Adobe Photoshop Essentials from scratch for CS6 & CC

Discover what photoshop is, learn the basics of design elements, master the essential elements of this powerful graphic design tool, and leverage online learning resources for projects.

Explore what Photoshop is: a raster graphic editor for Mac OS and Windows. Edit images, save in bitmap formats, using brushes, panels, and a central work area.

Identify and apply basic design elements—text, images, and placement—using alignment and backgrounds to improve any design project. Learn how redefining these elements speeds up Photoshop work and boosts quality.

Explore how size acts as the fourth design element, balancing images, text, and logos across projects from business cards to billboards, using Photoshop to adapt working areas.

Explore the Photoshop interface by identifying the menu bar, toolbars, palettes, and layers, history, and properties panels, then manage windows and use the options bar to customize tools.

Learn how to open multiple images in Photoshop, manage them in the workspace, and use elements from different files to complete a project.

Open a new workspace in Photoshop by selecting file > new and naming the project. Set the width, height, and resolution in your preferred units, such as pixels, inches, or centimeters.

Set up a new workspace at 8 by 4 inches and choose a resolution. Use RGB for screen and CMYK for publishing, with 72 ppi display and 300 ppi printing.

Learn how to use photoshop's toolbar by exploring four tool groups: selection and crop, painting and retouching, vector elements, and navigation and color display.

Explore the Photoshop toolbar groups and the sub tools hidden behind the small arrow. Essential tools stay visible by default to support diverse workflows, including textile design, publishing, and packaging.

Explore the layers palette in Adobe Photoshop CS6 and CC, learn how to unlock the background layer, and move elements across multiple layers to separate text and images.

Explore how stacking order and layer management in Photoshop let you arrange multiple images on separate layers, move and lock layers, and control visibility to create composites.

Master Photoshop selection tools to isolate and duplicate areas using rectangular and elliptical marquees, lasso variants, quick selection, and magic wand, with moves and copies on separate layers.

Review the Photoshop work environment and essential selection tools, then begin painting and retouching, learning these tools one or two at a time for image editing.

Master the Photoshop workspace navigation using the hand and zoom tools, and accelerate your workflow with keyboard shortcuts like the spacebar for pan and quick zoom controls.

Explore the brush tool in Photoshop, selecting predefined and custom brushes, adjusting size and capacity, and experimenting with modes like normal, color dodge, and multiply to create varied strokes.

Master healing and patch tools in Adobe Photoshop, including the spot healing brush, healing brush, patch tool, and content-aware move, to remove spots with reference sampling and seamlessly blend textures.

Use the clone stamp tool to fix damage by sampling pixels from a reference area and painting them onto the target area in cs6 and cc.

Learn to use the history brush tool to selectively restore a specific area. Try various strokes and styles to bend colors and create painterly results.

Explore three eraser tools: simple eraser, background eraser, and magic eraser—and adjust opacity, density, and stroke size to create or remove transparency and select connected pixels.

Explore the remaining tools in group 2 of Photoshop essentials, including gradient and fill with paint bucket, eyedropper color pick, and sharpening, blurring, dodging, and burning.

Explore vector graphics basics defined by simple mathematical lines and shapes, contrasts with bitmap pixels, and learn when to use vector tools in Photoshop for logos and proper resolution settings.

Learn to use the Photoshop text tool to create, edit, and style text on separate layers, adjusting font size, color, alignment, effects, and transforming with the free transform option.

Apply layer styles to text in Photoshop, including stroke and drop shadow, using the layer style dialog to adjust color and size, and apply these live styles to images.

Master photoshop vector shapes by creating rectangles, rounded corners, circles, polygons, and lines on separate layers, with precise radius, circle centering, color, opacity, and snap guidance.

Learn to use the Photoshop custom shape tool, explore shapes from nature and all options, apply color fills, strokes, and emboss effects, and manage layers and paths correctly.

Explore how to create and edit paths in Photoshop, use the Paths panel to draw, modify nodes, and attach text along a path, noting vector work is handled in Illustrator.

Master color selection in Photoshop using the color picker, branded color guidelines, rgb and cmyk values, and color libraries to ensure branding consistency across screens and print.

Learn to apply Photoshop filters to a selected area via the filters menu, preview changes, and test blur, noise, dust and scratches, stylize, and find edges, including grayscale sketch effects.

Apply the clone stamp tool in Photoshop to repair an image by sampling from the same photograph, remove unwanted areas, and blend light and color for a natural, seamless result.

Repair the image by removing the wall texture with healing and patch tools, then recreate occluded areas behind the bottle and stool using available elements.

Learn to remove objects and reconstruct image corners in photoshop using clone stamp, healing, and layer duplication, then merge layers for a seamless final result.

Save your Photoshop work as a PSD for personal use. Use Save As to export for internet sharing or on-screen display, choosing DNG for high-quality printing.

Decide early if the project targets screen or print to set the resolution and color format, using rgb at 72 ppi for screen and cmyk at 300 dpi for printing.

Explore color formats for screen display versus printing, understand color modes and potential quality effects, and learn the Photoshop layer palette for managing images, text, and assets.

Learn how the stacking order of layers affects composition in Photoshop, import images, move and resize with free transform, and layer text to manage depth.

Explore applying layer styles to text and images, using the layer style dialog to adjust stroke, bevel, emboss, gradient, and drop shadow, and manage stacking order.

Start working on real Photoshop projects now with the sufficient information, and practice daily on web design, business, and marketing projects to build practical skills.

Create a new file, set screen-appropriate width and height in RGB mode, and arrange text and images on separate layers with correct stacking order for banners and future printing.

Create a business card workspace for commercial printing: set 3x2.5 inches, 300 ppi, add bleed margins, adjust canvas size, and convert CMYK to RGB for display.

Create a front-and-back business card layout in Photoshop by arranging separate text layers for company name, owner name, and contact details, with a background texture and clear margins.

Learn to define true CMYK black in Photoshop by setting C, M, and Y to 0 and K to 100 for commercial printing, instead of rgb black.

Learn how to align multiple elements in Photoshop using selection techniques (shift-click, ctrl-click) and alignment options, including horizontal center and center of workspace, to precisely line up text and images.

Learn to analyze and recreate designs by managing images, text, and layout in Photoshop, and develop a routine of studying online designs to meet client requirements.