2 Working with Selections
Learning how to select areas of an image is of primary importanceyou must rst select what you want to affect. Once youve made a selection, only the area within the selection can be edited. Areas outside the selection are protected from change.

36 LESSON 2

Working with Selections
In this lesson, youll learn how to do the following:
Select parts of an image using a variety of tools. Reposition a selection marquee. Deselect a selection. Move and duplicate a selection. Constrain the movement of a selection. Choose areas of an image based on proximity or color of pixels. Adjust a selection with the arrow keys. Add to and subtract from selections. Rotate, scale, and transform a selection. Combine selection tools. Crop an image.
This lesson will take about 40 minutes to complete. The lesson is designed to be done in Adobe Photoshop, but information on using similar functionality in Adobe ImageReady is included where appropriate. If needed, remove the previous lesson folder from your hard drive, and copy the Lesson02 folder onto it. As you work on this lesson, youll overwrite the start les. If you need to restore the start les, copy them from the Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book CD. Note: Windows users need to unlock the lesson les before using them. For information, see Copying the Classroom in a Book les on page 3.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 6.0 37

Classroom in a Book

Selection tool overview

In Adobe Photoshop, you can make selections based on size, shape, and color using four basic sets of toolsthe marquee, lasso, magic wand, and pen tools. You can reposition your selections using the move tool. You can also use the magic eraser tool to make selections in much the same way you use the magic wand tool. Note: In this lesson, you will use the marquee, lasso, magic wand, and move tools; for information on the pen tools, see Lesson 7, Basic Pen Tool Techniques.
A. Marquee tool B. Move tool C. Lasso tool D. Magic wand tool
The marquee and lasso tool icons contain hidden tools, which you can select by holding down the mouse button on the toolbox icon and dragging to the desired tool in the pop-up menu. The rectangular marquee tool ( ) lets you select a rectangular area in an image. The elliptical marquee tool ( ) lets you select elliptical areas. The rounded rectangle marquee tool ( ) in ImageReady lets you select rectangular areas with rounded corners. The single row marquee tool ( ) and single column marquee tool ( ) let you select a 1-pixel-high row and 1-pixel-wide column. You can also use the crop tool ( ) to crop an image. The lasso tool ( ) lets you make a freehand selection around an area. The polygon lasso tool ( ) lets you make a straight-line selection around an area. The magnetic lasso tool ( ) in Photoshop lets you draw a freehand border that snaps to the edges of an area. The magic wand tool ( ) lets you select parts of an image based on the similarity in color of adjacent pixels. This tool is useful for selecting odd-shaped areas without having to trace a complex outline using the lasso tool. ImageReady includes the basic marquee selection tools, the lasso and polygon lasso tools, and the magic wand tool familiar to users of Photoshop. For more convenience in working with common shapes, ImageReady adds an extra marquee selection tool: the rounded rectangle marquee tool.

38 LESSON 2

Getting started
Before beginning this lesson, restore the default application settings for Adobe Photoshop. See Restoring default preferences on page 4. Youll start the lesson by viewing the nished lesson le to see the image that youll create as you explore the selection tools in Photoshop. 1 Start Adobe Photoshop. If a notice appears asking whether you want to customize your color settings, click No. 2 Choose File > Open, and open the 02End.psd le, located in the Lessons/Lesson02 folder on your hard drive. An image of a face, constructed using various types of fruits and vegetables, is displayed. 3 When you have nished viewing the le, either leave the 02End.psd le open for reference, or close it without saving changes.
Selecting with the rectangular marquee tool
Youll start practicing selection techniques using the rectangular marquee tool. 1 Choose File > Open, and open the 02Start.psd le, located in the Lessons/Lesson02 folder on your hard drive. 2 Select the rectangular marquee tool ( ). 3 Drag it diagonally from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the melon to create a rectangular selection.

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You can move a selection border after youve drawn it by positioning the pointer within the selection and dragging. Notice that this technique changes the location of the selection border; it does not affect the size or shape of the selection.

Initial selection

Marquee tool placed within selection
Selection border repositioned
4 Position the pointer anywhere inside the selection surrounding the melon. The pointer becomes an arrow with a small selection icon next to it. 5 Drag to reposition the border around the melon. Note: Repositioning techniques for selection borders work with any of the marquee, lasso, and magic wand tools. If you are still not happy with the selection after repositioning it, you can deselect it and redraw it. 6 Choose Select > Deselect, or click anywhere in the window outside the selection border to deselect the selection. 7 Reselect the melon using the rectangular marquee tool. To back up one action at any point in the lesson, choose Edit > Undo. In ImageReady, you can set the number of undos in the ImageReady preferences. (The default is 32.)
Selecting with the elliptical marquee tool
Next youll use the elliptical marquee tool to select eyes for the face. Note that in most cases, making a new selection replaces the existing selection. 1 Select the zoom tool ( ), and click twice on the blueberry to zoom in to a 300% view. 2 Select the elliptical marquee tool ( ) hidden under the rectangular marquee tool.

40 LESSON 2

3 Move the pointer over the blueberry, and drag it diagonally across the blueberry to create a selection. Do not release the mouse button.
Repositioning a selection border while creating it
If a selection border isnt placed exactly where you want it, you can adjust its position and size while creating it. 1 Still holding down the mouse button, hold down the spacebar, and drag the selection. The border moves as you drag. 2 Release the spacebar (but not the mouse button), and drag again. Notice that when you drag without the spacebar, the size and shape of the selection change, but its point of origin does not.
Incorrect point of origin (Click and drag)
Corrected point of origin Adjusted border (Spacebar depressed) (Spacebar released)
3 When the selection border is positioned and sized correctly, release the mouse button.
Selecting from a center point
Sometimes its easier to make elliptical or rectangular selections by drawing a selection from the center point of the object to the outside edge. Using this method, youll reselect the blueberry. 1 Choose Select > Deselect. 2 Position the marquee tool at the approximate center of the blueberry. 3 Click and begin dragging. Then without releasing the mouse button, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and continue dragging the selection to the blueberrys outer edge. Notice that the selection is centered over its starting point.

