1. How do you select (activate) tools in Photoshop?

When one clicks on the icon for a tool in the toolbox, one is said to select the tool.  If one then proceeds to manipulate the image file, the type of editing that will occur corresponds to the selected tool.  Another way to select a tool is to use its keyboard shortcut. For example, typing a p switches the tool to the pen tool. The keyboard shortcuts appear as part of the tooltip when one mouses over the tool icon.

2. How do you access hidden tools?

Some of the tools in the toolbox have a black triangle in the lower right-hand corner.  This indicates that there is a set of related tools "beneath" the exposed tool.  One accesses these hidden tools by holding the (left) mouse button down on the tool.  The hidden tools eventually appear, and then one can drag the mouse over to the desired hidden tool and release.  This tool will now be the selected tool for editing; it will also rise to the top of the set of related tools within the toolbox.

3. What would you need to do if you quickly wanted to re-size the canvas back to a 100% view if you were zoomed in or out?

A fast way to get to 100% view is to double click the zoom tool on the toolbox.  Another way is to type 100 into the textbox on the left of the status bar at the bottom of the image window.

4. Where would you adjust individual tool settings?

The Tools Option bar, which is typically docked below the menu bar along the top, allows a user to select various options and settings realted to the selected tool.  Thus the Tools Option bar changes as the selected tool changes.  When the selected tool is the Polygon Toll, for example, it has among other options a drop-down list with a checkbox allowing the user to elect to make a star shape rather than a convex (regular) polygon.  It also has a textbox for the user to determine the number of sides.  

5. What tool would you use to communicate between clients or service bureaus regarding your file?

The Notes tool allows a user to add written text to image file -- not to be displayed (that would be the Type tool) but to add commentary, to communicate with other editors of the files, and so on. 

6. If you wanted to restore your palette locations to their default settings, how would you do this?

On the menu, go to Window/Workspace/Reset Palette Locations.

7. If you can't see a particular palette on your desktop, how would you bring it up?

If the desired pallete is neither exposed (as a tabbed group of palettes with a default location along the right-hand side) or in the Palette well, then it can be brought up by going to the menu and clicking on Window and then the name of the desired palette (e.g. Window/Paragraph which brings up both the Paragraph and Character palettes).

8. What is a context menu and how do you activate one?

A context menu is a set of options presented as a menu (typically a vertical list with text items that can be clicked on) that are particular to a situation.  A context menu associated with a palette is obtained by clicking arrow within a circle on the upper right-hand side of the palette. For instance if one wanted a superscript as in E=mc2, one would highlight the 2, and then click on the arrow of the Character palette and choose the Superscript option from the menu.

Context menus are not limited to palettes.  Another standard way to access a context menu is to right click on an item.

9. Explain what a pixel is.

The term "pixel" is a contraction of the words "picture" and "element."  Pixels are the smallest units that make up an image.  They are often squarish or rectangular in shape and have a single color applied to each.

10. How do you measure the resolution of an image?

The word "resolve" means to break something up into separate and distinct pieces.  In the case of an image, the distinct pieces are pixels.  (At a high enough magnification, one can "resolve" -- see as separate -- the individual pixels.)  The related term "resolution" then refers to the number of pixels that go into making up an image.  For a rectangular image, this is calculated by multiplying the number of pixels going along a vertical side by the number of pixels going along a horizontal side. 

Resolution can be confused with image size, which is also sometimes given as so many pixels wide and so many pixels high. However, for the number of pixels to determine a width or height, there must be a determined ratio of pixels to some genuine measure of length such as an inch, e.g. 72 pixel per inch, only then is there a correspondence between 400 pixels and 5.556 inches.   This is important in print, but on a webpage, for instance, the physical length may be determined by the height and/or width attributes of the <img> tag.

11. Describe the differences between Resizing and Resampling when working with resolution.

Resizing means that one is changing the length dimensions of the image, i.e. the number of inches along the width and/or height.  Resampling means changing the number of pixels that make up an image.  If a image file size is too large, one might resample it to reduce the number of pixels, and therefore the amount of information and the file size.  While one is losing information, the McClelland/Fuller book mentions that the interpolation procedures used have a smoothing effect that may eliminate certain small "defects" in the original sampling process (e.g. from a scanner).  

12. True or False: The Sharpen filter is the best way to sharpen an image. Why or why not?

False.  I interpret Sharpen above to be the result open by going to Filter/Sharpen/Sharpen on the menu.  But the lecture notes say "Currently, the best tool by far for sharpening images is the Smart Sharpen filter, followed by the USM." (USM stands for Unsharp Mask.) Sharpen/Sharpen is more automatic, while the other two options provide the user with options to slect the best sharpening algorithm for the image at hand.

13. Describe two ways to change the outside dimensions of an image in order to create a thumbnail.

A. Go to the menu and select Image/Image Size ... In the resulting dialog box, make sure that the Constrain Proportions and Resample Image checkboxes on the lower left-hand side are checked.  Then use the Height and/or Width textboxes to reduce the resolution.  The drop down lists adajcent to the Height and Width textboxes allow one to specify a number of pixels or to choose a percentage of the original.
B. One may need to start by double clicking on the Background layer and using the dialog box to rename it. Next, go to the menu and select Edit/Transform/Scale. Note that the relevant options now appear in the Tool Options bar.  Click on the Maintain aspect ratio icon (looks like a link between the Width and Height textboxes.  Then change the percentage found in either the Height or Width textbox (the other should change to the same value). Click the check icon on the right-hand side of the Tool Option bar.  Next go the menu and select Image/Trim ... In the resulting dialog box, make sure the Transparent Pixels radio button is selected at the top and that all four checkboxes are checked in the bottom part. Then click the OK button.

14. True or False? It's OK to save a new version of a JPG over an older existing version. Why or why not?

False, especially if you started working with a JPG in the first place.  The JPG compression scheme is lossy.  So each time the compression scheme is applied to a file, some information is irretrievably lost.  It is less of an issue if one is working from some other file type as an original so that the original information is maintained.