Hi Thomas. This is a piece of cake if I was using the pen tool and turning my path into a selection. True. You might try a hybrid scheme like I use. I create photo montages all the time using the Quick Select Tool. I've done thousands. I refine the edge with an action. (One of a suite of actions I use for this work.) It smooths the the selection and then converts it to a path then a vector mask, which can be edited with the Direct Selection Tool (A). This elimates the feathered selections. And I don't have to draw the whole path with the Pen Tool. About half the time I need to adjust the mask. The other times rest, it's good as is. Depends on the contrast with the background. I use a Tolerance of 2 px most of the time when converting from a selection to a path. This varies with the circumstance. Something to think about in addition to mastering Refine Edge. One other cheat I've learned. A barely perceptible amount of Bevel/Emboss and/or maybe Drop Shadow with the light aligned correctly can do wonders on troublesome edges when composing images. Quicker than perfecting the edge. Mileage varies according to content. Refining edges and composing is as much  Black Art as Science. The best tools and methods will depend very much on the content of the images and exactly what you're trying to do with them. I realize you are focusing on mastering the Refine Edge tool, and of course that's good strategy and time well spent. I run CS3, and Refine Edge isn't as spiffy as in CS5, so not as useful. FWIW. Peace, Lee ... View more

Hi. I second Mylenium's emotion. I've been using Logitech programmable mice for 10 years. Currently I'm using the MX Revolution (wireless). Still working after 5 years of heavy use. My previous Logitech mouse was still working fine after 6 years, but didn't like Vista when I got a new computer. I have big hands, and the MX is a good fit. Righties only, sadly. It's big, heavy, and stable. It has a built in rechargeable battery, which I was leery of at first. But the battery last a long, long time, and it has never been an issue. It recharges in a cradle, and fast, which is good. It's programmable, the most important feature to me. It has more programmable toggles and buttons than I use, but the ones I do use are golden. In addition to the normal mouse functions in their normal places, I have Shft, Ctrl, & Enter under my index finger. My thumb accesses Alt, Ctrl+Alt, & Ctrl+Alt+Shft under my thumb. The result being my right hand never leaves the mouse, and my left hand works the keyboard. It's fast and efficient, even when I don't know where I'm going. If that sounds too geeky, just program couple of buttons. The new MX is still $100 and is supposed to work with Mac OS® X 10.4 or later. I know some folks like to keep it simple. Even if you don't program it, it's still a big, heavy, comfortable mouse with great performance. A critical element in my mousing nirvana is the gel filled wrist pad. It reduces fatigue and the chance of carpel tunnel and such. And just as important, it stabilizes my wrist so my hand movements are more sure. The speed of the mouse is a factor too. My mouse is set to "Fast", with moderate "Acceleration". This way I can reach the whole screen without moving my wrist or lifting the mouse. Saves time and fatigue. And of course a good chair set at the right height and the desk at the right height help. FWIW. Peace, Lee (Logitech Marketing Dept: You know where to send the check.) ... View more

Hi. If I understand you right (I probably don't), this may help. Record an Action: 1. Ctrl+O. Opens browser. Select the desired file. 2. Ctrl+A. Selects canvas. 3. Ctrl+T. Transform Tool. In the toolbar, top left, set to relative positioning (click on the little triangle), set the desired shift in the X axis box. Enter. 4. Ctrl+S. Save or Save As, whichever you need. Steps 1, 3, and 4 should be set as Conditional steps. Check the box to the immediate left of the step. A conditional step stops for you to OK or change settings before you continue. To prompt a user, insert a Stop before the step. In the Actions fly out menu, click on Stop to insert the Stop into the  action. Type instructions in the field, check Allow Continue, OK. Put a stop before each step you think needs explaining. FWIW. Peace, Lee ... View more

Hi Noel. Happy New Year! Omar is looking for 10 pixels of transparency between the perimeter of the photo and the 1px border. I think.  Lee ... View more

Hi Omar. Border is the problem. From the Help files: For example, a border width of 20 pixels creates a new, soft-edged selection that extends 10 pixels inside the original selection border and 10 pixels outside it.   (Italics mine.) Apparently, Border is designed to remove halos. Hence the soft selection. See below. Note the row of semi transparent pixels. Oops! Below is the result using my original suggestion, Contract 1px, Invert Selection, Fill. This yields a clean 1px border. Try the original recipe and see what you get. Lee ... View more

Hi Omar. Very nice results! Automation one of the best things Ps has going for it. Well worth spending a little time investigating its potential. Which is awesome. Me, not so much. But I do appreciate a pat on the head as much as the next dog. Glad to help. Peace, Lee ... View more

