The Bare Bones of Photoshop 6
TASK: Create a PowerPoint Slide template.

When creating a new file, you will need to indicate color mode, resolution, name of file (if you wish), and whether the background layer will be white, transparent, or a color.

Use the color picker to set up your colors.

RGB mode: Assigns an intensity value to each pixel ranging from 0 (black) to 255 (white) for each of the RGB components in a color image. When the values of all three components are equal, the result is a shade of neutral gray. When the value of all components is 255, the result is pure white; when the value is 0, pure black.

CMYK mode: Assigns a percentage value for each of the process inks. The lightest (highlight) colors are assigned small percentages of process ink colors, the darker (shadow) colors higher percentages. In CMYK images, pure white is generated when all four components have values of 0%.

Print Resolution: When printed, an image with a high resolution contains more, and therefore smaller, pixels than an image with a low resolution. Using too low a resolution for a printed image results in pixelation--output with large, coarse-looking pixels. Using too high a resolution (pixels smaller than the output device can produce) increases the file size and slows the printing of the image.

Monitor resolution: The number of pixels or dots displayed per unit of length on the monitor, usually measured in dots per inch (dpi). Monitor resolution depends on the size of the monitor plus its pixel setting. Most new monitors have a resolution of about 96 dpi. Understanding monitor resolution helps explain why the display size of an image on-screen often differs from its printed size. Image pixels are translated directly into monitor pixels. This means that when the image resolution is higher than the monitor resolution, the image appears larger on-screen than its specified print dimensions. E.g., when you display a 1-by-1 inch, 144-ppi image on a 72-dpi monitor, it appears in a 2-by-2 inch area on-screen. Because the monitor can display only 72 pixels per inch, it needs 2 inches to display the 144 pixels that make up one edge of the image.

For web graphics use RGB and 96 for the resolution. When the output is print, use CMYK and a higher resolution.
Next, we'll add a new layer, select a rectangular area, and use the paint bucket tool to fill it with another color.

Next we'll add a texture (under Filters=>Texture) to the selection. Below is an example of Grain.

Then we'll blur the selection using Gaussian blur.

Nex we add text using the text tool, which automatically creates a new layer for the text. The character palette allows you to change the size and weight of the text, the line height, alignment, color, etc.

An advantage to working with layers is that you can use various effects on different layers. Below is the menu for Drop Shadow. There are various options that will change the appearance of the shadow.

Next we'll make a button. Draw a rectangular selection and fill with color.

Add bevel in Layers palette

Settings for bevel tool

The beveled button.

Duplicate button layer to add more buttons.

Set up Guides to align objects. (View=>New Guide)

Add text to buttons--By now you know how to add text. Just type over the button and selection proper size, font, etc. Add effects if you wish.

Use the history palette to undo actions.

Save for the Web

GIF: The GIF format uses 8-bit color and is bestr used with large solid areas of color and/or objects requiring sharp detail, such as that in line art, logos, or text. GIF is also used to create animated images.

The GIF format uses LZW compression, which is a lossless compression method. GIF files are limited to 256 colors, so optimizing an original 24-bit image as an 8-bit GIF can result in the loss of color information. Photoshop lets you to apply lossy compression to a GIF file, which yields smaller files by sacrificing some image quality.

If your final output will be in GIF format, your safest bet is to use the Web Safe palette. It's your best chance that your GIF images will look consistent from one browser to the next.

You can reduce the number of colors in a GIF image and choose options to control the way colors dither in the application or in a browser. GIF supports background transparency and background matting, in which you blend the edges of the image with a Web page background color.

JPG: This format supports 24-bit color and preserves the broad range and subtle variations in brightness and hue, such as in photographs and other continuous-toned images. JPEG uses a lossy method of compression, which means that some data is selectively discarded. A higher quality setting results in less data being discarded. JPEG does not support transparency, but you can matte the image to match the background color of your web page.

An important note about the JPEG format!

Artifacts, such as wave-like patterns or blocky areas of banding, are created each time you save an image in JPEG format and accumulate each time you resave the image to the same JPEG file. Therefore, you should always save JPEG files from the original image, not from a previously saved JPEG.

Also, don't expect great results if you try to change the size of a JPEG or GIF, especially when increasing the size. If you don't have access to the original, at the very least duplicate the layer the image is in, copy to a new file and save in PSD format. Original image 320x60, resized to 640x120.
The Save for the Web feature lets you look at several compression methods and compare quality and file size before saving.
You may want to use your work as a custom background in PowerPoint. For this save as a TIFF, unless file size prohibits.

Tagged-Image File Format (TIFF): Used to exchange files between applications and computer platforms. TIFF is a flexibleformat supported by virtually all paint, image-editing, and page-layout applications. TIFF format supports CMYK, RGB, Lab, indexed-color, and grayscale images. Photoshop can save layers in a TIFF file; however, if you open the file in another application, only the flattened image is visible.
Adding a custom background to a PowerPoint slide.

Below is the completed web page.

Click here for a description of the Tool Palette.