Photoshop How to Show Layer Window Again

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Working with Panels

The right side of the Application Frame is home to a slew of small windows called panels , which let you work with frequently used features like colors, adjustments, layers, and so on. You're free to organize the panels however you lot like and position them anywhere you want. Panels can be free floating or docked (attached) to the acme, bottom, left, or right sides of your screen. And you lot tin can link panels together into groups , which y'all can then motion around. Each panel also has its very own card, called (appropriately enough) a panel menu , located in its meridian-right corner; its icon looks like four footling lines with a downwardly-pointing triangle and is labeled in Figure ane-5, left.

Effigy 1-5. Here yous can see the difference between expanded panels (left) and collapsed panels (right). Double-click a panel'southward tab to collapse it vertically, rolling it up similar a window shade; single-click the tab again to expand the panel. You can likewise collapse a panel horizontally by clicking the correct-pointing double arrows in its summit correct (circled, right), at which point it turns into a minor button. To aggrandize i of these buttons back into a console, just click the left-pointing double arrows circled here (circled, middle).

Have a peek at the correct side of your screen and you lot'll run across that Photoshop starts you off with three docked panel groups filled with goodies it thinks y'all'll utilise a lot (there'due south more than on docked panels coming up shortly). The starting time group contains the Color and Swatches panels; the 2d group contains Adjustments and Styles; and the third contains Layers, Channels, and Paths. To work with a panel, activate it by clicking its tab.

Panels are like Silly Putty—they're incredibly flexible. You can collapse, expand, move, and resize them, or even swap 'em for other panels. Here'southward how:

• Collapse or expand panels . If panels are encroaching on your editing space, y'all can shrink them both horizontally and vertically so they expect and carry like buttons. To collapse a console (or panel group) horizontally so that it becomes a button nestled confronting the side of another panel or the border of your screen, click the tiny double pointer in its top-right corner; click this same button once again to expand the panel. To collapse a console vertically against the lesser of the panel higher up it, as shown in Figure 1-five, right, double-click the panel's tab or the empty area to its right; single-click the tab or double-click the empty surface area to coil the panel back downwardly. To adjust a panel's width, point your cursor at its left edge and, when the cursor turns into a double-headed arrow, drag left or right to brand the panel bigger or smaller (though some panels take a minimum width).

• Add together and change panel groups . You can open even more panels by opening the Window menu (which lists all of Photoshop's panels) and clicking the name of the one you want to open. When you practice, Photoshop puts the panel in a column to the left of the ones that are already open and adds a tiny button to its right that you tin can click to collapse it both horizontally and vertically (just click the same push again to aggrandize it). If the new panel is part of a group, like the Character and Paragraph panels, the extra console tags along with information technology. If it'due south a panel you wait to use a lot, you can add together it to an existing panel group by clicking and dragging the dotted lines above its push button into a blank expanse in the panel group, as shown in Figure 1-vi.

• Undock, redock, and close panels . From the factory, Photoshop docks iii sets of panel groups to the correct side of your screen (or Application Frame). Just you're not stuck with the panels glued to this spot; you can set them gratuitous by turning them into floating panels. To liberate a panel, grab its tab, pull it out of the group it's in, and so motion information technology anywhere you desire (see Effigy 1-7). When you permit get of your mouse button, the console appears where you put it—all past itself.

  Yous can undock a whole console grouping in nearly the same way: Click an empty spot in the group'southward tab area and drag it out of the dock. Once you release your mouse button, you can elevate the group around by clicking the same empty spot in the tab expanse. Or, if the group is collapsed, click the tiny dotted lines at the top of the group, just below the nighttime gray bar.

  To redock the console (or panel group), elevate information technology dorsum to the correct side of your screen. To prevent a panel from docking while yous're moving it effectually, ⌘-elevate (Ctrl-drag) it instead.

Figure one-six. Top: When you lot open a new panel, Photoshop adds it to a cavalcade to the left of your other panels and gives it a handy push that you can click to collapse or expand it, similar the Info console'due south button circled here. The tiny dotted line above each push button is its handle; click and drag i of these handles to reposition the console in the cavalcade, add together the console to a panel grouping, and and then on. If the panel y'all opened is related to another console—like the Brush panel and the Brush Presets panel—and then both panels will open up as a console group with a single handle. Middle: When yous're dragging a console into a panel group, wait until you see a blue line effectually the inside of the group before yous release your mouse push. Here, the Info panel is beingness added to a panel group. (You can run across a faint version of the Info panel'south button where the cherry arrow is pointing.) Bottom: When yous release your mouse button, the new console becomes part of the grouping. To rearrange panels within a group, drag their tabs (circled) left or right. If the blue highlight lines are hard to see when yous're trying to group or dock panels, effort dragging the panels more slowly. That way, when you drag the panel into a group or dockable area, the blue highlight hangs effectually a little longer and the console becomes momentarily transparent.

