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work. (The Normal Brush Tip cursor is shown at the top center and the Show Crosshair in Brush Tip option can be seen at the lower left.)

      When the Show Only Crosshair While Painting option is selected in Preferences, the brush cursor appears at the selected diameter display (Full Size or Normal) until you press the mouse button (or press the stylus to the tablet). It then automatically switches to the crosshair and remains as a precise cursor until you release the mouse button (or lift the stylus). Experienced brush-tool-using Photoshoppers might want to experiment with this option — if you know the diameter, you might want to better focus on the center of the brush when you are, for example, painting or dodging or burning along a distinct edge.

      

When you’re sure that you have a brush-size cursor selected in the Preferences but Photoshop shows you the precise cursor, check the Caps Lock key. Pressing Caps Lock toggles the painting cursors between Precise and Brush Size.

      Also found in the Cursors panel is the Brush Preview color. Click the color swatch to open the Color Picker and assign a color to use when dynamically resizing your brushes. (If you don’t have OpenCL drawing capability, the brushes can still be resized, but the color preview will not be visible.) With a brush-using tool active, press and hold down the Option+Control keys on a Mac and drag left or right; on a Windows machine, Alt-right-click and drag left or right to resize the brush — on the fly! Want to change the brush hardness? Hold down those same keys and drag up or down rather than left or right.

Snapshot of working with a low Hardness setting, Normal Brush Tip is usually best.

      FIGURE 3-10: When working with a low Hardness setting, Normal Brush Tip is usually best.

      Preferences ⇒ Transparency & Gamut

      If you work in grayscale regularly, you might want to change the color of the transparency grid to something that contrasts with your image; perhaps pale blue and pale yellow. If you find the gray-and-white checkerboard pattern distracting in images with transparency, you can set Grid Size to None, which gives you a plain white background in transparent areas of your artwork.

      Preferences ⇒ Units & Rulers

      If you create web graphics rather than print images, you probably want to change the unit of measure from Inches to Pixels. Keep in mind that you can change the unit of measure on the fly by right-clicking the rulers in your image (which you show and hide with the shortcut ⌘ +R/Ctrl+R). If you regularly print at a resolution other than 300 ppi, you might also want to adjust the default resolution for print-size new documents.

      Preferences ⇒ Guides, Grid & Slices

Snapshot of the magenta guides that show how the layer aligns with other layers.

      FIGURE 3-11: The magenta guides show how the layer aligns with other layers.

      Preferences ⇒ Plug-Ins

      

Extensions are panels created outside of the Adobe Photoshop development process that you can download or purchase. Allowing them to connect to the Internet to search for new content may or may not be a good idea, depending on your level of network security. I’m not suggesting that a panel could steal your passwords or anything like that, but unless you trust the source of the panel …

      The creative filters of the Filter Gallery are not listed individually in the Filter menu. You open the Filter Gallery, and then select the filter you need. If you would rather have the Filter Gallery open directly to the filter you need, select Show All Filter Gallery Groups and Names option and restart Photoshop.

      Preferences ⇒ Technology Previews

      In the Technology Preview panel of the Preferences, your options and choices will vary both with your hardware and over time. As Adobe develops new whiz-bang ideas, you can choose to play with them. Or not. Take a couple of moments (when you have time) to click the Learn More button to find out what the new technologies are all about.

      Preferences ⇒ Product Improvement

      

To help Adobe Sensei (the so-called “artificial intelligence” engine) do a better job with complicated tasks, such as selecting frizzy hair, you need to give it data. By (anonymously) participating, you provide your experiences to Adobe to improve the automated functions. You’ll definitely want to click the Learn More button in order to make an informed decision. Remember that the more people who participate, the easier your work will get in the future.

      Ensuring consistency: Color Settings

       Select an RGB working space. Open the Color Settings dialog box (under the Edit menu) and select your RGB working space, the color space in which you edit and create. If you primarily create web graphics, shoot in the JPEG format, send your images to a photo lab for printing, or print with an inkjet printer that uses only four ink colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), choose sRGB as your color space. If you shoot Raw and print to an inkjet printer that uses six or more inks, or if you prepare artwork that will be converted to a CMYK color space, choose Adobe RGB. (If you have hardware and software to create a custom profile for your computer’s monitor, use that profile at the system level so that it’s available to all programs.)

       Elect to convert images to your working space. In the Color Management Policies area of the Color Settings dialog box, choose RGB: Convert to Working RGB. This ensures that the images you see onscreen actually use your working profile.FIGURE 3-12: Choose wisely in the Color Settings dialog box for optimal printing.

       Turn off the mismatch warnings. Clear the check boxes for those annoying and time-wasting warnings that pop up onscreen any time you open an image with a profile other than your working space. You’re intentionally converting to your working space — you don’t need to reaffirm the decision every time.

       CMYK and Grayscale settings: CMYK (cyan/magenta/yellow/black) color mode is used exclusively with images intended for output on commercial printing presses and some color laser printers. (Don’t be fooled by the inks you purchase for your inkjet printer — the printer’s driver expects to convert from RGB, so sending CMYK color to an inkjet will produce substandard output.) Likewise, you’ll use Grayscale very rarely. If, in fact, you have an inkjet printer that is capable of printing grayscale (such as the magnificent Epson Stylus Pro 7900),

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