Sunday, May 1, 2011

Some basics

Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for image manipulation. The latest version launched is CS6

Photoshop is a raster-based software ie. the software manipulates the pixels of a digital image. When you edit a picture in Photoshop, you are editing the pixels (picture elements) of that picture.

To work efficiently with Photoshop one should be familiar with some basic points in digital graphics.

1. Color mode :  The color modes that are frequently used are RGB & CMYK. RGB stands for Red-Green-Blue. CMYK stands for Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black.
Which color mode to use? 

  • RGB mode is used for Web graphics, Photo printing , Mobile and Film & Video.
  • CMYK mode is used for commercial printing (Offset/ Four color printing eg: Magazines, Books, Newspaper)

Other color modes available are Grayscale, LAB, HSB etc.

2. Resolution : This is another term that is simple yet confusing for beginners. Resolution says how many pixels are present in an inch. The unit of resolution is ppi (Pixels Per Inch) In simple words we can say:

  • Resolution for Web graphics, mobile, film & Video is  72 ppi. ( Monitor resolution is 72 ppi)
  • Resolution for commercial printing is 300 ppi.

Resolutions other than the above mentioned is used in exceptional cases.
Dpi is a similar term, dpi stands for dots per inch - in Printers.