Part 1 Task 7 Setting Plug-ins and Scratch Disk Preferences ou might think that, out of the box and properly installed, Photoshop ready to go. If you have extra plug-ins or extra hard disk space, it's not. While Photoshop is great at handling memory to furnish your digital imaging requests, note it doesn't know the location of third-party plug-ins and where to find that extra Photoshop continues to hard disk space. Before opening up that next image, specify both of those items in use scratch disks until you he Plug-ins Scratch Disk preferences dialog box. quit the program. 1. As a Macintosh user, you can open the Plug-ins Scratch Disk pref- erences dialog box, shown in Figure 7-1, by going to the Photoshop menu and selecting Preferences Plug-Ins Scratch Disks As a Windows user choose edit o Preferences and select Plug-Ins Scratch Disks. If you are in the dialog box from the previous task, select Plug-Ins Scratch Disks from the drop-down menu at the top of the dialog box. 如wmho F建 ①D) n dst will ure 7-1: The Plug-Ins Scratch Disks preferences dialog bo
Setting Plug-ins and Scratch Disk Preferences You might think that, out of the box and properly installed, Photoshop is ready to go. If you have extra plug-ins or extra hard disk space, it’s not. While Photoshop is great at handling memory to furnish your digital imaging requests, it doesn’t know the location of third-party plug-ins and where to find that extra hard disk space. Before opening up that next image, specify both of those items in the Plug-ins & Scratch Disk preferences dialog box. 1. As a Macintosh user, you can open the Plug-ins & Scratch Disk preferences dialog box, shown in Figure 7-1, by going to the Photoshop menu and selecting Preferences ➪ Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks. As a Windows user, choose Edit ➪ Preferences and select Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks. If you are in the dialog box from the previous task, select Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks from the drop-down menu at the top of the dialog box. Figure 7-1: The Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks preferences dialog box note • Photoshop continues to use scratch disks until you quit the program. 14 Part 1 Task 7
Photoshop Basics 2. To set an Additional Plug-Ins folder, first select the option next to the Additional Plug-Ins Folder heading. This opens a dialog box Task 7 where you can locate and select the plug-ins folder. 3. After you have selected the folder, you need to restart Photoshop in 4. If you have third-party plug-ins that work only with a previous ver- sion of Photoshop(versions 6 or earlier), you can enter its serial number in the Legacy Photoshop Serial Number input field tibs 5. You can assign up to four scratch disks. A scratch disk is a form of vir- Scratch disks should onl be on a local drive; they tual memory Photoshop can use if your system doesn't have enough ould not be accessed RAM to accomplish a given task. By default Photoshop uses the hard ver a network. drive or partition that the operating system is on as the primary For best performance, scratch disk, which can be any drive or portion of a drive with free elect a large and defrag memory. You can assign up to 200 GB of scratch disk space on a given hard disk or partition; the more scratch disk space you assign to for your scratch disk. Also Photoshop, the better the system performs when handling your large rge scratch disks should not be on the same drive image files. Again, you have to restart Photoshop in order for the as the images you are new scratch disk set working on 6. While editing an image, you can find out how much RAM is being used by the scratch disk in the status bar at the bottom of the image window. First click the triangle in the status ba 7. Select Scratch Sizes and you will see two numbers on the status bar, after shorthand for Scratch Sizes, Scr(see Figure 7-2): The first number is the amount of RAM Photoshop currently uses to handle the image; the second number is the total amount of ram available Figure 7-2: The status bar drop-down menu and the two scratch size values atch disk preferences provides greater control nd flexibility in your work nvironment. of course aving more memory and a larger image cache does- n't hurt either. For more information on memory nd image cache, see Task 8
tips • Scratch disks should only be on a local drive; they should not be accessed over a network. • For best performance, select a large and defragmented drive or partition for your scratch disk. Also, large scratch disks should not be on the same drive as the images you are working on. 2. To set an Additional Plug-Ins folder, first select the option next to the Additional Plug-Ins Folder heading. This opens a dialog box where you can locate and select the plug-ins folder. 3. After you have selected the folder, you need to restart Photoshop in order to use the new plug-ins. 4. If you have third-party plug-ins that work only with a previous version of Photoshop (versions 6 or earlier), you can enter its serial number in the Legacy Photoshop Serial Number input field. 