Photoshop Elements 2022 For Dummies. Barbara Obermeier
15 explains how to use color profiles with your prints.
Thumbnail (Windows only): If you save a file with a thumbnail, you can see a miniature representation of your image when viewing it in folders or on the desktop. If you select Ask When Saving in the Saving Files preferences, the check box can be enabled or disabled. If you select an option for Never Save or Always Save in the Preferences dialog box, this box is enabled or disabled (grayed out) for you. You need to return to the Preferences dialog box if you want to change the option.
Saving files for the web
The Save for Web command helps you prepare photos to show on the web or just onscreen. Choose File ⇒ Save for Web. In the Save for Web dialog box that opens (see Figure 1-8), you see your original image on the left, and you see the result of making changes for file format and quality settings on the right.
The standard rule with web graphics is to find the smallest file size for an acceptable image appearance. In the Save for Web dialog box, you have many choices for reducing file size. Notice in Figure 1-8 that you see the original image with the file size reported below the image on the left. After choosing JPEG for the file type, you can see that the image size is reduced from the original 11MB to 434.7K.
FIGURE 1-8: The Save for Web dialog box.
You can also use the Quality item that appears to the right of the drop-down list to adjust the final quality of the saved file. Here, you need to find the right balance between quick download times and image appearance. Just keep an eye on the preview image as well as the download time information for your optimized file.
For the most accurate viewing, set the zoom size to 100 percent. In the lower-left corner of the dialog box, you can choose zoom levels from the drop-down list or just type a value in the field box. If your chosen settings noticeably degrade your image quality, you can easily discern the loss when viewing at a 100-percent view.
Chapter 2
Basic Image-Editing Concepts
IN THIS CHAPTER
When you open a picture in Photoshop Elements, you’re looking at a huge grid of pixels. These pixels are tiny, colored squares, and the number of pixels in a picture determines the picture’s resolution.
This relationship between pixels and resolution is important for you to understand in all your Elements work. You’ll find the concepts covered in this chapter especially helpful when creating selections (as we explain in Chapter 8), printing files (Chapter 15), and sharing files (Chapter 16).
Additionally, you need to understand color modes, which define how many colors an image contains. Color modes are important when you’re using tools in the Tools panel and Panel Bin and printing and sharing files. Basically, you want to choose a color mode for your image that is best suited for print or onscreen and the type of image you have (a photo with lots of colors versus a line drawing with only a few colors, for example).
Like resolution and color modes, the file format in which you save an image often depends on your desired output — print or screen — so this chapter concludes with an introduction to choosing a file format. Additionally, this chapter helps you understand the basics of working with resolution, color modes, and file formats that are essential to great results in your final images. We talk about changing resolution by resizing images, converting color modes, and saving the results in different file formats.
Grappling with the Ubiquitous Pixels
Most digital images are composed of millions of tiny, square pixels. Each pixel has one, and only one, color value. The arrangement of the pixels of different shades and colors creates an optical illusion when you view an image onscreen. For example, black-and-white pixels might create the impression that you’re looking at something gray — not at tiny black-and-white squares.
Just about everything you do in Elements has to do with changing pixels:
Surrounding pixels with selection tools to select what appear to be objects in your image
Making pixels darker or lighter to change contrast and brightness
Changing shades and tints of pixels for color correction
Performing a variety of other editing tasks
An image made of pixels is a raster image. If you open a file in Elements that isn’t made of pixels, you can let Elements rasterize the data. In other words, Elements converts other data to pixels if the document wasn’t originally composed of pixels.
The pixels in an image determine an image’s resolution and dimensions, as we explain in the following sections.
Understanding resolution
The number of pixels in an image file determines the image’s resolution, which is measured in pixels per inch (ppi). For example:
If you have 300 pixels across a 1-inch horizontal line, your image resolution is 300 ppi.
If you have 72 pixels across 1 inch, your image resolution is 72 ppi.