Figure 1-7. To undock a console (or console group), click the panel'southward tab (or a costless area to the right of the grouping's tabs), and then drag the panel or grouping somewhere else on your screen. To dock it once again, drag it to the correct side of your screen—on elevation of the other panels. When you lot come across a thin blue line appear where you want the panel (or group) to land, release your mouse button.

Note

The Timeline console (which was called the Blitheness panel prior to Photoshop CS6) is docked to the lesser of your workspace, which is a docking hotspot, too. That said, Photoshop refuses to let you dock the Options bar down in that location.

To shut a panel, click its tab and drag information technology out of the console group to a different area of your screen (Figure one-seven); then click the tiny circle in the panel's top-left corner (on a PC, click the X in the panel's top-right corner instead). Don't worry—the panel isn't gone forever; if you want to reopen it, only choose it from the Windows menu.

Getting the hang of undocking, redocking, and arranging panels takes a lilliputian practice because it's tough to control where the little rascals land. When the panel you're dragging is about to join a docking area (or a different console grouping), a thin blue line appears showing y'all where the panel or group will become.

Customizing Your Workspace

One time you arrange Photoshop'due south panels just and then, you can keep 'em that style by saving your setup as a workspace , using the unlabeled Workspace driblet-down card at the correct cease of the Options bar (see Figure 1-8). Straight from the manufacturing plant, this menu is prepare to Essentials, which is a practiced full general-use setup that includes panels that most people use regularly. The menu'southward other options are more specialized: 3D is designed for working with 3D objects (see Chapter 21), Motion is for video editing, Painting is for (yous guessed it) painting, Photography is for working with photos, and Typography is for working with text. To swap workspaces, simply click one of these presets (built-in settings), and Photoshop rearranges your panels accordingly.

Note

Gone in this version of Photoshop is the What's New workspace, which used to highlight all the menu items that included new features. However, all is not lost: you tin choose Help→What'south New to visit Adobe'due south site and see a handy summary of features, listed by the year they were released (for instance, Photoshop CC June 2014, and then on).

Figure 1-8. Nearly of the born workspaces are designed to help you perform specialized tasks. For example, the Photography workspace puts the Histogram and Navigation panels at the top right. Take the built-in workspaces for a test drive—they'll undoubtedly give you lot customization ideas you hadn't idea of! If you lot don't see the Workspace menu and you lot've got the Application Frame turned on, point your cursor at the right side of the Photoshop window and, when it turns into a double-headed arrow, click and drag rightward to increase the frame's size.

To save your own custom workspace, first open and arrange the panels you want to include. Side by side, click the Workspace menu and choose New Workspace. In the resulting dialog box, give your setup a meaningful name and plough on the checkboxes for the customizations you want Photoshop to save. In addition to panel locations, you can save any keyboard shortcut and menu settings y'all've changed (see the box on Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus for more than on irresolute these items)—just be certain to turn on the options for all the features yous inverse or they won't be included in your custom workspace. When you click Salvage, your workspace shows upwardly at the top of the Workspace menu.

If you lot've created a custom workspace that yous'll never use again, you tin send it packin'. First, make certain you aren't currently using the doomed workspace. And so, from the Workspace menu, cull Delete Workspace and, in the resulting dialog box, pick the offending workspace and then click Delete. Photoshop will inquire if you lot're sure; click Yes to finish it off.

The Tools Panel

The Tools console (Figure 1-9, left) is home base of operations for all of Photoshop's editing tools, and it's included in all the built-in workspaces. Until you lot memorize tools' keyboard shortcuts, y'all can't practise much without this panel! When y'all first launch the program, you'll meet the Tools panel on the left side of the screen, but you tin drag it anywhere you lot want by clicking the tiny row of vertical dashes near its height (Figure i-ix, right).

Figure 1-9. In that location's not enough room in the Tools panel for each tool to take its ain spot, and so related tools are grouped into toolsets. The microscopic triangle at the bottom right of each toolset's button lets you know it represents more than one tool (the Move and Zoom tools are the only ones that live lonely). To see the other tools, click the tool'southward button and hold downward your mouse button (or right-click the button instead); Photoshop then displays a list of the other tools it harbors in a fly-out menu, every bit shown here (left). Photoshop starts you off with a ane-cavalcade Tools panel (left), only you can collapse it into two columns (right) by clicking the tiny double triangles circled here (click 'em once again to switch dorsum to 1 column). To undock the Tools console, take hold of the dotted bar labeled here and drag the panel wherever yous want it. You lot can dock the Tools panel to the left or right edge of your screen, or go out it floating free.

In one case yous expand a toolset as explained in Figure 1-9, yous'll see the tools' keyboard shortcuts listed to the correct of their names. These shortcuts are cracking timesavers considering they let you switch between tools without moving your hands off the keyboard. To admission a tool that's subconscious deep within a toolset, add the Shift central to the tool's shortcut key, and you'll bike through all the tools in that toolset. For instance, to activate the Elliptical Marquee tool, press Shift-M repeatedly until that tool'south icon appears in the Tools console.

