Learning Graphic Design & Illustration

Basic Photo Corrections Lesson 2 People

Rather than sit as a separate title, the words integrate into the poster’s space. Look Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
closely and you will see something else not seen before in poster design—Toulouse- Karl Marx (1818-1983)
Lautrec’s personal observation. Henri van de Velde (1863-1957)

The face of the dancer is psychologically distanced from the setting, with an almost REVIEW THE
sad expression. That sadness, contrasted against the joyous setting, was a personal VOCABULARY
nod to the budding feminist movement that was gaining acceptance in Europe.
Toulouse-Lautrec was dedicated to depicting the social life in Parisian cafés, theaters, abstraction Using shape, form, color, and
dance halls, and brothels, and his inclusion of this subtle suggestion of unhappiness line to create a composition that does not
shown in the work signaled new and expressive possibilities for graphic design. A portray recognizable objects or scenes.
very public medium suddenly had room for a personal voice.
Discussion Topic
Moving Toward a Modern Sensibility
What’s the opposite of abstraction?
As the twentieth century began, the everyday lives of people became much more
complex. Innovations in all fields of human study were beginning to be driven by Abstraction
concepts that could be expressed only abstractly. Albert Einstein’s (1879–1955)
special theory of relativity (published in 1905) changed our understanding of space Using shape, form, color and
and time, just as Karl Marx’s (1818–1983) writings changed our understanding of line to create a composition that
politics and government. In the arts, photography offered realistic visual representa- does not portray recognizable
tion of our world, prompting painters to shift to other modes of gesture and expres- objects or scenes.
sion. Artists increasingly focused on the intrinsic qualities of their media—line, form,
and color. The process of distilling information down to basic elements or qualities
became known as abstraction. Under its banner, artists and designers were free to
shed the limitations of literal representation. Architects could abandon past styles
in favor of a form of architecture based on essential functional concerns. All of the
visual arts were significantly transformed by these revolutionary changes.

Henri van de Velde (1863–1957) brought a modern sensibility, a heightened aware-
ness and responsiveness, to graphic design. Trained as a painter in Belgium, van de
Velde was strongly influential in the birth of Art Nouveau in that country. A disciple
of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, he believed in the concept of

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REVIEW THE Lesson 2 Basic Photo Corrections
VOCABULARY
Modernism total design—a union between the fine and applied arts. In contrast to Morris, van
Modernism The dynamic expression of de Velde adopted a contemporary attitude in his work by looking toward the future
abstract form with practicality and purpose. The dynamic expression of rather than the past. A poster for Tropon food concentrate illustrates the modern
abstract form with practicality idea he was striving for. It has the look of Art Nouveau, but the form of the poster is
People and purpose. not simply decorative. Tropon’s manufacturing process becomes part of the post-
er’s content—the fluid center shapes are abstracted interpretations of eggs being
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) separated from yolks. The intricate spiral designs are directly determined by the
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) shapes of the letters in the word “Tropon.” In this sense, the poster was a precur
Peter Behrens (1868-1940) sor to functional Modernism. In fact, van de Velde, in his later years, reorganized
the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Weimar, Germany, laying the
foundations for the Bauhaus to follow.

Architecture and graphic design were beginning to share modern sensibilities
of abstraction. Each affected the other. The work of architects Charles Rennie
Mackintosh (1868–1928) and Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) showed signs of
this new geometry. The grid and linear patterning of Mackintosh’s Salon de Luxe
is a refined and almost eccentric example of geometry and abstraction. There are
still hints of Art Nouveau in the linear patterns, but the interior charted new terri-
tory. Wright’s living room of the Francis Little House also reflected the spiritual and
organic feel of Art Nouveau, but the geometry and integration of the space, furniture,
and windows, edges even closer toward clean lines and simple forms that were more
in keeping with Modernism. The architect Peter Behrens (1868–1940) brought this
same thinking into graphic design.

Like many artists of his era, Behrens was influenced by the design ideals of the
Arts and Crafts movement. In 1907 he was hired as artistic adviser of the world’s
largest electrical manufacturing company, Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft
(AEG) in Berlin. Behrens’s job was to determine and manage AEG’s visual image,
from architecture to industrial and graphic design. His turbine factory (1909–1910)
in Berlin for AEG was his most successful display as an architect, but as a
graphic designer, he set a completely new standard and modern tone for the
field by unifying art and industry. The logotype for AEG reflects the bridge he
was creating, the letters interconnected by a geometric honeycomb. Behrens
developed an entire typeface for AEG, unifying all of its publicity. In a poster

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promotion, the entire arrangement of the page has the structure of the AEG Walter Gropius (1883-1969)
logotype, with tiny circles not only set linearly to create the grid lines but also Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)
spaced together to create an abstract image of light. Behrens also designed Le Corbusier (1887-1965)
AEG’s industrial products, making him the first industrial designer. He stripped all Paul Cézanne (1893-1906)
ornamentation out of his designs in the belief that utility had a beauty of its own. Lucian Bernhard
In fact, a new mode was being found for modern times that included propor- Ernst Growald
tion, geometry, and abstraction. His approach would help lead the architecture
and design world fully into the twentieth century, and his staff, architects Walter
Gropius (1883–1969), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), and Le Corbusier
(1887–1965), would go on to refine this logical and systematic thinking well into
the century to come.

