Change Photoshop Transparency Grid Color!!

If you're a Photoshop user, you must know about transparency grid. Transparency Grid is a checkerboard which appears when you're working with an image with transparent background. If your image has no color in the background, this checkerboard appears behind the image. 

Okay fine. Transparency will be indicated by the checkerboard. But you may ask, why I will change the color of transparency grid. In this post I'm gonna answer this question. And I will also show, how to change the color of the transparency grid. 

Why to Change? 

Suppose you've an image with white background. And you need to remove this background behind the image. You know there are different ways to remove background. I'm not gonna discuss it here. 

In the critical part of the image, Magic selection tool may not be able to select the white part. In that situation you can manually select the unselected portion. But you may also fail remove the white background properly. Because you can't select the white background as your default transparency grid is looks like a checkerboard that contains white color! So after saving the image you will notice there are some scattered white spots in the background. 

To get rid of this problem, you can change the default transparent grid. 

How to Change? 

Very simple. I'm using Photoshop CS5. Run Adobe Photoshop from your PC and follow the instruction - 

1. Go to the Edit Menu.
2. Select Preferences > Choose Transparency & Gamut.
3. Now you will get the Preferences window with Transparency option selected.
4. Keep the Grid size Medium or as your wish.
5. Choose Dark from Grid Colors. Or you can customize the color using the custom option. You can also use any other color from the list if any of them is suitable for you. 
6. Hit OK after choosing the Grid colors. 

Remember, the default grid color may need to changed when you're gonna remove any white background from your image. Or background that is light black. Otherwise you don't need to change it. 


Turning off the Grid!

You can totally turn off the grid! Yes! If you're bored with the grid that is shown for transparent layer, then you can turn off the grid from preferences window. 

Go to the Grid size as shown in the image above. And choose None. Now create a new document from your Photoshop with transparent layer. You will just see white background instead of a grid. But your image will have transparent layer. 

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Twist Image by Liquify Effect

By default, Adobe Photoshop contains numerous attractive effects/ filters. And you can also add third party filters if you want. Today I will show the use of liquify filter which can be used to twist an image or object. And it's really a useful tool when you need to distort the photos of your friends! You can make their faces bizarre! :) 


I'm using Photoshop CS5 Extended Version. Hopefully the commands and options will be almost same with other versions of Photoshop. Let's start - 

1. Run Photoshop and open an image from your hard disk. 
2. Now go to the Filter Menu and choose Liquify (Shift+Ctrl+X).
3. Now your image will be opened in a new window. 
4. Mouse pointer will take the form of a plus sign with circle. 
5. Hit and move the pointer over the image. 
6. Rotate and twist the image as your wish. 
7. If you're done press OK. Or if you wanna cancel, hit the Cancel button or press Esc. 

There are some additional options too! Look at the tools panel of liquify filter - 

By default, you're getting the first tool selected. You can also try the other tools. They will produce a completely different result. 

You may need to adjust the brush size. Press and hold the right bracket ] to increase the brush size. And press and hold down the left bracket [ to decrease the brush size. 

Also try the Tool options from the right panel. Here you can change the Brush Size, Density, Pressure etc. Hit OK to save your changes to the image. Or press cancel if you don't like to distort the image. 

And don't forget to try the other commands of Filter menu. These are really cool! 

Hope you've enjoyed this post. If you have any query please leave a comment . . .

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Working with Photoshop Color Range

Photoshop guys are very familiar with the color range option of Adobe Photoshop. Color range command is a great tool for selecting the areas of an image based on sampled color. And it's somewhat similar to Magic Wand Tool. In Magic Wand Tool you need to manually click on the areas of an image that needs to be selected. But if you use the color range option, you just need to choose the sample color. And Photoshop will make the selection by itself! 

This tutorial applies to all running versions of Adobe Photoshop including CS4, CS5 and CS6. But I've prepared the tutorial using Photoshop CS5. All the images of this post will be based on Photoshop CS5. 