Hi Omar. 5. Contract Selection:  Menu>Select>Modify>Contract You could set this up a little more simply if all the images were the same size. But this approach will add 10px of transparency and a 1px stroke to any size image. I'm not smart enought to do a "hack". But I don't mind kludging. But hack, kludge, or stroke of genius, it doesn't matter. Record it as an action, set you actions to Button Mode, and one click does it. Or you can run the action on dozens of images in a batch. If you find a more elegant solution, get back to us. Peace, Lee ... View more

Hi Omar. You can't go wrong with Kurts suggestion. But could get tedious on multiple images. There are multiple ways to accomplish this in Ps. Here is another that is suitable for automation, in case you have more than one image. 1. Duplicate Layer (Ctrl+J) - Isolates image for following step. 2. Canvas Size (Ctrl+Alt+C) : Relative, centered. W:+22, H=+22 - Creates expanded canvas.10px(gap) + 1px (stroke)= 11px, times 2 to cover the top and bottom & both sides. 3. Delete background layer-Leaves the image over the expanded transparent canvas. The following steps apply the stroke at the perimeter. 4. Select Canvas (Ctrl+A) 5. Contract Selection: 1px 6. Invert selection (Ctrl+Shft+I) Now you have 1 px selection at the perimeter of the image. 7. Fill selection with white. This should leave your image, a 10px transparent gap, then a 1px white stroke on one layer. Ready to export as Png. I don't know about elegant, but this is a pretty mainstream approach that works for one image or recorded as an action. FWIW. Peace, Lee ... View more

Hi. It looks like to get into Camera Raw with a jpg or tif I'd have to go through Bridge.  In your File Handling Preferences, File Compatibility,  you could tic "Prefer Adobe Camera Raw for JPG Files". At least JPGs would open directly in ACR. I got nothin for TIFFs or layers. FWIW. Peace, Lee ... View more

Hi, Noel. I've got one of those wacky brains (as if it wasn't obvious). And I'm partially color blind.  And the same problem with traffic lights. I have to be careful about the colors I choose for my buttons. And you're right, too many buttons is as bad as not enough. That's why I just run one row. And I only use the top half  of that row routinely. Maybe ten buttons. But if they were real buttons, they'd be worn out by now. And after a while, my mouse hand gets trained to the button position and the colors are less important. And those ten buttons save me tons of time. But I was never suggesting anyone should operate with half their screen covered with action buttons. Even I'm not that wacky. You have hit the nail on the head as to the drawbacks to this scheme. Since the buttons are ultimately identified by text, there is a limit to how small they can be. So they're too big. The palette takes up a lot of room. An icon would be smaller and easier to identify too. I was sure you knew about Button Mode, so I was a little mystified about your previous post. Your last post solved the mystery. And now everyone knows more about two wacky brains than they want to know.  Peace, Lee ... View more

Hi, Noel. Thanks! When you're lazy, you gotta do something.  So far as the custom button goes, it's already on my primary toolbar. I run my Actions Palette in Button Mode. It's like the regular toolbar only better. It's a toolbar on steriods. Below is my workspace. My Actions are bottom right and set to Button Mode. As you an see, it dominates the workspace. It's my most important palette after the Layers Palette. I use use it constantly. Below is a closer look at a section of the actions. Most of them perform routine tasks, and replace two or three clicks with one. Some are complicated, but it doesn't matter. It's a button now. Click on it, and it goes. You can see they are grouped and color coded by similar function. You can also see the new Crop Layer Tool has been added to the yellow cluster. Actions can perform long complicated sequences, but they really shine when put to work doing little things you do a lot.  You can have different sets of buttons for different types of projects. You can rearrange them and color them to suit your needs. Including reshaping and resizing the palette. Below is my palette expanded to show all the actions. All invoked by one click. Below is the palette set to different  configurations. Dragging right or left adds or removes columns. Up or down removes or adds rows. Anyway, in terms of function, the Actions Palette in Button Mode is a toolbar. And you can add as many buttons as you want to it. Noel, as usual, my demo was geared to the full gamut of Forum users. But I'd like to thank you personally for your numerous contributions. I've learned a lot. Hey JJ: I didn't notice the marching ant thing. I never tried the action on a layer that extended beyond all four sides. Fortunately, it's immaterial to the action. Peace, Lee ... View more

