Common file types in Adobe Photoshop Class - 6 [Adobe Photoshop for Beginners]:

Assalam.o.Alaikum

Welcome to Tech Learning 4U

Now, it's important to keep in mind,

that Photoshop can open and save multiple file formats.

Later in the course,

we will be looking at saving various files

in various formats for various media types.

In this tutorial, I want to discuss

and open a few file types you will need

to be aware of as you begin to use Photoshop.

Now, don't worry too much if you

are not familiar with these file formats right now.

You will get more familiar with them

as you get more familiar with Photoshop.

For now, this will be an exercise

for you to get an idea of what to expect

and get a little more savvy with using files in Photoshop.

So to follow along with this tutorial,

you will need to access the Common File Types folder

I have prepared especially for this tutorial.

This can be found in the Introduction folder

in the Project folder.

So with the Project folder open,

click Introduction and open the Common File Types folder.

And you should see the files contained.

So here we have four file examples.

Now if I just preview these on my operating system,

we can see them.

We can see that each one of these documents

is essentially the same image.

But if we look at the file types,

we can see they are all different.

Here we have a PSD file, a JPEG, a PNG, and a PDF.

Now various file types are often used

and prepared for various creative scenarios.

Various file types also carry various different

image data sizes on hard disks.

So the first file here, 01 Example,

has an extension of .psd.

Now this is a Photoshop data file.

This is the native Photoshop file format.

If you build a document in Photoshop with layers,

the default file format will be .psd.

If you receive a PSD document from someone else,

chances are it will have

layer and effect information inside.

So let's go ahead and double-click this file.

Upon click, the document will open up inside Photoshop.

So here is the image,

and if we look in the Layers panel,

we can see that indeed this document contains layers.

And these layers can be edited,

for example, I can click the red bird layer

and move this around.

I can select other layers or even create new layers.

So this document can be edited and saved

to come back and make further amends in future.

So I'm just going to close this document,

and come back to the folder.

So the next file we have here,

is 02 Example.jpg.

Now most of you will be familiar with this file format.

This is a very common format.

This is compatible with most computer software.

It's also a format produced by digital cameras

and makes up most of the images you see on the internet.

So I'm going to go ahead and open this file with Photoshop.

Now unless you have your computer set up

to open your JPEG formats with Photoshop by default,

you're going to have to open the file manually.

So I'm going to right-click on the file

and choose Open With and select Photoshop.

Upon click, we now have the image open in Photoshop.

So here we have the same image as earlier,

but if we look in the Layers panel,

we can see something rather different.

Here we have a single layer and by default

the layer is called Background.

Now this is common when you open a JPEG

for the first time in Photoshop.

It will more often than not

appear as a flat layer called Background

and you'll also notice this little

lock icon placed on the layer too.

So this is a single layer.

In the last example,

we were able to move the elements around.

In this case, the only thing we can do

would be to use the Photoshop tools

to edit, color, and so on.

There is nothing we can edit about the

nature of the visual structure.

Unless we start to use the tools in the menu.

Whatever circumstance this image will be used,

be it on a website, in motion graphics,

or printed, it will look just like this.

Now it's important to mention,

that if I start to build layers in this document instance,

for example, create some type layers at the top,

or add some shape layers.

When you come to save the document,

it will then become a new kind of document.

As it contains layer information,

it will now become a .psd file,

a Photoshop data file.

More on that later.

So I'm going to close this document

and come back to the folder.

So the next file I have here is called 03 Example PNG.

Now PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics.

So like earlier, I'll right-click and open with Photoshop.

Upon click, here we can see that this image,

like the previous, is on a single layer.

Though this time, we can see something

a little different about this file.

So this is the same image as previous,

but this time instead of the blue space on the outside,

we have this gray and white grid texture around the image.

Now if you See the previous Blog

you should know exactly what this is.

This grid texture represents transparent information.

In technical terms, the alpha channel.

PNG files are often single-layered images

that can contain transparent data, an alpha channel.

This gives them the ability to be used

in certain creative media where transparency,

alpha channels, are required.

This is unlike the JPEG,

which is a full flat raster image

that will never contain alpha channel information.

If this image is used on the web or for screen graphics,

where we can see the grid texture on this image here,

this will be transparent.

So just like earlier,

if I start to build layers in this document instance,

for example, create some type layers,

or add some shape layers, when you come to

save the document, it will then become

a new type of document.

As it contains layer information,

it will become a PSD file, a Photoshop data file.

So I'll close this document,

come back to folder and look at the next file.

So the last file I have here is a PDF.

Now PDF stands for Portable Document Format.

PDFs are often documents exported from

various word processing or desktop publishing programs,

which are used by printers to make a document.

These documents are also distributed

around the internet to be read on compatible PDF readers

such as Acrobat Reader.

PDFs can contain a lot of raster,

vector, and layered information.

Depending on which program you open them with,

you can obtain and extract such information.

On this occasion, I'm going to right-click

and choose open with Photoshop.

Now when you attempt to open a PDF with Photoshop,

you will notice something somewhat different

happen from the previous files.

As mentioned earlier, a PDF can contain

various raster, vector, and layer information.

When attempting to open a PDF in Photoshop,

you will not be able to maintain any

layered or vector information inside the PDF.

When attempting to open a PDF in Photoshop,

you will first have to compress and flatten the file.

So upon opening the PDF in Photoshop,

you will first be greeted with this Import menu.

This will ask you a few details about

how you want to import the PDF.

It's here you can specify the

image dimension and resolution.

On this occasion, I'm going to keep

the image dimension the same, but change the

resolution to 72 and click OK.

Upon click, we will now import the

PDF image into Photoshop and if we reference the

Layers panel, we can see that this has become

compressed into a single layer.

Now it's important to mention that upon importing

a PDF into Photoshop, the image that has been

compressed and flattened is no longer a PDF.

This is now a compressed raster image,

which can either be saved as a flat JPEG,

or edited with Photoshop effects

and enhanced with layers.

On this occasion, I will close the document

and click not save.

So that is just a simple introduction

on how various files can work in Photoshop.

There is much more to be learned on this matter,

and more file formats to explore.

But I hope at this stage,

this gives you a good insight on what to be ready for

when later in the course, we build

an entire project from scratch.

In the next Blog, I'm going to be discussing

the basics of color in Adobe Photoshop.

So see you in the next Blog