PhotoShop is a software program with many, many features. It's also one of those software programs that anyone can use – if they just practice using it. There are two PhotoShop tips that you should know about and these include PhotoShop Actions and color matching using Pantone colors.
(1) Actions
Did you know that you can setup an action within PhotoShop for any sort of repetitive task you perform? Think of it as a macro if you've set up repetitive events in Microsoft Excel. As an example, for blog entries, you can take stock photos, resize them all to the same size and then add a white border around the photographs so that the edges do not touch the text.
To shorten your process, you can simply record an action in PhotoShop so that when you want to run the same action on a whole batch of photographs, you can do so with the click of a mouse. To do this, you need to:
(a) Open Photoshop -> Go to Actions Palette
(b) On top right, click triangle -> Pick New Action …
(c) Enter a name for your action -> Click Record
(d) Go through the functions you want to record -> Click on the stop button when finished
Once you have the action recorded, put all of the files / photos you want to perform the action on into one specific folder. Then follow these steps:
(a) Go to File, Automate, Batch
(b) Choose the action you wish to perform
(c) Choose the folder where your files are located
(d) Change the destination to folder and pick where you want the new files to go
(e) Click okay and watch the magic happen!
Now, this article uses photographs and resizing as an example but you can use the actions feature for just about any repetitive task in PhotoShop.
(2) Matching Colors Perfectly
You may often need to create a button or a graphic a specific color. It could be something that you see within Microsoft Word, another website, etc. Matching colors perfectly is difficult because monitors skew colors, each program may have its own color settings, etc.
If you choose a Pantone color (aka PMS), you will always receive a true color. Pantone is a universal color system. When you choose a Pantone color and load that same color into PhotoShop, it will always be the true color – regardless of what monitor you look at.
A great link to add to this article is a link to the Pantone color wheel. You can choose a color from this list and be assured that you are using a color in its true form.
If you own PhotoShop, explore the software and see what you can do with it to speed up your processes. These two tips are just, quite literally, the tip of the iceberg.