photoshop is a great program and very complicated. if you’ve just started working with photoshop, you’ll find that getting things done with this app takes a lot more time than you imagined. but on the other hand, when you pay attention to a little more professional people, you see them doing the same things at a much faster rate. in fact, there are many ways to speed up work with photoshop that you can use. in this article, we will mention a few of these methods.
How to make photoshop faster
In general, Photoshop adapts itself to the computer you’re working with. When the software was first released in 1990, its old computers were used to work with Photoshop, and there was no problem running the software. Of course, the initial versions of the software were not as complex and ability as they were. Even computers a few years ago, such as the MacBook Air in 2012, can run this software relatively well. However, there are a few simple settings that will make the performance of this software even better by modifying them.
If you’re using Windows, follow edit > Preferences > Performance path in Photoshop. If you’re a Mac user, it’s no different, and Photoshop > Preferences find > Performance.
In the “Memory Usage” section, you can control the amount of RAM used by Photoshop. In general, a higher amount of RAM means better performance of the program. But be careful not to leave some RAM empty for other software and operating system functions.
But the main thing is that most of what Photoshop does requires CPU power. In some cases, the graphics card can speed up these tasks. So, select the “Use Graphics Processor” button. On the page that opens as “Advanced Graphics Processor Settings”, under the “Drawing Mode” subset, select “Advanced”. With this choice, Photoshop will be allowed to use your graphics card processor as much as you need.
Below this page, you will also see the Use OpenCL option. OpenCL relates to your GPU, and choosing it can perform some functions and tasks more quickly. Therefore, tick this option as well.
There is another section titled “History and Cache”. This section controls the amount of information that Photoshop stores in your RAM. You’ll see 3 buttons in this section. Each of them has a special function. But the best option is to leave the job to Photoshop itself to adjust the settings to suit the hardware features of your PC/laptop.
On the bottom right of the page, you’ll see 3 options: “History State”, “Cache Level” and “Cache Tile Size”. History State relates to the number of history records. That is, you can restore the operation to control +Z several times. Increasing the cache levels and reducing the cache tiles will make it faster to move photos and zoom in. But the initial opening of each image will take more time than you.
after each of these changes is done, you must open and close photoshop once to apply them.
learn the shortcuts to photoshop
the number of menus and subsets of menus in photoshop is huge. along with all these menus, we need to add different tools and panels. in fact, when working with photoshop, you’ll spend about 90 percent of your time clicking on different parts of the page.
the easiest way to speed up working with photoshop is to learn shortcuts in this software. too many shortcuts are defined for photoshop, which can multiply your design and editing speed. let’s make it clearer or an example.
Imagine you want to draw a black circle on an empty layer. If we want to use the mouse, we first need to go to the right and the bottom of the screen and create a new layer. Then we need to click on the Brush icon and adjust the properties. Finally, we need to click on the color palette and select the black color. The black circle can then be painted.
as you can see, includes a lot of clicks.
on the other hand, use shortcuts and do all this at a much faster rate. pay attention to the following sequence:
- Press Control + Shift + N (on PC) or Command + Shift + N (on Mac) to create a new layer.
- Tap B to select the Brush tool.
- 0 to set the optacity to 100%.
- Press Shift +] to set the hardness to 100%.
- TAP D TO SELECT THE DEFAULT FONT COLOR (1 BLACK AND 2 WHITE).
as you can see, doing something that could take about 30 seconds using the mouse and require several clicks in different parts of photoshop was done quickly in just a few seconds with a few keyboard buttons.
The only way to learn and master shortcuts in Photoshop is to practice them. Try to use them as long as possible. In the first days, it may be time-consuming to think about these combinations and use them and take even more time than clicking. But after a few repetitions and exercises, you dominate them, and your efficiency increases. Adobe Photoshop has many shortcuts that you can see in the list of Photoshop shortcuts published on Adobe’s website. To get started, just start by learning the ones that are most commonly used for you. It is also interesting to know that the shortcuts to each of the options and menus are also listed in the Photoshop menu and in front of their names.
just hold the mouse cursors on each menu slightly to display the shortcut.
learning shortcuts may be a little difficult at first. but they are definitely worth learning and using.
create your own preferred work environment
photoshop is a very comprehensive software and can be used for a variety of purposes. if you’re a photographer, there are hundreds of different tools embedded in this software that can be useful for you, but you probably still don’t know they’re even there. if you’re a designer, you probably won’t need any of the tools that photographers use on a daily basis. therefore, the working environment of each person can be different.
Photoshop’s default environment includes the most popular and widely used tools. This environment is known as “Essentials”. The Essentials environment may be useful for people who have no fully specialized use of Photoshop and need a variety of widely used tools.
If you click the Workspace button (located at the top right), you’ll see different workspaces prepared by default. These include “Essentials – Essential Tools” “Graphic and Web”, “Photography – Photography”, “Painting – Painting and Drawing”, “Motion – Motion Making” and “3D – 3D”. In each of these work environments, the layout of panels and available tools are designed with the aim of the best performance for that particular purpose.
If you feel that none of these work environments are perfectly suited to you, it’s best to use the New Workspace option to build your own personalized work environment.
In this case, you can move panels and tools by drag/drop.
To remove each panel, right-click on the top bar and select Close. You can also use the Close Tab Group option to close all tabs and subsets of that panel.
To add a new panel, use the Window menu (in the top menu of the Photoshop page).
After all your personalizations have been completed, click New Workspace and save your personal work environment.
Create your own action
photoshop software includes an interesting and powerful set of automated tools that can be very useful for daily routine tasks.
For example, you may have a specific template for your website images. For example, you want all of them to be up to 650 pixels long and have a 1-pixel black border around all of them. It’s very time-consuming for every single image to do this. So, it’s best to make action for it.
Photoshop actions save a set of commands and run them automatically and in a row. Therefore, by clicking on the action in question, the length of the photo is immediately resized to 650 pixels and a 1-pixel black margin is created around the photo. Now, all we have to do is save the photo! Imagine how much this can save you time!
Of course, you should keep in mind that you can’t automate all your work processes and procedures using Photoshop actions. Actions are only consistent with explicit tools and limited options. For example, in an action, you can’t write anything on a photo using a brush. However, using them to speed up routine tasks can be great. Adjust color and contrast and … Features like this can be another possible application of your desired action.
the following are some of the things you can do using photoshop actions:
- Create new Adjustment layers (adjust light and color, etc.)
- Resize, save or crop images
- add new elements to the photo and change their position
- Combine multiple photos with each other and build a Collage
- add special effects and filters (such as black and white)
to create an action, you must first be completely fluent in your work and know-how to divide this workflow into different stages and automate them. just like learning shortcuts in photoshop, creating actions can save you a long time.
make a graphic tablet
if your work with photoshop involves painting or selecting and adjusting too many layers, you’ll know how hard and time-consuming it can be to use the mouse. using a variety of optical pens and suitable designs can be a good choice for you. these pens have a significant impact on your design speed. but it’s much harder to do some things (e.g. drawing a smooth line or using some tools) using these fonts.
a graphical tablet is a peripheral device that replaces your mouse with a touch pen and tablet. this equipment gives you more control over doing some things. of course, it may be even more difficult for beginners to use it. but if you’re a professional and you’re going to speed up and become more professional about working with photoshop, consider using such equipment.
practice!
working with photoshop may be very time-consuming. clicking menus and finding different tools will take the most time, so no matter how good you use this software and be proficient in it, there won’t be much change in your speed until you optimize your workflow. learning and using shortcut clicks, making actions, and optimizing the working environment of the software can have a significant impact on the speed of working with photoshop.
source: howtogeek
