Title Details

Jennifer Smith is Executive Vice President of the American Graphics Institute as well as a Certified Technical Trainer. Jeremy Osborn is Training Director at American Graphics Institute and an expert on web and interactive technology. The AGI Creative Team develops and delivers training programs through the American Graphics Institute.

Starting up

About Digital Classroom 1

Prerequisites 1

Adobe Photoshop CS6 versions 2

System requirements 2

Starting the Adobe Creative Suite 6

Design & Web Premium applications 3

Resetting Adobe Photoshop CS6 preferences 4

A note about color warnings 5

Resetting the Dreamweaver workspace 5

Resetting the Flash workspace 5

Resetting Adobe Illustrator CS6 preferences 5

Resetting the InDesign workspace and preferences 7

Fonts used in this book 7

Loading lesson files 8

Working with the video tutorials  9

Additional resources 10

Bridge Lesson 1: Taking Advantage of Adobe Bridge

Starting up  11

What is Adobe Bridge?12

Navigating through Bridge 12

Using folders in Adobe Bridge 14

Making a Favorite 17

Creating and locating metadata 19

Using keywords 21

Creating a Metadata Template 22

Opening a file from Adobe Bridge 24

Searching for files using Adobe Bridge 24

Searching by name or keyword 25

Using the Filter panel 26

Saving a Collection 27

Automation tools in Adobe Bridge 28

Batch renaming your files 28

Additional Photoshop Tools 30

Automated tools for Photoshop: Web Photo Gallery31

Saving or uploading your Web Gallery 33

Automated tools for Photoshop: PDF contact sheet35

Changing the view 37

Self study 39

Review 39

Photoshop Lesson 1: Exploring Photoshop CS6

Starting up 41

Taking a look at the final project 42

Experimenting with new Vector capabilities 43

Filling a vector shape with a pattern 44

Adding a mask to a Vector layer 48

Using the new brush tips 48

Saving the new Brush 50

Adding strokes to vector images 51

Cloning your new snowflake 54

Adding Text layers from another document 55

Updating text styles 59

Cropping an image 59

Self study 61

Review 61

Photoshop Lesson 2: Getting to Know the Workspace

Starting up 63

Opening an existing document in Mini Bridge 64

Discovering the Tools panel 66

Selection, Cropping, and Measuring Tools 66

Retouching and Painting Tools 67

Drawing and Type Tools 67

Navigation Tools 67

Accessing tools and their options 68

Using panels 72

Putting the panel system to use 73

Choosing other panels 75

Expanding and collapsing your panels 76

Customizing your panels 77

Hidden tools 79

Navigating the image area 82

Using the Zoom tool 82

Using the Hand tool 84

Tabbed windows 85

Maximizing productivity with screen modes 86

Self study 89

Review 89

Photoshop Lesson 3: Photoshop Basics

Starting up 91

A look at the finished project 92

Opening an existing document 93

Understanding document settings 93

Viewing an image’s size and resolution 93

Combining the images 95

Using Copy and Paste 95

Dragging and dropping to copy an image 95

Transforming and editing combined images 97

Changing the size of a placed image 98

Removing a background 99

Understanding the stacking order of layers 100

Refining the edges of copied images 101

Adding text  102

Saving files  103

Understanding file formats 103

Choosing a file format 104

Saving a JPEG file 104

Saving for print  105

Changing the color settings  105

Adjusting image size  107

Saving a Photoshop PDF file  108

Self study 109

Review  109

Photoshop Lesson 4: Making the Best Selections

Starting up  111

The importance of a good selection  112

Using the Marquee tools 112

Creating a square selection 115

Creating a selection from a center point  117

Changing a selection into a layer 118

Working with the Magic Wand tool  120

The Lasso tool 122

Adding to and subtracting from selections 123

Saving a selection  125

Feathering the selection 125

Using the Quick Selection tool  127

Making difficult selections with the Refine Edge feature 128

Using Quick Mask 130

Saving selections  133

Copying and pasting a selection 135

Using the Pen tool for selections  136

Using the Pen tool to select an area of an image  139

More Pen tool selection techniques 141

Converting a path to a selection 145

Self study 146

Review 146

Photoshop Lesson 5: Painting and Retouching

Starting up  147

Setting up your color settings  148

Color primer  148

Understanding color gamut 148

The RGB color model 149

The CMYK color model  149

Working in the RGB mode 150

Editing color settings 151

Selecting colors  154

Starting to paint 156

Using the Color panel  157

Using the Brush tool  158

Changing opacity 160

Save time—learn the shortcuts 161

Using the Brush Presets  162

Using the Airbrush feature 164

Creating a Border using the Bristle brushes 166

