Top 40+ GIMP plugins

Web Design

• Snow: Generate realistic 3D snow. Caution: Requires large amount of memory and swap memory.
• Anti-aliasing: Smoothen and fix straight lines.
• Adaptive contrast enhancement: Intelligent adjustment of contrast.
• Fourier Transformation: GIMP plugin version of Fourier Transformation.
• Refract/Reflect: Refraction effects to simulate falling water drops.
• ShapeIt: Bend text or image according to information in map layer.
• Borders: Add borders to your image.
• SoapBubble: Create bubbles. Contains two versions, for GIMP v2.2 and v2.4.
• Aqua Bou: Create web buttons in ‘Aqua Bou’ style easily.
• Chrominium: Create a chrome logo with glow and sparkles.
• Cloud Generation: For easy creation of clouds. Updated to work with GIMP 2.4, the latest version.
• Gothic Glow: GIMP’s version of Gothic Glow action, originally for Photoshop.
• Liquid Rescale: Content-aware rescaling. Keeps the features of the image while rescaling along a single direction.
• Particle Deposition: simulates particle deposition on a surface. It generates small particles with random size and velocity and lets them fall onto the surface where they settle, increasing surface height in the place a bit.
• Stampify: Make your image look like a postage stamp.
• Plasma2: Newer version of the original Plasma plugin for GIMP.
• SaveForWeb: Find optimal compromise between minimal file size and acceptable quality of image quickly. Useful for designers.
• Steel Text: Create a text effect that looks like shiny steel (or gold) and a dropshadow.

Photography

• Pandora: Stitch together multiple images to make a panorama.
• Film Grain: Add film grain for a classic feel, to BW images.
• Black Ink: Transform an image to a B&W drawing made with ink.
• Copyright Text: Add a copyright text to image.
• DeNoise: Noise reduction plugin using a modified Gaussian blur algorithm.
• DustCleaner: Detect and remove the dust spots in digital image.
• Astro-plugins: A set of plugins for astronomical image processing.
• FocusBlur: Makes an image out of focus with luminosity and depth.
• Lomo: Make photos clear, sharp and crisp. Especially useful for outdoor photographs.
• ISO Noise Reduction: Implements an ISO noise reduction, using different methods (masking the edges, then blurring the individual color channels or the lumimance channel only).
• Photo Effects: A bunch of scripts brought together in one script-fu file. Contains cartoon, color pencil, conte crayon, cutout, Drawing, ink pen, note paper, paint dot image, palette knife, pastel, stamp, water paint effect, wrap effect, angled strokes, crosshatched, chrome image, cross light, funky color, soft focus, solarisation, brick wall, patchwork, stained glass, texturizer, high pass, scroll effects.
• RedEye: Quickly remove red eye effect caused by camera flashes.
• ShadowRecovery: Recover image information in darked regions.
• Shadows/Highlights: Eliminate shadows and highlights in photographs.
• Refocus: Opposite of FocusBlur(listed above), this refocuses images. Provides better results than Unsharp masking which is built into GIMP.
• PhotoToolbox: Perform several actions on a photo at once such as defocus, desaturate (several papers emulations), toning, add grain.
• Light Filter: Provides basic filtering by adjusting colour levels of each pixels.
• Gradient Along Path: Strikes a vector applying a gradient orthogonally to the path.
• Landscape painter: Creates interesting paint effect that looks best with landscapes.
• EZ Improviser: Improve dull, dingy images.
• Edgy: Make an image look edgy.
• Digital IR: Simulate a black and white infrared image.
• Colour saturation: Change the color saturation of your image.
• Blot: GIMP avatar of BlotBrush. Based on blot algorithm and works well with spatter or cloudy image.

Miscellaneous

• GIMP Dewierdifyer: (for Windows) Get rid of common window annoyances in the GIMP. It adds a background window that sits under GIMP. It groups other GIMP windows into one, so that when you’re alt+tabbing to other apps, only one icon of GIMP gets in your way.
• Turing Pattern: Renders a kind of Turing pattern.
• Yin-Yang+: A seemingly useless plugin, but fun nonetheless. Add yin and yang symbols. Also optionally add drop-shadows.

