25 QUICK FIXES FOR PRO DESIGNERS
- SPEEDY SHORTCUTS
BEING ORGANISED AND USING SHORTCUTS ARE THE BEST WAYS YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR WORKFLOW.
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© José Paulo Reis
© Edmond Yang
Fast zooming:Cmd/Ctrl+space bar with the “Fast zooming
pressure of the pen tablet (horizontal movements) gets
you into the details quickly”Quick fills: “Shift+Backspace is
the shortcut for the Edit>Fill, which can be a real timesaver”Label your layers:and grouping them into folders “Labelling layers
allows for faster navigation within the document. That way, if you need
a certain element, you can quickly scan the Layers panel and easily
find what you’re looking for”Change brush size: “With the Brush
tool selected (B) you can use Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt at the same time as the
pressure of the pen tablet (horizontal movements) to increase and
decrease the brush size”- CUSTOMISE YOUR WORKFLOW WITH
PREFERENCES AND ACTIONS
It’s not very exciting, but by spending some admin time
in Photoshop, setting everything up in a way that works
for you, you will significantly cut your workflow time, so
you can concentrate on being creative instead. For a
start, don’t be afraid to play with your Preferences. By
default, Photoshop is set to use 60 per cent of your
computer’s RAM (Photoshop>Preferences>
Performance). You can try upping the Memory Usage to
help Photoshop run faster – start with small increments
24. USE LAYER COMPS
Visual designer Edmond Yang (www.edmond
yang.com) swears by the Layer Comps panel to
speed up his workflow for his interaction designs:
“Instead of creating different layer groups, or even
different PSD files for different versions of your
interaction designs, you can set multiple states
within one single file using the Layer Comps panel.
I basically tell Photoshop which layers I want to be
visible or not and this tool can be very powerful and
save you a lot of time.
“Let’s say that in your design you have two states,
one with a collapsed menu and one with an opened
and see how it affects your work. Next, set up custom
shortcuts (Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts) for the tools that
you use the most, as this will save you time hunting
things down. Build your own Workspaces and save
them (Window> Workspaces) so that you have a setup
for every main task that you undertake. Create actions
for common tasks and turn them into Droplets for easy
access. There are plenty more ways you can customise
your Photoshop experience, so start experimenting!menu. Now, hide all your collapsed-related items
and create an opened menu state. Find your Layer
Comps palette from the Window menu, hit the
Create New Layer Comp button at the bottom and
name this ‘Open state’. Next, create your collapsed
state by hiding your opened items, bring up your
Layer Comps palette and hit the same button again,
naming it ‘Collapsed state’. Now you have two states
you can switch between by using the icon to the left
of your layer comps. Remember to hit the Update
Layer Comp icon if you are moving or changing
anything within a layer composition.”