Cerny’s Adobe Photoshop Tutorial – Part 2: The Main Bar – File

On 12.06.12, In Software, by cernescu

This is the second part of the "Cerny’s Adobe Photoshop Tutorial" series, in which I show you everything about the top main bar of Adobe Photoshop.

In the previous tutorial you have read that the main window of Photoshop is divided in a few parts, including the main bar, which, at it’s turn, is divided in 2 smaller parts: the left side, with all sorts of tools and options, and the right side, with basic Close, Minimize, Maximize options, plus a few more that you will see further on.

1. The left side

The first thing we notice is that this bar looks almost like any other bar, so no need to loose patience or be afraid. There are a few menus that you see in any other program as well: File, Edit, Help. The ones specific to Adobe Photoshop are: Image, Layer, Select, Filter, Analysis, 3D, View and Window. You also see some little icons. We will come back to see what are they all about later on.

1.1 The “File” menu

At a first look, it’s complicated. But don’t panic, we’ll sort it all out.

1.1.1 “New” – Lets you create a new image file. If you click it, the following will appear:

So here you have the basic attributes of your new document: name, and size.

You can change the name in the “Name” box.

Adobe Photoshop has preset image sizes. If you click where it says “Default Photoshop Size” a drop-down menu appears, allowing you to select one of the presets:

U.S. Paper: Preset lets you choose the size from one of the following: Letter, Legal, Tabloid;

International paper: A3, A4, A5, A6, B3, B4, B5, C4, C5, C6, DL;

Photo: Landscape (2×3, 4×6, 5×7, 8×10), Portrait (2×3, 4×6, 5×7, 8×10);

Web: 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1152 x 864, 1280 x 1024, 1600 x 1200, and a few more presets;

Mobile & Devices: a few low resolution images from 176 x 208 to 352 x 416;

Film & Video: a few NTSC, PAL, HD presets;

And finally, “Costum”: It allows you to set the size of the image you want. Any other preset automatically deselects itself if you change its size, reverting to the “Costum” preset, which isn’t actually a preset, so to say.

If you want to edit the size in pixels, centimeters or inches, you just select it from the drop down list in the right of the width/height box:

1.1.2 “Open”

A basic, everyday open tool.

1.1.3 “Browse in bridge”

This is another tool for browsing photos:

It does the same thing, basically.

1.1.4 “Browse in Mini Bridge”

The same Bridge, but the Mini version, it pops up inside the Photoshop main window, left of the layers panel: