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magnification. For example, if you have added a pixel layer that has a sharp edge, you might see a line appear along the edges when it is viewed at smaller viewing percentages. This is simply the image cache at work and nothing to worry about – it is speeding up the display preview at the expense of accuracy. If you have to work on an image (without OpenGL) at a less than 100% magnification, then do make sure the magnification is a wholly divisible number of 100%. In other words, it is better to work at 50%, 25% or 12.5% magnification, rather than at 66% or 33%. Note also that the number of cache levels will affect the structure of a TIFF file when the ‘Save Image Pyramid’ option is selected (see Figure 1.93 on page 73).

Cursors preferences

We now come to the Cursor preferences (Figure 2.24). The painting cursors can be displayed as a painting tool icon, a precise crosshair or with the default setting, which shows an outline of the brush shape at its ‘most opaque’ size in relation to the image magnification. You can also choose to display a Full Size Brush Tip, representing the entire outer edge reach of a soft-edged brush, although it is debatable whether this improves the appearance of the painting cursors or not (see Figure 2.23). When the Normal Brush Tip is selected, the brush cursor size represents the boundary of the brush shape up to where the brush opacity is 50% or denser in opacity, whereas the full size cursor represents the complete brush area size. The ‘Show Crosshair in Brush Tip’ option allows you to display a crosshair inside the brush size cursor. In the Other Cursors section, the Standard option represents all the other tools using a standard tool icon. I suggest you change this to the Precise setting, because this will make it easier for you to target the placement of certain tools such as the crop tool or clone stamp.

Figure 2.24 The Cursors preferences.

Figure 2.23 This is an example of the brush cursor using the Full Size Brush Tip mode with Show Crosshair in Brush Tip.

The key can be used to toggle the cursor display. When the Standard paint cursor is selected, the toggles between a Standard and Precise cursor view. When the Precise or Brush Tip painting cursor option is selected, the toggles between a Precise and a Brush Tip cursor view. When the Standard cursor mode is selected for all other cursors, the toggles between the Standard and Precise cursor views.

Transparency & Gamut

The Transparency settings (Figure 2.26) determine how the transparent areas in an image are represented on the screen. If a layer contains transparency and is viewed on its own with the background layer visibility switched off, the transparent areas are normally shown using a checkerboard pattern. These preferences let you decide how the checkerboard grid size and colors are displayed on the screen.

Figure 2.26 The Transparency display settings are editable. You have a choice of Transparency display settings: None, Small, Medium or Large grid pattern, and a choice of different grid colors.

Color Picker gamut warning

If you have the Photoshop Color Picker dialog open, you can choose View Gamut Warning to apply a gamut warning overlay to the Color Picker colors (see Figure 2.25).

Figure 2.25 This shows the Photoshop Color Picker with a gamut warning applied.

Color Picker gamut warning

The Gamut Warning is accessed via the View menu ( ). This alerts you to any colors that will be out of gamut after a conversion is made from, say, RGB to CMYK, or whichever color space is currently loaded in the View Proof Setup menu. The default overlay color is a neutral gray at 100% opacity, but I suggest reducing the opacity to make the gamut warning appear as a semi-transparent overlay.

Color Picker gamut warning

If you have the Photoshop Color Picker dialog open, you can choose View Gamut Warning to apply a gamut warning overlay to the Color Picker colors (see Figure 2.25).

So, if you are working on an image in RGB mode and you choose View Gamut Warning, Photoshop highlights these