The Modern World

The work and writings of the artist Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) helped determine
the direction that visual abstraction would take. His emphasis on basic forms—the
cylinder, sphere, and cone—had a huge impact in the art world. Graphic designers,
influenced by Cézanne, absorbed the principles of abstraction and return to basic
forms, bringing this new design thinking to book jackets, postage stamps, posters,
packaging, trademarks, and signage.

The poster art of the young designer Lucian Bernhard had wide-reaching effects
on graphic design’s reductionist approach. Bernhard’s submission for a competition
by Priester Matches eliminated parts of a larger picture that he had created. The
table, tablecloth and dancing girls were blackened out until all that was left was the
product being advertised, matchsticks, and the name, Priester. The jury reviewing
this design initially rejected it, but one of the jurors, a printer named Ernst Growald,
saw the genius in the design. He convinced fellow jurors that it should take first
prize, and thus the modern poster was born. An “economy of means” attitude was
established, and such an approach would continue to flourish, impacted by politi-
cal and cultural influences, throughout the rest of the century.

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Pablo Picasso Cubism (1907–1921)
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
Erik Satie (1886-1925) The artist Pablo Picasso (1882–1973) was greatly influenced by the work and words of
Georges Braque (1882-1963) Cézanne. Picasso combined Cézanne’s philosophy with his own interest in the raw,
Filippo Marinetti (1876-1944) abstract qualities of traditional African art. Picasso’s paintings and sculpture led to the
E. McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) development of Cubism, one of the most influential art movements of the twenti-
A.M. Cassandre (1901-1968) eth century. His milestone painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon involved figures that
were broken up into semi-abstracted forms. Picasso showed these figural forms from
multiple points of view simultaneously, thus questioning established notions of view-
point, reality, time, and space. This painting was completed just after Einstein’s special
theory of relativity was published, which explored completely new theories of space
and time. Gertrude Stein (1874–1946), a close friend of Picasso’s, used the same the-
ories of simultaneous space and time in her writing. Composer Erik Satie (1866–1925)
also embraced similar concepts in his music, revisiting the same musical themes from
different angles. He collaborated with Picasso on the ballet Parade. The visual arts,
literature, music, and science were all evolving and influencing one another.

Another fellow artist and friend Georges Braque (1882–1963) especially appreciated
how Cubism discarded all the techniques of the past (perspective, foreshortening,
modeling, and chiaroscuro, or representation through light/dark contrasts) and
helped Picasso envision an entirely new movement in art. Together, Braque and
Picasso painted a new reality that left the previous time-honored theories of art by
the wayside. Cubism didn’t imitate nature. Its new approach could be applied to all
the arts, both fine and applied, giving them the freedom to interpret form and space
in a new way. It was a complete break from the past and offered an opportunity to
explore creativity in a way artists had never experienced before.

Futurism (1910–1918)

Artists, graphic designers, and typographers also found new freedom in an art move-
ment known as Futurism. Poet and writer Filippo Marinetti (1876–1944) established
the movement in 1909 with a manifesto that claimed, “Motion and light destroy the
materiality of bodies.” Marinetti’s visual language was based on science rather than
on classical forms. In his 1919 poem “Les mots en liberté” (the words to freedom),
the chaos of war, noise, and speed were embedded in the visual poetry of the page.
Gone were the horizontal and vertical alignments of typography. Letters were used
as expressive objects, the printed page as a work of art.

The work of two graphic designers, E. McKnight Kauffer (1890–1954) and A.M.
Cassandre (1901–1968), exemplify the influence of Futurism on the applied arts.
Kauffer, an American expatriate who was one of Europe’s most influential poster
designers in the 1920s and 1930s, used the dynamics of motion to create a poster
for the progressive English newspaper the Daily Herald. Fragmented birds, clearly
influenced by Cubism, soar off the top of the page, filled with energy, especially in
contrast to the large expanse of empty space in the center of the poster. Cassandre,
an acclaimed French poster designer, integrated typography and image in an ener-
gized composition for L’Intransigeant, where telegraph wires lead straight to the ear
of an abstracted face. Again, the Futurist attributes of motion and speed are fused
with Cubist abstraction. The result is a hybrid of styles in service to the applied art
of promotion.

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VOCABULARY

Suprematism An art movement focused
on basic geometric forms such as circles,
squares, lines, and rectangles, painted in a
limited range of colors.

