Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [53]
Photoshop preferences
The Photoshop preferences are located in the Edit menu in Windows and the Photoshop menu in OS X; these let you customize the various Photoshop functions. A new preference file is generated each time you exit Photoshop, and deleting or removing this file will force Photoshop to reset all of its preference settings. The preference file is stored along with other program settings in the system level Preferences folder (Mac) or C:/Documents and Settings/Current User/Application Data/Adobe/Photoshop/11.0/Adobe Photoshop CS5 Settings (PC).
General preferences
When you open the preferences you will first be shown the General preferences (Figure 2.13). I suggest you leave the Color Picker set to ‘Adobe’ (unless you have a strong attachment to the system Color Picker). Photoshop CS5 now features new HUD (Heads Up Display) Color Picker options for selecting new colors when working with the eyedropper or paint tools (Figure 2.12). Note that the HUD Color Picker is only accessible when OpenGL drawing is enabled (see page 110). In the Image Interpolation options I suggest you leave this set to ‘Bicubic’. If you need to override this setting then you can always do so in the Image Image Size dialog.
Figure 2.13 The General preferences dialog.
Figure 2.12 When any paint or fill tool is selected, you can hold down the keys (Mac), or hold down the keys and right-click (PC), to open the Heads Up Display Color Picker. The two main Heads Up Display options are the Hue Strip (top) and the Hue Wheel (bottom). These are available in different sizes from the HUD Color Picker menu.
Resetting the preferences
If you hold down during the startup cycle, this pops a dialog box that allows you to delete the current Photoshop preference file.
Backing up the preference file
After configuring the preference settings I suggest you make a duplicate of the Photoshop preference file and store it somewhere safe. Having ready access to a clean preference file can speed up resetting the Photoshop settings should the working preference file become corrupted.
In the main Options section, ‘Auto-Update Open Documents’ can be used if you know you are likely to share files that are open in Photoshop but have been updated by another application. It used to be important when ImageReady was provided as a separate Web editing program to accompany Photoshop, but has less relevance now and can be left switched off. Only check the Beep When Done box if you want Photoshop to signal a sound alert each time a task is completed. The ‘Dynamic Color Sliders’ option ensures that the colors change in the Color panel as you drag the sliders, so keep this selected. If you need to be able to paste the Photoshop clipboard contents to another program after you exit Photoshop, then leave the Export Clipboard box checked. Otherwise, I suggest you switch this off. The ‘Use Shift Key for Tool Switch’ option answers the needs of those users who wish to disable using the key modifier for switching tools in the Tools panel with repeated keystrokes (see page 30). The ‘Resize Image During Place’ is useful if you want placed items to be automatically scaled to match the size of the image you are pasting/placing them in (see sidebar). The ‘Animated Zoom’ option is another OpenGL only option, which is intended to provide smoother transitions on screen when using the or keys to zoom in or out. Also, check the ‘Zoom Resizes Windows’ option if you want the image window to shrink to fit whenever you use a keyboard zoom shortcut such as or . Then there is the ‘Zoom with Scroll Wheel’ option which enables you to zoom in and out using the scroll wheel on