Color Range

Color Range belongs to the Selection part of Photoshop. You will find it under the Select Menu. Run Photoshop from your PC > Open an image from your hard disk > Go to the Select menu > Choose Color Range. You will get the following image: 

Have you noticed Marks PC Logo on color range window? Here the white part is currently selected. If you would like to expand the selection area then click on the pencil button from the right side with plus mark. Now go to your image and hit on the part that you want to add to your selection. 

Make sure Sapmled Colors is enabled in the Select option. 

You can also increase/ decrease the amount of Fuziness adjust the selection. If you make any wrong selection or if you'd like to remove something from your selection then choose the Pencil button with negative sign. Then hit on the part of image you want to deslect. 

Eyedropper Tools

The three tools just below the Save button is know as eyedropper tools. The left one is called Eydropper, middle one is Add to Sample and the right one is Substract from Sample. 

Fuziness and Range

I've told earlier that Fuziness will control the amount of selection. By increasing and decreasing the range, you can control the amount of selection. And Range will control how much area of the image will be selected. 

To be honest, color range command is somewhat difficult to explain. You need to practice it by yourselft. If you click on the options, increase or decrease the value of different fields, you can easily understand. So, try to explore! 

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Working with Photoshop Stroke

Photoshop Stroke belongs to layer style. You can add stroke outside of an image, text or shape. When you apply stroke over something, it looks like a border or outline. You can also choose different colors for stroke. And you can also adjust the size, position and opacity while applying stroke. 

Last month I wrote about how to work with Fill & Opacity in Photoshop. I think you should also have a look to this tutorial. It will be helpful for you. 

Photoshop Stroke

Look at the two images below side by side. The left one has no outline. But the right one has a border outside of it. 

No stroke has been applied on the left image. And the right image has a stroke outside of it. You can also use stroke with texts and shapes. Stroke can highlight something. Sometimes after applying stroke over something, you can minimize the fill. In that time, you will get stroke highlighted and the inside dimmed! Learn more . . . 

How to Apply Stroke?

If you wanna apply stroke over an image then open it. Or create a new document and then type something or take any shape on which you wanna apply stroke. Now make sure you're on the right layer I mean your image or text is selected. Also make sure that your Layer window is turned on. Now go to the strong as shown in the image below. 

Hit on the fx (Add a layer style) at the end of layer panel and choose Stroke. Now you will get the Layer Style window. Look at the Stroke options below:

Adjust the size and look at the effect of your stroke outside the image or text. This is very important. Sometimes 1 px doesn't make any sense. Though it depends on the situation I prefer 2 or 3 px. Certainly a fat stroke will not make any sense. 

Keep Position - Outside, Blend Mode - Normal, Fill Type - Color and Opacity - as your wish. If you minimize the opacity from 100% to 60 or 70%, then your stroke color will be darken somewhat. 

And finally choose a brilliant color for the stroke. Hit on the color box and select different colors to test the result. After choosing the color, hit on the OK button. 

You can also explore some additional options from Layer Style window. Suppose Drop Shadow, Gradient Overlay, Satin, Bevel and Emboss these are really cool options here. These can turn your normal image into an outstanding one. And these are really awesome for creating superb text! 

After applying stroke, also adjust the Fill and Opacity of the layer. These control the transparency of your image. Adjusting the transparency will give you a completely different look. 

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Create Sample Barcode using Photoshop !!

In this post, I'm gonna publish a funny tutorial of Adobe Photoshop. Now I will show you how to create a sample barcode (fake) by Photoshop. It will not be a real one but look like an original barcode. And maybe all of you know that original barcodes are machine readable. A real barcode includes product information like country of origin, manufacture and expiry date etc. 

I'm using Adobe Photoshop CS5 for this tutorial. But so far I know, any version of Adobe Photoshop will produce the same result for you. Okay let's start - 

• Run Adobe Photoshop and open a new file with following settings

• Choose Width 250 px, Height 100 px, Resolution 72, RGB Color Mode with 32 bit, White Background and hit OK. 