People

Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935)

Suprematism (1915–1934) Suprematism

In Russia, artist Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935) referred to the blend of Cubism with An art movement, focused on
Futurism as Cubo-Futurism. Both fractured and energized, its distillation led to basic geometric forms, such
Malevich’s Suprematist Painting (Eight Red Rectangles). Suprematism, a movement as circles, squares, lines, and
in art conceived by Malevich, was short for “the supremacy of pure feeling in creative rectangles, painted in a limited
art.” His movement launched an art form that completely eliminated objects and range of colors.
representation. Composition became a pure geometrical abstraction and hinted at a
kind of metaphysical spirituality—a quest for a greater truth. Reducing everything to

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Tristan Tzara (1896-1963) Photomontage the basics was a way to start over in the visual arts, just as the Bolshevik Revolution of
Hanna Höch (1889-1978) 1917 sought to start over by leveling society into a classless, stateless, social orga-
Sigmund Freud (1956-1939) A technique where multiple nization. Suprematism, with its belief in pure form and pure concept, continues to
Man Ray (1890-1976) photos were joined together to influence the visual arts today.
Emmanuel Radnitzsky (1890-1976) create a seamless whole.
Marcel Duchamp Dada (1916–1923)

REVIEW THE World War I (1914–1918) was fought with machine guns, tanks, airplanes, and poison
VOCABULARY gas. This mechanization unleashed a level of killing the world had never seen before.
The Dada movement was a reaction by artists to what they perceived as a world
Photomontage A technique where multiple gone mad. Alternate perspectives, including irony, irrationality, and even anarchy,
photos were joined together to create a seemed better choices than the logic and reason that led to such unspeakable
seamless whole. horrors. The Dadaists rejected all traditions and standards in art; its publications and
manifestoes, all written by Tristan Tzara (1896–1963), claimed that whatever art stood
for, Dada stood for the opposite. This nonsensical spirit began in a small cabaret in
Switzerland, but spread, establishing footholds in Germany, France, and America.

In Germany, the Dadaist artist Hannah Höch (1889–1978) brought a feminist per-
spective to the work she created. She was one of the pioneers of photomontage. In
her photomontages, Höch ironically portrayed the culture of beauty in fashion pho-
tography by contrasting images of female perfection with photos of real women. In
her work she swapped out heads and bodies and fused newspaper type with news-
paper images to critique the male-dominated culture of the Weimar Republic and to
reflect the Dadaist disgust with German nationalism.

Surrealism (1924–1955)

As the Dada movement was coming to a close, another twentieth century art move-
ment came into being; Surrealism grounded its investigations on psychologically
based images, especially ones that caused shock and surprise. The dream analysis
work being done by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) fed this movement; the exploration
of the unconscious became new territory for artists. The work of American Dada
artist Man Ray (1890–1976) marked a transition from Dada to Surrealism.

Emmanuel Radnitzky (1890–1976) changed his name to Man Ray because of the prev-
alent anti-Semitism in the United States at the time. The artist’s group he cofounded
was called “Others,” reflecting his affinity with artists fleeing World War I in Europe. Man
Ray became acquainted with Marcel Duchamp, who came to New York in 1915. He
followed Duchamp back to Paris in 1921, believing his creative spirit would thrive there.
It did, especially in a camera-less photographic process he called “rayographs.”

In Champs Délicieux, Man Ray expanded the possibilities of photography as an
expressive medium. Through pure inventiveness, he created shapes and shadows
that shimmer with a three-dimensional appearance, an effect he achieved by moving
beams of light across the photo paper.

Surrealism’s impact on graphic design has been profound, both visually and con-
ceptually. Man Ray’s poster for the London Underground showed how the Surrealist
theory could be applied to graphic design. Here, the analogy made between the logo
and a planet creates an effective and humorous communication. Unfortunately, mass
media has exploited Surrealism to the point that the manipulation of dreams and
the use of psychology are recognized more as an advertising campaign than an art
movement, but for many years, Surrealism’s influence on the graphic arts was highly
significant and opened designers’ minds to unbridled creative possibilities.

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Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953)
Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956)
El Lissitzkty (1890-1941)
Vladimir Steinberg (1899-1982)
Georgii Stenberg (1900-1933)

Designing Utopia 49

As World War I and the Russian Revolution came to an end, artists began searching for
renewed purpose in their work. A sense of starting over was in the air. Whereas Dada
sought to flip art upside down in response to the absurdity of a world war, other move-
ments saw creativity in more rationalist terms. Creative centers began to emerge, and
major innovations in the arts were changing how graphic designers understood them-
selves and their role in the society. Some would align themselves with certain political
perspectives, leading to Constructivism and Soviet propaganda art. Others would stand
in complete opposition to those approaches, as was the case with Bauhaus principles
in Germany. In all cases, there was cross-pollination as the movements influenced one
another through lectures given by their proponents, exhibits, and a shared empathy
between like-minded social activists. Artists began to see themselves as having a role
far beyond the visual: they became spokesmen for political and social change.

