This is part 27 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to visually see the font changes in Photoshop. Normally when you type some text on the canvas and want to change the font, you have to manually have to select the font from the drop down menu to see a different font.



Now wouldn’t it be easily if you could see the font changes directly instead of manually cycling through all the fonts. There is a quick solution to this problem which is to click the font from the drop down menu. Then use the up and down keys on the keyboard to cycle through the fonts. This means you will visually see the changes from the font instead of manually change the fonts.

This is part 26 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to quickly select the Hand tool. The hand tool is similar to the selection tool, but you can click and drag around the Photoshop document. The main function of this tool is basically navigation.

To use the Hand tool you need to firstly open an image in Photoshop. If you want to quickly open a document in PS, checkout quick tip 3.

On the toolbar the Hand tool can be located just above the foreground and background palettes. Another method is to hold down the spacebar which is a very useful keyboard shortcut. The great benefit of this tool is that it will activate no matter what tool is currently selected.

Now zoom into your image Ctrl + then select the Hand tool (Spacebar) and you will be able to move around the zoomed in image by clicking and dragging.

This is part 25 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to convert an image into black and white. I have actually previously created a tutorial that show you how to turn an image black and white which can be found here. I will be briefly discussing these methods in this quick tip.

The first method involves changing the default RGB mode in a colour image to the greyscale mode. This is not the most common method of converting to a black and white image. If you are using Photoshop CS4 you will receive a message asking if you want to discard the colour information. You click the discard button if you want to follow through with the conversion.

The second method is the most common and can be done through the menu bar or using shortcut keys. The default desaturate keyboard shortcut is Shift + Ctrl + U, or the menu bar option is Image > Adjustment > Desaturate.

The third method is similar to the second as it desaturate the image, the only difference is that it takes more time. You again can use keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + U), or you can go through the menu bar by selecting Image > Adjustment > Hue/Saturation.

This is part 24 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to close multiple windows in Photoshop. If you have several windows open in Photoshop you will receive a message asking whether you want to close down the window. This is not a problem if you have one or two windows, but if you have over ten windows open, this will be a very time consuming problem. When you close a window you get the following message.

There are two methods to close multiple windows. The first method is to hold down the Shift key then select File > Close on the menu bar. Or you can go directly to the menu bar and select File > Close All. This will close all the opened windows in Photoshop.

This is part 23 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to clear the purge cache. The purge cache is basically the temporary files such as the undo states that Photoshop stores so that data can be easily retrieved at any point.

The process of storing all these files will cause Photoshop to slow down considerably especially if you have an older machine. This will also depend on the length of time you used Photoshop, so if you use PS for a short period of time then everything should be fine. However, if you use PS for longer periods of time, you may start to notice a slow down in the performance as PS is consuming lots of RAM memory. If you have an update to date machine with plenty of free RAM then clearing the purge should not be a problem.

To clear the purge in Photoshop, go to the menu bar then select Image > Purge this will remove all the temporary files, and your computer should run faster.

Remember to subscribe to keep up to date with all the Photoshop quick tips.

In this quick tip you will learn how to open two windows in Photoshop. For more quick tips, checkout the article on the Photoshop quick tip series.

When you are zoomed into an image in Photoshop making modifications, you sometimes need to see the overall result of your work. This involves zooming in and out of an image to see the results which can be rather time consuming. There is an easy solution to this problem. Simply go to menu bar and select Window > Arrange > New Window.




This will basically open up a new window of your current PS document. So if you make changes to the zoomed image, the results will be updated immediately in the new window. This allows you to see the overall PS document when you making modifications.

In this Photoshop quick tip series you will learn how to revert back to the original features of your image/file.

When you make lot of modifications to your image, you will sometimes need to revert back to the original features. Of course you can use undo, but this only has a certain number of undo slots. So if need to undo a lot of changes then this is not possible. You can the history panel as well, but this also has the same problem. Although you can increase the number of history slots from the Photoshop preferences.

To revert back to the original settings you select File > Revert or F12 on the keyboard. When you select this option, all the changes you had made to this file will get removed and will return to its original settings.

In this Photoshop quick tip you will learn how to quickly switch to full screen mode. This is part 20 of the PQTS.

There are three screen modes in Photoshop with the default view being the most common. The default is when the screen shows all the palettes, menu bars and other screen elements.

To change to the full screen mode, you press the ‘F’ key on the keyboard. When you press this key you will notice the size of your current document expand while the menu bar still remains. If you press the ‘F’ key again, you will see the menu bar disappear while the background of Photoshop turns to a black colour.

You can also change to a different screen mode from the menu bar by selecting View > Screen mode.

This is part 19 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to hide the workspace in Photoshop.

Hiding the workspace removes the toolbar and the palettes from view in Photoshop. This can be useful if you have an extremely large image and wish to see the whole image without zooming out.

To hide workspace including all the panels and palettes you select the Tab key on the keyboard, and you will be left with the following image in Photoshop. As you can see, only the menu bar still remains.

You can also only hide the palettes by selecting Shift + Tab which will leave the tool bar in place.

Please remember to subscribe to keep up to date with the latest tips.

This is part 18 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn about the updating of fonts in Photoshop.



Did you know you can update fonts without needing to restart Photoshop, or have PS initially closed down? You can simply place the font file inside the system font folder and PS will update the changes instantly. So, for example if you have downloaded a new font from the internet, you can place the font inside the system font folder and use the new font straight away. The default location for font’s folder in windows is Start > Control Panel > Fonts.

If you want some free fonts, checkout my post on 8 free manga fonts and 8 free graffiti fonts.

This is part 17 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to repeat he last filter you applied to your image. Remember to subscribe to keep up to date with all the Photoshop quick tips.

