Getting Started
Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 13 delivers image-editing tools that balance power and versatility with ease of use. Whether you’re a home user or hobbyist, a professional photographer or a business user, Photoshop Elements 13 makes it easy to produce good-looking pictures, share your stories in sophisticated creations for both print and web, and manage and safeguard your precious photos.
If you’ve used an earlier version of Photoshop Elements, you’ll find that this Classroom in a Book® will teach you advanced skills and provide an introduction to the many new and improved features in this version. If you’re new to Adobe Photoshop Elements, you’ll learn the fundamental concepts and techniques that will help you master the application.
About Classroom in a Book
Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 Classroom in a Book is part of the official training series for Adobe graphics and publishing software, developed with the support of Adobe product experts. Each lesson is made up of a series of self-paced projects that will give you hands-on experience using Photoshop Elements 13.
See “Accessing the Classroom in a Book files” on the next page for detailed instructions on downloading the sample photographs and other resources used for the lessons in Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 Classroom in a Book.
What’s new in this edition
This edition covers many new features in Adobe Photoshop Elements 13, including enhancements to the Quick edit mode, advanced content-aware tools, and mobile albums that enable you to access all of the photos in your Photoshop Elements library on your smartphone or tablet, wherever you are.
New exercises will show you how easy it is to combine elements from two photographs using the new Photomerge Compose tool, make better selections with the new Refine Selection Brush tool, easily create profile pictures for your Facebook page, and put together a slide show in the dramatically revamped (and now Mac-compatible) Slideshow Builder.
Prerequisites
Before you begin the lessons in this book, make sure that you and your computer are ready by following the tips and instructions on the next few pages.
Requirements on your computer
You’ll need about 900 MB of free space on your hard disk—around 400 MB for the lesson files and up to 550 MB for the work files that you’ll create as you work through the exercises.
Required skills
The lessons in this book assume that you have a working knowledge of your computer and its operating system. Make sure that you know how to use the mouse and the standard menus and commands, and also how to open, save, and close files. Can you scroll (vertically and horizontally) within a window to see content that may not be visible in the displayed area? Do you know how to use context menus, which open when you right-click (Windows)/Control-click (Mac OS) items?
Note
In this book, the forward slash character ( / ) is used to separate equivalent terms and commands for Windows/Mac OS, in the order shown here.
If you need to review these basic and generic computer skills, see the documentation included with your Microsoft® Windows® or Apple® Mac® OS X software.
Installing Adobe Photoshop Elements 13
Before you begin the lessons in Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 Classroom in a Book, make sure that your system is set up correctly and that you’ve installed the required software and hardware. You must purchase the Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 software separately.
For system requirements and instructions for downloading, installing, and setting up the software, refer to the topics listed under the header “Installation and troubleshooting” at http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements.html.
Accessing the Classroom in a Book files
In order to work through the exercises in this book, you’ll need to download the sample image files and other resources from your Account page at peachpit.com.
You can either download the entire Lessons folder before you begin, or download the files for individual lessons as you need them. Keep the lesson files on your computer until you’ve completed all the exercises.
Your Account page is also where you’ll find any updates to the lessons or to the work files. Look on the Lesson & Update Files tab to access the most current content.
Downloading the Lesson files
1. Point your web browser to www.peachpit.com/redeem, and enter the code found at the back of this book. If you don’t yet have a peachpit.com account, follow the prompts to create one.
2. Click the Lesson & Update Files tab on your Account page to see a list of downloadable files. Click the links to download either the entire Lessons folder or the work folders for individual lessons to your computer.
The files are compressed into Zip archives to speed up download time and to protect the contents from damage during transfer. You must uncompress (or “unzip”) the files to restore them to their original size and format before you use them with the book. Modern Mac and Windows systems are set up to open Zip archives by simply double-clicking.
3. Create a new folder named PSE13CIB inside the username/My Documents (Windows) or username/Documents (Mac OS) folder on your computer.
4. If you downloaded the entire Lessons folder, drag the downloaded folder into the PSE13CIB folder on your hard disk. If you downloaded the work folder for an individual lesson, first create a Lessons folder inside the PSE13CIB folder; then, drag the downloaded and unzipped folder to your PSE13CIB/Lessons folder.
Note
The sample images are provided for your personal use with this book. You are not authorized to use these files commercially, or to publish or distribute them in any form without written permission from Adobe Systems, Inc. and the individual photographers or other copyright holders.
Creating a work folder
Now you need to create a folder for the work files that you’ll produce as you work through the lessons in this book.
1. In Windows Explorer (Windows)/the Finder (Mac OS), open the Lessons folder inside the new PSE13CIB folder on your hard disk.
2. Choose File > New > Folder (Windows)/File > New Folder (Mac OS). A new folder is created inside the Lessons folder. Type My CIB Work as the name for the new folder.
Note
In this book, the forward arrow character (>) is used to denote submenus and commands found in the menu bar at the top of the workspace or in context and options menus; for example, Menu > Submenu > Command. The forward slash character ( / ) is used to separate equivalent keyboard shortcuts and commands for Windows/Mac OS, in the order shown here.
Creating an Adobe ID
When you install Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 (Mac OS) or launch the program for the first time (Windows), you’ll be asked to create an Adobe ID to register your product online.
If you were offline and skipped this step, Photoshop Elements will prompt you at startup. You can take advantage of one of these opportunities, or register from the Photoshop Elements Editor by choosing Help > Sign In.
Creating an Adobe ID is free and only takes a minute. Your Adobe ID will streamline your customer support experience, for example making it easy to make new purchases or to retrieve a lost serial number.
With an Adobe ID, you’ll also be able to log in to community forums and user groups and get full access to free trial downloads, hundreds of free product extensions, members-only white papers and downloads, and more.
About catalog files
Photoshop Elements stores information about your images in a library catalog file, which enables you to conveniently manage the photos on your computer. The catalog file is a central concept in understanding how Photoshop Elements works. Photoshop Elements doesn’t actually “import” your images at all; for each image you import, Photoshop Elements simply creates a new entry in the catalog that is linked to the source file, wherever it is stored. Whenever you assign a tag or a rating to a photo, or group images as an album, the catalog file is updated. All the work you put into organizing your growing photo library is recorded in the catalog.
As well as digital photographs, a catalog can include video and audio files, scans, PDF documents, and any presentations and layouts you might create in Photoshop Elements, such as slide shows, photo collages, and CD jacket designs.
The first time you launch Photoshop Elements, it automatically creates a default catalog file (named My Catalog) on your hard disk. Although a single catalog can efficiently handle thousands of files, you can also establish separate catalogs for different purposes if that’s the way you prefer to work.
In the first lesson in this book, you’ll create and load a new, dedicated catalog into which you’ll import the lesson’s sample images. In this way, it will be easy to keep your own photo library separate from your lesson files.
In the first three lessons, you’ll learn a number of different ways to add files to your catalog, together with a variety of techniques for tagging, marking, and organizing your images, and for sorting and searching your catalog. You’ll be able to practice these new skills when you import lesson files to your Classroom in a Book catalog at the beginning of each chapter.
Additional resources
Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 Classroom in a Book is not intended to replace the documentation that comes with the program or to be a comprehensive reference for every feature. Only the commands and options used in the lessons are explained in this book. For comprehensive information about program features and tutorials, please refer to these resources:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 Learn and Support Point your browser to http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements.html, where you can find hands-on tutorials, Help, answers to common questions, troubleshooting information and more.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 product home page www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements.html
Photoshop Elements Forums forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop_elements lets you tap into peer-to-peer discussions as well as questions and answers on Adobe products.
Adobe TV tv.adobe.com is an online video resource for expert instruction and inspiration about Adobe products, including a How To channel to get you started with your product.
Resources for educators www.adobe.com/education.edu.html and edex.adobe.com offer a treasure trove of information for instructors who teach classes on Adobe software. Find solutions for education at all levels, including free curricula that use an integrated approach to teaching Adobe software and can be used to prepare for the Adobe Certified Associate exams.
Free trial versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 and Adobe Premiere Elements 13 The trial version of the software is fully functional and offers every feature of the product for you to test-drive. To download your free trial version, go to www.adobe.com/downloads.html.