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4 When you have the entire blueberry selected, release the mouse button rst and then release Alt/Option. If necessary, adjust the selection border using one of the methods you learned earlier.

Moving a selection

Now youll use the move tool to move the blueberry onto the carrot slice to create an eye for the face. Then youll duplicate and move the selection to make a second eye. 1 Make sure that the blueberry is selected. Then select the move tool ( ), and position the pointer within the blueberrys selection. The pointer becomes an arrow with a pair of scissors to indicate that dragging the selection will cut it from its present location and move it to the new location. 2 Drag the blueberry onto the carrot slice.
Move tool placed within blueberry selection
Blueberry moved onto carrot slice
3 Choose Select > Deselect. 4 Choose File > Save to save your work.
Moving and duplicating simultaneously
Next youll move and duplicate a selection simultaneously. 1 Choose View > Fit on Screen to resize the document to t on your screen. 2 Select the elliptical marquee tool ( ). 3 Drag a selection around the carrot slice containing the blueberry. If necessary, adjust the selection border using one of the methods you learned earlier.

42 LESSON 2

4 Select the move tool ( ), hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS), and position the pointer within the selection. The pointer becomes a double arrow, which indicates that a duplicate will be made when you move the selection.
5 Continue holding down Alt/Option, and drag a duplicate of the eye onto the left side of the melon face. Release the mouse button and Alt/Option, but do not deselect the eye. Holding down Shift when you move a selection constrains the movement horizontally or vertically. Using this technique, youll drag a copy of the left eye to the right side of the face so that the two eyes are level. 6 Hold down Shift+Alt (Windows) or Shift+Option (Mac OS), and drag a copy of the eye to the right side of the face. 7 Choose File > Save.
Eye moved onto left side of face
Duplicate of eye moved with Shift+Alt/Option

Moving with a keyboard shortcut
Next youll select the kiwi fruit for the melons mouth and then move it onto the melon using a keyboard shortcut. The shortcut allows you to temporarily access the move tool instead of selecting it from the toolbox. 1 Select the elliptical marquee tool ( ). 2 Drag a selection around the kiwi fruit using one of the methods you learned earlier.

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3 With the marquee tool still selected, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and position the pointer within the selection. A pair of scissors appears with the pointer to indicate that the selection will be cut from its current location. 4 Drag the kiwi mouth onto the face. Do not deselect.

Selection to be cut

Selection moved onto melon
Moving with the arrow keys
You can make minor adjustments to the position of a selection using the arrow keys, which allow you to nudge the selection 1 pixel or 10 pixels at a time. Note: The arrow keys adjust the position of a selection only if youve already moved the selection or if you have the move tool selected. If you try the arrow keys on a selection that has not yet been moved, they will adjust the selection border, not the part of the image that is selected. 1 Press the Up Arrow key ( ) a few times to move the mouth upward. Notice that each time you press the arrow key, the mouth moves in 1-pixel increments. Experiment with the other arrow keys to see how they affect the selection. Sometimes the border around a selected area can distract you as you make adjustments. You can hide the edges of a selection temporarily without actually deselecting and then display the selection border once youve completed the adjustments. 2 Choose View > Show > Selection Edges or View > Show Extras. The selection border around the mouth disappears. 3 Now hold down Shift, and press an arrow key. Notice that the selection moves in 10-pixel increments. 4 Use the arrow keys to nudge the mouth until it is positioned where you want it. Then choose View > Show > Selection Edges or View > Show Extras.

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5 Choose File > Save.
Copying selections or layers You can use the move tool to copy selections as you drag them within or between images. Or you can copy and move selections using the Copy, Copy Merged, Cut, and Paste commands. Dragging with the move tool saves memory because the Clipboard is not used as it is with the Copy, Copy Merged, Cut, and Paste commands. Keep in mind that when a selection or layer is pasted between images with different resolutions, the pasted data retains its pixel dimensions. This can make the pasted portion appear out of proportion to the new image. Use the Image Size command to make the source and destination images the same resolution before copying and pasting. Photoshop and ImageReady contain several copy and paste commands:
The Copy command copies the selected area on the active layer. The Copy Merged command makes a merged copy of all the visible layers in the selected area. The Paste command pastes a cut or copied selection into another part of the image or into another image as a new layer. (Photoshop) The Paste Into command pastes a cut or copied selection inside another selection in the same image or different image. The source selection is pasted onto a new layer, and the destination selection border is converted into a layer mask.
From Adobe Photoshop 6.0 online Help
Selecting with the magic wand
The magic wand tool lets you select adjacent pixels in an image based on their similarity in color. Youll use the magic wand tool to select the pear tomato, which youll use as a nose for the face. 1 Select the magic wand tool ( ). The tool options bar allows you to change the way the tools work. In the tool options bar for the magic wand tool, the Tolerance setting controls how many similar tones of a color are selected when you click an area. The default value is 32, indicating that 32 similar lighter tones and 32 similar darker tones will be selected.

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2 In the tool options bar, enter 50 in the Tolerance text box to increase the number of similar tones that will be selected.
3 Using the magic wand tool, click anywhere within the pear tomato. Most of it will be selected. 4 To select the remaining area of the pear tomato, hold down Shift, and click the unselected areas. Notice that a plus sign appears with the magic wand pointer, indicating that youre adding to the current selection.