Constructivism (1919–1934)

In Russia, Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953) founded Constructivist art, which embraced
Communism, rejected art for art’s sake, and proclaimed that art should have a social
purpose. His Monument to the Third International was a spiraling construction of glass
and steel glorifying the technological determinism of the Bolsheviks. Meant to exist as
a propaganda center, its streamlined form followed its function as an unadorned sym-
bol of industry. If built at full scale, it would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower. Yet merely
as a model, it expressed a manifesto of sorts in support of the Constructivist aesthetic.
Constructivism was concerned mostly with space, materials, and movement. Its intent
was to move all the arts from expressions of personal style toward a collective style
based on the machine. Writers, photographers, and designers could all follow this path.

Alexander Rodchenko (1891–1956), El Lissitzky (1890–1941), and the brothers
Vladimir Stenberg (1899–1982) and Georgii Stenberg (1900–1933) helped create
bold graphic designs that spoke the Constructivist language. In Rodchenko’s literacy
poster for a Lenningrad State Publisher a woman yells out the words “Books In All
Branches of Knowledge” into a megaphone-shaped space. The socialist message
and its layout are extremely utilitarian.

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Lesson 2 Basic Photo Corrections

Lissitzky’s layouts for The Isms of Art expressed how the functional and machined
language of Constructivism could be used typographically. Because Lissitzky spoke
multiple languages and collaborated with many artists and designers, he was able
to spread this visual, sans serif, Constructivist language throughout Europe. Inspired
by Lissitzky, designers further refined and built a complete system of typography.
Lissitzky was also able to fuse his approach with the social aspects of Communism,
as seen in his poster for a Zurich exhibit. In the poster, Lissitzky used a double portrait
to represent the idea of equal stature of male and female youth in the Soviet Union.

For the burgeoning Soviet cinema, the artists and designers Vladimir Stenberg and
Georgii Stenberg designed extraordinary work in the Constructivist mode. Working
as a team, the Stenberg brothers basically invented the film poster genre, combin-
ing abstraction with visual narrative. The Stenberg brothers’ poster for Man with a
Movie Camera used typography, color, and perspective in ways that had never been
seen before. The Bolsheviks saw the usefulness and value of graphic design in these
commercial applications.

These films, and the posters that promoted them, helped signal to the masses that a
new social order was in place.

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De Stijl (1917–1931) Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)
Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931)
A Dutch abstract-art movement called De Stijl (“The Style”) was known for its straight Walter Gropius
lines, right angles, and primary colors. In 1920, Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) published Johannes Itten (1888-1967)
De Stijl’s manifesto titled Neo-Plasticism, which became another name for the move- Josef Albers (1888-1976)
ment. In his manifesto, Mondrian rejected symmetry and favored the manipulation and Lionel Feininger (1871-1956)
arrangement of geometric forms and color into what he called “dynamic equilibrium.” Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
Simultaneous Composition by Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) is an example of
how this spiritual and universal purity was applied to painting. The approach was
also applied to graphic design, as seen in van Doesburg’s many forms of promotion
for De Stijl that the artist handled, including posters and booklets. A typeface van
Doesburg designed in 1919 proved how far the deletion of curves and diagonals
could be taken. The focal point of the movement was Van Doesburg’s magazine De
Stijl, which helped spread the movement’s theories. The magazine’s page layouts
expressed the same dynamic conviction found in the movement’s paintings and
architecture. Van Doesburg’s typographic arrangements were structurally poetic, like
furniture on a floor plan. The typographic refinement and space created on the page
matured into graphic design’s typographic International Style.

Bauhaus (1919–1933)

No other movement influenced graphic design more directly than the Bauhaus
(meaning “House of Construction”). The art school, founded in Weimar, Germany,
in 1919 by the architect Walter Gropius, set as its goal to eliminate the distinction
between the fine and applied arts. In its place would be a union of arts, crafts, and
industry, working together for the greater good. Gropius and the other members
of the Bauhaus formulated an approach to design that became the foundation for
much of the thinking about art, architecture, and design in the twentieth century.

The Bauhaus was intensely influenced by the Expressionist theories of the artists
Johannes Itten (1888–1967), Josef Albers (1888–1976), Lyonel Feininger (1871–
1956), Paul Klee (1879–1940), and Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), who were all
associated with the Bauhaus school. They established a foundation of spiritual-
ity, intuition, and universality, which focused on the physical nature of materials.
From its beginnings in 1919 until 1922, Itten taught at the Bauhaus and developed
the innovative preliminary course that introduced students to the basics of com-
position, color theory, and material characteristics.

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Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) As the Bauhaus program developed, other movements also had their influence. Theo
Herbert Bayer (1900-1985) van Doesburg promoted De Stijl’s elegant geometry and economy of means on visits
to the school; and El Lissitzky promoted Constructivism’s socialist purpose. When
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) replaced Itten as the preliminary course instruc-
tor in 1923, a real shift occurred. Moholy-Nagy arrived with a vision to fully embrace
the machine aesthetic as a means for connecting art and design to the masses. His
design for 14 Bauhausbücher (Fourteen Bauhaus Books) exemplifies the approach. A
photo of handset metal type in its composing stick was used for the cover image of
the catalog. The metal type would have been used to create the cover’s title with all
the proper letters in place, but instead was used to reveal the method of production.
The cover also conveyed the school’s emphasis on the applied arts over the fine arts.
Herbert Bayer (1900–1985) pushed the influence of the applied arts even further, design-
ing a banknote and using multiple color overprints, instead of ornamental line engrav-
ings, to prevent counterfeiting. Bayer’s solution showed how the Bauhaus agenda of
applied art could advance social progress rather than merely create luxury items.