Assuming you have already open up Photoshop and applied a filter to your image. To repeat the same filter, you simply select Ctrl + F on the keyboard, and you should notice the filter being applied again. The alternative method is to go through the menu bar by selecting Filter then choosing the first menu item. I applied a noise filter to my image, so will see the ‘Add Noise’ item. If you look very carefully you will see the shortcut keys beside the menu item which is Ctrl + F.

Did you know you can also open up the last filter dialog box by selecting Ctrl + Alt +F on the keyboard? This is useful if you wish to make adjustments before applying the filter again.

If you know anymore shortcut regarding the filters, feel free to lave any comments below and remember to subscribe.

This is part 17 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to resize an image. Resizing an image is useful for reducing the size of an image file. Note that increasing or decreasing the size of an image too much can cause the image to become distorted and blurry.

Firstly, open an image in Photoshop. Then in the menu bar choose Image > Image Size and the following window dialog will appear.

Now, changing the image size is as simple as adjusting the width and height of the pixel dimensions. By default the ‘Constrain Proportions’ option is checked which means that if either one the width or height settings are changed. The other option will be changed to match the aspect ratio of the overall image file. However, if you want custom dimensions you can uncheck this option.

This is part 16 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to add more canvas space around an image.

You need to firstly have an image open in Photoshop. Then from the menu bar select Image > Canvas Size and you should see the following dialog window should open up.

To increase the canvas size, you simply adjust the width and height settings to whatever size you like. You can also set the anchor point of the canvas which will specify the direction where you want to increase the canvas size. So, for example if you want to increase the canvas in the left direction then you would select the right anchor point.

For more quick tips, checkout the post on the Photoshop quick tip series.

This is part 15 of the Photoshop quick tip series. In this tip you will learn how to quickly find the centre of an image.

You need to firstly open up an image in Photoshop. Then choose Select > All from the menu bar or Ctrl + A. Your image should be selected like below.

Now, you need to enter into ‘Free Transform Mode’ by pressing Ctrl + T on the keyboard. You should now see a crosshair at the centre of the image like below:



Drag guides out to the centre of the crosshair and you should notice that it will snap into position. To remove the free transform mode, hit the Esc key on the keyboard. And to remove the selection around the image, hit Ctrl + D.


You should now be able to quickly find the centre of an image.

This is part 14 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to fix a common problem with the crosshair.

If you have any Photoshop tool currently selected and the ‘Caps Lock’ turned on. You will receive the following crosshair as shown below. This crosshair feature is extremely annoying and many users have complained that they can’t get rid of the crosshair, even from the preference menu on the tool bar.

This problem is fixed by simply turning off ‘Caps Lock’ on the keyboard. If you ever need to use the caps lock remember to turn it off afterwards, or you will not be able to use any of the tools.

This is part 13 from the Photoshop quick tip series and in this quick tip you will learn how to quickly select the hex colour codes in Photoshop.

Normally if you want to find out the hex colour code in Photoshop you would have to select the eye dropper tool, then open up the colour picker panel and copy the code as show below.



However, there is a much quicker method of finding the hex colour code. Firstly, you need to have the eye dropper tool selected. Then you click to choose the colour you want, and then right click and select ‘copy colour as html’. This will copy the select the colour into a hexadecimal value.

This is part 12 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to quickly cycle through the blend modes on the layers panel.

The blend modes on the Layers panel can normally be changed by clicking on the drop down menu and selecting an individual blend mode. Below is an example of where the blend modes are located.

There is a quick method of cycling through the different blend modes using keyboard shortcuts. By holding down the Shift key, you then either select the + (plus) or the – (minus) key to change to a different blend mode.

Note that if your blending mode is highlighted as shown below. You will not be able to use the shortcut keys. To remove the highlighted blend mode, you simply click any where on the Photoshop background.

This is part 11 of the Photoshop quick tip series. In this series you will learn how to reset the settings of Photoshop back to the default.

There are lots of different settings and features available in Photoshop. If a preference(s) causes any problems then you can simply reset back to the default. This will make all the problems disappear as they will be back to there original settings.

To reset the settings, you need to have Photoshop already opened up. Then you select Ctrl + Shift + Alt on the keyboard. You will then receive a dialog box which contains a message asking you to delete the Photoshop settings. If you click OK the original settings will be restore.

If you want more quick tips, checkout the Photoshop quick tip series page.

This is part 10 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to select multiple text layers. Remember to subscribe to keep up to date with the latest tips.

When working in Photoshop, you occasionally need to use multiple text layers in your projects. Sometimes you will need to move all the text layers to a different position on the canvas. This can be time consuming because you need to hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and select each individual layer.

However, there is a quicker solution which is to right click on any text layer on the layers panel, and choose the ‘Select Similar Layer’ from the drop down menu. This will select all the text layers available as shown below.




This can be incredibly useful if you have over ten text layers in your project as you can quickly select all the layers. Why not take a look at some of the other tip and tricks in the Photoshop quick tip series.

This is part 9 of the Photoshop quick tip series where you will learn how to increase the number of recent files from the file menu.

The recent files can be located in File > Open Recent. The default number of recent files you can have is 10 files. You can actually change the number of the recent files to have up to 30 files.

Firstly, you need to open up the Photoshop preferences by pressing Ctrl + K on the keyboard. Then select ‘File handing’ from the drop down menu as shown below.



At the bottom the preferences window, you will see an option call ‘Recent file list contains’. You can change this number from 0 - 30 depending on the number of the recent files you want to show. Once you have selected you option you can click ok, then return to the file menu (File > Open Recent) to see if the number of item have increased.