Overview of the Panels

Overview of the Panels

The Panels in Photoshop are useful for seeing properties, adding type, color, and making other useful adjustments.

When to use

Panels are used any time you want to fine-tune specific effects, type, or adjustments in Photoshop.

Instructions

• Workspaces are presets that will determine which panels are visible and which will remain hidden.
• By default, Photoshop will show the Default Workspace, but you can add or remove panels to the screen in order to customize your space.
• In order to find more of the panels in Photoshop you will need to access them via the Window Menu.
• Go to the Window Menu and click on 'Character' to open the Character Panel.
• Along with the Character Panel, you will now see the Paragraph Panel as well.
• You can drag one, or both of these panels into the center of your screen to undock them, just like we did with the Toolbar.
• You can stack and re-arrange panels, and even nest them or place them side-by-side to customize the configuration.
• To hide a panel, you can click on the small white 'X' in the upper left of that panel to close it.
• Try to add a few panels to your screen and move them around.
• Once you have a few panels in place, go back to the Window Menu and choose Workspace > New Workspace.
• From here, give your Custom Workspace a name and then click 'Save' to save it.
• Change your Workspace to one of the other presets, such as 'Painting' and notice how the panels that appear on the screen have changed.
• Now go back to the Window Menu again and choose your Custom Workspace and you should see all of your panels are back on the screen.

Hints & tips

• Workspaces are a great way to save time as you can have Photoshop load up your most frequently used tools each time you open the program.
• The panels in Photoshop can be moved around and grouped together to create a wide variety of configurations.