- Photoshop User Guide
- Introduction to Photoshop
- Photoshop and other Adobe products and services
- Photoshop on the iPad (not available in mainland China)
- Photoshop on the iPad | Common questions
- Get to know the workspace
- System requirements | Photoshop on the iPad
- Create, open, and export documents
- Add photos
- Work with layers
- Draw and paint with brushes
- Make selections and add masks
- Retouch your composites
- Work with adjustment layers
- Adjust the tonality of your composite with Curves
- Apply transform operations
- Crop and rotate your composites
- Rotate, pan, zoom, and reset the canvas
- Work with Type layers
- Work with Photoshop and Lightroom
- Get missing fonts in Photoshop on the iPad
- Japanese Text in Photoshop on the iPad
- Manage app settings
- Touch shortcuts and gestures
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Edit your image size
- Livestream as you create in Photoshop on the iPad
- Correct imperfections with the Healing Brush
- Create brushes in Capture and use them in Photoshop on the iPad
- Work with Camera Raw files
- Create and work with Smart Objects
- Adjust exposure in your images with Dodge and Burn
- Auto adjustment commands in Photoshop on the iPad
- Smudge areas in your images with Photoshop on the iPad
- Saturate or desaturate your images using Sponge tool
- Content aware fill for iPad
- Photoshop on the web (not available in mainland China)
- Common questions
- System requirements
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Supported file types
- Introduction to the workspace
- Open and work with cloud documents
- Generative AI features
- Basic concepts of editing
- Quick Actions
- Work with layers
- Retouch images and remove imperfections
- Make quick selections
- Image improvements with Adjustment Layers
- Add a fill layer
- Move, transform, and crop images
- Draw and paint
- Draw and edit Shapes
- Work with Type layers
- Work with anyone on the web
- Manage app settings
- Generate Image
- Generate Background
- Reference Image
- Photoshop (beta) (not available in mainland China)
- Generative AI (not available in mainland China)
- Common questions on generative AI in Photoshop
- Generative Fill in Photoshop on the desktop
- Generate Image with descriptive text prompts
- Generative Expand in Photoshop on the desktop
- Replace background with Generate background
- Get new variations with Generate Similar
- Generative Fill in Photoshop on the iPad
- Generative Expand in Photoshop on the iPad
- Generative AI features in Photoshop on the web
- Content authenticity (not available in mainland China)
- Cloud documents (not available in mainland China)
- Photoshop cloud documents | Common questions
- Photoshop cloud documents | Workflow questions
- Manage and work with cloud documents in Photoshop
- Upgrade cloud storage for Photoshop
- Unable to create or save a cloud document
- Solve Photoshop cloud document errors
- Collect cloud document sync logs
- Invite others to edit your cloud documents
- Share files and comment in-app
- Workspace
- Workspace basics
- Preferences
- Learn faster with the Photoshop Discover Panel
- Create documents
- Place files
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Customize keyboard shortcuts
- Tool galleries
- Performance preferences
- Use tools
- Presets
- Grid and guides
- Touch gestures
- Use the Touch Bar with Photoshop
- Touch capabilities and customizable workspaces
- Technology previews
- Metadata and notes
- Place Photoshop images in other applications
- Rulers
- Show or hide non-printing Extras
- Specify columns for an image
- Undo and history
- Panels and menus
- Position elements with snapping
- Position with the Ruler tool
- Web, screen, and app design
- Image and color basics
- How to resize images
- Work with raster and vector images
- Image size and resolution
- Acquire images from cameras and scanners
- Create, open, and import images
- View images
- Invalid JPEG Marker error | Opening images
- Viewing multiple images
- Customize color pickers and swatches
- High dynamic range images
- Match colors in your image
- Convert between color modes
- Color modes
- Erase parts of an image
- Blending modes
- Choose colors
- Customize indexed color tables
- Image information
- Distort filters are unavailable
- About color
- Color and monochrome adjustments using channels
- Choose colors in the Color and Swatches panels
- Sample
- Color mode or Image mode
- Color cast
- Add a conditional mode change to an action
- Add swatches from HTML CSS and SVG
- Bit depth and preferences
- Layers
- Layer basics
- Nondestructive editing
- Create and manage layers and groups
- Select, group, and link layers
- Place images into frames
- Layer opacity and blending
- Mask layers
- Apply Smart Filters
- Layer comps
- Move, stack, and lock layers
- Mask layers with vector masks
- Manage layers and groups
- Layer effects and styles
- Edit layer masks
- Extract assets
- Reveal layers with clipping masks
- Generate image assets from layers
- Work with Smart Objects
- Blending modes
- Combine multiple images into a group portrait
