- 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
Changes to the Pantone Color books
Standardized pre-loaded Color libraries, also known as Pantone Color books, will be phased out of Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop in software updates released after August 16, 2022.
After November 2022, the only Pantone Color books that will remain are:
- Pantone + CMYK Coated
- Pantone + CMYK Uncoated
- Pantone + Metallic Coated
Customers who rely on Pantone colors in their creative workflows will need a Pantone license via the Pantone Connect plugin available on Adobe Exchange.
About spot colors
Spot colors are special premixed inks used instead of, or in addition to, the process color (CMYK) inks. Each spot color requires its own plate on the press. (Because a varnish requires a separate plate, it is considered a spot color, too.)
If you are planning to print an image with spot colors, you need to create spot channels to store the colors. To export spot channels, save the file in PSD or TIFF file formats as they are smaller in size and more efficient to work with.
Note the following when working with spot colors:
For spot color graphics that have crisp edges and knock out the underlying image, consider creating the additional artwork in a page layout or illustration application.
To apply spot color as a tint throughout an image, convert the image to Duotone mode and apply the spot color to one of the duotone plates. You can use up to four spot colors, one per plate.
The names of the spot colors are printed on the separations.
Spot colors are overprinted on top of the fully composited image. Each spot color is printed in the order it appears in the Channels panel, with the topmost channel printing as the topmost spot color.
You cannot move spot colors above a default channel in the Channels panel except in Multichannel mode.
You cannot apply spot colors to individual layers.
Printing an image with a spot color channel to a composite color printer will print the spot color at an opacity indicated by the Solidity setting.
You can merge spot channels with color channels, splitting the spot color into its color channel components.
Create a new spot channel
You can create a new spot channel or convert an existing alpha channel to a spot channel.
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Choose Window > Channels to display the Channels panel.
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To fill a selected area with a spot color, make or load a selection.
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Do one of the following to create a channel:
Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the New Channel button in the Channels panel.
Choose New Spot Channel from the Channels panel menu.
If you made a selection, that area is filled with the currently specified spot color.
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In the New Spot Channel dialog box, click the Color box. Then in the Color Picker, click Color Libraries to choose from a custom color system and choose a color. See Choose a spot color.
Note:If you select a custom color, your print service provider can more easily provide the proper ink to reproduce the image.
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Enter a name for the spot channel. If you choose a custom color, the channel automatically takes the name of that color.
Be sure to name spot colors so they’ll be recognized by other applications reading your file. Otherwise the file might not print.
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For Solidity, enter a value between 0% and 100%.
This option lets you simulate on‑screen the density of the printed spot color. A value of 100% simulates an ink that completely covers the inks beneath (such as a metallic ink); 0% simulates a transparent ink that completely reveals the inks beneath (such as a clear varnish). You can also use this option to see where an otherwise transparent spot color (such as a varnish) will appear.
Note:The Solidity and color choice options affect only on‑screen previews and composite prints. They have no effect on printed separations.
Convert an alpha channel to a spot channel
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If a selection is active in the image, choose Select > Deselect.
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Do one of the following:
Double-click the alpha channel thumbnail in the Channels panel.
Select the alpha channel in the Channels panel, and choose Channel Options from the panel menu.
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Select Spot Color.
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Click the color box, then choose a color in the Color Picker or click Color Libraries and choose a custom color. Click OK.
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Rename the channel if needed.
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Click OK.
The areas of the channel containing grayscale values are converted to spot color.
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To apply the color to the selected area of the channel, choose Image > Adjustments > Invert.
Edit a spot channel to add or remove color
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Select the spot channel in the Channels panel.
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Use a painting or editing tool to paint in the image. Paint with black to add more spot color at 100% opacity; paint with gray to add spot color with lower opacity.Note:
Unlike the Solidity option in the Spot Channel Options dialog box, the Opacity option in the painting or editing tool’s options determines the actual density of ink used in the printed output.
Change a spot channel’s color or solidity
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Double-click the spot channel thumbnail in the Channels panel.
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Select the color box, and choose a color. Select Color Libraries to choose from a custom color system.
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Enter a Solidity value between 0% and 100% to adjust ink opacity for the spot color.Note:
The Solidity and color choice options affect only on‑screen previews and composite prints. They have no effect on printed separations.
Merge spot channels
In RGB or CMYK color mode, you can remove spot channels and merge them into the standard color channels. When you merge spot channels in CMYK mode, the resulting colors usually don’t precisely match the original spot colors, because CMYK inks can’t produce the range of colors available from spot color inks.
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Select the spot channel in the Channels panel.
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Choose Merge Spot Channel from the panel menu.
The spot color is converted to and merged with the color channels. The spot channel is deleted from the panel.
Merging spot channels flattens layered images. The merged composite reflects the preview spot color information, including the Solidity settings. For example, a spot channel with a solidity of 50% will produce different merged results than the same channel with a solidity of 100%.
Adjust overlapping spot colors
To prevent overlapping spot colors from either printing over or knocking out the underlying spot color, remove one of the spot colors where they overlap.
Use a printed sample of the overprinted inks to adjust your screen display to help you predict how colors will look when printed.
In some cases, such as when you use varnish and bump plates, you may want colors to overprint.
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In the Channels panel, select the spot channel with the color you want to print.
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Choose Select > Load Selection.Note:
To quickly select an image in a channel, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and click the channel in the Channels panel.
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For Channel, choose the spot channel from step 1, and click OK.
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To create a trap when knocking out the underlying color, choose Select > Modify > Expand or Contract, depending on whether the overlapping spot color is darker or lighter than the spot color beneath it. In the Channels panel, select the underlying spot channel that contains the areas you want to knock out. Press Backspace (Windows) or Delete (Mac OS).Note:
You can use this method to knock out areas from any channels under a spot color, such as the CMYK channels.
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If a spot color in one channel overlaps more than one other spot color, repeat this process for each channel that contains the areas you want removed.