Suitcase Fusion 3 User Guide for Mac OS - Extensis

Photoshop tips
There are a number of options in Photoshop that can make it easier to work with type in general, and with the
Extensis Font Panel in particular.
The Layers panel
Much of Photoshop’s versatility comes from its ability to work with art, type, and special effects on multiple
layers within a document. As far as type layers are concerned, the Layers panel lets you:
• Quickly identify the selected layer (the selected layer is highlighted in the panel)
• Select a different layer (by clicking on it in the panel)
• Ensure that the selected layer is a Type layer (Type layers have the icon in the panel)
To display the Layers panel, choose Window > Layers.
Transform controls
While typically used to reshape or resize objects, the transform controls in Photoshop also show you the
boundaries of an object, which can sometimes be difficult to determine with text blocks.
The transform controls appear as a thin black line surrounding the object, with resize handles and a transform
reference point.
To show the transform controls, select the Move tool , then check Show Transform Controls in the options
bar.
NOTE: If you use the Transform controls in Photoshop to resize a text block, the text will be resized to match the
new proportions of the box. If you instead want to just resize the text box itself, choose the Type tool, click
within the box, and use the controls to resize the text box without changing the size or shape of the text.
Layer auto-select
By default, clicking within the Photoshop document window has no effect on which layer is selected. You can
change this behavior so that, when you click on an object with the Move tool, that object’s layer is selected.
This makes it easy to select a layer visually when you can’t necessarily distinguish it using the Layers panel.
To enable layer auto-select, select the Move tool, check Auto-Select in the options bar, then choose Layer
from the Auto-Select pop-up menu.
The Character panel
The Character panel lets you change font, style, size, color, and many other type properties either for selected
text, or for an entire type layer.
This is useful because the options panel in Photoshop only displays some of the available type options, and then
only when the Type tool is selected.
Choose Window > Character to display the Character panel.
- 70 -