This is part two on setting up Photoshop for a video workflow. Be sure to see part one posted yesterday.
Units & Rulers
Under Units & Rulers, modify Photoshop’s measuring system to match video. If you work in a print environment, you can quickly jump back and change your measurement units by double-clicking on the ruler.
- Set Rulers to pixels.
- Set Type to points.
- Ensure that screen resolution is set to 72 pixels/inch.
- Ensure that the Point/Pica Size is set to PostScript (72 points/inch) so that type acts like other video applications.
- Click Next.
Guides, Grid, & Slices
The next category helps you precisely align design elements.
- I find that a Light Red guide is easier to see than the default Cyan.
- Set up a grid using Lines with a gridline every 40 pixels and 4 subdivisions. You can now turn the grid off and on from the View menu or from the keyboard using Cmd+" (Ctrl+").
- Disable Show Slice Numbers unless you are doing a lot of web work. Slices are used with rollover graphics to trigger button effects on web pages.
- Click Next.
Plug-Ins
- If you need to travel with your plug-ins on a removable drive (for example a freelance assignment) then you can specify an Additional Plug-Ins Folder.
- Click Next.
Type
The Type category consolidates several important type options into one area.
- Check the box next to use Smart Quotes if you’ll need true quote marks and apostrophes more than foot and inch marks.
- Leave Enable Missing Glyph Protection checked
- Choose to Show Font Names in English (or the native language of your software).
- Check Font Preview Size and specify a size that you like. The Huge size is helpful if a producer or client frequently sits over your shoulder.
- Click Next.
3D
The 3D category controls both the performance and the appearance of Photoshop’s 3D toolset. Stick with the defaults until you master these tools.
- Click OK.