Adding to selection (Shift key depressed)

Complete selection

5 When the pear tomato is completely selected, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), position the pointer within the selection, and drag the tomato nose onto the melon face. 6 Choose Select > Deselect. 7 Choose File > Save.
Selecting with the lasso tool
You can use the lasso tool to make selections that require both freehand and straight lines. Youll select a bow tie for the face using the lasso tool this way. It takes a bit of practice to use the lasso tool to alternate between straight-line and freehand selectionsif you make a mistake while youre selecting the bow tie, simply deselect and start again. 1 Select the zoom tool, and click twice on the bow tie pasta to enlarge its view to 300%.

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2 Select the lasso tool ( ). Starting at the upper left corner of the bow tie pasta, drag to the right to create a freehand outline across the curves at the top of the bow tie. Continue holding down the mouse button. 3 To select the right edge of the bow tie, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS), release the mouse button, and then begin outlining with short, straight lines by clicking along the edge. (Notice that the pointer changes from the lasso icon to the polygon lasso icon.) When you reach the bottom right corner of the bow tie, do not release the mouse button.
Freehand outline with lasso tool
Straight-line outline with polygon lasso tool
Completed selection (outline crosses starting point)
4 Release Alt/Option, and drag to the left to create a freehand outline across the bottom of the bow tie. (The pointer returns to the lasso icon.) 5 Hold down Alt/Option again, and click the mouse button along the left edge of the bow tie to draw straight lines. 6 To complete the selection, make sure that the last straight line crosses the start of the selection, release Alt/Option, and then release the mouse button. 7 Choose View > Fit on Screen to resize the document to t on your screen. 8 Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and drag the bow tie selection to the bottom of the melon face. 9 Choose File > Save.

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Adding and subtracting selections
Holding down Shift while you are selecting an area adds to the current selection. Holding down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) subtracts from the selection. Now youll use these techniques with the lasso tool to perfect a rough selection of the mushroom image. The mushroom will become a hat for the melon face. 1 Select the zoom tool ( ), and click twice on the mushroom to enlarge its view to 300%. 2 Select the lasso tool ( ), and drag a rough outline around the mushroom (include some of the area outside the mushroom and some of the stem). 3 Hold down Shift. A plus sign appears with the lasso tool pointer. 4 Drag the lasso tool around an area you want to add to the selection. Then release the mouse button. The area is added to the current selection.

Result

Note: If you release the mouse button while drawing a selection with the lasso tool, the selection closes itself by drawing a straight line between the starting point and the point where you release the mouse. To create a more precise border, end the selection by crossing the starting point. Next youll remove, or subtract, part of the selection. 5 Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS). A minus sign appears with the lasso tool pointer.

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6 Drag the lasso tool completely around an area you want to remove from the selection. Then repeat the process until youve nished removing all the unwanted parts of the selection.

Selection

Subtracting from selection (Alt/Option depressed)
7 Choose View > Fit on Screen. 8 To move the mushroom hat onto the melon head, hold down Alt+Ctrl (Windows) or Option+Command (Mac OS), and drag a copy of the mushroom to the top of the melon. 9 Choose File > Save.
Selecting with the magnetic lasso
You can use the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop to make freehand selections of areas with high-contrast edges. When you draw with the magnetic lasso, the border automatically snaps to the edge you are tracing. You can also control the direction of the tools path by clicking the mouse to place occasional fastening points in the selection border. (There is no magnetic lasso tool in ImageReady.) Youll now make an ear for the melon face by using the magnetic lasso to select the red part of the grapefruit slice. 1 Select the zoom tool ( ), and click the grapefruit slice to zoom in to a 200% view. 2 Select the magnetic lasso tool ( ) hidden under the lasso tool. 3 Now click once in the lower left corner of the red esh of the grapefruit slice, release the mouse button, and begin tracing the outline of the esh by dragging to the right over the curved upper edge. Notice that the tool snaps to the edge and automatically puts in fastening points.

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If you think the tool is not following the edge closely enough (in low-contrast areas), you can place your own fastening point in the border by clicking the mouse button. You can add as many fastening points as you feel are necessary. You can also remove fastening points and back up in the path by pressing Delete and moving the mouse back to the last remaining fastening point. 4 When you reach the lower right corner of the grapefruit esh, double-click the mouse button, which signals the magnetic lasso tool to return to the starting point, and close the selection. Notice that the tool automatically follows the remaining edge of the esh as it completes the border.

Laying down fastening points
Removing fastening points
Double-clicking at corner to close path
You can now move the selected part of the grapefruit next to the melon. 5 Double-click the hand tool ( ) to t the image on-screen. 6 Select the move tool, and drag the grapefruit ear to the middle of the left side of the melon face. Do not deselect. 7 Choose File > Save.

50 LESSON 2

Softening the edges of a selection You have two ways to smooth the hard edges of a selection. Anti-aliasing smooths the jagged edges of a selection by softening the color transition between edge pixels and background pixels. Since only the edge pixels change, no detail is lost. Anti-aliasing is useful when cutting, copying, and pasting selections to create composite images. Anti-aliasing is available for the lasso, polygon lasso, magnetic lasso, elliptical marquee, and magic wand tools. (Select the tool to display its tool options bar.) You must specify the anti-aliasing option before using these tools. Once a selection is made, you cannot add anti-aliasing. Feathering blurs edges by building a transition boundary between the selection and its surrounding pixels. This blurring can cause some loss of detail at the edge of the selection. You can dene feathering for the marquee, lasso, polygon lasso, or magnetic lasso tool as you use the tool, or you can add feathering to an existing selection. Feathering effects become apparent when you move, cut, or copy the selection.
To use anti-aliasing, select the marquee, lasso, polygon lasso, or magnetic lasso tool to display its tool options bar. Then select Anti-aliased in the tool options bar for the selected tool. To dene a feathered edge for a selection tool, select the marquee, lasso, polygon lasso, or magnetic lasso tool to display its tool options bar.Then enter a Feather value in the tool options bar. This value denes the width of the feathered edge and can range from 1 to 250 pixels. To dene a feathered edge for an existing selection, choose Select > Feather. Then enter a value for the Feather Radius, and click OK.