375 Free Photoshop Brushes

Here’s a list of 375 free Photoshop brushes that you can download.

Mystcart Brush Set IV by mystcart - 5 fractal and abstract brushes. Compatible with Photoshop CS and above.

Native American by Indo Dreamin’ - 20 ornamental brushes. Compatible with Photoshop 5 and above.

Tattoo Borders by Indo Dreamin’ - 16 tattoo combination brushes. Compatible with Photoshop 5 and above.

Abstract Brush Set VII by r0man.de - 3 abstract brushes. Compatible with Photoshop 7 and above.

Bubble Brushes by hawksmont Brushes - 9 shape brushes. Compatible with Photoshop 7 and above.

VPDesigns Omega Brush Set - 200+ miscellaneous brushes. Compatible with Photoshop 7 and above.

Grunge Brushes by Skully7491 - Collection of grunge brushes. Compatible with Photoshop 7 and above.

Grunge ‘n Rust 3rd Edition by Metal-CX - Collection of grunge brushes.

StarScape Brushes by MercuryShadow - 18 space brushes. Compatible with Photoshop CS and above.

Hi-Res Watercolor Brushes by bittbox - 18 watercolor brushes. Compatible with Photoshop CS1 and above.

Abstract8 Brush Set by JavierZHX (Blazter) - 17 abstract brushes. Compatible with Photoshop CS and above.

Frames and Borders Free Brush Set by Stephanie of Obsidian Dawn - 28 frames and border brushes. Compatible with Photoshop CS and above.

Tasty Tattoo Photoshop Brushes by Jason Gaylor of Designfruit - Collection of Hi-res tattoo brushes. Compatible with Photoshop CS and above.

Rose Petals Brush Set by Stephanie of Obsidian Dawn - 25 rose petal brushes. Compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS and above.

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Super Slick Dusky Lighting Effects in Photoshop

Found the below Tutoial from another site. The result was stuning

What we are Making

Click the image for the high-res version.

Steps and Assets

As always you can download the PSD file to follow along at the bottom of this tutorial. It's a pretty large file so be warned! Additionally we are using a few assets including a photo from iStockPhoto and some vectors from Arsenal's Freebie Section. Note that in the sample PSD I've merged some text onto the original image to protect it's copyright since its such a large copy.

Step 1:

So here's our original photo from iStock. It's a pretty gorgeous photo with great sunset lighting and contrast for us to build on.

Step 2:

So first off we duplicate the photo, press CTRL-SHIFT-U to desaturate the image to Black and White. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and make the image a bit brighter and contrastier as shown.

Step 3:

Now go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a mild blur of 2px.

Step 4:

Now we set the blurred black and white layer to blending mode Overlay and opacity 50%. This gives us a slightly surreal blurring on the image. BE WARNED: This effect (blurring then overlaying) is a bit of favourite of amateurs, so go easy on it. When you do use it, make sure you fade it out a reasonable amount so it doesn't look too tacky.

Step 5:

Now the lighting is pretty nice already, but I'd like some pinkish hues in the image as it makes the image a lot warmer than bluish colours. So in a new layer we fill with a paintbucket a bright pink colour. I then got out the Eraser tool with a large, soft brush and removed some areas as you can see where I didn't want as much pink to shine through (this was pretty arbitrary and just gives the image more depth rather it being uniformly coloured). We then set the blending mode to Colour and 20% opacity. Actually in reality I did those two steps the other way around (I blended first then erased the bits I didn't want).

Step 6:

Here's the image after adding the pink.

Step 7:

Now to make the sun rays we are going to use a combination of glowing edges and radial blurring. So duplicate the original coloured layer and put it on top of all the other layers. Then go to Filter > Stylize > Glowing Edges and use settings of 1, 11 and 15 respectively for Width, Brightness and Smoothness.

Brought to you by:

Step 8:

Now we go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and apply settings as shown. Make sure that you have set the blur method to Zoom (not Spin). Also importantly move the Blur Centre until it's roughly in the position of the image where the woman was standing, i.e. where the 'sun' is going to be. You may have to do this a couple of times to get the positioning exactly right because it's a bit trial and error.

Once you've got it, apply the Radial Blur again by pressing CTRL-F (to repeat the last filter used).

