Adobe Photoshop CS - Setting Units and Rulers Preferences - Task 5

How To Setting Units and Rulers Preferences In Adobe Photoshop CS

The old builder’s adage “measure twice; cut once” holds just as true in digital

imaging as it does in woodworking. If you don’t measure your images carefully

in the correct units, you might end up with an image that is too small or too

large for your purposes. In the Units & Rulers preferences you can choose your

units for rulers, column sizes, resolutions, as well as the point or pica sizes.

1. If you are a Macintosh user, go to the Photoshop menu and select

Preferences ➪ Units & Rulers to open the Units & Rulers

Preferences dialog box. If you are working on the Windows platform,

choose Edit ➪ Preferences and select Units & Rulers. If you are in

the dialog box from the previous task, select Units & Rulers from the

drop-down menu at the top of the dialog box.

2. In the Units & Rulers preferences dialog box (see Figure 5-1), under

Units, you can select several units for Rulers: pixels, inches, cm

(centimeters), mm (millimeters), points, picas, or percent.

Figure 5-1: The Units & Rulers preferences dialog box 

notes

• It’s recommended that you use pixels for the rulers and points for type.

• Leaving the default print resolution at 300 ppi is acceptable, but check with

your printer or client to ensure you are designing for the correct dimensions.

You don’t want to change measurements during the middle of a project and

realize you need to start over.

3. Under Units , you can select the units for Type: pixels, points, or

mm. A pixel is on grid unit on a computer screen. One point is equal

to 1⁄72 inch and 25.4 millimeters (mm) is one inch.

4. Under Column Size, you can specify the Width and Gutter measurements

for placing images into a desktop publishing program. These

settings enable you to precisely place an image in a set number of

columns.

5. The print and screen resolutions are set under New Document

Preset Resolutions. When you are creating a new image, Photoshop

presents the values you place here as editable settings before creating

the image. These values can be set in pixels per inch or pixels per

centimeter.

6. Under Point/Pica Size you find two options: PostScript and

Traditional. PostScript sets picas at a value of 72 pixels per inch (ppi),

whereas Traditional places the value at 72.27 ppi.

7. Another way to change units is in the Info palette, which also

changes the preference setting. To change the units through

this alternative method, select Windows ➪ Info to open the

Info palette.

8. Click the cross-hairs in the lower left-hand corner of the Info palette.

Select the units you want from the drop-down menu with the available

units will appear as shown in Figure 5-2.

Figure 5-2: The units available from the Info palette

tips

• To access the Units & Rulers preferences while working on an image, press

Ctrl+R to show the rulers and then double-click a ruler.

• Since Photoshop uses PostScript and creates digital files, it’s best to stick

with the PostScript option under Point/Pica Size.

cross-reference

• To see how to measure distance and angles in images, see Task 25.