Screen Modes in Photoshop
When designing in Photoshop there are a couple of options that allow you to review your design without noise around it. Here's a quick overview of how you can take a step back from the digital canvas.
Step away from the canvas ¶
When you are designing you are probably using Rulers and Grids to layout your page. Like painters who need to step back from the canvas so do designers in Photoshop. There is a good deal of clutter around the page you are viewing too. Thankfully there are a number of view options that allow you to see an uncluttered view of the page.
Remove grids and rulers ¶
If you are using grids and rulers you can turn these off For grids hit Apple ' on the Mac or CTRL ’ on Windows. To remove rulers hit Apple ; on the Mac or CTRL ; on Windows.
Screen mode ¶
Once you have remove grids and rulers you can cycle through Screen Modes and knock out the rest of your desktop. To do this simply hit F. You’ll see there are four options:
- Standard screen mode
- Maximised screen mode
- Full screen mode with menu bar
- Full screen mode
At this stage we still have the tool menu and all of the option palettes though.
Remove everything else ¶
To get to just our design we hit tab. This removes everything else from the workspace and you are free to gaze at your creation without anything else cluttering it up around it.
If you want to scroll around your design hold the Space bar and drag around. You can zoom in and out using Apple + and out using Apple -.
Watch the video below to see the full cycle of events in the very first Shape Shed video! Woo hoo! The SD version is below but if you want the HD version you’ll have to visit the Vimeo site
Screen Modes in Photoshop from George Ornbo on Vimeo.
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See Also
-
Saving time with Smart Objects in Photoshop
Smart Objects can save you a great deal of time if you are designing for the web in Photoshop. Furthermore they allow you to manipulate images without destroying the original. -
Make a photograph black and white in Photoshop CS3
Until recently I'd been using desaturate to convert photographs to black and white in Photoshop. In fact there is a much better non-destructive method. -
Designing with grids in Photoshop
Creating a grid to base your designs on is invaluable for giving structure to the page. Here's a quick introduction to grids and how you can speed up creating them in Photoshop.