Palettes
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PSDTUTS Photoshop Wiki / Photoshop Tutorials / Palettes
Palettes form an important part of the Photoshop workspace. Beyond the tool bar and menus, they’re the most useful tools available for interacting with and manipulating image data.
There are quite a few palettes—a full list can be found under the Window menu. The most useful and commonly used are open in the workspace by default, such as the Layers and Swatch palettes.
[edit] Dealing with Palettes
To view one palette in a group, you can either select it from the tab interface in the palette groupings, or you can go to the Window menu and select the appropriate palette, which will bring it to the forefront. If you cannot find a given palette, the quickest way to get it back is using the Window menu.
You can move palettes from one group to another, or from one group to being standalone, by clicking on its tab and dragging it in between the tabs of the group you want to add it to, or you can drag it free screen space to make it standalone. If you find palettes are taking up too much of your screen space, you can always move more of them into a single group and navigate between tabs.
You can also drag entire groups into other groups—drag the empty, thin gray bar that sits above the tabs and drop it in between the tabs of another group. The original group will be deleted and the palettes within it redistributed amongst the new group.
Over time you should definitely experiment with palette placement and groupings until you find what’s most useful for you. If you never use a palette that is at the forefront by default and you frequently use one that you have to search for, swap them around and make that your default operating mode. This will prove much more productive in the long run.
In order to hide a palette from view, head to the Window menu and click on a palette that has a check next to it. The check means it is visible, and clicking on it will hide or show it depending on its current status.
You can resize palettes by clicking and dragging the bottom right corner, where the dotted triangle is. You can also minimize the palette by double clicking on its header or tab, which will leave the tabs visible but completely hide the palette itself. If you wish to completely get rid of them, the small cross (X) on either the tab or the group itself will do the trick.
If you’ve played with your palettes to the point where you can’t find a good setup and want to return to the default palette positioning, use the Window > Workspace > Reset Palette Locations menu option.
You can find extra features and palette options under the dropdown menu found in each menu. The menu is on the top right of the palette, and is represented by a downward facing arrow next to three horizontal lines. Palette options allow you to tweak each palette more to your liking; for instance, the layer palette options allows you to set thumbnail sizes for your layers (smaller means better performance, bigger means better reference).
[edit] Related Links
- Using the New Layer Palette in Photoshop CS4 Kevin Ames demonstrates a new UI feature that makes layer masking and adjustment layers much more convenient in Photoshop CS4.
- Add a link
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