In 1925, the Bauhaus relocated from Weimar to Dessau, then moved to Berlin in
1932 when the Nazis in Dessau cut off its funding. Nazi officials wanted art and
architecture that expressed their grandiose vision of Germany, not the functional,
cosmopolitan International Style of the Bauhaus, and they forced the school to
close completely in 1933. Its greatest legacy is its teachers and students who spread
its methods and ideals throughout the world. Bauhaus influence on furniture and
textile design, architecture, and color theory has a lasting effect even now. Many art
schools today base their foundation classes on similar, fundamental elements that
the Bauhaus incorporated in its courses, including the theories on the interaction of
color developed by Itten and Albers. For graphic design, the Bauhaus proved how the
synthesis of unadorned functionalism, technology, and communication could bring
discipline, order, and structure to design’s vocabulary.

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Modernism in America Mememed Fehmy Agha (1896-1978)
Cipe Pineles (1908-1991)
The Paris Exposition (1925) made Americans aware of Art Deco and its machine- Paul Rand (1914-1996)
inspired Modernism. Art Deco’s sleek lines and geometry were an exciting
replacement for the floral patterns of Art Nouveau. Art Deco was essentially
a decorative movement, however. It lacked any specific inner philosophy and
was vulnerable to superficial interpretation. It quickly became commercialized,
and its architectural achievements such as the Chrysler Building became more
representative of opulence and sophistication rather than a path for design and
the common good.

The rise of Nazism caused many creative artists from Europe to flee to the United
States. These designers and architects were invigorated by the Bauhaus and its
philosophical approach; design and education communities, corporations, and
publications embraced them. A pioneer in magazine design, Dr. Mehemed Fehmy
Agha (1896–1978) paved the way for the functionalist approach. The son of Turkish
parents, Agha was raised in the Ukraine, schooled in Paris, and worked in both
Paris and Berlin. The publisher Condé Nast brought him to the United States in
1929 to be the art director of its publications, and there, Agha applied his sans serif
typography and full-bleed imagery, showing how design can integrate with the
editorial aspect of magazines. Agha had a unique vision for seeing layout possibil-
ities in magazine design, but he also recognized the creative talents in people. In
the midst of the Great Depression Agha hired Cipe Pineles (1908–1991) to be his
full-time design assistant at Condé Nast. Pineles worked alongside Agha on the
design of Vogue and Vanity Fair before becoming the first female art director of a
mass-market American publication, Glamour magazine, in 1942. Pineles moved to
Seventeen magazine in 1947, where she was the first to hire fine artists to create
illustration work for a magazine, and then moved on to Charm and Mademoiselle.
Pineles also broke ground by becoming the first female member of the Art
Director’s Club.

In 1937, Walter Paepcke, chairman of the Container Corporation, invited Bauhaus
teacher Laszlo Moholy-Nagy to develop a similar school in Chicago. Dubbed “The
New Bauhaus,” it taught the same principles of functionalism and experimentation to
students in America as the original Bauhaus did in Europe. Unfortunately, the school
lost backing after only a single year and closed. In 1939 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy opened
the School of Design, which transformed later into the Institute of Design. Moholy-
Nagy’s book Vision in Motion documented the school’s curriculum, which had influ-
enced generations of educators and design programs.

Probably one of the most influential American graphic designers was Paul Rand
(1914–1996). His writing, teaching, and work have inspired generations of design-
ers. Rand, who lived in Brooklyn, studied illustration at Pratt Institute in the early
1930s and later continued his design studies at Parsons School of Design and the

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Alvin Lustig (1915-1950) Art Students’ League. His education was built on a solid foundation in aesthetics,
Bradbury Thompson (1911-1995) but his investigation of the Bauhaus and of the New Typography convinced him that
illustration could be integrated within the overall design of the page. Rand switched
his focus from illustration to graphic design. By age 23, he was art director of both
Apparel Arts and Esquire magazines.

In 1946, at age 33, Rand wrote his first of four books, Thoughts on Design. His pub-
lished work helped to explain design as a process that involved reason, intuition, and
intelligence—and as a service that could enrich life. Rand sought to elevate the most
mundane products to a category that could be both beautiful and useful.

A book jacket for Vintage Press typifies Rand’s work, the design simplified to the
point of becoming iconographic. Rand used a cutout shape of the book’s author,
H. L. Mencken. One arm is raised upward, the gesture reflecting the author’s author-
itative writing. The cover was one of Rand’s favorites, embodying his two greatest
influences: the rough-cut edges and playful collage are directly inspired by the child-
like play of Paul Klee and the Cubist collages of Picasso. In fact, Rand was considered
by many to be graphic design’s version of these two great artists.

