To begin:

In Photoshop

Go to Edit > Preferences > General.

These notes assume that you'll work through the Preferences from 'Genera'l by selecting 'Next' each time.

If you prefer you can 'jump' to a 'preference' by choosing from the initial menu.

The names given are boxes to tick or options to choose.

Boxes/options in preference dialogue boxes not nominated below are left 'unticked' or not chosen.

Colour Picker - select 'Adobe'

Interpolation - select Bicubic (Better)

Redo Key - select 'ctrl+z'

History States -20 (or whatever you need - don't forget, the more 'states' you select, the more memory will be occupied)

Options - tick the following

Export Clipboard

Show tool tips

Dynamic colour sliders

Save palette locations

Show Font Names in English

Use Shift Key for Tool Switch

Options - tick the following

Export Clipboard

Show tool tips

Dynamic colour sliders

Save palette locations

Show Font Names in English

Use Shift Key for Tool Switch

Image previews: choose -always save

File ext: choose - use lower case

File Compatability: Maximise backwards compatibilty etc

Recent File list contains - 4 (or whatever you prefer)

Image previews: choose -always save

File ext: choose - use lower case

File Compatability: Maximise backwards compatibilty etc

Recent File list contains - 4 (or whatever you prefer)

Use Diffusion Dither

Painting Cursors: Brush size

Other Cursors: Precise

Grid size - medium

Grid colours - light (or any other tone/colour you prefer)

Opacity 100%

Units - whatever you prefer (use click-down arrow)

Column size - width 15 picas, Gutter - 1 picas

Type: Points

Point/Pica Size - PostScript

Guides - Colour - Light blue (or use drop-down arrow to select something else)

Style - Lines

Style - lines

Subdivisions - 4. Again, choose another setting if you prefer.

This will depend upon whether the hard disk is 'Partitioned'.

The usual setting is to choose the disk in which you have the most free space.

Settings

Cache Levels - 8

Use cache for histograms

Physical memory usage

Used by Photoshop - 80% (this could vary depending upon what other programs demand space). Some of my colleagues set this to 100%. Experiment with different settings above 60%. The higher the setting, the more memory space is allowed for Photoshop. Note the amount of Photoshop RAM that becomes 'available' in the dialogue box as you change the % setting. You need as much as possible to keep the program running smoothly and avoiding 'crashes'.

That's it for the 'Preferences' set of dialogue boxes.

Bruce RGB

If youwho wish to incorporate 'Bruce RGB' into your settings, do this before 'locking' your preferences.

Other Preferred Settings

The Photoshop desktop, Palettes and Options can all be set to the way in which you want them open in an initial state. Before 'locking preferences', open an image and check via Image > Image Size, that 'Re-sample' is not ticked - click OK, set the positions of Palettes and Tool Bar to those you prefer, set Foreground and Background colours to Black & White respectively, select a tool to open with, select a brush size and opacity, select the Gradient you prefer to begin with and so on. All these decisions will be preserved and become the initial state in which Photoshop opens - a constant that you can rely on and be familiar with.

It's a good idea to make a floppy disk copy of the 'preferences' folder just in case you ever have to re-load or reset them. In that case, delete the existing preferences folder and substitute with the one saved.

The folder may be found under: