Photoshop Tools and Features User Log

The purpose of this log is for you to record what tools and features you used in the creation of your digital graphics. You should try to use as many as possible and you
must record how, why and when you used them. You do not need to record repeated actions but each single new action should be recorded. An example of this would
be setting up a new Photoshop file/image which would cover the ranges; “Image Settings” (all) and part of “Menus” (some of). You only need to do this once. Remember
that where the “e.g.” appears in a range, as many of the items should be covered as possible but not all of them; your tutor will guide you here. Where possible you
should also provide a screen dump to illustrate the action (see sample image below).
Tools and features  How, why and when used. Screen dump
Menus: 
Open; When it comes to Photoshop there are
many options to open a file up onto the
program.

1) The first one is “Open” and this just

directs your personal hard drive
where you can go and select a file
that you would like to pen in
Photoshop.

2) Then when it comes to “Open As”

this allows you to pick a file that you
want to open and you can change
the file so if it’s a PNG you could
change it to a JPEG before you
open it into photoshop.

3) Then there’s “Open as Smart

Object” So a “Smart Objects” is a
layer that contains image data from
raster or vector images, such as
Photoshop or Illustrator files. Smart
Objects preserve an image's source
content with all its original
characteristics, enabling you to

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 perform non-destructive editing to
the layer.

4) Then the final Open option is

“Open Recent” which allows you to
open a document that you have
previously opened before.
save; On Photoshop, you also have “Save” and
“Save as” so that you have more options
when you want to save a document or file
on Photoshop.

1) The first option that you have is

“Save” Which allows you to save a
file that you have already worked
on and saved so this option is a
shortcut for when you have already
saved a specific file.

2) Then you have “Save as” where you

can save a new file that you have
created and this will allow you to
pick where you want to save the file
and pick what file type you want to
save it as.

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 edit; When it comes to “Edit” there are a lot of
options that you can do to help you edit
your document. Example are undo, cut,
copy, paste Etc. The main ones that are the
most popular are:

1) “Undo” is a popular option as this

allows you to undo a mistake that
you have made so that you won’t
be stressing about what you have
done as you can quickly undo it.

2) “Copy” is also a popular one as this

allows you to copy something from
your work and you could possibly
use it in another program it would
just depend with what you want to
do with it.

3) Another popular option is “Paste”

which allows you to paste
something that you have previously
got off the internet or off
photoshop and you would be able
to paste it without needing to go
through the trouble of opening the
image you want to paste.

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 view; The view in photoshop allows you to do
zoom In and out on your work and make it
so that the image is fit on the screen.

1) “Zoom in” which allows you to

zoom into your image so you can
add more detail to certain bits and
make changes to parts that you can
see.

2) “Zoom out” will allow you to zoom

out of your image and get a wide
view of what it looks like and what
you may need to improve on if you
see an error.

3) “Fit on Screen” allows you to fit the

whole image on your screen so
you’re not to zoomed in and not to
zoomed out so it is right in
between.

help Help on photoshop allows you to get

support or help with something that you
may be struggling with.

1) “Photoshop online help” Which

allows you to go straight to their
website and search with them the
problem that you need help with.

2) “Photoshop CC Learn and Support”

Which allows you to go onto the
adobe website and see tutorials on

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 how to do certain effects that you
can apply to your own work.
Image settings: 
size; When it comes to the size of the file it can
range from a lot of things as you can have
it landscape or portrait and you can decide
if you want it in centimetres, pixels, inches
Etc. You can also decide the dimensions
and what size is best for what you are
designing so you can pick the width and
height and make sure that you have the
right size that suits you.
Resolution; The resolution is a big part of how crisp
your image is going to come out and
determine how much space the file will
take up when you save it. An example of
resolution is this image to the right as one
had a large resolution and the other hasn’t
so you can see that one is in much better
quality because the resolution is high
however this will be a problem with file
space as it will take more because of the
quality. So, when making an image in a
good resolution you need to be sure that
you have the space to do so.
width; When it comes to the width the choice is
yours as you can decide how it is
measured and what width you want your
image to be. So, there are a lot of options
for you to do when making the size of
your picture.
height; When it comes to Hight it is the same as
width as you still have the same options
for the size so you can use this and make
the right size for your picture. If you don’t
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 know how and what size to use then
photoshop gives you options when you
first start you image.
colour mode; Colour mode on photoshop is all about
CMYK, RGB and Greyscale. CMYK is
normally used for vector material as it that
type of colour mode is used in the industry
for logos and detailed backgrounds etc.
RGB is the most commonly used colour
mode as it has the 3 main colours (Red,
Green, Blue). All the website content on
the internet use RGB as it has been set to
that colour mode for years and there
hasn’t been any rush to change it.
Greyscale is where you change the colour
mode to grey this can be effective for
things like background if you want to
change the effect and make it look more
detailed in different places.
background; A background in Photoshop can be
adjusted and changed at the start when
you first create the size of the background
that you would like. On the background,
you can also change the resolution so that
the background will be more detailed and
less pixelated when you are designing
your graphics. However, you won’t be
able to re adjust the background once it is
created so you will have to get it right first
time as you won’t get a second chance.
transparency; Transparency is used in photoshop with a
tool called opacity where you can make an
image or background faded or make it
completely transparent. This effect can be
used when you want the background to
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 be transparent when designing a logo or
image where you wouldn’t want a white
box around it. You can also use the opacity
tool when it comes to making an image
stand out as you could have a background
that you want to see over an image but
not too much. Then you would change
the opacity of the image and you would
be able to see the background joined in
with the image.
aspect ratio, The aspect ratio in photoshop is used for
adjusting pixels in your file in photoshop.
You would use this to change the size and
change the shape of the pixels so that they
aren’t just little squares. This would be a
big change and you would need to design
something differently to how you would
with square pixels as they are harder to
work with because of the shape. Another
aspect is resolution where you would
change how many pixels you would have
per inch on your photoshop document.
This will change how detailed the image
will be and how good the final piece will
look.
file name The file name is the name in which you
name the file in your personal workspace.
When naming the file, you would want to
call it something that has meaning to what
you have designed in that document so it
you made a logo for a coffee company
then you would call it something along
the lines of coffee logo so that and put it in
a place that you would lose it so you will
always have it safe until you need it again.
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 Drawing tools: 
tool options; In photoshop there are lots of options to
edit your design on Photoshop. These are
called tools and there are a lot of them,
they all have different purposes that will be
used to make your design better in every
way. You can also get tools that will
change the look of your design without
you having to do much of the work and
these are also known as effects that can
work well if you know how to use them.
Most tools on Photoshop are quite simple
to use and some take more time to get the
hang of but it will depend on how good
you want your graphic design to be.
brush; The brush tool is a simple tool where you
can free hand draw using a paint brush in
photoshop. It is easy to use as you only use
the mouse and the tool and you can just
draw whatever you want to draw. The
only issue with this tool is that it is a basic
tool that can sometimes look pixilated and
sometimes unprofessional so this would
only be a tool for beginners or if you knew
how to use It in the right way.
pencil; The pencil tool is just like the brush tool
except it has the effect of a pencil mark
and not a paint brush mark. Again, this is a
very simple tool and can only come out
good if you know how to use it. So, this is
a good tool for beginners to use as they
can get a feel for the program but after
that it would be a good idea to widen
your experience on different tools that
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 have a better effect on your graphic
design.
duplicate; The duplication tool is another tool that is
very simple and is easy to use. All it is, is
copy and paste of the layer/image that
you want to duplicate. So, the shortcut is
Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V to paste the duplicated
image. This tool is again basic and is easy
to do but can be effective when doing
detailed designs.

clone; The clone tool is an interesting one as this

can be used to hide certain things in an
image that you may not want there. As an
example, the images to the right have
been cloned and what you do to clone is
get the clone tool and select the area
around the thing that you want to get rid
of and pant over the part of the image that
you want gone. This is done by the clone
tool getting the colour and aspects of the
image and using that on a paint brush so
all you need to do is go over the part of
the image you want gone and it should
look like it was never there. This will allow
you to make parts of an image better if you
like the image but don’t want some
aspects of it.

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 fill; The fill tool allows you to fill certain aspects
of an image and make them a whole
colour so as an example if you had a white
background that you wanted to be a
different colour then you would click on
the fill tool and get the colour that you
want as the background and just click on
the background and it will be done the
colour would have changed and the
whole background will be the colour that
you selected.

text; The text tools are a basic tool that allows

you to draw a text box on the background
and type anything that you would like on
your graphics design. Another effect you
can have is the size of the text and the font
that you want for your graphic design.
Another effect you can have is the curve of
the text as you can make the text have an
arc so it is bending one way or the other
so if you are designing a logo and want to
add text and make it fit into a gap you can