Hi, emil emil. I crop the selected layer by making a selection, pressing Ctrl + J to create a new layer with the selected pixels, and then deleting the original layer. I'm a big fan of Ctrl+J. And like you, I'm finicky about extra steps. I got tired of deleting the original layer and deleting "copy" from the end of the new layer name.  Being lazy like I am, I made an action to do it in one click. It is below. As you can see the first step is your trusty Ctrl+J. In fact, this action was the starting point for the Crop Layer action above. 1. Ctrl+J   Copies the selection to a new layer. 2. Alt+[     Selects the source layer. 3. Ctrl+T   Transforms the layer, scale 1%. Why? Instead of deleting the layer, we are going to merge the copy down into it to preserve the name. But if there are pixels lurking outside of the canvas, they will be retained. Transforming to 1% insures all the pixels will be within the canvas for the next steps. 4. Ctrl+A   Selects the canvas. 5. Deletes the pixels. Now there are no pixels outside the canvas. 6. Alt+]     Selects the copy layer. 7. Ctrl+E   Merges the copy down, retaining the original name. I showed all the keyboard shortcuts because when recording actions, it is best to avoid using your mouse when you can. Actions won't record many mouse events. And in the case of selecting layers, selecting a layer with the mouse records the layer name. And it won't run on a layer with a different name. So it's useless. Unless you are only going to use it on layers with that name in the correct stacking order and state. (Of course, you can use your mouse to make menu selections. But there are a few that won't record. But you can add them using Add Menu Item in the Actions flyout menu.) Anyway emil, I know you are an experienced user. I made my reply so detailed for the benefit of any less experienced users who might be interested. FWIW. Peace, Lee acresofgreen: Thanks for confirming the practical utility of the action. Mike: Thanks for prompting me to do something about a little thing that had been annoying me for a while. ... View more

Howdy. acresofgreen: It seems to me that you are not asking HOW to crop a layer, but suggesting a new program feature which would add that functionality to the crop tool's repertoire. I agree. And like Noel I think I understand where the OP is coming from. When you use the Marquee Tool to make a selection, inverting the selection and deleting is fine, except that unlike the Crop Tool, the Marquee Tool will not let you adjust the selection once you release the mouse. To adjust it, you have to select Transform Selection. Furthermore, any layer pixels extending beyond the canvas are not deleted, which could cause problems later. These are little things, but they add up. So I think a feature request is a good idea. And it might not  affect the legacy behavior of any tool. In the meantime, you can make your own Crop Layer Tool. It uses a simple action. A layer mask is created, adjusted, and applied. When invoked, the action adds the mask, unlinks the mask,  and chooses the Transform Tool. Then it pauses for you to make your crop. The first thing you see looks pretty much like Crop Tool. Except that the boundary of the layer is selected instead of the canvas. Note that the layer mask is selected. Drag it just like the Crop Tool. You are transforming the mask, which crops the layer. And you see a live preview, effects and all. When satisfied, hit Enter to accept the crop. The action then applies the mask. The result is below. The layer has been cropped. With Actions in Button Mode and a keyboard shortcut assigned, the Tool/Action is accessed with as much ease and used the same as the Image Crop Tool. Below is the action. How to make the action. Start recording. 1. Ctrl+Click on the layer thumbnail. 2. Click on the Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the layers palette. 3. Click on the link between mask and layer thumbs to release the link. 4. Select the Transfrom Tool (Ctrl+T). The layer mask should still be selected. Drag boundary to a new position. Doesn't matter where. It will need to be reset after the action is recorded. Hit enter. 5. Right Click on layer mask thumbnail and select Apply Layer Mask. Stop recording. Now go back to step 4, Transform. Set it to conditional (highlighted above). This will make it stop so you can make your crop. Next, double click on the command. This will select the Transform Tool. In the options bar set the scale percentages highlighted below to 100%, This is necessary because Actions won't record a null transformation. But once recorded, you can reset to the original state. And if the mask isn't at 100% we won't see the whole layer when the action stops for the crop. This may sound like a lot, but it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to set up the action following the above instructions. And for that small investment, you have a Layer Crop Tool which works just like any other tool. You select it with the mouse or keyboard shortcut, make your adjustment, then hit enter. FWIW. Peace, Lee ... View more

Howdy. You don't have to be a mechanic to drive a car, but it can't hurt to look under the hood and see what's going on. Below is a graphic showing the mathematical nuts and bolts of a simple Bezier Curve and how it all relates to Ps and Illy paths. The Pen Tool creates the path like this: Click down positions the first anchor point and sets the value of P0. Drag and release positions the handle and sets the value of P1. Click down again positions the other anchor and sets the value of P3. Drag and release positions the handle and sets the value of P2. Then Ps or Illy calculates B(t) and renders the path. Complex paths are accumulations of simple paths like the one above. The P0 of one path segment will be the P3 of the adjacent path segment. When you modify this path by using the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) to drag handle P1, B(t) is recalculated using the new value and the path is rendered. Same thing happens when you move an anchor point. When you modify the path by dragging the path itself with the white arrow, you are changing the value of B(t). The new value is used to recalculate P1 and P2, the handles, and they move to their new positions. And that's the mathematical basis of vector graphics in a nutshell. Don't get me started on meshes. Peace, Lee ... View more

