Introduction: Photoshop Basics: The Menus

In this tutorial we will go over the Basic but Essential knowledge of Photoshop's Fly out menus. We will revise the most important menus and what they are used for.

1. The File Menu

Let's Begin. Our first menu is "File":

New
This option is used to create new Photoshop Files. Once clicked it opens up a menu where you can specify different values and options for the canvas.

Open
Opens a File of any of the supported types.

Browse
In Photoshop CS it allows you to open the File Browser. This feature is now known as Adobe Bridge in Photoshop CS 2.

Open Recent -
This option let's us open 0 to 30 (easily set by going into your preferences in the Edit Menu) of our most recent work files.

Save for Web
This option Launches the "Save for Web" interface. This interface allows us to save files optimized specifically for web distribution, the file formats supported are JPG, PNG, GIF and WBMP with a variety of different compression and adjustable settings.

Place
Allows the import of files containing Vector data. The difference between opening and placing a file is that the Placed file is not turned into bitmap data until after the placement has been accepted. This allows for the vector data to be used to render sharply into pixels to the desired size. Place-able formats are EPS, AI, PSD and PDP.

Close and Close All
Pretty self explanatory. They both close documents, but close All closes all documents currently open in the photoshop Environment.

Save, Save As, Save a Version, Save for Web, Revert
All related to saving files or in the case of Revert, returning the last saved state of the file. All of these are pretty self explanatory, the only one that may seem obscure is "Save a Version" since this is only available to Version Cue Users.

Automate and Scripts
A collection of automated actions. Automation allows you do some time consuming tasks with very little effort and Scripts normally allows you to export your PSD files or comps to new files with ease.

Page Setup, Print with Preview, Print, Print One Copy
Various printing options commonly found in other programs:

File Info and Version
File Info gives you all the authoring info from the file and allows you to enter additional info. Version again is for Version cue.

Jump To
Jumps from Photoshop to ImageReady. Shift + Control + M

Exit of course exits the program. That's it for the File Menu.

2. The Edit Menu

Our second menu is "Edit", I will explain the most important, the rest are self explainable.

Fade - This particular tool changes depending on what tool is used previous of it. For Example: Unsharpen Mask generates a different fade option than what is displayed at this moment. Its base is to Fade, although it depends on what ever filter is used. Fill - Fills a current object selected with different type of materials, that include textures, solid colors, gradients, and custom patterns. It opens up a New window that lets you choose the opacity and the also Blending Option of the content that the object or rasterized text is going to have. Stroke - Generates a stroke to an object. It has different options once clicked. Free Transform and Transform - They are basically both the same tool, but the free transform provides you with your own criteria when aligning and resizing and you are not in any parameters into the way you transform. Transform on the other hand has different options in its menu which are, Skew Distort, Perspective, Scale, and Rotate along side with Flip to Degrees and Rotate to Degree options. In the transform, depending on the tool you chose you are stuck to it's parameters, in other words you get an exact transformation. Define Brush, Pattern and Shape - These options let us create custom brushes, and pattern and shapes. When you have some thing custom ready to become either a shape, brush or pattern you press the corresponding option and give it a name. These can be applied in the Fill option in the same menu. Advanced Photoshop Options, Colors, Presets, and Caches.

3. The Image Menu

Moving onto our third option called Image. I will explain the most important, the rest are self explanatory:

Adjustments - If we hover over this option we get this whole menu on the right side. All of the options are applied to the objector image, they are all self explanatory. Calculations - This nifty tool lets us calculate with blending options and different types of channels.

Mode - This option lets us change our Image Mode - Technically we always work with RGB mode. However if you do want to change it just to checkout this option, alongside that we can change the cannel bits either 8 or 16 - Also in this menu we can edit our color profiles.

4. The Layer Menu

Moving onto our fourth option named Layer. I will explain the most important, the rest are self explainable.

These options are the basics. You can create New Layers, Folders, etc.

Layer properties and style; I would suggest viewing the Blending Options tutorial for further information in this section.

New Adjustment Layer; the most important here, lets us add diverse types of options to our layers. I Suggest you play around with it.

These options let us flatten our document into one layer or merge various layers into one.

Matting - This special tool lets us Defringe an image or take out the black and or white Matte from an image.

5. The Select Menu

Our fifth option is Select. I will explain the most important, the rest are self explainable.

Color Range - A really powerful lighting tool that lets us select highlights of a 3D image in this 2D program, lets us give different colors selected. This menu contains basic tools such as, Expand, Border, Contract, and Smooth.

6. The Filter Menu

Our Sixth option is Filter. I will just show you the menu because these effects are self explainable. These effects can be added to objects or rasterized layers. Although many have different restrictions.

7. The View Menu

Seventh option is View. These options are more based of the point of view of the program itself.

8. The Window Menu

And our Eighth option is Window.

Window
These options are all based on the interface, on the pallets located on the right side. If you wish to learn more about this I suggest you look over the Pallets tutorial.

That covers this walk through, I hope it was a good introduction to the tools you will be using constantly.