Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is one of the most widely used computer programs that works with images. We are using Photoshop 5 - the fifth release of the program. It is both useful and complex.

This tutorial will be an introduction to one thing you can do with it - create a heading for a Web site:

Here are the steps after you have opened Photoshop:

Under File open New, set dimensions for pixels, width to 500, the height to 100, resolution to 72 pixels/inch and the color to RGB.

Toward the bottom of the vertical icon menu there are overlapping squares - the one in front controls foreground color and the other background color. Click on the either square and a palette comes up where you can pick colors.

Under the pull down menu Edit open Fill and pick either Background Color or Foreground Color and 100% Opacity to fill the box you have made with a color.

Click on the T in the vertical icon Menu to pick a font and size - click in the box and Font choices will appear. Pick a font name and size and the Center alignment box. Type in your title. (For now ignore the rest.) Click OK.

When the words appear it will automatically fill with the Foreground Color. You can use the same fill steps used for the background, if you want to change the color.

Your title can only be saved as a GIF file if you change the mode - under the Image pull down menu pick Mode and then Indexed Color.

Under File, open Save As and select Compuserve GIF (*.GIF) from the lower box. Click on Save. Be sure to save it to the place in your web site directory or folder where you are keeping your images. Many people use a separate directory called Images or Pics.

From there you can add it to your web site.
See: Adding Images

The Photoshop program has an extensive online guide. Go to Help in the bar at the and open either the Contents or, if you know what you are looking for, Search for help on... and enter the subject.

Here is an example of using Photoshop with an image to create a heading for a site.

See also:
Adobe Tips
Photoshop Tips Homepage
Photoshop Web Tips Database
Photoshop Professional Tips & Tricks
Cooltype.com
Photoshop Tips
Hands-on
GoraNation
The Browser Safe Color Palette