Transforming a selection

Next youll use the Free Transform command to rotate and scale the melons left ear, and then youll duplicate and ip a copy to create a right ear. 1 Choose Edit > Free Transform. A bounding box appears around the ear selection. 2 To rotate the ear, position the pointer outside a corner handle until you see a curved double-headed arrow ( ), and then drag in the direction you want the ear to rotate. Notice that the ear rotates around the selections center point ( ). 3 To scale the ear, position the pointer directly on one of the corner handles, and drag to reduce the size of the ear. To scale the ear proportionately, hold down Shift as you drag.

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4 To reposition the ear, place your pointer within the bounding box, but not on the center point, and drag. (If you place the pointer on the center point and drag, you will move the center point.) For information on working with the center point in a transformation, see Transforming objects in two dimensions in Adobe Photoshop 6.0 online Help.
Dragging outside border to rotate ear
Dragging on corner to scale ear
Dragging within border to reposition ear
If you dont like the results of a Free Transform, press the Escape key and start over. 5 When you have the ear positioned correctly, press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to apply the transformation. The ear remains selected. Now youll move a copy of the ear to the right side of the face, ip the ear horizontally, and ne-tune its placement. 6 Position the pointer within the ear selection, hold down Shift+Alt (Windows) or Shift+Option (Mac OS), and drag a copy of the ear to the right side of the face. 7 With the duplicate ear still selected, choose Edit > Free Transform or Edit > Transform > Rotate. A bounding box appears around the duplicate ear. 8 Choose Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. 9 If needed, place the pointer within the selection, and drag to reposition it next to the melon face.

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10 If needed, choose Edit > Free Transform, rotate the ear to t the right side of the face. 11 Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to complete the transformation. 12 Choose File > Save.
Combining selection tools
As you already know, the magic wand tool makes selections based on color. If an object you want to select is on a solid-colored background, it can be much easier to select the object and the background and then use the magic wand tool to subtract the background color, leaving the desired object selected. Youll see how this works by using the rectangular marquee tool and the magic wand tool to select radish eyebrows for the face. 1 Select the rectangular marquee tool ( ) hidden under the elliptical marquee tool ( ). 2 Drag a selection around the radishes. At this point, the radishes and the white background area are selected. Youll subtract the white area from the selection, resulting in only the radishes in the selection. 3 Select the magic wand tool; then hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS). A minus sign appears with the magic wand pointer. 4 Click anywhere in the selected white area surrounding the radishes. Now only the radishes are selected.

Subtracting from selection with Alt/Option magic wand

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5 To duplicate and move the radish eyebrow to the melon face, hold down Alt+Ctrl (Windows) or Option+Command (Mac OS), and drag the radish above the left eye on the melon face. Do not deselect. 6 Hold down Shift+Alt+Ctrl (Windows) or Shift+Option+Command (Mac OS), position the pointer within the selection, and drag to duplicate and reposition another eyebrow above the right eye. 7 With the right eyebrow still selected, choose Edit > Free Transform or Edit > Transform > Rotate. A bounding box appears around the eyebrow. 8 Choose Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal to adjust the right eyebrow. If you like, reposition the eyebrow using any of the methods youve learned. Then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to complete the transformation.
Left eyebrow placed with Alt+Ctrl/Option+Command
Right eyebrow placed with Shift+Alt+Ctrl/Shift+ Option+Command
Right eyebrow ipped horizontally

9 Choose File > Save.

Cropping the completed image
In both Photoshop and ImageReady, you can use either the crop tool or the Crop command to crop an image. You can also decide whether to delete the area outside of a rectangular selection, or whether to hide the area outside of the selection. You can use the Trim command to discard a border area around the edge of the image, based on transparency or edge color. In ImageReady, use the Crop command or the crop tool set to Hide when creating animated elements that move from off-screen into the live image area.

54 LESSON 2

To complete the artwork, youll crop the image to a nal size. 1 Select the crop tool ( ), or press C to switch from the current tool to the crop tool. 2 Move the pointer into the image window, and drag diagonally from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the completed artwork to create a crop marquee. After dragging in Photoshop, make sure that Perspective is not selected in the crop tool options bar.

3 If you need to reposition the crop marquee, position the pointer anywhere inside the marquee and drag. 4 If you want to resize the marquee, drag a handle. 5 When the marquee is positioned where you want it, press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to crop the image. 6 Choose File > Save. The fruit-and-vegetable face is complete.