Step 9:

Now set the blending mode for this layer to Screen.

Screen blending mode basically knocks out darker colours to only leave the lighter ones. This is the opposite to Multiply which knocks out any lighter colours and just leaves darker ones. This is really handy for when you have say a logo on a white background and you want to apply it to an image but don't want to cut it out - instead you just set it to Multiply (or Screen if its on black).

Step 10:

To get the light looking more like sunlight, we go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and tick the box that says "Colourize" to add some more colour to the light rays. Then move the sliders around until you get a reddish tint and press OK.

Step 11:

Now repeat the process (Glowing Edges > Radial Blur > Screening the Image) a couple of times to get more light rays as shown. Try moving the Radial Zoom filter around a little to get different casts of light to mix together.

Also as you add extra layers on you can always use the Eraser tool to remove some parts of a layer and leave others so that they blend together well. This is generally a matter of playing around with the image until it looks right. Also note that you can also use Layer Masks to do this without losing any image data, but because I never used Masks when I was learning Photoshop, out of habit I still do things the old (and probably a bit dumb) way :-)

Step 12:

Next we want to add the big glowing centre to the image. So create a new layer on top of all the others and get a large, soft brush and with White as your foreground colour paint a blob of white over where the woman's silhouette is.

Step 13:

To this blob of white we now add an Outer Glow of yellow set to Overlay (as shown). You can do this by right clicking on the layer and selecting Blending Options.

Brought to you by:

Step 14:

Now in your tools palette choose the Smudge Tool (R) which you can see in the image and using your mouse smudge your ball of light outwards. Note that in the image shown I've done some pretty big smudges so you can see roughly what we're doing, but in reality you should make smaller, more subtle smudges.

What you are trying to do here is give it a burst of light feel. You might want to duplicate the layer and have a couple of them together which is what I've done in the sample PSD.

Step 15:

Now what sunset would be complete without a lens flare? Rather than using the filter though just create a new layer on top and draw a circle as shown and fill it with white. Set it to blending mode Overlay and about 10% opacity . Then create a new layer and do the same with a smaller circle and repeat again a couple of times until you have a subtle lens flare as shown.

Then merge the layers together and set it all to about 30% because we want this to be really subtle!

Step 16:

Now in new layers we paste in some of our vector images. I've used a sort of swirly wing thing from Arsenal's Freebie Section and also the capital letter "A" from a font called Porcelain which you can get from Misprinted Type for free.

I chose both because they have lots of lines and swirls which fits what I want to do. I also duplicated the swirly wing vector, flipped it by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal, then CTRL-T to get transform up and scaled it down. That way its good for little details.

Step 17:

Now fit the three images together as shown. When we switch them to white we want most of the objects to be obscured with just bits of swirl poking out the edges.

Step 18:

So now for each layer we press CTRL-I to invert the colour from Black to White and then right click the layers and select Blending Options. Then add an Outer Glow as shown to make them fit in with the main ball of light.

Step 19:

You should now have something that looks like the image below.

Brought to you by:

Step 20:

Now for the final touches, I've added some text using the font Chalet which is a wonderfully elegant but isn't too over the top. Note that you might feel tempted to add a swirly, cursive type font for text, but this would be overkill. It's much better to contrast the complexity of the main image with a very simple and understated type treatment (in my opinion). Anyhow as you can see I've placed it near the centre of the image.

Looking at the final image I also decided it needed a little more colour, so added a layer at the very top, filled with a reddish colour (#957070) and set it to Overlay / 30%. This warms up the image a little more, and you'll see that layer in the final shot.

Final Image:

And finally we're all done, Click the image below for the high-res version of our finished product!

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Red Hat CEO Speaks Out on Patents

If you’ve been following the tech news with even one eye open, you’ve no doubt heard about Microsoft calling out the open source camp on patent infringement. Microsoft’s allegations have caused quite a stir in the IT world an everybody seems to have an opinion — including Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik.

At the Open Source Business conference, Szulik told hundreds of attendees, in no uncertain terms, that patents stifle innovation. But don’t take my word for it. Read it for yourself. Here’s a quote: “In the last 30 years, we’ve continued to see patents really being a challenge to innovation. The industry moves much faster than a remedy process. There is very little empirical evidence that builds a correlation between patents and innovation.”