• Now you will get a white rectangle in the screen. 

• Go to the Filter Menu > Noise > Add Noise . . . > Amount 400 > Distribution - Gaussian > Select Monochromatic > Hit OK. 

• You white rectangle will take the following look. 

• Again go to the Filter Menu > Blur > Motion Blur . . . > Angle - 90 degree > Distance - 999 pixels > Hit OK. 

• Look, I've just cut the bottom part of the image with Rentangular Marquee Tool. Choose Rectangular Marquee Tool from the toolbar. Now click and drag as my image shows above leaving a small portion from left and right part. Hit on the delete button and choose white color. 

• Press T or simply open the Type Tool > Choose Arial font with 10/12 pt size > Type some digits randomly as below.

We're almost done. But you can't save it! Because at the very beginning, you chose 32 bit color mode. But if you want to save the image as JPG or PNG, you must select 8 bit color. Then why I suggested to use 32 bit? Because 32 bit will give you a better look which 8 bit or 16 bit can't. 

If you choose 8 bit or 16 bit color, there will be no problem. You can directly save it as JPG or PNG. But the quality will fall somewhat. 

Then How to Save? 

• Look at the layer panel. Possible there are two layers - Text and Background. Press Shift key > select both the layers > Click right mouse button > hit on Convert to Smart Object.

• Now press Ctrl + A > Ctrl + C > Ctrl + N > In the Color Mode - Choose RGB and 8 bit > Hit OK.

• Press Ctrl + S > Select either JPG or PNG > Hit OK.

I prefer PNG due to its brilliant quality. 

Note: If you avoid using 32 bit color mode while opening the new document you will not face any problem while saving it. Simply use 8 bit when you create the document at the beginning. Then you can easily save it just after completing the barcode. But in that case, the bars will not be so clear. 

Do you like this tutorial? :) 

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Optimize the Performance Settings of Photoshop

Adjusting the performance settings could double your Photoshop experience. Though Photoshop automatically sets the performance depending on your hardware configuration. But sometimes you may need to adjust the default settings to improve the performance. If your hardware configuration is strong, you should customize the performance settings. 

Couple of days ago, I got a new CPU you know. And the following parts will affect the Photoshop performance: 

• Intel Core i3 Processor (3.3 GHz, 3 MB Cache)
• 4GB DDR3 RAM (1600 Bus)
• 1 TB HDD

And I always use Photoshop CS5 (Portable) for edidting or creating image. The hardware of my old PC was not strong enough. And it didn't allow me to customize the settings so much. But the new one lets me customize the performance settings. 

Optimize the Performance Settings| Photoshop CS4, CS5, CS6

Don't be confused! All the images used in this post, options I'm talking about are based on Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended. Since I don't have old versions of Photoshop I'm not sure whether the options are same or different. But I hope, there could be a bit difference, not more than that. 

Let's start - 

1. Run Adobe Photoshop.
2. Go to Edit Menu and Choose Preferenes > Performance.
3. Now you will get 4 sections: Memory Usage, History & Cache, Scratch Disks and GPU settings.

Let's customize one by one - 

Memory Usage

This is the most important part of this topic. I mean the usage of RAM. 

Look at the memory usage part. Available RAM indicates your usable RAM. Ideal range is the range which Photoshop thinks optimum for your PC. By default, Photoshop use 60% to 70% of available RAM. But I've 4 GB RAM installed in my PC. Why do I use 1585 MB only? 

I've chosen 100% of the available memory. There is a slider too. You can increase/ decrease the memory usage by sliding the indicator to the right or left. 

History & Cache

The next one is History & Cache. Look at the image below:

In this part our main concern is Cache. History doesn't matter. By default photoshop can save up to 1000 history states. But never do that. Remember, the more states will consume more hard disk space. Let's keep it to 20. Or you can reduce the value to 10. 

If you have more than 3 GB usable RAM, set the Cache Levels to 8 and Tile Size to 1028 K. Or you can choose more cache levels for bigger documents with few layers. And fewer cache levels for smaller documents with many layers. 

