The world of Photoshop is vast as the oceans, no one can claim to know everything about it. Yet, the most experienced designers and photographers have learnt over the years some tips and tricks to make their work faster and more creative.
Photoshop user interface can be overwhelming for an inexperienced eye, which is full of icons and panels. But, learning photoshop is a crucial skill in our day and time. Here are five tips for more productive and creative use of photoshop:
- Use the latest version
It’s crucial to install the latest version of photoshop because if you are using an old version, you are then missing out on many great features that can save both your time and effort. An experienced designer is always armed with the latest version of all his tools, and photoshop is the cherry on top.
An updated version allows you to create and design based on the latest trends in the world of design, and avoid the many bugs and issues that may come with using an out of update version.
- Learn the keyboard shortcuts
A smart designer is a fast designer, and learning the photoshop shortcuts can save you a lot of time, instead of looking for this or that function or icon, a simple move on your keyboard can give you what you want.
You can learn the keyboard shortcuts for photoshop from the Help page of Adobe.
- Know the size beforehand
It’s vital to know the size of your design before starting your work, you have to know if your design is going for print or digital, hence to know if you need to work with pixels or centimetres or meters or another unit.
This way you avoid wasting your work and effort and choose your material based on the proper correct required size. This way you avoid distortion and stretching.
- Label your layers
Photoshop is nothing but layers, and working with layers can be overwhelming and perplexing. Naming and categorizing your layers is an important step not to be missed.
Name your labels with short specified names and categorize them in files to make it easier to control the design or to edit it later without having to explore each layer like looking for a needle in a haystack. Remember to use Apply Image to merge layers if needed.
- Remember to save the PSD file
This is presumably the most popular mistake among beginners, not saving your PSD file means losing your design, even if you save it in any other format.
Saving your project as a PSD file allows you to go back to it anytime, which is what you need for your design. You need to be able to add to it or reuse it as you wish. Saving your design as a PSD file does not only give you the ability to revisit it, it proves you are the owner of the design since no one can have a PSD but the designer.
Leave a Reply