5. You can assign up to four scratch disks. A scratch disk is a form of virtual memory Photoshop can use if your system doesn’t have enough RAM to accomplish a given task. By default, Photoshop uses the hard drive or partition that the operating system is on as the primary scratch disk, which can be any drive or portion of a drive with free memory. You can assign up to 200 GB of scratch disk space on a given hard disk or partition; the more scratch disk space you assign to Photoshop, the better the system performs when handling your large image files. Again, you have to restart Photoshop in order for the new scratch disk settings to be active. 6. While editing an image, you can find out how much RAM is being used by the scratch disk in the status bar at the bottom of the image window. First click the triangle in the status bar. 7. Select Scratch Sizes and you will see two numbers on the status bar, after shorthand for Scratch Sizes, Scr (see Figure 7-2): The first number is the amount of RAM Photoshop currently uses to handle the image; the second number is the total amount of RAM available to Photoshop. Figure 7-2: The status bar drop-down menu and the two Scratch Size values Photoshop Basics 15 Task 7 cross-reference • Setting plug-ins and scratch disk preferences provides greater control and flexibility in your work environment. Of course, having more memory and a larger image cache doesn’t hurt either. For more information on memory and image cache, see Task 8
Part 1 Task 8 Setting Memory and Image cache Preferences help Photoshop perform better, it's always good to give it some fine- tuning from time to time. The image cache allows Photoshop to increase rendering times of frequently seen areas of an image. In the Memory Image note Cache preferences dialog box, you can set the right balance between speed and Setting Memory Usage to performance. 100% is not really 100% if ou slide the maximum AM amount to be used by 1. If you are a Macintosh user, go to the Photoshop menu and select Photoshop to 100% in the Preferences s Memory Image Cache(see Figure 8-1). As a Windows operating system. Windows user, choose Edit s Preferences and select Memory This occurs because the Image Cache. If you are in the dialog box from the previous task, you Windows operating system may select Memory Image Cache from the drop-down menu at needs RAM as well in order he top of the dialog box. to operate File Handling Hide pn splay& Cursors. Show All Quit hotshot Figure 8-1: Accessing the Memory& Image Cache dialog box 2. The image cache enables Photoshop to increase screen redraw speeds during the editing process by caching, or storing in memory, pre views of an image at various zoom levels. As you zoom in or out on the image during editing, it can then pull up the new redraw from the cache rather than reading it from your hard drive. To change the cache settings, enter an integer between I and 8 in the Cache Levels text box under Cache Settings(see Figure 8-2). The lower the cache level, the slower the image window redraws
Setting Memory and Image Cache Preferences To help Photoshop perform better, it’s always good to give it some finetuning from time to time. The image cache allows Photoshop to increase rendering times of frequently seen areas of an image. In the Memory & Image Cache preferences dialog box, you can set the right balance between speed and performance. 1. If you are a Macintosh user, go to the Photoshop menu and select Preferences ➪ Memory & Image Cache (see Figure 8-1). As a Windows user, choose Edit ➪ Preferences and select Memory & Image Cache. If you are in the dialog box from the previous task, you may select Memory & Image Cache from the drop-down menu at the top of the dialog box. Figure 8-1: Accessing the Memory & Image Cache dialog box 2. The image cache enables Photoshop to increase screen redraw speeds during the editing process by caching, or storing in memory, previews of an image at various zoom levels. As you zoom in or out on the image during editing, it can then pull up the new redraw from the cache rather than reading it from your hard drive. To change the cache settings, enter an integer between 1 and 8 in the Cache Levels text box under Cache Settings (see Figure 8-2). The lower the cache level, the slower the image window redraws. note • Setting Memory Usage to 100% is not really 100% if you slide the maximum RAM amount to be used by Photoshop to 100% in the Windows operating system. This occurs because the Windows operating system needs RAM as well in order to operate. 16 Part 1 Task 8