Howdy. Vectorphobia is a curable disease. But you have to cure yourself. The best cure is to grab vectors by the throat and not let go until until you're in charge. I'm a long time Ps user, but have only begun to learn Illustrator in the last year. The Illy interface can be daunting, even to a Ps pro. Similar to Ps but a little klunkier, with pagan symols everywhere. But the underlying principal is very simple. You draw a line, which is called a path, and do stuff to it. You can make lots of lines in lots of shapes and do different stuff to each of them. That's it. Semaphoric rightly points out that the initial tracing I did in Illy could have just as easily been done in Ps with the Pen tool. The basic vector tools work pretty much the same in both. Both are based on a chunk of math called Bezier Curves, which is the core of almost all vector graphics programs. Check out Bezier Curves on Wikipedia for a really helpful look at what's going on behind the curtain. And Semaphoric is also spot on to note that what Ps and Illy do with the same vector paths is quite different. The way Ps handles paths can be disconcerting. And if you're not already familiar with paths, this can lead to vectorphobia. Doing paths in Illy is pretty intuitive, once you get over the shock of being in a world with no pixels. The vector world is actually pretty simple. The issue with vectors in Ps is that they are shackled to the pixel world. This complicates things. But the vector tools in Ps are very powerful. And if you are a Ps user, you are short changing yourself if you don't master them. Noel: It's obvious you love to solve problems, and Illy would give you a new world of problems to solve. You'd be a natural. Just say "No" to vectorphobia. Peace, Lee ... View more

Howdy. Is it just me or did this used to be a lot easier in earlier versions of PS? It's not just you. It's pretty easy in CS3. The screenshot is after Ctrl+A has been applied. The Contract command is still active. And the selection will not be feathered. According to MTSTUNER's link (thank you), CS3 is the only version that will do this. Sometimes it's good to be behind the curve. Maybe the referenced script will fix you up. I don't know anything about scripts, but I do know a little about actions. So out of curiousity, I hacked together an action which should work in CS5. It's based on expanding the canvas, contracting the selection, then cropping back to the original size. It looks like a long way to go to accomplish something so simple, but Ps does it all in the blink of an eye. 1. Merge Visible (Ctl+Alt+Shft).  This creates a proxy for the original image size after the canvas is enlarged. This layer will be deleted at the end of the action. . 2. Canvas Size. I set it to 105% in both axis. The percentage doesn't matter, as long as it's more than 100. The point it to get the canvas border away from the proxy border. 3. Set Selection. Ctl +Click on the thumbnail on the proxy layer. This will select the perimeter of the proxy layer, which is the same as the original canvas. 4. Contract. Menu>Select>Modify>Contract. Enter the number of pixels. This can be changed later. As you can see in the screen shot above, I have made this a conditional action. It will stop here for you to approve or change the settings. When you hit enter, the action continues. 5. Layer Via Copy. This layer preserves the contracted selection. It's really being used as a channel. This layer will also be deleted at the end of the action. 6. Set Selection. Ctl+Click on the thumbnail for the Merge Visible layer from step 1. 7. Crop. Menu>Image>Crop. The image is now the original size. 8. Set Selection. Ctl+Click on the layer thumbnail created in step 5. You should now be looking at the contracted selection. We're done, except for a little housecleaning below. 9. Delete. Delete the top layer, which should be the contracted channel. (This doesn't affect the selection.) 10. Delete. Delete the top layer, which should be the Stamp Visible layer. Now we're back where we started, but we have a contracted selection. Stop Recording. It may look ridiculous on paper, but it works like a charm, so far as I've tested it. And the beauty of actions is you only have to make them once. No matter how much trouble they are. Once the action is made, it's quick and easy to use. Just click on the action button. The contract pixel dialog box appears. OK or change and OK, and you're done. The selection appears at the desired location, and is not feathered. In practice, the only downside is you get a few extra history states. You get where you're going, and you get there quick. So quick no one will notice you got there via Paris, London, and El Paso. I'm not 100% sure this will work in CS5, as I've never laid eyes on it, but the issue seems to be that when the selection touches the canvas border, Contract Selection is not available. Nowhere in the action does a selection touch the canvas border, so it should work the same as it does in my CS3. If you're interested in testing it, I can send you the Droplet, or you can create it from scratch using the instructions above. Anyway, that's all I got, and it could all be wrong. Peace, Lee ... View more

Howdy. I can't say which is best, but I like  the Visual Quickstart Guide from Peachpit Press. I have it for Photoshop and Illustrator. As the title states, it's for a quick start. A concise description of every tool and option, with simple, easy to follow instructions with screen shots. I have Photoshop CS3, and have well over 10,000 hrs in Ps and have several newer Ps books. But my tattered old Visual Quickstart Guide for Ps 6 is still my first resource when questions arise. So far as Illustrator goes, I'm only about 100 hours into it, and so far, so good. But it could be just be a case of ignorance is bliss. Mike has thoughtfully posted the link for Peachpit Press above. You can check it out yourself. Peace, Lee P.S. Here's a direct link to the guide for Illustrator. ... View more