Creating a New Document

Creating a New Document

This lesson will help you get up and running with Photoshop, beginning with creating your first document!

When to use

This will be useful any time you want to create a New Document inside of Photoshop.

Instructions

• After opening Photoshop, you will first be brought to the Home screen.
• From the Home screen, you can see your recent files, you can find new tutorials, and you can also create a new document.
• Click on the blue 'New file' button on the upper left side of the interface.
• You will now see the New Document panel where you can choose from presets for Print, Web, Mobile, Film & Video, and more.
• On the right side, you can also enter your own parameters allowing you to customize the name, size, orientation, resolution, bit depth, color space, and background color for your file.
• Set up your document giving it a name like 'DIGITAL_FILE_TEST'.
• After naming your file, change the width to '1920' and the height to '1080' making sure that the units of measurement are in 'Pixels' and not in 'Inches'. 
• Check to make sure that the Color Mode is set to 'RGB' and leave the Bit Depth set to '8 bit'.
• For the Background Contents, click on the dropdown and choose 'Custom' before selecting a dark blue color for your background.
• Click the 'Create' button in the lower right to create your New Document.

Hints & tips

• When working on digital files, or artwork that will be shown primarily on screen, make sure to work in RGB Color Mode.
• When working on printed files, make sure to work in CMYK Color Mode.
• You can undock any of the files inside of Photoshop by clicking on the gray tab and pulling down.