Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts to commands and options using individual or groups of keys. Learn ones you use regularly to speed up your work. When shortcuts are available they’re listed in this book as Quick Keys for the PC. Mac users have similar shortcuts. Photoshop CS now lets you assign your favourite shortcuts. (See Appendix C)

Keywords

Photoshop CS lets you assign keywords to pictures. (See Exif data)

Knockout

A mode from Blend Options palette selected from the Layer Style menu that allows you to be more creative with the ways layers react with other layers. It can be used with text and vector shapes to great effect. To illustrate how it works I’ve created a blue star layer on top that will be used as the Knockout layer. It’s above four jigsaw piece layers and all five are placed in a layer set. The background is a photo of bananas and there’s a yellow layer above that. (See Layers and Layer Sets)

If the star is set to Shallow Knockout with opacity at 0% it would cut through the layer underneath and reveal the next layer. As the jigsaw pieces are in a set it cuts through them too and reveals the yellow layer below.

If the star is set to Deep Knockout with opacity at 0% it cuts through all the layers and reveals the background layer.

By turning off channels and adjusting opacity you can gain infinite control of how a layer blends with any layer below. It’s the most complex area of Photoshop and much experimentation is necessary to understand this fully.

Kodak Photo CD

Kodak were way ahead of their time launching Photo CD in 1992 as a product designed to view photos on a television. Unfortunately it didn’t take off until around four years later. The service is offered by photo finishers and pro bureaux.

Your images are scanned at high resolution using drum scan quality and recorded onto disc as Pict files. When you open the disc you have a choice of five file sizes from 192x128ppi to 3072x2048ppi. The smaller sizes are for using as positionals or for TV and Web use and the larger files are for making prints allowing up to around 7x10in enlargements.

The interface is extremely friendly and easy to navigate. The first page that appears on screen is the contents page (above right). This has a menu of the items on the CD which can then be navigated using the linked buttons. You see your photos on the left and these can be edited using the basic software under the Picture Fixes heading (right). There are also tips and articles which change each time a new version of the CD is produced. Printing photos and sending them attached as e-mails is also made easy.

Kodak Picture CD

Similar principle to Photo CD, but with a magazine style interface and free software, produced in association with Adobe and Intel. The CD opens up with a contents page and a range of options. Various menus let you edit and enhance your pictures, send them as e-mail postcards, catalogue them and print them. The service is available when you have a film processed and just requires a tick on the film processing envelope to ensure the lab produces a Picture CD of your film as well as a set of photos.