- Using the main application features
- Using the panels
- Tools on the Tools panel
- Changing the image size
- Choosing a bits per channel mode
- Cropping and rotating images
- Using the Layers panel
- Creating adjustment layers
- Editing adjustment layers
- Limiting the effect of an adjustment layer
- Saving adjustment presets
- Merging and deleting adjustment layers
- Working with layer groups
- Applying content-aware scaling
- Choosing a mode for the History panel
- Making snapshots of history states
- Working with nonlinear histories
- Using presets
- Streamlining your workflow
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Using presets
For any tool, you can save a collection of the current Options bar settings as a tool preset. Thereafter, when you use that tool, you can choose your preset from either the Tool preset picker on the Options bar or the Tool Presets panel. Having a variety of tool presets at your disposal saves you setup time when you use specific tools, even if the differences among the presets are minor.
If you check Current Tool Only on the Tool Presets panel or on the Tool preset picker, only those tool presets that pertain to the current tool will display on the panel and picker, and you’ll have fewer presets to wade through. With Current Tool Only unchecked, the tool presets for all tools will display. Regardless of this setting, when you click a tool preset, the tool that the preset is used with becomes selected automatically.
To create a tool preset:
- Customize a tool, such as the Brush, Crop, or Type tool.A Choose a preset from the appropriate picker (such as a brush tip for the Brush tool or a gradient for the Gradient tool), choose settings from the Options bar (such as dimensions and a resolution for the Crop tool), and choose a Foreground color, if applicable, to be saved with the preset.
- Do either of the following:
- On the Options bar, click the Tool preset picker thumbnail or arrowhead to display a temporary Tool Presets panel.B
- Display the Tool Presets panel.
- Click the New Tool Preset button
on the picker or panel. The New Tool Preset dialog opens.C
- If the default Name doesn’t describe the preset adequately, change it. Also, if the dialog displays an Include Color option (such as for the Brush or Pencil tool), you can check it to save the current Fore ground color with the preset.
- Click OK. The new tool preset will appear on, and can be chosen from, both the picker and the panel.D
- To preserve your tool presets for future use in any document, save them to a tool presets library by choosing Save Tool Presets from the picker or panel menu. You can also load any previously saved preset library via either menu.
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As an evolving pro user, you’re probably already familiar with many of the preset pickers in Photoshop, such as the Brush and Gradient preset pickers that can be accessed via the Options bar. The Swatches and Brushes panels are preset pickers, too. Each item on a picker is called a preset, and each collection of presets that can be loaded onto a picker or panel is called a library.
To create a preset:
Each kind of preset—such as a pattern, color swatch, gradient, custom brush, custom shape, contour (for layer effects), or graphic style—is created in a particular way. The following are a few examples:
- Customize a brush via the Brushes panel or Brush preset picker, then click the New Preset button on the panel or picker.
- Add a swatch to the Swatches panel by clicking the New Swatch of Foreground Color button.
- Create a gradient by clicking New in the Gradient Editor dialog.
- Create a style by clicking the New Style button on the Styles panel or by clicking New Style in the Layer Style dialog.
- Create a pattern via Edit > Define Pattern.
If you’ve created some presets that you want to preserve for future use, save them in a library.
To save all the presets currently on a picker as a new library:
- From the panel or picker menu, choose Save [preset type].
- Enter a name, keep the default extension and location, then click Save.
- To make the new library appear on the panel or preset picker menu and on the menu in the Preset Manager, you must relaunch Photoshop.
Preset and user-saved libraries can be loaded as needed from the lower portion of the appropriate panel or picker menu.
To load a library of presets:
- From the lower portion of the panel or the picker menu, choose the desired library name.
- When the alert dialog appears, click Append to add the additional presets to the panel or picker, or click OK to replace the current presets on the panel or picker with those in the library.
Note: If you made changes to the current panel, another alert dialog will appear. Click Save if you want your changes saved.
The Preset Manager is a central dialog in which you can organize, append, replace, and reset your preset libraries and control which libraries load onto individual panels and pickers at startup. Changes made to an individual preset picker are reflected in the Preset Manager, and vice versa.
To use the Preset Manager:
- Do either of the following:
Choose Edit > Preset Manager.
From the menu on any panel or picker that contains presets, such as the Brush Preset picker or the Brushes panel, choose Preset Manager.
- In the Preset Manager (A, next page), choose from the Preset Type menu.
- Do any of the following:
To add presets to the current library, from the menu
, choose a library name (B, next page), then in the alert dialog, click Append (C, next page), or click OK to have them replace the current library.
To append (to the current presets) a library that isn’t currently listed on the menu, click Load, locate the library, then click Load again.
To restore the default library for the chosen type, from the menu
, choose Reset [preset type], then click Append to append the default presets to the current library, or click OK to replace the current
library with the default presets.
- Respond to any alert prompt that appears regarding saving changes to the current presets.
- Click Done.
- To change how the presets are displayed, choose a thumbnail or list view from the Preset Manager menu.
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