Opening a File/Creating a New File

It is most likely that first time users of Photoshop will be starting with an image, say a photo that they need to alter or edit. In this case, you have two options:

First, you can open the image from the Photoshop file menu. It will be opened in the format it was saved in, so in order to work with it in photoshop (beyond just resizing or cropping), you'll need to save it as a .psd file (this will also ensure that you do not ruin your original image should you need to revert to it). In essence it will become a .psd file as soon as you add an additional layer, and will save as such when you save it.

Another method for getting an image into photoshop is to copy and paste it into a new file in the application. This is especially useful for saving and altering webgraphics or screenshots.

The "New File" dialog

Once the image is copied to the clipboard, go to Photoshop and select new from the file menu. A new file dialog will appear asking you to name the file, choose the size, resolution, colormode, and background. The image size (in pixels) will automatically reflect the size of the image copied to the clipboard. Choose CMYK if this graphic is to be used in print, or RGB for the web. For background, choose transparent (this can always be changed later).

Now that we have an open photoshop document, we can begin to use some of the basic photoshop tools. The next chapter of this tutorial will outline these various tools.