- Combine images with Auto-Blend Layers
- Align and distribute layers
- Copy CSS from layers
- Load selections from a layer or layer mask's boundaries
- Knockout to reveal content from other layers
- Selections
- Get started with selections
- Make selections in your composite
- Select and Mask workspace
- Select with the marquee tools
- Select with the lasso tools
- Adjust pixel selections
- Move, copy, and delete selected pixels
- Create a temporary quick mask
- Select a color range in an image
- Convert between paths and selection borders
- Channel basics
- Save selections and alpha channel masks
- Select the image areas in focus
- Duplicate, split, and merge channels
- Channel calculations
- Get started with selections
- Image adjustments
- Replace object colors
- Perspective warp
- Reduce camera shake blurring
- Healing brush examples
- Export color lookup tables
- Adjust image sharpness and blur
- Understand color adjustments
- Apply a Brightness/Contrast adjustment
- Adjust shadow and highlight detail
- Levels adjustment
- Adjust hue and saturation
- Adjust vibrance
- Adjust color saturation in image areas
- Make quick tonal adjustments
- Apply special color effects to images
- Enhance your image with color balance adjustments
- High dynamic range images
- View histograms and pixel values
- Match colors in your image
- Crop and straighten photos
- Convert a color image to black and white
- Adjustment and fill layers
- Curves adjustment
- Blending modes
- Target images for press
- Adjust color and tone with Levels and Curves eyedroppers
- Adjust HDR exposure and toning
- Dodge or burn image areas
- Make selective color adjustments
- Adobe Camera Raw
- Camera Raw system requirements
- What's new in Camera Raw
- Introduction to Camera Raw
- Create panoramas
- Supported lenses
- Vignette, grain, and dehaze effects in Camera Raw
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Automatic perspective correction in Camera Raw
- Radial Filter in Camera Raw
- Manage Camera Raw settings
- Open, process, and save images in Camera Raw
- Repair images with the Enhanced Spot Removal tool in Camera Raw
- Rotate, crop, and adjust images
- Adjust color rendering in Camera Raw
- Process versions in Camera Raw
- Make local adjustments in Camera Raw
- Image repair and restoration
- Image enhancement and transformation
- Drawing and painting
- Paint symmetrical patterns
- Draw rectangles and modify stroke options
- About drawing
- Draw and edit shapes
- Painting tools
- Create and modify brushes
- Blending modes
- Add color to paths
- Edit paths
- Paint with the Mixer Brush
- Brush presets
- Gradients
- Gradient interpolation
- Fill and stroke selections, layers, and paths
- Draw with the Pen tools
- Create patterns
- Generate a pattern using the Pattern Maker
- Manage paths
- Manage pattern libraries and presets
- Draw or paint with a graphics tablet
- Create textured brushes
- Add dynamic elements to brushes
- Gradient
- Paint stylized strokes with the Art History Brush
- Paint with a pattern
- Sync presets on multiple devices
- Migrate presets, actions, and settings
- Text
- Filters and effects
- Saving and exporting
- Color Management
- Web, screen, and app design
- Video and animation
- Printing
- Automation
- Troubleshooting
Printing basics
Whether you are printing an image to your desktop printer or sending it to a prepress facility, knowing a few basics about printing makes the print job go more smoothly and helps ensure that the finished image appears as intended.
Types of printing
For many Photoshop users, printing a file means sending the image to an inkjet printer. Photoshop can send your image to a variety of devices to be printed directly onto paper or converted to a positive or negative image on film. In the latter case, you can use the film to create a master plate for printing by a mechanical press.
Types of images
The simplest images, such as line art, use only one color in one level of gray. A more complex image, such as a photograph, has varying color tones. This type of image is known as a continuous-tone image.
Color separation
Artwork intended for commercial reproduction and containing more than one color must be printed on separate master plates, one for each color. This process, called color separation, generally calls for the use of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) inks. In Photoshop, you can adjust how the various plates are generated.
Quality of detail
The detail in a printed image depends on image resolution (pixels per inch) and printer resolution (dots per inch). Most PostScript laser printers have a resolution of 600 dpi, while PostScript imagesetters have a resolution of 1200 dpi or higher. Inkjet printers produce a microscopic spray of ink, not actual dots, resulting in an approximate resolution of 300 to 720 dpi.
About desktop printing
Unless you work in a commercial printing company or service bureau, you probably print images to a desktop printer, such as an inkjet, dye sublimation, or laser printer, not to an imagesetter. Photoshop lets you control how your image is printed.