Choosing higher cache levels and bigger tile size may slow down the speed while opening a document. But it will significantly improve the processing capacity. So if you have faster RAM and large hard disk, choose the higher cache levels and tile size. 

Scratch Disks

What is Scratch Disks? A list of your hard disk volumes! Before talking about this let's have a look at the snapshot:

How much RAM you have? 2 GB, 4 GB, 8GB or more? Sometimes this is not enough for processing images. That's why Photoshop uses a part of your hard disk as scratch disk. By default, Photoshop uses the Drive C:\ to scratch. Normally we use C as booting drive. 

But using booting drive as scratch disk is not a good idea. Let's choose another drive which  is faster and having plenty of free space. Here I've choosen the drive D:\ as scratch disk. You can also choose more than one scratch disk if necessary. In that case you can rearrange the order using the up and down arrow. 

Suppose, you've selected drive D as scratch disk. Now if you run photoshop, you will see a temp file in the D drive. ie. Photoshop Temp54895112832. And after closing the photoshop, this file will be vanished automatically. 

If you have any external disk which is faster than your internal hard disk, you can use that disk as your scratch disk. 

GPU Settings

You can only use this feature if your video card supports this. Look at the above image. 

Detected Video Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 2500. 

Here you can Enable OpenGL Drawing. You may not be able to find any difference directly. But this option will enable some features that enhance the overall performance. 

OpenGL Drawing enables the following features:

• Rotate View Tool
• Birdseye Zooming
• Pixel Grid
• Flick Panning Preferences, Scrubby Zoom
• HUD Color Picker, Sampling Ring etc.

Enhancements:

• Smooth Pan and Zoom
• Drop Shadow for Canvas Border
• 3D Interaction Acceleration etc.

Hopefully, adjusting these performance settings will help you a lot to have a better photoshop experience. If you're confused with any option, please knock me . . . 

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Working with Fill & Opacity in Photoshop

In Adobe Photoshop, both Opacity and Fill control the transparency of a layer. If you wanna make an image transparent, or if you wanna increase/ decrease its transparency, you can use any of the two. But while working with Fill and Opacity, you may try to find the difference between them. But it's really difficult to find out the difference between Opacity and Fill as they behave same in most of the cases! 

To be honest, I also didn't have idea about these two. Just in the evening, I've explored some  pages to know the fact. And now I've the sufficient knowledge to write about the basic difference between Opacity and Fill. 

Use of Fill and Opacity

Fill or Opacity is used to control the transparency of the image. You will find these options in the layer panel. Look at the image below:

If you need to change the transparency of an image, just select the layer of that image. Then decrease the value of Opacity or Fill. Both of them will do the same job. Look at the image below to get a clear idea:

There is no visual difference between the last two images. At least I can't identify any distinction. If you can see, please comment :) 

Difference between Opacity and Fill

Now I'm gonna show you the difference between Opacity and Fill. And before you go, you should remember - 

• Opacity: Controls the transparency of everything on a layer including styles and effects.

• Fill: Affects the actual contents of the layer only. It doesn't touch the layer styles or effect.

Observe the following image carefully. Trace out the distinction between the two parts of the image. 

I've simply typed two words - Sun and Cloud. The left part is normal. The text color is green. Sun and Cloud has a stroke nothing else. Fill and Opacity is 100% by default. 

In the right part, I've chosen 0% Fill for Sun, 30% Opacity for Cloud. And what happens to the image?

• The green color of the sun is vanished. It takes the color of the background I mean the color of the sun. But the outside stroke is untouched. Here I've used 0% Fill. 

• And in the Cloud, the whole text gets dimmed. Both the green color and the stroke. Here I've used 30% Opacity. If you use 0% opacity here, your text will be vanished. Because it affects the stroke too. 

I've tried to make this complicated topic as simple as possible. But if you're new in Adobe Photoshop, then you might be puzzled. So, never hesitate to leave a comment if you need to know something. 

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