Photoshop comes with a ton of useful (or plain fun) features, but you have to enable some of them manually to make them work. In his latest video, Colin Smith of photoshopCAFE shares seven lesser-known settings that will save you not only time but also keep you from frustration while editing your photos.
1. Disable the welcome screen
I never knew the welcome screen could even be disabled, but it turns out it can. To disable it, go to Photoshop > Preferences > General and uncheck the Show Home Screen option.
2. Improve auto selections
By default, Photoshop’s auto-selection tools use a device-based algorithm. For better results, switch to the cloud-based algorithm. To do this, go to Photoshop > Preferences > Image Processing and change the Select Subject Algorithm to Cloud.
3. Load up on free goodies
Photoshop comes with plenty of free assets, including gradients, patterns, swatches, and more. To access these, go to Window > Gradients (or Patterns, Swatches, etc.) and click the More Options button. Choose Legacy Gradients (or Patterns, Swatches, etc.) to load the additional assets.
4. Customize your workspace
With one of the latest updates, Photoshop got pre-created workspaces. I honestly hate each of them because neither has everything I need for the stuff I do (I don’t only use it for photo editing). But thankfully, you can create a custom workspace that suits your workflow. You can rearrange panels, hide unnecessary tools, and save your preferred layout. To do this, go to Window > Workspace and choose New Workspace.
5. Increase the number of recent files
By default, Photoshop only shows the last 20 recently opened files. To increase this number, go to Photoshop > Preferences > File Handling and change the Maximum Recent Files setting.
6. Personalize color settings
Experiment with different color profiles and settings to find the ones that work best for your workflow. Go to Edit > Color Settings to explore the options.
7. Pin the taskbar
To prevent the taskbar from jumping around when you switch tools, pin it to a specific position. Right-click on the taskbar and choose Lock the Taskbar.
Make sure to watch Colin’s video to get a visual idea of the entire process for each of these settings. And keep this article in your bookmarks since you’ll need to redo the whole thing when you update Photoshop.
[CHANGE these 7 Settings in Photoshop RIGHT NOW | photoshopCAFE]
