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The new Photoshop CS4 interface

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Martin Eveningwww.photoshopforphotographers.com

2 This PDF is provided free with the Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers book. Not for distribution or resale.

Figure 1 This shows the new Photoshop CS4 Application window program workspace for the Mac OS, showing the Window menu that allows you to switch between the classic mode workspace and Application Frame workspace shown here.

Macintosh default workspaceThe Macintosh default workspace setting uses a classic layout where the panels are floating on the desktop. If you go to the Window menu and select ‘Application Frame’, you can switch to the Application window layout shown in Figure 1.

The Photoshop interfaceThe new Photoshop CS4 interface allows you to work with the Photoshop program as an application window on both the Mac and PC platforms (Figures 1 and 2). This default arrangement is more in keeping with the interface conventions for Windows and is also more similar to the interface used by Lightroom. The Photoshop panels are held in placement zones with the tools panel on the left, the Options bar and Application bar running across the top and other panels arranged on the right-hand side, where they can be docked in various ways to economize on the amount of screen space used yet still remain easily accessible.

Tools panel Options bar Application bar Mac OS menu Workspaces menuTabbed window document Photoshop panels



The CS4 interface designThe Photoshop CS4 interface shares the same design features with all the other CS4 creative suite programs. By having a greater level of consistency in the interface design, this can make it easier to migrate from using one CS4 program to another.

This arrangement presents the panels in a docked mode and over the following few pages we shall look at ways to customize the layout of the interface. For example, you can reduce the amount of space taken up by the panels by collapsing them into compact panel icons. You can also use the Workspace settings menu to quickly access alternative panel layouts, tailored for different types of Photoshop work. Apart from the redesign of the interface elements, the main difference with the CS4 interface layout is that it can now be contained in a single application window and we now have the ability to open and work with Photoshop image documents as tabbed windows.

Figure 2 The Photoshop CS4 interface for the Windows OS, showing the default program workspace.

Tools panel Options bar Application bar & Windows OS menu Workspace settingsTabbed window document Photoshop panels



Figure 3 The default behavior for Photoshop CS4 is for image documents to open as tabbed windows, docked to the area highlighted here, just below the Options bar. Click on a tab to make a window active and click on the ‘X’ to close a particular window.

Tabbed document windowsLet’s start by looking at the way document windows are managed in Photoshop CS4. The default preference setting causes all new document to open as tabbed windows, and in this mode, all new image document windows will appear nested in the tabbed document zone, just below the Options bar. In Figure 3 I have highlighted the tabbed document zone, where you can see four image documents are currently open. This approach to managing image documents makes it easier to locate a specific image when you have several images open at once, because you can now select an open image by clicking on the relevant tab. Previously you often had to click and drag on the document title bars to move image windows out the way until you had located the image you were after. Of course, not everyone will immediately take to the new tabbed document opening. So if you find this proves annoying you can always deselect the ‘Open Documents as Tabs’ option in the Interface preferences (Figure 4). Do this and all images will open by default in floating windows. On the other hand you can have the best of both worlds by simply clicking on a tab and dragging it out from the docked zone. This action will convert the tabbed document to a floating window (as shown in Figure 5). Alternatively, you can right mouse-click on a tab to access the contextual menu where you can choose from various window command options such as ‘Move to a New Window’, or ‘Consolidate All to Here’, which will gather all floating windows and convert them into tabbed documents.

OpenGL display performanceIf the video card in your computer has OpenGL and you have ‘Enable OpenGL drawing’ selected in the Photoshop Performance preferences, you can take advantage of the new OpenGL features supported by Photoshop CS4. For example, when OpenGL is enabled you will now see smoother-looking images at all zoom display levels, plus you can use the new Rotate tool to rotate the on-screen image display.

Tabbed windows in a classic layoutWith Mac OS X, you can mix having tabbed document windows with a classic panel layout. Switch off the Application Frame (see Figure 1) and use the Open as Tabs preference (Figure 4), or the Consolidate All to Here contextual menu command (Figure 5), or the drag and drop method (Figure 6) to have the open windows arranged as tabbed documents. You can then also use the N-up display options (Figure 8) to manage the windows.



Figure 4 The Photoshop Interface preferences.

Figure 5 This screen shot shows two ways you can convert a tabbed document to a floating window. Either by dragging a tab out from the tabbed windows zone, or by using the contextual menu.

Switching between windowsThe C` L` shortcut can now be used to toggle between open window documents. (CS` LS` is used to reverse the order). Note, the ` key is also referred to as the ~ (tilde) key. In addition to this you can still use the old, CT LT shortcut to cycle through open documents and use CST LST to reverse cycle.



Multiple window viewsMultiple window views can prove useful if you wish to compare different soft proof views of the same image to get an impression on screen of how the colors in your image might appear in print. See Chapter 13 on printing for more about soft proofing in Photoshop.

Synchronized scroll and zoomIn the N-up display menu (Figure 8) and Window ➯ Arrange submenu, you will come across controls that allow you to match the zoom, location (and rotation) of all open images, based on the current foreground image window. The Match Zoom command will match the zoom percentage based on the current selected image, while the Match Location command matches the scroll position. You can also synchronize the scrolling or magnification by depressing the S key as you scroll or zoom in and out on any window view.

Managing document windowsDocuments can also be tabbed into grouped document windows by dragging one window document across to another (see Figure 6). It is also possible to create a second window view of the image you are working on, where the open image is duplicated in a second window. For example, you can have one window with the image at a Fit to Screen view and the other zoomed in close-up on a detailed area. Any changes you make can then be viewed simultaneously in both windows (Figure 7). You can also vary the way multiple document windows are displayed on the screen. For floating windows you can Choose Window ➯ Arrange ➯ Cascade to have all cascading down from the upper left corner of the screen, or choose Window ➯ Arrange ➯ Tile to have them tiled edge to edge. For Tabbed document windows you can use the Document Layout menu to choose any of the ‘N-up’ options shown in Figure 8. This document layout method offers a much greater degree of control. It lets you choose from one of the many different layout options shown in Figure 8 and gives you access to the Match Zoom and Match Location controls discussed in the accompanying sidebar.

Figure 6 Floating windows can be grouped as tabbed document windows by dragging the title bar of one document across to another, till a blue line appears as shown above. You can also click on the empty gray area (circled in red) to drag a group of tagged document windows to the tabbed windows zone (see Figure 5).



Figure 8 This shows the ‘N-up’ display options for tabbed document windows.

Figure 7 To open a second window view of a Photoshop document, choose Window ➯ Arrange ➯ New Window for (document name). Changes applied to the close-up view are automatically updated in the second window view.

Photograph: Eric Richmond.



Adobe™ Photoshop™ CS4 for PhotographersThis PDF on digital capture is supplied on the DVD that comes with Martin Evening’s book: Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers. This latest update in the Adobe Photoshop for Photographers series contains 704 pages in full color, plus a DVD containing video tutorials. The book layout has been further improved to make navigation easier and contains updated advice on everything you need to know about using Photoshop, from digital capture to print output, as well as all that is new in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

PDF usageThis PDF extract is available to view and print. You may share this PDF file or any links to the PDF file with others, but the copyright of the material and images remain the property of myself. The contents may not be modified in any way, or used commercially without express permission from the author.

WebsiteThere is a website for the book from where you can find more information and download more PDF sample pages from the book.

www.photoshopforphotographers.com

To order the bookAdobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers is published by Focal Press.ISBN: 9780240521251The title is stocked in most major bookstores throughout the world and is also available to purchase from:www.focalpress.com as well as through the on-line bookstores: www.amazon.com and www.amazon.co.uk.

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