You can see Paul Rand’s playful and illustrative approach also in his corporate identity
work. He designed trademarks for giants such as IBM, ABC, UPS, and Westinghouse.
In each case, the witty, humanist voice of Rand comes through. To be able to inte-
grate this voice into the corporate culture was a feat in itself.

Born in Colorado, Alvin Lustig (1915–1950) studied at the Art Center College of Design
in California and then briefly with Frank Lloyd Wright. Later, as a teacher at both the
Art Center and Yale, he shuttled between Los Angeles and New York. In addition, he
operated a freelance design business that brought in a variety of projects, including
advertising, furniture, fabrics, interiors, exhibits, and even the design of a small heli-
copter. Lustig is best known for his book jackets for the publisher New Directions. His
cover for A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud is a beautiful example of his philoso-
phy that painting and design should inform and influence each other. Here, form and
content are integrated—the contrasting colors represent heaven and hell but share an
overriding biomorphic language honed directly from the Surrealist paintings.

Another American designer, Bradbury Thompson (1911–1995), from Topeka, Kansas,
worked for a small print shop before moving to New York in the late 1930s. Hired
by Westvaco paper company, Thompson worked on their periodical Westvaco
Inspirations for Printers from 1938 until 1962. Westvaco appreciated Thompson’s
vision and simple, modernist language as he replaced the old-fashioned and deco-
rative designs with the simple and rational Modernist aesthetic. Thompson’s love of
experimental typography and image manipulation made Inspirations one of the lead-
ing avant-garde publications in the field.

As America entered World War II, Modernism was just beginning to take hold. By the
end of the war, a new vision for the American dream was in place, hand in hand with
Modernism’s utopian dream. Simplicity, clarity, and timelessness defined the lan-
guage that corporations used to reach a global market.

American design programs began to train their students under the tenets of
Modernism, and the country began to develop its own Modernist personality. The lens
through which American designers saw didn’t shift again until the 1970s, as Modernist
ideals began to give way to a Postmodern attitude of irony and fragmentation.

54 LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

54 LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

Basic Photo Corrections Lesson 2 People

Advertising Design and the New York School Bill Bernbach (1911-1982)
Helmut Krone (1925-1997)
A unique and humorous approach to advertising design developed during the 1960s Ivan Chermayeff (b.1932)
around New York City’s Madison Avenue, an approach in which text and image
harmonized in a union not seen before. This union, known as the New York School,
depended on a working relationship between content and form, and Paul Rand, with
his playful designs for local businesses, acted as a proving ground for the approach.
Rand’s copywriting colleague, Bill Bernbach (1911–1982), from the Weintraub adver-
tising agency where they had worked together, brought this word and image integra-
tion to national campaigns.

The “Think Small” campaign for Volkswagen by the advertising agency Doyle Dane
Bernbach is an example of this new advertising approach. The ad, designed by art
director Helmut Krone (1925–1997) has a lovable, and somewhat surreal and austere,
quality. The layout and the supporting text work in union as a concept, asking the
reader to “think small.” The audience was confronted with a small, economy-minded
car in a country that was used to thinking big. This cool advertising, with a witty
sense of humor, connected with an audience ready for change.

Other graphic designers also incorporated this conceptual approach into their
projects. Ivan Chermayeff (b. 1932) created a strong connection between word and
image in a poster design for Mobil Oil Corporation’s sponsored television program
about events that happened between the two world wars. Chermayeff bracketed
a diplomat’s hat between World War I and World War II military helmets as well as
the program’s title Between the Wars, conveying meaning through the arrange-
ment. Its centered layout forces the reader to focus on interpreting the idea. In
addition, the Mobil logo itself, which was also designed by Chermayeff’s design
studio, is a word and image construction—the name and its circular letterforms
suggesting mobility.

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LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION 55

People Lesson 2 Basic Photo Corrections

Herb Lubalin (1918-1981)

During the 1960s, as the way type was created changed from solid lead casts to a
more flexible process in which letterforms were exposed onto photographic paper,
designers quickly adapted. Herb Lubalin (1918–1981) showed how letterforms could
be made into malleable forms to communicate ideas. His typograms, as he called
them, had a double duty of both reading and creating pictures. These visual poems in
miniature extended to page layouts, book covers, and advertisements. For example,
his announcement for an antiwar poster contest, which appeared on the back cover
of Avant Garde magazine, carried the image of type and flag and communicated the
power of design and protest. Lubalin, art director for Avant Garde magazine from
1968 to 1971, also designed its masthead (see the ad’s exclamation point). He devel-
oped the font he used for the masthead into a full typeface of the same name, a
typeface that came to define the phototype period.

