word in the Word field using tildes as follows:

• One tilde (~) indicates the most desirable hyphenation position.
• Two tildes (~~) indicate a slightly less desirable hyphenation position.
• Three tildes (~~~) mark the least desirable hyphenation position.
• A tilde inserted before the word tells InDesign never to hyphenate the word at all.

Finally, click the Add Button to change the word to your customized setting.

tutorial: insert a picture inside the text

bee — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:24:01 +0000

being a graphic design professional ;), you might get in the situation that you want to insert one or more pictures inside fonts (editable and non-vectorized) .

so you try to convert the text to outlines and place the picture inside the resulting frame.
but hei!
even though InDesign can do incredible things with text and images, at first sight it won’t do this…

in fact, it’s been possible since indesign 2!
all you need are some basic understanding of blending modes and four simple steps:

1. choose a bold or black typeface so that the image will be visible through it.
2. go to: fill text - swaches - paper
3.then type - create outline. and it will work
4. place image in text or simply drag and drop the image you want in the selected text

What Is the Registration Color Good For?

2nd bee — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:31:55 +0000

The InDesign Swatches panel includes four undeletable swatches: None, Black, Paper, and Registration. The purpose of the first three is obvious. You probably know not to use Registration for any object to appear on the printed page, but do you know why?

The Registration color prints on every ink plate. In CMYK, that means anything with Registration applied to it prints in cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The result is usually not a nice rich black but rather the color of old mud. That’s why the Registration swatch should be reserved for registration marks and other information or structures that need to print on all plates (usually in the slug area), such as the client name, job number, and other specific information. The easiest way to include that information on the film is to set it in the slug area, in the Registration color swatch.

Automatic Drag-N-Drop Image Libraries

2nd bee — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:56:40 +0000

For image-intensive page layout in InDesign, selecting images visually is better than doing it by filename, and dragging and dropping is easier than File > Place. Rorohiko’s ImageLibraryLoader is a free script-based plug-in for Mac and Windows versions of InDesign CS, CS2, CS3, and CS4. It automatically builds a thumbnail library of images in a folder inside InDesign. That library is a floating panel from which you can drag entries and drop them into the layout without stepping out of InDesign. For more info and the download link, go to http://www.creativepro.com/article/free-all-just-what-youre-looking.

webee changes face

2nd bee — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:12:14 +0000

Hi there.
We decided to change the face of webee
and the new face is a Bee…weBeeeee
We are still working on the theme and please be pacient with us until we finish.
As new features..we will have a portofolio with works involving 5 people…a nest of bees..from different areas: print design, web-design, illustration and ecommerce
So stay in touch to see what the bees are doing.
And here it is: the new weblogo:

how to take inspired photographs

2nd bee — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:00:45 +0000

Do you want your photographs to be like visual poetry? Then follow this advice from Chris Orwig, the popular workshop speaker and Brooks Institute faculty member.
Whether you are an amateur or professional, this guide provides inspiration, simple techniques, and assignments to boost your creative process and improve your digital images using natural light and no additional gear.

CreativePro.com’s top 10 articles of 2008

2nd bee — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:09:08 +0000

10. Selectively Adjust Color in Photoshop
In this tutorial, Chad Neuman demonstrates techniques that change the hue of only part of an image and without obscuring details underneath the new color.

www.creativepro.com/article/selectively-adjust-color-photoshop

9. 10 Quick Macro Shooting Tips
Mason Resnick proves that once you eliminate the variables, you’ll end up with nothing but great macro shots.

www.creativepro.com/article/10-quick-macro-shooting-tips

8. First Look: QuarkXPress 8.0
Gene Gable tried out the QuarkXPress 8.0 beta and concluded that it’s the makeover designers have been waiting for.

www.creativepro.com/article/first-look-quarkxpress-80

7. A Monstrous Photoshop Technique
Russell Brown never follows the rules, but he always has more fun. Ride along as he takes images to the creative edge!

www.creativepro.com/article/a-monstrous-photoshop-technique

6. Get Dynamic in Photoshop
HDR is one of the hottest trends in photography. Colin Smith explains how to shoot, merge, and tone-map photos to extend the dynamic range and produce painted-looking results.

http://www.creativepro.com/article/get-dynamic-photoshop

5. Turn Color Photos into Duotones in Photoshop
You can transform one photograph into a wide variety of duotones to use in print or on the Web. Chad Neuman shows you how.

www.creativepro.com/article/turn-color-photos-duotones-photoshop

4. Design Successful Logos
Chad Neuman interviews three experts on what goes into designing a logo, including typeface choices, inspiration, and overall branding messages.

www.creativepro.com/article/design-successful-logos

3. Review: Adobe Photoshop CS4
Ben Long’s review is thorough. In it, he’ll introduce you to some improvements and additions that will make you smile. Others will make your jaw drop in awe.

www.creativepro.com/article/review-adobe-photoshop-cs4

2. Ten Free Online Tools Every Designer Should Know
Pariah Burke ten free resources that help you manage your business, store files, find stock images that aren’t copyrighted, explore color, and more.

www.creativepro.com/article/ten-free-online-tools-every-designer-should-know

And now, the most-visited article on Creativepro.com in 2008…

1. HerGeekness Says: Convert Custom Letterhead to Microsoft Word Templates
Is your client insisting on a Word version of your letterhead design? Follow conversion guidelines from Anne-Marie “HerGeekness” Concepcion to cut down on your pain and maximize your profit.

www.creativepro.com/article/hergeekness-says-convert-custom-letterhead-microsoft-word-templates