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 bend it and change the shape so that it
works well with your graphic design.
line; The line tool in Photoshop is a simple tool
where you can draw a straight line
without any problems. This is an easier
way of drawing a straight line than doing
it free hand. A good way to use the line is
to see if something is straight and use it as
a type of ruler so that you can make sure
that your image is accurate as you want it.
stroke; Stroke is used on Photoshop as a border
over an image or a type of graphic and this
allows you to possibly add detail to a
graphic by adding a border around it. This
tool also allows you to pic a certain border
as you can have it thick or thin or change
what the border looks like. As an example,
the border could be in dash lines or just a
thick line going all the way around your
image or graphic.
shape; The shape tool is a great tool if you plan
on making shapes and don’t want to use
other tools to try and make the shape you
want. They are also a good way of making
sure that the graphic you ae making is
accurate as the shape will always be
accurate and look much better than free
hand drawings as they aren’t as pixilated
as they are premade shapes. Another
good part about the shape tool is tha

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 zoom; The zoom tool allows you to zoom into
your work and possibly see if there are any
mistakes that you can see whilst zoomed
out. This is also a good way to see that
everything is where you need it to be and
that you have everything right before you
save your design.

guides and rulers; This tool allows you to get the right
measurements for your graphic design
and make sure that you have everything
correctly. This tool could be important if
you had to hand some work into a boss
and they wanted a logo at a certain size
and you would use this tool to make sure
that the logo is at the correct size for a
possible client.
Grid; The grid tool on Photoshop allows you to
be more accurate when designing your
graphic design as you would be able to
work with the grid and make sure that
everything is in place and you can make
sure that you try and keep to the grid to be
more accurate with your design and this
would mean that it would look better
overall and would work with better things
that you may want to apply that graphic
design to.
Snap; Snap to allows you to snap your work onto
something as an example you would be
able to snap your work to a grid so that
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 you don’t have to do it yourself so they
snap tool, will move your graphic design
to the gird for you so that you can get
great accuracy without doing much as the
tool will be able to get you the accuracy
that you need.
Paletts, e.g. colour, When it comes to colour on Photoshop
gradients, layers, there are millions of colour choices that
object, brushes, you could have through the colour pallet
history, actions, that photoshop has. With the colour pallet,
size, resolution; you can do whatever you want with it as
you can use it for objects, brushes Etc. So,
colour plays a big part in photoshop as this
will determine how good your graphic
could be. Another thing that would need
to be considered is the size and resolution
of the page that you will be using the
colour on. This is because if you have a
low resolution on a big page then the
colour will come out pixilated and won’t
look professional so what you would need
to do is get a good resolution and page
that will work well with how much colour
you will be using on that page and make
sure that the colour and the tools that you
are using come out well and aren’t
pixilated. However, when doing the
resolution be aware of the space on your
personal workspace as the resolution will
take up some space in memory because
you are trying to get a high-quality graphic
and it will take a tool on your memory.

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 Layers, e.g. Layers on Photoshop are one of the most
copying, saving, important things as you will be using these
arranging; to make sure that your design works and if
flattening; colour you want to come back to edit it you can
selection, do. A good part of layers is when you are
designing certain aspects of an image if
you put each aspect on its separate layer
than you can edit the graphic in a better
way and make sure that you will be able to
change each aspect if you need to than
trying to change the graphic when it’s on
the same layer. Another good feature of
layers is when it comes to copying an asset
of your work and duplicating it as all you
would need to do it duplicate the layer
and you have everything that was on that
layer which is good if you have made a
detailed graphic on one layer and you
need another one. When editing on a
graphic on Photoshop layers allow you to
arrange certain graphics and allows you to
put them in different places. As an
example, if you wanted an image over a
graphic that you previously did then all
you would need to do is move the layer
(The image) on top of the graphic and the
it will be in front of the graphic.

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 Colour selection, When it comes to colour on Photoshop it is
e.g. foreground, very easy to control as once you have
background, picked your colour you can do anything
colour swatch, with it that ranges from changing the
eyedropper foreground or background colour or even
trying to get a colour using the
eyedropper tool. This can be done by
getting the colour and getting the fill tool
and fill in where you want the certain
colour to go in your graphic design. If you
have an image that you want to use the
colour from then all you do is select the
eyedropper tool and select the colour that
you want and once you have done that
the colour pallet will go straight to that
specific colour and that colour can be used
again as it will be in your recently used
colours if you need it again. So overall the
colours on photoshop aren’t that hard to
get a hold of as you can get them easy and
use them how you like.
Editing tools: 

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 Selection, e.g. Selection on Photoshop is easy if you have
marquee, lasso, the right tools to select certain bit of an
magic wand, image that you want. A good example is
magnetic lasso, the lasso which is a tool where you can
deselect; draw a circle using your mouse and circle
a part of an image that you would like to
select. However, this isn’t the best for
accuracy as you would be doing it free
hand and there are better tools for
accuracy. But this tool is still good if all you
need to do is select apart from an image. A
tool that I personally like is the magic
wand which is a good tool for accuracy as
the magic wand will select a part of an
image that has the same colour as parts
around it. As an example, if you had an
image of the sun and the colour was
orange then the magic wand would select
all the sun as its all the same colour
however if the sun had a different colour
then the magic wand would be able to get
that colour as well so you would just have
to be careful when using the magic wand
on images as you could erase parts you
don’t want to get rid of. If you have
selected a part of an image that you didn’t
mean to select then you can deselect it by
doing the control Ctrl D and the selected
are will be gone and you can do it again
until you get the area that you want.

