Photoshop 101- Tips & No-nos
Posted by Jenn on July 15, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Woo! What a DIG we had this morning. Lots of familiar and new faces in the crowd- it was nice to see all of you.
We discussed Photoshop best practices and covered some basic to-dos and even answered some more advanced Photoshop questions posed by our sharp DIG students. (What the heck are layers??!!) A lot of folks came to learn how to better communicate with their designers or clients- so important to a happy “graphic” relationship! We covered a lot but hopefully it will all marinate and become a part of everyone’s personal best practices. I just want to leave each of you with my list of Photoshop tips & no-nos that will make you a better Photoshop user.
JENN’S PHOTOSHOP TIPS & NO-NOs:
1. Photoshop is intended to be used to manipulate photos- not to design page layouts with large bodies of copy.
2. Followup to #1: if you are working on a brochure, newsletter, magazine layout, or other layout with bodies of copy use Photoshop in conjunction with your favorite layout program or Office document program (InDesign, Quark, Pagemaker, Word, Powerpoint, etc.).
3. If your designer is asking you for an eps file they are most likely asking for an Adobe Illustrator eps NOT a Photoshop eps. Very different- be sure to specify.
4. Respect your files. Do not save a jpeg more than once. When in doubt revert to the original file.
5. Most of the time Web/Screen graphics=72dpi, RGB, jpeg/gif/png Print graphics=300dpi, CMYK, tiff. Consult your friendly printer to confirm their preferred specs.
6. Stop! Don’t use Photoshop filters just because you can. We’re not impressed.
7. Last but not least, learning how to use the tool is just the beginning. A professional looking end product takes knowledge, skill, some practice and sometimes some major artistic prowess.
Keep learning your tools and use them WISELY.
Jenn
P.S. If you missed this session we’ll be repeating it in Bowling Green on Thursday July 29th. http://bgjulydig.eventbrite.com/.
(We’ve also had requests from some folks to do some one-on-one training with their staff. We would be happy to accommodate- please contact me for details. jenn@werkshopmarketing.com)