Of course, Red Hat has patents of its own. But the company’s strategy is only to use them in defensive mode rather than to exert its intellectual property muscles on other companies. Szulik insisted that Red Hat and other open source companies respect intellectual property.

“I’ve had discussions with most luminaries of the open source industry,” he said. “They have always been respectful of intellectual property, of originality and invention.”

Like many others in the Linux camp, Szulik is calling for Microsoft to get more specific about exactly which patents trespass on Redmond’s property. Microsoft claims 235 patents infringe, but has yet to offer a list of the actual patents in question. Meanwhile, Novell is setting out in partnership with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to reform software patents around the world.

What’s your take? Do patents stifle innovation? Or are they necessary to protect a software developer’s intellectual property? Why let Microsoft, Red Hat and Novell have all the fun? Let’s talk about it.

101 Hidden Tips & Secrets For Photoshop

1. Press Tab will hide tool bar and palette, Shift+Tab will hide only palette.

2. Hold Shift + click the top blue bar for toolbar and palette will move them to the nearest edge.

3. Double click the top blue bar, on any palette window, to minimize it.

4. Double click the gray background will bring up open file option, Hold Shift+double click will open up the browser.

5. Sick of the default gray background around your image? Select paint bucket, hold shift and click on the gray background, it will change to whatever color you have in your foreground color box.

6. In Photoshop, all "Cancel" buttons in a window can be changed to a "Reset" button by holding Alt.

7. Caps lock will switch your cursor for accuracy.

8. Press F button, it will switch between 3 different screen modes and give you more working area.

9. To draw a straight line, click then move to the end point and hold shift + click.

10. Hold Ctrl will temporary make any tool into move tool until you release Ctrl.

11. Ctrl + Alt and click drag the image, it will make a duplication of the current image over lay on top.

12. Hold Space bar, it will make any tool into "Hand Tool" until you release Space bar.

13. While in Zoom Tool, Ctrl+space = zoom in, alt+space = zoom out.

14. Hold Ctrl and press "+" or "-" it will change the % for image in navigator window.

15. When Using eyedropper tool to capture foreground color, hold Alt and click, it will instantly capture the color for background.

16. With Measure Tool, draw a line then hold Alt and draw another line from the end of the first line, it will measure the angle.

17. Ctrl+Alt+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z will go back and forth in the history.

18. Alt+Backspace and Ctrl+Backspace will fill in the whole screen with foreground color or background color, Shift+backspace will bring up option window, Alt+Shift+Backspace and Ctrl+Shift+Backspace, will fill the image with foreground or background color but will leave the alpha transparent area alone.

19. When free transforming with Ctrl+T, hold Alt to keep the original image and then to transform a duplicated layer of it. Ctrl+Shift+T to repeat whatever you did in the last transform.

20. To make sure your Crop is on the edge of the image, hold Ctrl while cropping.

21. Ctrl+J will duplicate the current layer.

22. Ctrl+Shift+E will merge all visible layers to one layer, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E will make a copy of the original and merge all visible layers.

23. While using Marquee Tools, hold Alt it will make the starting point as a center of the selection.

24. Ctrl + D to deselect, Ctrl+Shift+D to reselect what you deselected.

25. While selecting with Marquee tool, pressing the space bar can allow you to move the selection.

26. Hold Shift and press "+" or "-" it will switch between the layer mode:

N = Normal
I = Dissolve
M = Multiply
S = Screen
O = Overlay
F = Soft Light
H = Hard Light
D = Color Dodge
B = Color Burn
K = Darken
G = Lighten
E = Difference
X = Exclusion
U = Hue
T = Saturation
C = Color
Y = Luminosity
Q = Behind 1
L = Threshold 2
R = Clear 3
W = Shadow 4
V = Midtones 4
Z = Highlights 4


***The shortcut works even for following situation:

***Alpha turned off, Indexed Mode, Line tool, Bucket Tools, Dodge and Burn Tools

27. While using Brush or any other tools, change the opacity by typing the number.

*** type one number for % of it's ten times [4=40%]

***type two number for exact % [press 7 then 2 will get 72%]

28. Hold Alt while clicking on the eye icon beside the layer, it will hide all other layers.

29. Hold Alt while clicking the pen icon beside the layer, it will unchain this layer from all layers.

30. Select a layer, hold Alt and click the top edge of another layer, it will group them.

31. Hold Alt and click the button "Create a new layer", it will create a new adjustment layer.

32. Select a layer and hold Alt, then click on the garbage can button. It will instantly delete the layer, marquee where you want alpha and Ctrl+click the "Create new channel" button, it will create an alpha only on the area you marquee.