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For the Web: Creating evenly spaced buttons for a Web page
One of the most common tasks when designing Web pages is to create a column of buttons that are used to link to other pages in the Web site. Using a background grid in Adobe Photoshop and the rectangular marquee tool, you can quickly create identical and evenly spaced buttons from selections. These buttons can then be stylized in ImageReady in preparation for the Web. Heres a way to create the column of buttons, and then to add a style to create the illusion of three-dimensional buttons. 1 In Adobe Photoshop, choose File > New. Name the new le, size it to t the buttons you want to create (we chose 3 inches wide by 4.5 inches tall), select the Transparent option, and click OK. 2 Choose Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid. Enter the height of your planned buttons in the Gridline Every text box (such as 0.5 inches), 1 in the Subdivisions text box, and click OK. Note: Grids are only available in Photoshop. 3 Choose View > Show > Grid to make the grid visible. 4 Choose View > Snap To > Grid if the command is not already selected. (Snap to Grid is selected if there is a check mark next to the command.) 5 Select the rectangular marquee tool ( ), and draw a rectangular selection one grid line high by four grid lines wide (or as wide as you want your buttons to be). Notice that the marquee snaps to the nearest grid line.

56 LESSON 2

6 If you dont see the Color palette, choose Window > Show Color to display it. 7 Choose Web Color Sliders from the Color palette menu to ensure that you will choose a Web-safe color for your button. 8 Select a color in the Color palette (such as blue). 9 Select the paint bucket tool ( ) hidden under gradient tool ( ), and click in the selection to paint it. 10 To duplicate the rectangle, hold down the Shift+Ctrl+Alt keys (Windows) or the Shift+Command+Option keys (Mac OS), and drag two grid lines down from the original rectangle. (Holding Ctrl+Alt/Command+Option as you drag duplicates the selection. Holding down Shift constrains the newly created rectangle along the horizontal or in this casevertical axis). Repeat this process to add the third and fourth rectangles. You should now have four buttons spaced evenly by two grid lines each.
11 Choose File > Save to save your new buttons. 12 Click the Jump To ImageReady button in the toolbox to open the image in ImageReady. 13 Choose Window > Show Styles. 14 In the Styles palette, select a style (such as the Blue Glass button) to apply it to your rectangles.

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You can also apply the style by dragging it from the Styles palette onto any of the buttons in the main window and releasing the mouse button. The button style is automatically applied to all of the buttons on the layer.
If you want, you can now add text to the buttons using the type tool ( ). When you are nished, save your artwork. You can now use the buttons in your Web page design.

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Review questions
1 Once youve made a selection, what area of the image can be edited? 2 How do you add to and subtract from a selection? 3 How can you move a selection while youre drawing it? 4 When drawing a selection with the lasso tool, how should you nish drawing the selection to ensure that the selection is the shape you want? 5 How does the magic wand tool determine which areas of an image to select? What is tolerance, and how does it affect a selection?

Review answers

1 Only the area within the selection can be edited. 2 To add to a selection, hold down Shift, and then drag or click the active selection tool on the area you want to add to the selection. To subtract from a selection, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS), and then drag or click the active selection tool on the area you want to remove from the selection. 3 Without releasing the mouse button, hold down the spacebar, and drag to reposition the selection. 4 To make sure that the selection is the shape you want, end the selection by dragging across the starting point of the selection. If you start and stop the selection at different points, Photoshop or ImageReady draws a straight line between the start point of the selection and the end point of the selection. 5 The magic wand selects adjacent pixels based on their similarity in color. The Tolerance setting determines how many color tones the magic wand will select. The higher the tolerance setting, the more tones the magic wand selects.

13 Preparing Images for Two-Color Printing
Not every commercially printed publication requires four-color reproduction. Printing in two colors using a grayscale image and spot color can be an effective and inexpensive alternative. In this lesson, youll learn how to use Adobe Photoshop to prepare full-color images for two-color printing.

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Preparing Images for Two-Color Printing
In this lesson, youll learn how to do the following:
Convert a color image to monochrome, and improve its overall quality. Adjust the tonal range of the image by assigning black and white points. Sharpen the image. Convert a color image to grayscale. Add spot color to selected areas of the image.
This lesson will take about 45 minutes to complete. The lesson is designed to be done in Adobe Photoshop. ImageReady does not support channels or spot color. If needed, remove the previous lesson folder from your hard drive, and copy the Lesson13 folder onto it. As you work on this lesson, youll overwrite the start les. If you need to restore the start les, copy them from the Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book CD. Note: Windows users need to unlock the lesson les before using them. For more information, see Copying the Classroom in a Book les on page 3.

Printing in color

Color publications are expensive to print commercially because they require four passes through the pressone for each of the four process colors used to create the full-color effect. The colors in the publication must be separated into cyan, magenta, yellow, and black plates for the press, which also adds to the expense. Printing images in two colors can be a much less costly yet effective approach for many projects, even if they begin with an image in full color. With Photoshop, you can convert color to grayscale without sacricing image quality. You can also add a second spot color for accent, and Photoshop will create the two-color separations needed for the printing process. Note: Spot color is intended for images that will be printed to lm during the printing process. The spot color techniques covered in this lesson are not appropriate for color images printed to desktop printers or for images designed for electronic distribution.

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Classroom in a Book
Using channels and the Channels palette
Channels in Adobe Photoshop are used for storing information, and they play an important role in this lesson. Color channels store the color information for an image, and alpha channels store selections or masks that let you edit specic parts of an image. A third channel type, spot color channels, lets you specify color separations for printing an image with spot color inks. For more information about channels, see Lesson 5, Masks and Channels. In this lesson, youll use all three types of channels. Youll learn to mix color channels to improve the quality of an image. Youll select areas of the image by loading a selection from an alpha channel. And youll use a spot color channel to add a second color to the image.

Getting started

Before beginning this lesson, restore the default application settings for Adobe Photoshop. See Restoring default preferences on page 4. Youll start the lesson by viewing the nal Lesson le to see the duotone image that you will create. 1 Start Adobe Photoshop. 2 Choose File > Open, and open the 13End.psd le, located in the Lessons/Lesson13 folder. 3 When you have nished viewing the le, either leave the End le open on your desktop for reference or close it without saving changes. Now youll open the start le for the lesson. 4 Choose File > Open, and open the 13Start.psd le in the Lessons/Lesson13 folder on your hard drive. 5 If guides are showing, choose View > Show Extras or View > Show > Guides to hide guides.