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 Transform, e.g. In Photoshop, you can transform images to
scale, rotate, skew, how it suits you and this can range from
flip; cut; copy; rotating, copying, pasting, cropping,
paste; crop; trim; trimming, undoing and filling Etc. So, there
erase; undo; fill are lots of option that you can do to an
image to transform it. So, the way you
rotate an image is easy as all you need to
do is do Ctrl T and around the box there
will be a rotation symbol where you will be
able to rotate the image to whatever
degree suit you best and what looks the
best. Or however you could rotate the
image by going onto image and the image
rotation and you can choice what rotate
you would like or even flip the image if
you would want to do that. Copy and
paste is simple all you do is copy an image
and paste it and you can see how it turns
out. Cropping the image is another basic
tool as this just allows you to crop and
image to how you like it and if it has a
background that you don’t like then you
can change that by cropping it. Then you
have tools like erase and undo which
allow you to delete parts of an image and
then if you make any mistakes with any of
the tool then you can undo what you have
done and redo it so that it is correct.
Advanced tools: 

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 Effects, e.g. layer Effects on Photoshop are easy to get the
effects, filters, hand of its what you do with them which
channels; image is the hard part as you want to try and get
adjustments, the best effect for the image that you are
working on. Effects can range from layer
effects, channels, image adjustment Etc.
So, the first one is layer effect which is
done by double clicking the layer you
would like effects on and it will bring up a
menu and you have a wide range of
options to add to your image that will add
effects to make it look better and some of
these options are drop shadow, inner
glow. Texture Etc. Which will all give a
good effect if you know how to use them
in the right way. Another effect that you
can have on images is channels where you
can change the colour mode. So, at first,
it’s always going to be RGB but you can
change it so that it could just be red and
blue and get rid of green and this will
influence the layer that you are working
on as it will change the colour on that
layer as it won’t be the same colour mode
that it was when you edited that image
and it will be changed until you want to
add all the colour back to it. The you have
image adjustment where it will open icon
options that you can add to different layers
that will change things like the brightness
and contrast, levels, curves Etc. So, this is
just another way of finding a good effect
that you like and looks good on your
graphic design.

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 Image Image adjustment on photoshop is all
adjustments, e.g. about effects that you can have on your
brightness and image to make it look better and give it
contrast, hue and more personality. The most common
saturation, colour adjustments that you would normally see
balance, gradients, added onto image is brightness and
transparency, contrast, hue saturation, colour balance
invert; masks; Etc. To start off with the brightness and
contrast can make an image darker or
bright so what you need to do with this
effect is find a position where the
brightness and contrast complement each
other and work well with your graphic
design. Then you have the effect which is
known as hue saturation which is a good
effect if you know the correct way to use it.
Hue saturation is all about colour and how
you use that to change the colour effect
on your image. So, you have three options
that you can use to help you edit the hue
and saturation (Hue, Saturation, lightness)
so you can mess around with them and
see which one is the best option for you to
have when editing the hue and saturation.
Then you have colour balance which
again is to do with colour expect this one
will let you play around with RGB and
CMYK as you can mix them up to see
which colour mode looks best on your
image or even make a mix colour mode
using RGB and CMYK and see how that
would look on your image. So, with this
option it’s all about playing around and
seeing the outcome of the effect on your
image.
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 Paths, e.g. vector A path consists of one or more straight or
paths, converting curved segments. Anchor points mark the
text to paths; end points of the path segments. On
image slicing. curved segments, each selected anchor
point displays one or two direction lines,
ending in direction points. The positions of
direction lines and points determine the
size and shape of a curved segment.
Moving these elements reshapes the
curves in a path. A path does not have to
be one connected series of segments. It
can contain more than one distinct and
separate path component. Each shape in a
shape layer is a path component, as
described by the layer’s clipping path.
Selecting a path component or path
segment displays all the anchor points on
the selected portion, including any
direction lines and direction points if the
selected segment is curved. Direction
handles appear as filled circles, selected
anchor points as filled squares, and
unselected anchor points as hollow
squares

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