Applying color to an image 167

Changing blending modes  169

The Eyedropper tool 170

Retouching images  173

Using the Clone Stamp tool  173

Repairing fold lines  175

The History panel 177

The Spot Healing Brush  178

The Healing Brush  178

Using the Patch tool  180

Using the Clone Source panel  181

Cloning from another source 184

Self study 186

Review  186

Photoshop Lesson 6: Creating a Good Image

Starting up  187

Choosing your color settings 188

Opening the file  189

Why you should work in RGB 190

Reading a histogram  191

Making the Curve adjustment 192

Defining the highlight and shadow  194

Locating the White and Black Point  195

Inputting the white and black point values 195

Adjusting the midtones  201

Setting the neutral 204

Sharpening your image 207

Comparing your image with the original 209

Taking care of red eye 210

Using the Camera Raw plug-in 211

Using Camera Raw controls 215

Saving a DNG file  217

Reopening a DNG file  218

Self study 219

Review 220

Dreamweaver Lesson 1: Dreamweaver CS6 Jumpstart

Starting up  221

What is Dreamweaver? 222

Design and layout tools 222

Site management and File Transfer Protocol 223

Coding environment and text editor 223

Mobile design and development features 224

Who uses Dreamweaver? 224

Dreamweaver’s workspace features 225

Live View and Live Code 228

CSS Inspection and the Enable/Disable Feature 229

Related files 230

Code Navigator  231

Photoshop smart objects 232

Support for Content Management Systems 232

HTML5, CSS3, and PHP code hinting 233

HTML and CSS Starter Pages 233

Subversion 234

Business Catalyst integration 234

How websites work 234

A simple flow chart 234

Domain names and IP addresses 235

Servers and web hosts 235

The role of web browsers 235

An introduction to HTML 236

Tag structure and attributes 236

The structure of an HTML document 239

Placing images in HTML 240

Colors in HTML 242

Case sensitivity and whitespace rules  243

Element hierarchy  245

XHTML 1.0 Transitional  245

What’s the difference?  245

Explorations in code246

A look at the Welcome Screen 247

Creating, opening, and saving documents 248

Creating new documents 248

Self study 250

Review 250

Dreamweaver Lesson 2: Setting Up a New Site

Starting up  251

Creating a new site 252

Advanced site-creation options 255

Adding pages 257

Saving a page to your site 260

Defining page properties 261

Work views  267

A deeper look into the Files panel  270

Viewing local files 271

Selecting and editing files  271

Self study 273

Review 273

Dreamweaver Lesson 3: Adding Text and Images

Starting up  275

Typography and images on the Web  276

Adding text  276

An introduction to styles  281

Previewing pages in a web browser 285

Understanding hyperlinks 286

Creating hyperlinks 287

Relative versus absolute hyperlinks 289

Linking to an e-mail address  291

Creating lists 292

Using the Text Insert panel 294

Inserting images 295

Image resolution295

Image formats 295

Creating a simple gallery page 296

Linking images 299

Using image placeholders 300

Editing images  301

Adjusting brightness and contrast 301

Optimizing images 302

Updating images303

Self study 304

Review 304

Dreamweaver Lesson 4: Styling Your Pages with CSS

Starting up 305

What are Cascading Style Sheets? 306

CSS replaces inefficient HTML styling 307

The benefits of CSS styling 308

How do you create CSS rules in Dreamweaver? 310

Understanding Style Sheets 314

Understanding why they’re called Cascading 317

Creating and modifying styles  318

Creating a class style with the Property Inspector  320

Creating and modifying styles in the CSS Styles panel 323

Advanced text formatting with CSS 324

Fine-tuning page appearance with contextual and pseudo-class selectors  327

Div tags and CSS IDs 331

Internal versus external style sheets  332

Attaching an external style sheet to your page 334

Modifying attached style sheets 334

Creating a new .css file (external style sheet) 336

Self study 338

Review 338

Dreamweaver Lesson 5: Managing your Website: Reports, Optimization, and Maintenance

Starting up  339

Working with the Files panel 340

Creating a remote connection 340

Viewing files on a remote web server 344

Transferring files to and from a remote server with Get and Put 345

Using Check In/Check Out and Design Notes 347

Check In and Check Out 347

Checking files in and out 349

Using Design Notes 350

Sharing Design Notes  351

Displaying Design Notes in the Files panel 352

Testing site integrity 353

Using Check Links  353

Checking links sitewide 354

Generating site reports 356

Understanding report results 358

Addressing a listed item 358

The Browser Compatibility Check 360

Optimizing pages for launch 360

Search engine visibility and Search Engine Optimization 360