Postmodernism and the Digital Age

Fascism and Communism proved that the struggle for finding the perfect way, the
ultimate system, could lead to frightful extremes. In response, there was a shift away
from utopian ideals or movements that involved the pursuit of timelessness or perfec-
tionism. Postmodernism was born after World War II and, as is clear in its name, defines
itself as that which comes after Modernism. If Modernist “isms” such as Cubism,
Futurism, and Surrealism shared the goal of finding an ultimate truth, then Post-
modernism suggests an end to this belief in truisms and a preference for a more open
ended approach that draws from various sources, an approach with no easy answers.

By the 1970s, the general public was fully experiencing Postmodernism in popular
culture. Punk rock music most blatantly exemplified this new attitude and literally
shocked the establishment in its reaction to conservative British politics and the pro-
cessed muzak and disco of that decade. In Great Britain, most punk musicians and
their fans were not interested in the skilled playing of their instruments. What mat-
tered more was the energy and passion that Punk exuded.

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56 LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

Basic Photo Corrections Lesson 2 People

Graphic design took its cues from this questioning of established structures and Katherine McCoy (b.1945)
how designers operated within them. Layouts that had been expected to be clean P. Scott Makela (1960-1999)
to the point of antiseptic began to reveal the working process. Grid lines, tape, and Ed Fella (b. 1938)
pencil marks were intentionally left in the finished designs. The introduction of the April Greiman (b.1948)
Macintosh computer in 1984 didn’t stop the anti-aesthetic investigation graphic
designers were exploring. The raw and gritty bits of the new medium were textures
to be included, not hidden.

The 1980s represented a definite rift between the residue of Modernist sensibilities
and Postmodernism. And no outlet better reflected this rift than a magazine called
Emigre. Created in 1984, its publisher, Rudy VanderLans (b. 1955) provided a forum
for alternative design concepts and approaches. Emigre challenged established
rules about legibility while embracing design’s emerging digital age. A likeminded
soul, designer Katherine McCoy (b. 1945), was found within the design department
at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Under her guidance, Cranbrook surfaced
as a laboratory for graphic experimentation. Many graduates showcased their work
through Emigre magazine. Perhaps no student epitomized the postmodern fusion of
typeface design and technology better than P. Scott Makela (1960–1999). His type-
face Dead History for the Emigre type foundry pilfered historical faces, mixed them
together, and made them digitally ready for their recontextualized use.

Another Cranbrook graduate, Ed Fella (b. 1938) brought a hand drawn quality to
the critical experiments happening there. Fella melded his knowledge of traditional
design rules with eccentric letterforms and personal statements. For example, he
created a series of hand-lettered fliers, but distributed them only after the events
were over, thus causing the fliers to lose their function as announcements and
change into what he calls “design/art.” This reconfiguring of design’s tools, materials,
and function extended graphic design’s boundaries far beyond its basic service to the
business community.

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LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION 57

People Lesson 2 Basic Photo Corrections

Tibor Kalman (1949-1999) A pioneer of the digital realm of design, April Greiman (b. 1948) originally trained
in the Modernist tradition. During the 1970s, she studied in Basel, Switzerland, with
Paula Scher (b.1948) Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart, and this experience set a solid foundation
for her work that ventured into primitive, computer territory. When she returned to
Comprehension Check the United States, Greiman set up shop in Los Angeles where she began to incorpo-
rate spiritualism and Eastern philosophy into her design process. The result, stylis-
1. The term resolution refers to the tically labeled “California New Wave,” was initially interpreted as merely a departure
number of pixels that describe an from the neutral, grid-oriented work in which the design community was grounded,
image and establish its detail. Image but Greiman’s work went further. It pointed to a new conceptual direction for
resolution and monitor resolution graphic design, one driven by technology. Her magazine layout for Design Quarterly
are measured in pixels per inch (ppi). blended a three-by-six foot poster into the unfolding pages and layered her own
Printer, or output, resolution is mea- revealed and digitized body into what she referred to as a “landscape of communica-
sured in ink dots per inch (dpi). tions.” Greiman saw digital technology as its own new language “to use these tools
to imitate what we already know and think is a pity.”
2. You can use the Crop tool to trim, Tibor Kalman (1949–1999), dubbed the bad boy of graphic design during the 1980s,
scale, or straighten an image. challenged the status quo of graphic design with wit and humor. His recontextu-
alized retro graphics looked back instead of forward with postmodern irony. For
3. To adjust the tone and color of an im- Kalman, graphic design needed a boost because its leaning toward the corporate
age in Photoshop, first use the White track was killing the creative spirit. An advertisement for a 24-hour New York City
Point tool in a Curves adjustment diner, Restaurant Florent, exemplifies Kalman’s unique perspective. Plastic letters,
layer. Then refine the tone using a stuck to a letter board, were the only elements he used. Simple as they are, they
Levels adjustment layer. succinctly communicate the everyday quality of the diner without any undue fuss.
Kalman’s unconventional approach broadened the design field in two ways. First,
4. The Healing Brush, Spot Healing it challenged designers to see unexpected energy in the untrained, vernacular
Brush, Patch tool, and Clone Stamp languages they normally avoided. Second, his approach showed that authenticity
tools let you replace unwanted por- trumped aesthetics, especially when used in a conceptual context. Kalman changed
tions of an image with other areas design thinking with a Duchampian flair. His work showed a distinct sense of humor
of the image. The Clone Stamp tool and a strong sense of social responsibility, exhibiting a wry criticism on the nature of
copies the source area exactly; the consumption and production.
Healing Brush and Spot Healing Brush With her playful approach to typography, Paula Scher (b. 1948) has been highly
tools blend the area with the sur- influential in the design world. She has created corporate identities for Perry Ellis,
rounding pixels. The Spot Healing Bloomberg, Target, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New
Brush tool doesn’t require a source York Botanical Garden, and others. Scher claims her work stems from the density, size,
area at all; it “heals” areas to match and noise of New York City, which pushes her to make dense, energetic, bold designs.
the surrounding pixels. In Content- For The Public Theater, Scher revitalized bold wood block typefaces by angling their
Aware mode, the Patch tool replaces baselines. The result is an active series of posters whose treatment has become The
a selection with content that matches Public Theater’s identity as much as the logo she created for them.
the surrounding area.
Comprehension Check
5. The Dust & Scratches filter removes
digital artifacts from an image. 1. What does resolution mean?