33. File> Automate > Contact Sheet: this can create a small thumbnail for every file, this can save you some time from searching.

34. When Move Tool is selected, toolbox on top can be useful from time to time, these are "Auto select layer" and "Show bounding box".

35. While Move Tool is selected, hold Shift (Alt+Shift+Right click) and allow whether or not to make a current layer chain with your upper layer.

36. With grid on, click the top left corner of the grid and drag to anywhere on the image to set the pivot, double clicking on the icon again reset the pivot.

37. After, draw a path on the image with pen tool, Ctrl+shift+H can hide/show it.

38. Control Navigator with keyboard sometimes can be more time efficient than mouse.

***

Home = move to top left corner
End = move to right bottom corner
PageUp = move up one page
PageDown = move down one page
Ctrl+PageUp = move left one page
Ctrl+PageDown = move right one page
Shift+PageUp = move up 10 pixel
Shift+PageDown = move down 10 pixel
Ctrl+Shift+PageUp = move left 10 pixel
Ctrl+Shift+PageDown = move right 10 pixel


39. Ctrl+Tab allows you to switch between different image files you are working on.


40. F12 = Revert to how the file was the last time you saved it.


41. Shortcuts for Channel: RGB, CMYK, indexed color...

***

Ctrl+"~" = RGB
Ctrl+1 = red
Ctrl+2 = green
Ctrl+3 = blue
Ctrl+4 = other path
Ctrl+9 = other path
Ctrl+"~" = CMYK
Ctrl+1 = light green
Ctrl+2 = pink red
Ctrl+3 = yellow
Ctrl+4 = black
Ctrl+5 = other path
Ctrl+9 = other path
Ctrl+1 = Indexed
Ctrl+2 = other path
Ctrl+9 = other path

42. hold Ctrl then you can draw a red box in the Navigator thumbnail for viewing.

43. Hold Alt and click on any of the history steps, that step will be copied and become the most recent one.

44. Alt drag a step from a serial action can copy it to another action.

45. Alt-click the flare preview thumb, and you can fill in numerical co-ordinates for lens flare.

46. Holding Shift + Alt while transforming an object will do it proportionally, from the center.

47. If you have the move tool selected and you want something duplicated just hold the alt key and move the image, holding the Shift + Alt while doing this, it will move it along one axis.

48. If you want to straighten an image that is crooked (maybe from scanning), click on the eyedropper tool or hit the I key 3 times to get the ruler. Click on the left side of the straight edge, then the right side of the straight (but crooked) edge. The choose Image> Rotate Canvas> Arbitrary, Photoshop will give you the degrees of rotation you just click ok.

49. If you create something in Illustrator, copy and paste it in Photoshop, it will ask you if you want this to be a pixel, path, or shape layer.

50. If you have a mask on a layer and you want to place a image in there and keep the mask. Simply open the image, say copy, and then Ctrl click on the layer to select the mask and use Shift + Ctrl + V to paste it into the mask which will also put it on a new layer as well.

51. To center an image, Ctrl + A , Ctrl + X, Ctrl + V, I think it also puts that image on a new layer.

52. Ctrl+E will merge the highlighted layer down to the next

53. When you have a brush selected, using [ or ] will scroll up or down that brush list.

54. Double clicking the zoom tool will make the image 100%, double clicking the hand tool will fit the image to your screen resolution.
55. Typing Content:

Ctrl + H will hide the highlight on your selected type.

If you click once while your type is selected on the font list, you can use your arrows to scroll up and down and see the fonts change on the fly!

