Understanding Photoshop

• Getting the best results regarding graphics is achieved by using a program such as Photoshop, which is a graphic's editing software program marketed by Adobe. Photoshop is a complex program that is easy to use and has revolutionized graphics and picture editing on the computer. The Adobe Photoshop software has many tools to help edit and manipulate any picture document. It is therefore no surprise that Adobe Photoshop has now become indispensable to a graphics designer like a brush to a painter.

Coloring with Photoshop

• Coloring is achieved by manipulating pixels. When an image is entered in the program, it is divided into millions of pixels. Each pixel has a single color. You can manipulate the picture by manipulating these pixels to alter the image easily. Since the image is divided up by Photoshop into distinct colored pixels, Photoshop has a three-part color coding system. The color codes have red values, green values and blue values. Each value is measured on a scale of 0 to 255 and the saturation of the colors increases according to the values on the number scale.

Manipulating the Graphics

• Manipulating graphics can be done selectively or applying a change by selection without changing or affecting the entire picture. This process is fine tuned by the use of a marquee or lasso tool. The other process by which Adobe Photoshop works is layering. The whole picture can be divided into layers which normally contain separate picture elements. These layers can be placed together or on top of one another to make combined pictures. This process encourages alteration and blending and gives graphic designers greater flexibility in making new images or pictures from the picture that is entered in the software. Other valuable processes embedded in the Photoshop software are resizing tools that can make the picture smaller or larger. A cropping tool helps remove a small rectangular portion of an image which is necessary for the effect the artist or designer wants to achieve and the rest of the picture can be discarded. An advanced feature is a histogram that plots the number of pixels in the picture for accurate results when manipulating pixels. Photoshop can help the graphic artist change the colors in one part of the picture so that the elements of the picture remain the same though the color of one of the objects differs thus eliminating the need for multiple pictures with different colored objects. You can also use tools to sharpen and soften images.

Finishing up with Photoshop

• Using Photoshop becomes easy if you memorize the keystrokes. Experienced graphic artists believe that using the keyboard is faster than a mouse. Photoshop has options to highlight frequently used tools in the menu and colorizing these tools in the menu is useful for quick access. You can even use the actions palette for recording the common tasks used by you while working with Photoshop so that you can find your way quickly through the many layered techniques offered by the Photoshop software.

  Using Adobe Photoshop involves a user-friendly process of manipulating images on a computer. It is easy to work with and this ease of use has made it the leader in the market among image manipulation software.