A fairly large number of operations performed in graphic programs require preliminary visual selection of an image fragment, dividing a photo into zones, or drawing a stimulating straight line to place objects. Guides in Photoshop exist just for that. These lines greatly facilitate the work in the program, increase the speed of work, make it more accurate.
Later in the article, we will tell you about how to enable guides in Photoshop. We will not ignore how to use them.
What does the guide look like?
In any version of Photoshop, the guide lines - These are thin and straight vertical and horizontal lines, the color of which can be customized. By default they are blue. They can be installed manually in any arbitrary place of the image and in any quantity.
Turning on the guides, the first way
There are at least two ways to enable guides in Photoshop. In the first case, you need to work when the "Rulers" mode is on. Next, proceed as follows:
- Before making guides in Photoshop, select the View menu item and click on the Rulers option.
- After that, measuring bars will appear on the inner borders of the image window.
- Their parameters can be set by right-clicking on them. This mode can also be activated by pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + R. This combination, like many others, works on the principle of "Enable - Disable". That is, if you press the corresponding keys again, the rulers will no longer be displayed.
- To enable the guides, you need to put the mouse pointer on one of the rulers, left-click and, without pressing, pull towards the drawing.
- As soon as the pointer goes beyond the ruler, a thin line will be visible: horizontal if the pointer was on a horizontal ruler and you pulled down, and vertical if the pointer was on a vertical ruler and you pulled to the right.
You can set the guide in "Photoshop" both on the image itself and on the work area (the gray area between the image and the borders of the window). At the same time, you can focus on both the image itself and the rulers - for greater accuracy.
Turning Guides On - The Second Way
For absolute accuracy of the installation of the guide in Photoshop, you can use the second method, setting the exact values for the lines:
- In the main menu, you need to select the option "View" again and then - "New guide".
- In this way, the corresponding dialog box is called up. In it you need to choose which line you want to create - vertical or horizontal.
- Then, in the “Value” option box, you need to drive the required number. Let's say this is "Horizontal, 1.2 cm." In this case, a horizontal line will appear at a distance of 1.2 cm from the top edge of the picture. Or "Vertical, -1.2 cm." So you can draw a vertical guide on the work area, at a distance of 1.2 cm from the left edge of the image.
Further work with guides in Photoshop
The program allows you to perform further work with drawn lines:
- They can be moved. To do this, place the mouse pointer on the guide, press the left mouse button and drag the line in the desired direction.
- They can be removed. In this case, you need to draw the line onto the ruler in the same way - the guide will disappear. You can delete all lines by selecting the "Delete Guides" command in the "View" menu item.
- They can be temporarily disabled. This is necessary when they interfere with the image rating. If necessary, press Ctrl +;, and the guides will no longer be displayed. Pressing the same keys again will call up the previously drawn guides. They will also be displayed again if you draw a new line in any of the ways described above.
Color and type setting
As mentioned above, the color of these lines can be customized. To do this, in the "Edit" menu, select the "Settings" sub-item and then - "Guides, mesh, etc.". In the "Guides" section, select one of the suggested colors and, if necessary, change the "Style": the developers offer either a solid line or a dotted line.
Indeed, when processing certain types of images, blue or pink lines can interfere with visual perception, but dotted gray or black lines can be both useful and almost invisible.
Cases when guides are necessary
The most popular case when it is necessary to use guides in Photoshop is the separation of the drawing area before it is selected with the appropriate tool in order to crop or copy the selected part. For example, if one of the portraits needs to be cut out of a group photo, then it is easier to “fit” the borders with guides and then cut them out.
In addition, the guides are very helpful in determining the composition of the picture. So, when creating a book cover with these lines, it is easy to identify future areas of the cover: book title, publishing house logo, decorative elements, illustrations.
These lines are also useful when aligning objects relative to each other or relative to the details of the illustration.
Finally, any drawing tool can be attached to such a horizontal or vertical line to draw exact straight lines ("View - Snap to - Guides"). Say, if you need to draw a straight vertical line with a decorative brush, you can select the Brush tool, enable the snap mode and drag the mouse pointer along the guide. Even if your movements are not accurate, the line will be attached to it and will be geometrically accurate.
Thus, each guide in Photoshop can perform its task, and the use of these lines can be multifaceted and meet the most diverse goals of image processing.