Alt + Left or Right arrows will change your tracking in increments of 10
Ctrl + Alt + Left or Right arrows will change your tracking in increments of 100
Ctrl + Alt + Up or Down arrows will change your leading in increments of 10 pts
Shift + Ctrl with <> will change your font size in increments of 2 pts

56. Ctrl + Alt + T to make a copy of the layer in which you want to transform.

57. Ctrl + Alt + Right arrow. duplicates the layer you are on.

58. Change the active layer : Alt + [ or ].

59. Move the active layer up and down : Ctrl + [ or ].

60. Link 2 layers: with move tool click in the first layer hold Shift and click in the second one.

61. Ctrl+[plus key] will let you zoom in on an image anytime while Ctrl+[minus key] zooms out. Ctrl+Alt+[plus key] will zoom in AND RESIZE the window to fit the image size... same for Ctrl+Alt+[minus key] as well.

62. When using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, click backspace to undo a lasso step.

63. Pressing X will switch the selected foreground and background colors.

64. Pressing D will reset the foreground and backgrounds colors to black and white.

65. If your image has multiple layers, create a Marquee selection and press Ctrl+Shift+Cit won't work if you selected a hidden layer) will copy the image into memory as if they were flattened! Paste it on a new document to see the result.

66. Ctrl+Alt+Z will do multiple undo, versus just one.

67. Ctrl+click a layer thumbnail to select the layer transparency

68. To see what your layer mask looks like (and edit it), Alt+click its thumbnail in the layers palette

69. Press and hold Ctrl+Alt and click the Help bar with your mouse, drag it down and highlight "About Photoshop" and let go of the left mouse button for a different About Photoshop splash/screen.

70. When using Polygon lasso tool hold Shift to make a perfect line, it goes every 30 degrees

71.Photoshop CS2: Group many layers by clicking the layers you want to group by clicking it while holding the Shift key down, and then press Ctrl+G to group them into a folder for means of better organization.

72. Ctrl+Shift+N creates a new layer with a dialog box; Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N gets you a new layer without the hassle.

73. Back to brush, [ and ] will increase/decrease your brush size, Shift + [ or ] will soften or harden your brush edge.

74. Still in [ and ], Ctrl + [ or ] will move your currently selected layer up and down the hierarchy and Shift + [ or ] will select upper layer or lower layer.

75. Stamp Tool (s) is used to copy an area of image (defined by alt+clicking and area) and paint it somewhere else (cloning). It also works when you have multiple images open at the same time. Alt click an area of any opened file image and paint it anywhere else.

76. After you created a text you can click on font type tab and tap "down" key over and over to scroll through the font list and see the changes in (relatively) real time. A feature that I am tired of waiting to happen in illustrator.

77. Still in text mode, a trick from Microsoft word to apply hi-light to your text hit Ctrl+Shift+ <> to resize your text, to your preferred font size. Pressing Ctrl key while you are typing also gives you a free transform box temporarily and will go if you release it. Resizing text also works by pressing Ctrl+T (on selected layer, not when you are typing). It still retains as an editable text layer after.

78. And remember, pressing enter when you type will take you to a new line just like typing a letter but pressing Ctrl+Enter or Enter on numeric key will finish what you type.

79. You can drag a layer on to any other opened images in Photoshop and it will copy it as a layer (better than copy and paste image). Holding down Shift while moving it will snap the image right on the center of the other opened image

80. If you are working with sets....

Click on the set, in the blending mode it shows pass through by default... if you have an adjustment layer within a set and you want that adjustment layer to effect those layers underneath it within the set only, set the blending mode of the set to "normal" instead.

CODE


Mentioned before with more explanation:

- Pressed F to switch to 3 different viewing mode... when I first try it I said "wtf? what it's for?" Well, if you are sick of painting your image on the corners just to find yourself resizing your current image window, with F you can pan way outside your image. Happy corner painting!!


- Create a new file, 500x500 px, create a new layer, get a standard brush and paint a dot on the top center of your image (like the number 12 position on a clock). Press Ctrl+Alt+T, it will duplicate your original layer and free transform the new one. Move the pivot point (the circle with little dot in it found when you are free transforming something) to the center of your image, rotate your image 30 degrees to the right and hit OK to confirm the transform

now.........