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Mixing color channels
Sometimes its possible to improve the quality of an image by blending two or more color channels. For instance, one channel in an image may look particularly strong but would look even better if you could add some detail from another channel. In Photoshop, you can blend color channels with the Channel Mixer command in either RGB mode (for on-screen display) or CMYK mode (for printing). For more information on color modes, see Lesson 11, Setting Up Your Monitor for Color Management. In this lesson, youll use the Channel Mixer command to improve the quality of an RGB image that youll then convert to Grayscale mode. But rst, youll use the Channels palette to view the different channels in the image. 1 Choose Window > Show Channels, click the Channels tab, and drag the palette from the Layers and Paths palette group. Place the Channels palette on your screen where you can easily access it.
Drag the Channels palette from the Layers palette to make both palettes visible at the same time.
Because the image is in RGB mode, the Channels palette displays the images red, green, and blue channels. Notice that all the color channels are currently visible, including the RGB channel, which is a composite of the separate red, green, and blue channels. To see the individual channels, you can use the palettes eye icons.

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2 Click the eye icons to turn off all color channels in the Channels palette except the red channel. The colors in the document image change to shades of gray.
All channels off except red

Red channel

3 Drag the eye icon from the red channel to the green channel and then to the blue channel. Notice how the monochrome image in the document window changes with each channel. The green channel shows the best overall contrast and the best detail in the womans face, while the blue channel shows good contrast in the framework behind the woman.

Green channel

Blue channel
4 In the Channels palette, click the eye icon column for the composite RGB channel to display all the color channels in the image.

All channels displayed

RGB image

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Now youll use the Channel Mixer command to improve the image in this lesson. Specically, youll divide the image into two areas, the woman and the framework, and mix different amounts of source channels in each selection.

Mixing the womans image

First youll select the womans image by loading a premade selection. 1 In the Layers palette, make sure that the background is selected. 2 Choose Select > Load Selection. In the dialog box, select Woman from the Channel menu to load a selection that outlines the image of the woman. Click OK. Now youll mix the green and blue channels to improve the selections contrast. Youll use green as the base channel because it has the best overall contrast for the image. 3 Choose Image > Adjust > Channel Mixer. 4 In the Channel Mixer dialog box, choose Green for the Output Channel. The Source Channel for Green changes to 100%. 5 Select Monochrome to change the image to shades of gray. This option gives you an idea of how the selection will look in Grayscale mode, so that you can more accurately adjust the selections tonal range. The resulting image is a little at. You can bring out the contrast and improve the highlights by blending in some of the blue channel. 6 Drag the slider for the Blue Source Channel to 10%. Click OK.

Selection loaded

Channel Mixer dialog box with 10% blue

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Mixing the frameworks image
Next youll select the framework, convert this part of the image to monochrome, and again mix channels to improve the contrast and detail. 1 Choose Select > Inverse to select the framework behind the woman. 2 Choose Image > Adjust > Channel Mixer. 3 In the Channel Mixer dialog box, choose Green for the Output Channel, and select Monochrome. This time the resulting image is dark and lacks contrast. You can improve the image again by blending in some of the blue channel to increase the contrast. 4 Drag the slider for the Blue Source Channel to 26%. Click OK.

Inverse of selection

Channel Mixer dialog box with 26% blue
5 Choose Select > Deselect. Both the woman and the framework now show better contrast and detail. But the image is still an RGB color image (one that contains only gray values). To convert the image to Grayscale mode, you will use the Grayscale command. 6 Choose Image > Mode > Grayscale. When prompted, select Dont Flatten to keep the images two layers intact. (Youll use the second layer later in this lesson.) The image converts to Grayscale mode, and the color channels in the Channels palette are replaced by a single Gray channel. 7 Choose File > Save to save your work.

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Assigning values to the black and white points
You can further improve the quality of the image by adjusting the black and white limits of its tonal range. In Lesson 6, Photo Retouching, you learned to use the sliders on the Levels command histogram to adjust the range. In this lesson, youll control the range more accurately by using the Levels command eyedropper to assign specic values to the darkest and lightest points. 1 Choose Image > Adjust > Levels. 2 In the Levels dialog box, double-click the white eyedropper tool ( ) to open the color picker for the white point.

3 Enter 0, 0, 0, and 5 in the CMYK text boxes, and click OK. These values generally produce the best results when printing the white points (highlights) of a grayscale image onto white paper. 4 Next double-click the black eyedropper tool ( ) in the Levels dialog box to open the color picker for the black point.
5 Enter 0, 0, 0, and 95 in the CMYK text boxes, and click OK. These values generally produce the best results when printing the black points (shadows) of a grayscale image onto white paper. Now that youve dened the values for the black and white points, youll use the Levels command eyedropper to assign the values to the darkest and lightest areas in the image. 6 Make sure that the black eyedropper tool is selected, and position it in the darkest area of the framework behind the womans elbow. Click to assign this area the values you set in step 5.

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7 Next select the white eyedropper tool in the Levels dialog box, position the tool in the lightest area of the womans collar, and click to assign this area the values you set in step 3.
Black eyedropper selecting darkest area behind elbow
White eyedropper selecting lightest area in collar
8 Click OK to close the dialog box and apply the changes. Assigning the black and white points shifts the images histogram to produce a more evenly distributed tonal range.

Original

Result

9 Choose File > Save.

Sharpening the image
By applying the Unsharp Mask lter to the image, you can create the illusion of a more focused image. 1 Choose Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Make sure that the Preview option is selected so that you can view the effect before you apply it. To get a better view, you can place the pointer within the preview window and drag to see different parts of the image (we focused on the womans face). You can also change the magnication of the preview image with the plus and minus buttons located below the window.

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2 Drag the Amount slider until the image is as sharp as you want (we used 57%), and make sure that the Radius is set to 1 pixel.
3 Click OK to apply the Unsharp Mask lter to the image.
Setting up for spot color
Spot colors, also called custom colors, are premixed inks that are used instead of, or in addition to, the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black process color inks. Each spot color requires its own color separation or printing plate. Graphic designers use spot colors to specify colors that would be difcult or impossible to achieve by combining the four process inks. Youll now add spot color to the image in this lesson by creating a spot color channel. 1 In the Channels palette, choose New Spot Channel from the palette menu. 2 In the New Spot Channel dialog box, click the color box, and select Custom in the color picker.

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3 In the Custom Colors dialog box, type 124 for the Pantone custom color 124. (Because there is no text box for the number, you must type it quickly.) Then click OK.
4 In the New Spot Channel dialog box, enter 100% for Solidity. The solidity setting lets you simulate on-screen the ink solidity of the printed spot color. Inks range from transparent (0% solidity) to opaque (100% solidity). The Solidity option affects the on-screen preview only and has no effect on the printed output.
5 Click OK to create the spot color channel. A new spot color channel named PANTONE 124 CVC is added to the Channels palette.

6 Choose File > Save.

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About spot colors Note the following when working with spot colors:
For spot color graphics that have crisp edges and knock out the underlying image, consider creating the additional artwork in a page-layout or illustration application. To apply spot color as a tint throughout an image, convert the image to Duotone mode and apply the spot color to one of the duotone plates. You can use up to four spot colors, one per plate. (See Printing color separations in the Photoshop 6.0 User Guide, Chapter 14, Printing. The names of the spot colors print on the separations. Spot colors are overprinted on top of the fully composited image. Each spot channel is overprinted in the order in which it appears in the Channels palette. You cannot move spot colors above a default channel in the Channels palette except in Multichannel mode. Spot colors cant be applied to individual layers. If you print an image that includes spot color channels to a composite printer, the spot colors print as extra pages. You can merge spot channels with color channels, splitting the spot color into its color channel components. Merging spot channels lets you print a single-page proof of your spot color image on a desktop printer. You can create new spot channels or convert an existing alpha channel to a spot channel. Like alpha channels, spot channels can be edited or deleted at any time.
From Adobe Photoshop 6.0 online Help

Adding spot color

You can add spot color to selected areas of an image in different ways with varying effects. For instance, you can apply spot color to part of a grayscale image so that the selection prints in the spot color rather than in the base ink. Because spot colors in Photoshop print over the top of a fully composited image, you may also need to remove the base color in an image when adding spot color to it. If you do not remove the base color, it may show through the semitransparent spot color ink used in the printing process. You can also use spot color to add solid and screened blocks of color to an image. By screening the spot color, you can create the illusion of adding an extra, lighter color to the printed piece.

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Removing a grayscale area and adding spot color
Youll begin your work in spot color by changing the framework behind the woman to the color. You must rst select the framework, remove it from the grayscale image, and then add the selection to the spot color channel. 1 In the Channels palette, select the Gray channel. 2 Choose Select > Load Selection. In the dialog box, choose Woman from the Channel menu and select Invert. Click OK to load a selection of the framework behind the woman.
3 Choose Edit > Cut to cut the selection from the image. Make sure that black is set as the foreground color.

Gray channel active

Selection made in Gray channel
Selection cut from Gray channel
4 In the Channels palette, select the PANTONE 124 CVC channel.

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5 Choose Edit > Paste to paste the framework selection into the spot color channel. In the 13Start window, the framework reappears in the Pantone color.
Selection pasted into spot color channel
6 Choose Select > Deselect. 7 Choose File > Save.
Removing spot color from a grayscale area
Now youll remove some spot color where it overlaps the grayscale area of a second layer of the image. 1 In the Layers palette, click the eye icon column next to the Hammers layer to make it visible. (Click just the eye icon column. Do not select the layer.) Notice that the spot color of the framework overlaps part of the Hammers layer. Youll remove this overlap by making a new selection and cutting it from the spot color channel. 2 Choose View > Show Extras. If guides do not appear over the image, choose View > Show > Guides. 3 Select the rectangular marquee tool ( ), and drag a selection from the top left edge of the image to the right horizontal guide and top vertical guide. Normal should be chosen for Style in the Marquee tool options bar.

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4 Make sure that the spot channel in the Channels palette is still active, and press Delete to remove the rectangular selection from the channel. In the document window, the spot color disappears from the hammers image.

Making selection

Selection cut from spot color channel
5 Choose Select > Deselect. 6 Choose File > Save.
Adding solid and screened areas of spot color
Next youll vary the effect of adding spot color by adding a solid block of the color and then a block of the color screened to 50%. The two areas will appear to be different colors even though you have used the same Pantone custom color on the same color separation. First youll make a selection for the solid block of color and ll the selection using a keyboard shortcut. 1 With the rectangular marquee tool still selected, make a selection in the upper right corner of the image bounded by the two guides. 2 Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS), and press Delete to ll the selection with the foreground color. Because you are in the PANTONE 124 CVC channel, the foreground color is PANTONE 124 and lls the square with solid color.