Monitors display images using light, whereas desktop printers reproduce images using inks, dyes, or pigments. For this reason, a desktop printer can’t reproduce all the colors displayed on a monitor. However, by incorporating certain procedures (such as a color management system) into your workflow, you can achieve predictable results when printing your images to a desktop printer. Keep these considerations in mind when working with an image you intend to print:
If your image is in RGB mode, do not convert the document to CMYK mode when printing to a desktop printer. Work entirely in RGB mode. As a rule, desktop printers are configured to accept RGB data and use internal software to convert to CMYK. If you send CMYK data, most desktop printers apply a conversion anyway, with unpredictable results.
If you want to preview an image as printed to any device for which you have a profile, use the Proof Colors command.
To reproduce screen colors accurately on the printed page, you must incorporate color management into your workflow. Work with a monitor that is calibrated and characterized. Ideally, you should also create a custom profile specifically for your printer and the paper you print on, though the profile supplied with your printer can produce acceptable results.
Print images
Photoshop provides the following printing commands in the File menu:
Displays the Print dialog box, where you can preview the print and set options. (Customized settings are saved as new defaults when you click Done or Print.)
Print One Copy
Prints one copy of a file without displaying a dialog box.
For maximum efficiency, you can include the Print command in actions. (Photoshop provides all print settings in one dialog box.)
Set Photoshop print options and print
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Choose File > Print.
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Select the printer, number of copies, and layout orientation.
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In the preview area at left, visually adjust the position and scale of the image relative to the selected paper size and orientation. Or to the right, set detailed options for Position And Size, Color Management, Printing Marks, and so on.
For more details, see Position and scale images and Printing with color management from Photoshop.
Note:In Mac OS, expand the Color Management section, and select Send 16-bit Data to produce the highest possible quality in subtle graduated tones, such as bright skies.
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Do one of the following:
- To print the image, click Print.
- To close the dialog box without saving the options, click Cancel.
- To preserve the options and close the dialog box, click Done.
Position and scale images
You can adjust the position and scale of an image using options in the Print dialog box. The shaded border at the edge of the paper represents the margins of the selected paper; the printable area is white.
The base output size of an image is determined by the document size settings in the Image Size dialog box. Scaling an image in the Print dialog box changes the size and resolution of the printed image only. For example, if you scale a 72‑ppi image to 50% in the Print dialog box, the image will print at 144 ppi; however, the document size settings in the Image Size dialog box will not change. In the Print dialog box, the Print Resolution field at the bottom of the Position And Size section shows the print resolution at the current scaling setting.
Many third-party printer drivers provide a scaling option in the Print Settings dialog box. This scaling affects everything on the page, including the size of all page marks, such as crop marks and captions, whereas the scaling percentage provided by the Print command affects only the size of the printed image (and not the size of page marks).
To avoid inaccurate scaling, specify scaling using the Print dialog box rather than the Print Settings dialog box; do not enter a scaling percentage in both dialog boxes.
Reposition an image on the paper
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Choose File > Print, and expand the Position And Size settings at right. Then do one of the following:
- To center the image in the printable area, select Center Image.
- To position the image numerically, deselect Center Image, and then enter values for Top and Left.
- Deselect Center Image, and drag the image in the preview area.
Scale the print size of an image
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Choose File > Print, and expand the Position And Size settings at right. Then do one of the following:
- To fit the image within the printable area of the selected paper, click Scale To Fit Media.
- To rescale the image numerically, deselect Scale To Fit Media, then enter values for Scale, Height and Width.
- To achieve the desired scale, drag the bounding box around the image in the preview area.
Note:If you get a warning that your image is larger than the printable area of the paper, click Cancel. Then choose File > Print, expand the Position And Size settings at right, and select Scale To Fit Media.
Print part of an image
- With the Rectangle Marquee tool, select the part of the image you want to print.
- Choose File > Print, and select Print Selected Area.
- If desired, adjust the selected area by dragging the triangular handles on the perimeter of the print preview.
- Click Print.
Print vector data
If an image includes vector graphics, such as shapes and type, Photoshop can send the vector data to a PostScript printer. When you choose to include vector data, Photoshop sends the printer a separate image for each type layer and each vector shape layer. These additional images are printed on top of the base image, and clipped using their vector outline. Consequently, the edges of vector graphics print at the printer’s full resolution, even though the content of each layer is limited to the resolution of your image file.
Some blending modes and layer effects require rasterized vector data.
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Choose File > Print.
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In the options box at right, scroll to the bottom, and expand PostScript Options.
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Select Include Vector Data.