Be excited..........


Hit Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T 10 times and see what happens!

81. When using the "move tool" you can select any layer by holding down the CTL key(CMD on a Mac) and clicking on the part of the layer on the canvas with your mouse. This way you won't have to go to the Layers palette every time and you don't have to keep checking on or off the auto select options for the move tool.

82. You can link up layers without going into the layers palette, by selecting the layer (how I just mentioned above) and holding down CTL + Shift(CMD + SHIT on a Mac) for each additional layer you want to link up. You can unlink them by clicking on the layer again.

83. You can delete more than one layer at a time.......by linking up all the layer you want to delete, and holding down CTL(CMD on a Mac) while you click on the garbage icon to delete the layer.

84. When using the type tool you can ok it by pressing CTL + Enter(CMD + Enter on a Mac) instead of clicking on the check mark on the options.

85. If you have more than one type layer, and want to make any of the following changes color/font/size/alignment/initializing to all of the type layers at the same time.....All you have to do is link up the type layer, hold down the Shift key and in the options for the type tool make your change i.e. color, size, etc.

86. You can use your number pad to change opacity for a layer.... I.e. type 5 and the opacity will be 50; type 55 and the opacity will be 55. You can use the number pad for any tool that uses opacity...like the airbrush tool, stamp tool, brush, gradient, etc.

87. Pressing Tab key will hide the Tools palette and any other palette that you have on the stage. Pressing "F" will change between Full Screen modes. Using these two tips you can view your work Full Screen without any palettes.(You can press CTL+Alt+0 to fit your work to the screen, or you can press CTL+0 to zoom to 100%)

88. Pressing the "+" and "-" keys while holding down CTL+Alt will resize the whole document window, not just the work area.

89. You can delete a layer by holding down the "Alt" key and pressing "L" twice......actually now with Photoshop 7 you got to press "L" three times. It's not actually a keyboard shortcut, but it's a quick way to do it....don't know if it works on a MAC.

90. Pan documents with the space bar.

91. Ctrl+click a layer (in layers palette) to select it's transparency.

92. Ctrl+Alt+click between 2 layers in the palette to group them.

93. Alt + click in “add layer mask” button to add a black layer mask (instead of a white one).

94. When you select something, pressing Ctrl+J will copy the selected area and add another layer with the copied area - opposing copying the layer, making a new layer, and pasting it.

95. To glue the palettes together (all palettes combined into one strip), you just drag & drop a palette onto the end of another palette (watch the rectangle that indicates where the palette will get attached to).

96. Hold down Alt while Burning to Dodge instead, and vice versa.

97. Ctrl-click a layer to select an objects; alternatively, you may select more than one object/s in more than 1 layer by holding Shift while using the method just mentioned (Ctrl-click). To deselect, just press Ctrl+D.

98. If you have a mini scroll on your mouse, you may use that to zoom in (scroll up) or zoom out (scroll down).

99. Need to locate a layer quick? Use the Move Tool (V) and right click on the area the object lays. There should now be a “cursor-menu” with all the layers that is in that particular area. Now take a good guess and see which one of them fits the shoe; select a layer and Ctrl-Click the layer in the Layer Palette - see if the selection traces the object you desired to edit/find. Useful for those messy people (i.e. me!).

100. Need to get rid of a background quick? Assuming you at least know how to crop around an object, do so. Now press Ctrl+I or Shift+Ctrl+I for Inverse Selection. Press Ctrl+X to %@#!* that part out, and you should be left with the object!

101. Want to save the time from loading All your Photoshop brushes, when your Photoshop accidentally forgets to load them up (happens to me sometimes)? Select the brush tool, and click the little arrow pointing right (located at the top toolbar), next to the Master Diameter tick. Go down to Preset Manager and now there should be a menu of all the brushes currently loaded. Click on the first brush (top left) and scroll down to the bottom. Now hold Shift and click the last brush (bottom right). This should highlight all the brushes. See the “Save Set” to the right in the menu? Click that and name your brush set whatever you want, for this matter I just name it All (so I remember that this brush set contains all the brushes I currently have loaded, and is located near the top when loading the brushes up).

Author: Gary Logsdon

source : 11amdesign