Adobe Photoshop CC For Dummies. Peter Bauer

that particular job.

      The preceding guidelines are appropriate for most, but not all, Photoshop users. You might fall into a special category. If you exclusively create web graphics, set the RGB color management policy to Off. In the Save for Web & Devices dialog box, when saving images in the JPEG file format, don’t embed ICC profiles. (ICC profiles make specific adjustments to the appearance of your images to compensate for vagaries of the hardware. I discuss color profiles in Chapter 4.) When you eliminate color profiles from the equation, you’re creating web graphics that any web browser can show properly (or, more accurately, “as properly as the viewer’s uncalibrated monitor can display”).

When it’s time to print, you’ll get the most accurate and pleasing color prints when you let Photoshop (rather than the printer) control color. In the Print dialog box’s Options area, choose Color Handling: Photoshop Manages Colors and select the printer’s own profile for the specific paper on which you’re printing as the Printer Profile. Use Relative Colorimetric as the rending intent and leave the Black Point Compensation check box selected. (Note: If your prints are too dark, try deselecting Black Point Compensation.) Click the Print Settings button to open the printer’s own options. Make sure to deactivate the printer’s built-in color management and select the same paper you chose to the right in Photoshop’s Print dialog box.

      If you send your image files to an outside source for prints, they will likely require JPEG files using the sRGB color profile. Check the company’s website (or give them a call) and see if, instead, you can send TIFF files in Adobe RGB. That avoids the image degradation produced by JPEG’s compression and extends the color range for the images.

      If color in your images needs to be absolutely perfect because merely accurate won’t do, consider purchasing hardware and software to calibrate and profile all the devices in your workflow. X-Rite (www.xite.com), Datacolor (www.datacolor.com), and PANTONE (www.pantone.com) are three sources to explore.

When Good Programs Go Bad: Fixing Photoshop

      Sometimes things happen. Bad things. Tools don’t work right. Simple commands take ages to execute. Photoshop (gasp!) crashes! Don’t give up, and please don’t toss the machine through the window. (Hey, I might be walking past at the time.) Start with the easy fixes and work your way up as necessary:

       Check the panels and selection. If a tool isn’t working as expected or isn’t working at all, check whether you’re inadvertently preventing it from doing its job. See whether you have an active selection elsewhere in the image or press ⌘ +D/Ctrl+D to deselect. Look at the Layers panel: Are you working on the correct layer? Is the layer itself active or a layer mask? Is there no higher layer hiding the area in which you’re trying to work? Check the Channels panel: Are the color channels active? At the left end of the Options bar, right-click the tool icon and select Reset Tool. Open a flattened 8-bit RGB image and try the tool or technique in that image. If it works there, the problem isn’t Photoshop but rather the specific image. Check the Image ⇒ Mode menu to ensure that you have an appropriate color mode and bit depth.

       Reset Photoshop’s Preferences file to the defaults. Before restoring the default Preferences, export any custom styles, gradients, brushes, and so forth through the various panel and picker menus. Save them in a safe place, outside the Photoshop folder. Open the Actions panel and save any sets of custom Actions with the panel menu Save Actions command. (Remember that you must click a set of Actions — not an individual Action — to use Save Actions.) Open the Preferences and Color Settings and make notes about any special settings you’re using. Open Preferences ⇒ General and click the button Reset Preferences on Quit. Confirm your choice by clicking OK. Quit Photoshop and restart the program. Reset your Preferences and Color Settings and reload your custom bits and pieces.

       Reinstall Photoshop. If replacing the Preferences doesn’t solve the problem, try reinstalling Photoshop. Save all your custom items (as described earlier) and then uninstall Photoshop through the Creative Cloud Manager’s All Apps panel. (Click the ellipsis to the far right of the program name and select Uninstall.) After uninstalling, restart your computer (not always necessary, but a good practice) and reinstall through the Creative Cloud Manager’s All Apps panel.

      If reinstalling Photoshop doesn’t solve the problem, the source might be at the operating system level or is perhaps a hardware problem. Call in the big guns by contacting Adobe tech support. Go to this link to determine your level of support: https://helpx.adobe.com/cointact/what-contact-options.html.