Making selection for spot color
Selection lled with solid color

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Now you can add a lighter block of spot color to the image. 3 Make a rectangular selection directly below the left hammer and bounded by the guides. 4 In the Color palette, drag the color slider to 20% to set the value for the new block of color. 5 Hold down Alt/Option and press Delete to ll the selection with a 20% screen of PANTONE 124.

Color value set to 20%

Selection lled with 20% color
6 Choose Select > Deselect. 7 Choose View > Show Extras or View > Show > Guides to hide guides. 8 Choose File > Save.
Adding spot color to text
Text in an image can also appear in spot color. There are different methods for creating this effect, but the most straightforward is to add the text directly to the spot color channel. Note that text in a spot channel behaves differently from text created on a type layer. Spot channel text is uneditable. Once you create the type, you cannot change its specications, and once you deselect the type, you cannot reposition it. Now youll add text to the spot color channel and place the text in the light block of spot color. 1 In the Color palette, return the color slider to 100%. 2 Select the type tool ( ), and click the image in the light block of color. A red mask appears over the artwork, and an insertion point for the text ashes.

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3 In the Type tool options bar, choose a sans serif bold typeface from the Font menus, and enter 66 for the point size in the Size text box. We chose Helvetica.
4 Type work in the image window.
5 Select the move tool ( ), and drag the text so that it is centered in the light block of color.
6 Choose Select > Deselect. 7 Choose File > Save. You have nished preparing the image for two-color printing. To see how the color separations for the printed piece will look, try alternately hiding and displaying the two color channels in the Channels palette. 8 Click the eye icon for the Gray channel in the Channels palette. The Gray channel is hidden, and the image window changes to just the areas of the image that will print in the spot color.

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9 Redisplay the Gray channel by clicking its eye icon column. Then hide the PANTONE 124 CVC channel by clicking its eye icon. Just the grayscale areas of the image appear in the image window. 10 Click the eye icon column for the PANTONE 124 CVC channel to display both channels.

Final image

Black channel

PANTONE 124 CVC channel

If you have a printer available, you can also try printing the image. Youll nd that it prints on two sheets of paperone representing the color separation for the spot color and one representing the grayscale areas of the image.
For the Web: Creating two-color Web graphics
Two-color images are used in print to keep costs down and expand the tonal range of grayscale images. Even when printing costs arent an issue, you can use two-color images for effect. Try this technique in ImageReady for creating effective two-color graphics for the Web that give maximum impact without increasing the le size. You can start with an image in Photoshop, or you can work exclusively in ImageReady. 1 For a duotone effect, start by creating a grayscale image in Photoshop or by desaturating an ImageReady image. To convert your color Photoshop image to grayscale, choose Image > Mode > Grayscale. In ImageReady, its not possible to create a grayscale image, but you can use the Image > Adjust > Desaturate command. ImageReady only supports RGB les. Even an image that may appear to be grayscale in ImageReady is actually an RGB le. 2 In Photoshop, to convert your grayscale image to RGB mode, choose Image > Mode > RGB Color. 3 Create a new layer and position it beneath the grayscale image in the Layers palette.

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In Photoshop, if the grayscale image is the Background, you must convert the Background to a layer by double-clicking the Background in the Layers palette and naming it in the Make Layer window. 4 In the image, ll the new layer with the second color of choice. 5 Select the top layer of the image and choose Multiply from the Layers palette mode menu. Multiply mode looks at the color information in each layer and multiplies the base color by the blend color. The result color is always a darker color. Multiplying any color with a color produces progressively darker colors. 6 Duplicate the top layer by dragging it to the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette.
Grayscale image with color layer beneath
Duplicating the top layer
7 With the new layer selected, choose Hard Light from the Layers palette mode menu. This mode brings out the color underneath.

Hard Light lter applied

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This technique works most effectively on the top layer of an image with the Hard Light mode applied. Hard Light mode multiplies or screens the colors, depending on the blend color. The effect is similar to shining a harsh spotlight on the image. If the blend color (light source) is lighter than 50% gray, the image is lightened, as if it were screened. This is useful for adding highlights to an image. If the blend color is darker than 50% gray, the image is darkened as if it were multiplied. This is useful for adding shadows to an image. 8 Select the middle layer. Choose Image > Adjust > Levels, and adjust the histogram using the sliders to let more or less color from the bottom layer show through. 9 If desired, decrease the opacity of the different layers and note the effect. 10 Save the le in the GIF le format for the Web, optimizing the le as needed. As a variation, select the dodge or burn tool and adjust one detail or object in your image at a time.

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Review questions
1 What are the three types of channels in Photoshop, and how are they used? 2 How can you improve the quality of a color image that has been converted to grayscale? 3 How do you assign specic values to the black and white points in an image? 4 How do you set up a spot color channel? 5 How do you add spot color to a specic area in a grayscale image? 6 How can you apply spot color to text?

Review answers

1 Channels in Photoshop are used for storing information. Color channels store the color information for an image; alpha channels store selections or masks for editing specic parts of an image; and spot color channels create color separations for printing an image with spot color inks. 2 You can use the Color Mixer command to blend color channels to bring out the contrast and detail in an image. You can extend the tonal range of the image by adjusting its black and white points. You can also sharpen the image by applying the Unsharp Mask lter. 3 You assign specic values with the Levels command black and white eyedropper tools. 4 You set up a spot color channel by choosing New Spot Channel from the pop-up menu on the Channels palette and by specifying a color from the Custom color picker in the New Spot Channel dialog box. 5 With the Gray channel active, you select the area, cut it from the Gray channel, and paste it into the spot color channel. 6 You can add the text to the spot color channel. However, text created in this way is not editable and cannot be repositioned once it is deselected.