Settings & presets for Photoshop

Many articles I’ve written for GRAPHICS PRO stress the importance of utilizing the nonlinear workflow. Working dynamically offers the flexibility to correct errors, make changes, and especially avoid repetitive tasks. After all, who wants to spend extra hours in front of the computer performing the same tedious task over and over again?

Most graphics software packages offer numerous techniques to work efficiently. Whether it be applying actions to automate commands, saving history states as snapshots to revisit earlier versions of the image, or even processes as basic as working with layers to isolate image elements, there are countless methods that reduce labor. Indeed, employing these features is the key to setting up a professional, efficient, user-friendly work environment.

In this article, I’ll demonstrate the particulars of Photoshop’s settings and presets that configure the software even before you start working to help you streamline your workflow and the time you spend in front of the computer.

Remember to remember

Setting up your virtual studio is like arranging any workshop. It consists of customizing tools and features to meet your specific needs and organizing them so that they can be easily accessed. Using settings and presets require a certain mindset. You must be thinking not only of the current task but ahead, to the next work session and beyond to all future work that you may be called upon to perform. In other words, you must remember to adjust settings and save presets so that you can utilize them later.

That may seem like a relatively easy task but when you’re in the clinches getting that sublime artistic buzz as your image transforms from blah to brilliant, it’s easy to forget everything but the image in front of your face. Therefore, I recommend you start by writing SAVE SETTINGS & PRESETS in big caps on a sticky note and put it to the side of your monitor so you won’t forget.

Settings? Presets?

OK, now that you know that you should be diligent in saving them, let’s talk about what you’re reminding yourself to save. Settings are a system of conditions that control the appearance and behavior of the software. The current version of Photoshop has 19 categories, each with a specific dialog box containing numerous features that can be specified to the preference of the user (Fig. 1). They are found in the Edit Menu on a Windows computer and the Adobe Photoshop menu on a Mac.

Presets are preconfigured tools and panels that can be utilized or applied at any time. They exist outside the software, usually in folders that can be accessed through a specific panel or dialog box and loaded or applied during the work session. Settings and Presets are configured to override standard factory defaults.

General settings

At the top of the Settings list, is General (Fig. 2). This setting is typical of all the settings’ dialog boxes. It contains menus that determine the type of Color Picker and a choice of image interpolation algorithms that control the scaling of some of the transformation features and filters. There is also a list of check boxes that control specific aspects of software behavior.

The other settings’ dialogs are similar and are worth exploring to configure the software so that it appears and behaves exactly to your preference. For example, I prefer a dark background as my workspace. You, on the other hand, may prefer a lighter gray or even white. The background appearance can be selected in the Interface settings dialog box among numerous other controls (Fig. 3).

Restoring settings

All the settings behave similarly so that the software becomes a workspace customized to your working style. If, however, you want to restore Photoshop back to factory defaults, Press Shift/Option Command (Mac) or Shift/Alt Control (Win). Then launch the program. Select Yes when you see the Delete Settings dialog box (Fig. 4).

Document presets

Typically, when an existing image is opened at the beginning of a work session it can be manipulated in any of a thousand ways. The image is a specific size, resolution and color mode and its own set of characteristics that can be edited.

But what about a new image? By default, it’s a grid of white pixels on a background layer. In the process of generating a new image, it’s easy to specify characteristics in the New Document dialog box (Fig. 5). The top of the dialog box presents eight general categories of document characteristics for Print, Web, and Film and Video among others. When any one of these categories is selected, several size and resolution options are presented in a neat list, including those for the most types of documents.

On the right side of the dialog box, the Control panel is where modifications can be made to the specifications of any new document. Clicking the arrow to the right of the Preset Details field generates a new preset with the assigned characteristics. Click the Save Preset button and the new document characteristics are saved to another dialog box. To access the new preset and create an identical new document, click on the Saved category label, then click the Create button. Viola! There you have it.

Brush presets

A brush preset is a configuration of specific characteristics of a particular brush. It’s as if you had the power to create a brush of specific size, shape, opacity, flow, etc. with specific brush dynamics.

Let’s start by making a particular brush. Go to the Tools panel and choose the Brush tool. In either the Options bar or in the Brush panel set the specifications for the brush (Fig. 6). In this example It’s a 29-point soft oval brush with an angle of 45 degrees, a roundness of 36%, and a spacing of 200%.

To save this brush for later use I’ll go to the Brush Options Panel pull-down menu and choose Save Brush Preset or, just as easy, I can click the new brush icon in the Brushes panel. In the New Brush dialog box that appears I name the brush and then click Save. The brush is added to the list of brushes in the Brush Presets menu.

Other tool presets

For tools that don’t use brushes, the process is a little different. For example, the Crop tool can be configured with ratio, size, and resolution. First, Select the Crop tool from the Tools panel. Drag the crop marquee to a particular size or enter height and width values in the Options bar. Implement the crop by clicking the check mark in the Options bar.

In the Tools Preset menu at the far left of the Options bar, click the New Preset icon and name the tool (Fig. 7). The new tool appears in the list ready for use in any open document. All you have to do is select it from the list. This technique can be applied to any of Photoshop’s tools.

Color presets

Just like you can save tool presets, any color can also be saved. First, create a foreground color in either the Color Picker or the Color panel. The color appears in the Tools panel as a swatch. To save the color swatch, open the Swatches panel and place the curser in the empty field below the current swatches. Click to display the New Swatch dialog box. Name the swatch and click OK to save the color (Fig. 8).

Preset reset

Up to now, we’ve been saving individual tool and color presets to specific panels, and amazingly, even if you discard your settings to the factory defaults when you launch Photoshop, your brushes, tools, and swatches will be stored in the panels.

If you want to migrate a preset to another workstation, you’ll need to save the panel as a preset. In other words, you’ll save entire groups of presets instead of a single one. In any of the panel option pull-down menus you’ll find an option to save the panel. Although Photoshop has specific folders set up to save panel presets, you ultimately determine where the preset will reside. By the same token, you can load panel presets by using the Load, Reset, Replace, or Save preset functions.

Migrate presets

Presets are stored in folders in the Presets folder. These folders can be migrated to any other computer. Here’s how to do it:

On the source computer:

1. Go to Edit > Presets > Preset Manager (Fig. 9)
2. Choose the preset type (Brushes, Actions, etc.)
3. Select the presets you want
4. Click Save Set and save the file

Transfer

Copy those files to a USB drive, cloud storage, or email.

On the destination computer:

1. Open Photoshop
2. Go to Edit > Presets > Preset Manager
3. Click Load
4. Select your saved preset files and load them

Program the program

Creating settings and presets customizes your software so that you have the program looking and behaving as you prefer and have all your favorite tools at your fingertips. Essentially, managing Settings and Presets increases the software’s potential to customize your workflow so that at any given time you can grab a custom feature and apply it to an image.

There are many other features for which presets can be made: Actions, Layer Styles, Tool configurations, Character (type) Styles and Shapes can all be saved as presets. Also, all the specific adjustments that you apply to an image such as Levels, Curves, Hue/Saturation, Photo Filter, etc. can be recorded, saved as presets, and reapplied with identical specifications to additional documents.

It is to your advantage to explore these powerful features. Ultimately, if you modify settings and save presets, you will save hours of time and labor and increase the performance of your digital toolbox.