Photoshop

Photoshop is the industry-standard image rendering software. You can use Photoshop to create customized graphics, edit photographs and make flyers and images for print as well as for the web. Adobe Photoshop is hands down, the most popular program for creating and modifying images for the web.

So what exactly can you do with Photoshop? Well, like any image-editing program, you can use Photoshop to "alter" images like photos, downloaded icons, or scanned artwork. Altering an image includes doing such things as changing the colors within an image, modifying the size and scale of an image, or putting one picture "within" another.



Alteration also includes technical modifications such as changing the mode of image compression from one type to another, or changing the number of bits used per pixel. But, aside from altering images, Photoshop has a vast array of tools that help you "create" images from scratch.

Generally, there are four components in your workspace that you will use while creating or modifying graphics. These components are as follows:
 * The Menu Bar
 * The Drawing Canvas
 * The Toolbox
 * Palettes (There are five palettes by default)



To open a new document in Photoshop, select **File > New**. A window pops up asking you to specify the image size, resolution and color mode. Type in the desired image size, and select **72 pixels/inch** and **RGB Color** for the other two boxes.



Palettes are essential components of your tool set. For one, palettes help you define the nature of your tools. That is, palettes help you customize how the tools in the toolbox perform. For example, you might "sharpen" (make the line thin) or "dull" (make the line thick) your pencil tool using the "Brushes Palette". Palettes also help you perform some of the more complex tasks such as layering or manipulating complex color schemes. There are five palettes. these five palettes are shown in the figure below



Though these five palettes control many different aspects of your drawing, they do share several properties. For one, all palettes are made up of a title bar with close and collapse buttons, a set of tabs, and a list of options for each tab. Further, all palettes have a fly-out menu of options. Consider the figure below:



Another generic property of palettes is the ability to dynamically adjust contents. That is, you can customize the tabs in any palette simply by dragging tabs between palettes. Try it out! Click and hold your left mouse button over a tab in one palette and without letting go of the mouse button, drag the tab to another palette and let go. Now drag the tab back. Finally, note that if you close a palette, you can easily get it back on screen by choosing "Palettes" from the "Window" menu item and selecting the palette you want shown.