Solution: The document workspace

The document workspace, in the center area of the workspace, houses the documents (image files) that you are currently editing. The document workspace is large enough to really get some work done; it gives you the flexibility to expand your image to a workably large size and keep your favorite panels open and docked as well. The document workspace is also home to the panels and Toolbox discussed later in this tutorial.

Note:
The screenshots in this book were taken at a screen resolution of 1024x768, which is a really low resolution, especially if you have a larger screen. If your resolution is set higher, you have a larger work area than is shown here. If you set your resolution as high as 1920x1200 (which is what mine is usually set to), you have an insane amount of room to expand your panels, tile your document windows, and generally make everything
available to you at once. Of course, if your resolution is set lower than 1024x768, your work area is smaller.

As you open image files, they appear in the center of the document workspace, and you have several options for viewing them. When you click the View menu, as shown in Figure 2.2, and you can choose the following basic options:

Fit to Screen: If you are working on your entire document (and not working with other files), your best option is to choose Fit to Screen so you can see all of it as large as possible.
Actual Pixels: The Actual Pixels mode is the best option if you want to see the cleanest view of a specific area because the pixels in the image match the pixels in the screen, so no interpolation is necessary.
Print Size: The Print Size option is handy if you want to get a better idea of how the document will look when printed.

FIGURE 2.2
You can change the way your image fits into the document workspace by using the View menu.

Tip
Don’t use the zoom options in the View menu; you have several better options—the Zoom tool, the Magnify
box, and the roller wheel on your mouse, all of which are discussed later in this tutorial.
In addition to the standard View modes, you can easily zoom in and out on the image, depending on your editing needs. Notice at the bottom-left corner of the document windows is a percentage representing the Zoom value and the document information. You can change the size of your document by selecting the Zoom value and typing a new percentage.
Another useful feature in the document window is the information section at the bottom. By default, the document information displays the size of your file. Keep an eye on this as you begin to add multiple layers and effects to a document; you might be surprised by how these changes can increase the size of your document.
If you click the arrow next to the document information, a pop-up list opens, as shown in Figure 2.3, that gives you several options for the information display. You can choose to display the Adobe Drive, the Document Size, the Document Profile, Document Dimensions, Measurement Scale, Scratch Sizes, Efficiency, Timing, the Current Tool, and the option to preview an image at 32-bit exposure.

FIGURE 2.3
The information section of the document window can be very useful when you are editing images. The menu allows you to display several types of information.

When multiple documents are open in the document workspace, Photoshop provides tabs for each of them, as shown in Figure 2.1. These tabs display the document name, and you can access the document for editing by clicking its tab. Using the tabs is the most economical and organized way to have multiple files open, and you probably will prefer this option most of the time.
There are also other View options when you have multiple documents open. To change how the document windows are organized, select Window ➪ Arrange from the main menu and then choose one of the following options:

Cascade: Cascading your documents shows the document windows in a cascade fashion from the upper left to the lower right of your document workspace.
Tile: Tiling adjusts the size of all open document windows so they can all be viewed together in the workspace. For example, if you are working with two or more documents at the same time, cloning areas of one into another, you probably want to tile your documents in the document workspace.
Float in Window: Floating your documents releases them from the document workspace or from a floating group to their own individual window. When the document windows are floating, they are independent of the Photoshop interface, and you can use the standard operating system window controls on them. You can organize floating windows into groups by dragging one window on top of another window. When more than one document is in a floating group, their tabs are displayed at the top of the window. You also can float windows by grabbing the tab in the floating group or document workspace and dragging it out. You can add a floating document to a group or document workspace by dragging it into the tabs.
Float All in Window: This causes all windows to float.

Tip
You can quickly cycle through open tabbed document windows by using the Ctrl+Tab hotkey sequence.

Consolidate All to Tabs: This docks all floating windows into the document workspace. This option is great if you find that you have so many windows open that navigating them is difficult. You also can consolidate windows to the document workspace or floating group by right-clicking the tab bar at the top and selecting Consolidate All to Here.
Match Zoom: This sets the zoom percentage of all open document windows to match the value of the active document window. This is useful when you are working with multiple images that eventually will be consolidated into a single document.
Match Location: This sets the center panning position of all open document windows to match the center position of the active document window. This is useful if you are working with multiple versions of the same image or a sequence of images and you want to quickly move to the same location in all windows for comparison.
Match Rotation: This sets the rotation angle of the image in all document windows to match the rotation angle of the image in the active document window.
Match All: This sets the zoom, center panning position, and rotation of all document windows to match the values of the active document window.

In this tutorial:

Solution

Friday, August 20, 2010

The document workspace

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