Photoshop Basics mch图 Task 8 Cache Lev:4 CAnce EUe cache for histograms in Le Maximum Used by Photoshop5回s·BM Dwe红thn It's always a good idea to buy as much RAM as pos ible for your computer sys- tem. The more RAM you have the better Photoshop (and your other applica- tions)run, and the faster you are finished with your work Figure 8-2: The Memory Image Cache dialog box 3. To set a good balance of speed and quicker rendering for Cache Level stick with the default value, which appears to offer a solid balance of speed and quicker rendering. Setting the cache to a value of 1 disables it-you wouldn't want to set it that low unless you always work at 100 percent magnification. Setting the cache at its highest setting of 8 causes it to store more preview sizes and would probably not be neces sary unless you are working on an extremely large file. 4. Select Use Cache for Image Histograms if you want Photoshop to display histograms faster; however histograms are based on a sampling of pixels and not all of the pixels. 5. Under Memory Usage you can specify the percentage of maximum RAM to be used by Photoshop. However, you should never allocate more than 90% to Photoshop, or you will probably cause your sys- tem to crash 6. Leave the maximum memory used by Photoshop setting at the default 50% at first. While working on images, you can check the Efficiency setting in the status bar from time to time. If you see dropping below 100%, you can increase the allocation of memory to Photoshop incrementally until it goes back to 100% Photoshop in order for c y allocation, you'll need to restart 7. After resetting the me isks also helps inc he new settings be active response times from ation on Scratch Disks see Task 7
tip • It’s always a good idea to buy as much RAM as possible for your computer system. The more RAM you have the better Photoshop (and your other applications) run, and the faster you are finished with your work. Figure 8-2: The Memory & Image Cache dialog box 3. To set a good balance of speed and quicker rendering for Cache Level, stick with the default value, which appears to offer a solid balance of speed and quicker rendering. Setting the cache to a value of 1 disables it — you wouldn’t want to set it that low unless you always work at 100 percent magnification. Setting the cache at its highest setting of 8 causes it to store more preview sizes and would probably not be necessary unless you are working on an extremely large file. 4. Select Use Cache for Image Histograms if you want Photoshop to display histograms faster; however histograms are based on a sampling of pixels and not all of the pixels. 5. Under Memory Usage you can specify the percentage of maximum RAM to be used by Photoshop. However, you should never allocate more than 90% to Photoshop, or you will probably cause your system to crash. 6. Leave the maximum memory used by Photoshop setting at the default 50% at first. While working on images, you can check the Efficiency setting in the status bar from time to time. If you see it dropping below 100%, you can increase the allocation of memory to Photoshop incrementally until it goes back to 100%. 7. After resetting the memory allocation, you’ll need to restart Photoshop in order for the new settings to be active. Photoshop Basics 17 Task 8 cross-reference • Allocating more scratch disks also helps increase response times from Photoshop. For more information on Scratch Disks, see Task 7
Part 1 Task 9 Navigating the HTML-Based Help system confused more often than we would like Photoshop comes with an extensive note Help System written in HTML, the markup language commonly used to In order to view the Help create Web pages System, you need to have escape Navigator 4.75 So, when in doubt, launch your browser and surf the Help pages until you find (or higher) or Microsoft Intemet Explorer 5.0(or your answer. higher) installed with JavaScript enabled. 1. To access the HTML-based Help System select Help s Photoshop Help. You will notice the Help System, as shown in Figure 9-1,is divided into two areas. In the left frame is the main navigation area and on the right is the content area. There are five text links at the top of the navigation area: Using Help, Contents, Index, Site Map and Search. Adobe Photoshopcs Figure 9-1: The initial display of the Help System 2. If you need help in navigating the content of the Help System, click Using Help to show a series of links in the content area that you can lick for more information on using the various Help System features 3. Select Contents for a series of links that enable you to access the con- tents of the Help System chapter by chapter
Navigating the HTML-Based Help System Sometimes we all need a little help to get us through the lonely, confusing times. And with so many options in Photoshop, we can get lonely and confused more often than we would like. Photoshop comes with an extensive Help System written in HTML, the markup language commonly used to create Web pages. So, when in doubt, launch your browser and surf the Help pages until you find your answer. 1. To access the HTML-based Help System select Help ➪ Photoshop Help. You will notice the Help System, as shown in Figure 9-1, is divided into two areas. In the left frame is the main navigation area and on the right is the content area. There are five text links at the top of the navigation area: Using Help, Contents, Index, Site Map and Search. Figure 9-1: The initial display of the Help System 2. If you need help in navigating the content of the Help System, click Using Help to show a series of links in the content area that you can click for more information on using the various Help System features. 3. Select Contents for a series of links that enable you to access the contents of the Help System chapter by chapter. note • In order to view the Help System, you need to have Netscape Navigator 4.75 (or higher) or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 (or higher) installed with JavaScript enabled. 18 Part 1 Task 9