Tip

If yous need to switch tools temporarily —for a quick edit—you can use the bound-loaded tools feature. Just press and hold a tool's keyboard shortcut to switch to that tool, and and so perform your edit. As soon equally yous release the key, you'll bound dorsum to the tool you were using earlier. For instance, if you're painting with the Castor and of a sudden make an error, press and hold Eastward to switch to the Eraser and set up your mistake. Once you release the E key, you're back to using the Brush tool. Sugariness!

Y'all'll acquire well-nigh the superpowers of each tool throughout this volume. For a brief overview of each tool, check out Appendix C, which you can download from this book's Missing CD folio at www.missingmanuals.com/cds.

Tip

If y'all tin can't recall which tool an icon represents, betoken your cursor at the icon for a couple of seconds while keeping your mouse perfectly still. Afterward a second or two, Photoshop displays a handy tooltip that includes the tool's proper noun and keyboard shortcut.

Foreground and Background Colour Chips

Photoshop can handle millions of colors, but its tools let yous piece of work with only two at a time: a foreground colour and a background color. Each of these is visible equally a square color fleck near the lesser of the Tools panel (labeled in Figure 1-9, where they're black and white, respectively). Photoshop uses your foreground color when you pigment or fill something with color; information technology's where most of the action is. The programme uses your background color to do things like gear up the second color of a gradient (a shine transition from i colour to another, or to transparency) or erase parts of a locked Background layer (Restacking Layers); this color is too helpful when you're running special furnishings like the Clouds filter (Pixelate).

To change either color, click its color fleck once to open the Color Picker (Choosing Individual Colors), which lets you select another color for that particular bit. To swap your foreground and background colors, click the curved, double-headed arrow just above the two chips or press X. To prepare both colour chips to their factory-fresh setting of black and white, click the tiny chips to their upper left (in a 2-column Tools panel, they're at the lower left) or press D. Remember those ii keyboard shortcuts (Ten and D); they're extremely handy when you piece of work with layer masks, which are covered in Affiliate three.

Common Panels

As mentioned earlier, when you lot first launch Photoshop, the program displays the Essentials workspace, which includes several useful panels. Here's a quick rundown of why Adobe considers these panels so important:

• Colour . This panel in the upper-right part of your screen includes your current foreground and background color chips and, from the factory, a trio of sliders and a rainbow-colored bar that yous can employ to choice a new color for either scrap. As you'll acquire on The Color Panel, yous tin can now use this panel as a color picker that'due south ever open up!

• Swatches . This panel holds miniature color samples, giving y'all easy admission to them for utilize in painting or colorizing images (and new in Photoshop CC 2014, the most recent swatches you've used show up in a handy row at the top of the panel). It also stores a multifariousness of color libraries like the Pantone Matching System (special inks used in professional press). You'll acquire all about the Swatches panel in on The Swatches Panel.

• Adjustments . This panel lets you create adjustment layers . Instead of making colour and brightness changes to your original prototype, you can apply aligning layers to make these changes on a separate layer, giving y'all all kinds of editing flexibility and keeping your original prototype out of impairment'south way. They're explained in detail in Affiliate three, and you'll come across 'em used throughout this book.

• Styles . Styles are special effects created with a variety of layer styles. For example, if you've created a glass-button look by calculation several layer styles individually, y'all can save the whole lot of 'em as a single mode so you can apply them all with one click. You tin can also cull from tons of born styles; they're discussed starting on The Styles Panel.

• Layers . This is the single about important console in Photoshop. Layers let you work with images every bit if they were a stack of transparencies, so you can create one image from many. By using layers, yous can conform the size and opacity of—and add layer styles to—each item independently. Understanding layers is the key to Photoshop success and nondestructive editing; yous'll learn all about them in Chapter iii.

• Channels . Channels are where Photoshop stores the color information your images are made from. Channels are extremely powerful, and yous can employ them to edit the individual colors in an image, which is helpful in sharpening images, creating selections (telling Photoshop which part of an image y'all desire to work with), and and so on. Affiliate 5 has the scoop on channels.

• Paths . Paths are the outlines you lot make with the Pen and shape tools. But these aren't your boilerplate, run-of-the-mill lines: they're made upwards of points and paths instead of pixels, so they'll e'er look perfectly crisp when printed. You can as well resize them without losing whatsoever quality. You lot'll conquer paths in Chapter 13.

• History . This panel is like your very own time machine: It tracks nearly everything you lot do to your paradigm (the last 50 things, to be exact, though you can change this number using preferences [see Changing How Far Dorsum You lot Tin can Get]). It appears docked as a button to the left of the Color panel group. The next section explains how to use it to undo what you've recently washed (if only that worked in existent life!).

• Backdrop . This panel, which is also docked to the left of the Color panel group, is where you access the settings for private aligning layers, shape layers, linked smart objects, and layer masks. You'll swoop headfirst into masks in Affiliate 3; for now, recollect of them every bit digital masking record that lets you hide the contents of a layer.

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