2. What does the Crop tool do?

3. How can you adjust the tone and color of an image in Photoshop?

4. What tools can you use to remove blemishes in an image?

5. How can you remove digital artifacts such as colored pixels from an image?

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Getting Started with Photoshop CC Chapter 1 REVIEW QUESTIONS

End-of-Chapter Activities 1. Select the dock or taskbar icon.

Review Questions Start > All Programs > Adobe Photoshop
CC (Windows 8.1), Start > All apps>
1. Name two ways to start Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows 10),
or look in the Applications>Adobe
2. Name at least three features of the default Photoshop workspace. Photoshop CC 2015 folder (Mac OS).

3. Name the shortcut key for selecting the Zoom tool. Double-click a Photoshop (.psd) file.

4. Describe how to display and use a hidden tool. 2. Menu bar, Options bar, Tools panel,
Workspaces menu, Panels
5. What is the options bar used for?
3. Z
6. What is the relationship between image resolution and printer (output) resolution?
4. Hidden tools are part of a group
7. How does the Spot Healing Brush tool work? where only one tool displays. A small
triangle in the lower-right corner of a
8. Discuss how the Industrial Revolution led to graphic design as a distinct profession. Tools panel button indicates hidden
tools. Press and hold the mouse on
Multiple Choice such a button to display its hidden
tools, then click the desired tool.
1. Which of the following is not an alternate way to make large changes to the zoom level. You also can Alt-click (Windows) or
a. Scrubby Slider Option-click (Mac OS) the tool button
b. Navigator panel to cycle through the hidden tools.
c. Tools panel
d. Fit Screen 5. The Options Bar is used for Setting
tool properties.
2. When you brighten an image, you should do what before you change the brightness and contrast values?
a. Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer 6. Image resolution is the number of
b. Use Undo pixels per unit of length within the
c. Revert prior changes image file, usually expressed in ppi. A
d. Sample a color higher image resolution results in a
larger file size. Printer or output reso-
3. By default, the foreground color in Photoshop is lution is the number of ink dots per
a. white unit of length for an output device,
b. black usually expressed as dpi to represent
c. transparent dots per inch actually printed, as on
d. red an inkjet printer. Having an image
resolution that’s high relative to the
4. What in the Layers panel do you click to control whether a layer appears? recommended printer resolution can
a. panel menu button cause a print job to print slowly.
b. layer name
c. Layers tab 7. The Spot Healing Brush samples
d. Visibility column (eye icon) pixels around the retouched area and
matches the texture, lighting, trans-
5. Having the skills and abilities to be hired and stay hired is called parency, and shading of the sampled
a. transferable skills pixels to the pixels being healed.
b. employability
c. reliability 8. Example answer: The acceleration of
d. punctuality technology and the widespread use
of printing created new art forms, in-
6. In an organized strategy for retouching photos, which action would you perform first? cluding posters, advertising fliers, and
a. Removing any color casts the creation of typefaces.
b. Sharpening the overall focus of the image
c. Duplicating the original image
d. Cropping the image to its final size and orientation

LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION 59

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. C
2. A
3. B
4. D
5. B
6. C

LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION 59

MULTIPLE CHOICE Chapter 1 Getting Started with Photoshop CC

7. B 7. In an organized strategy for retouching photos, which action would you perform last?
8. D a. Removing any color casts
b. Sharpening the overall focus of the image
c. Duplicating the original image
d. Cropping the image to its final size and orientation

8. The visual file browser that you can install with Photoshop CC is called
a. Adobe Illustrator
b. Adobe InDesign
c. Adobe Acrobat
d. Adobe Bridge

Chapter 1 – Portfolio Builder

Create a Simple Postcard Advertisement

While small merchants increasingly use social media to advertise products, prices, and sales, many merchants still
use direct mail via the U.S. Postal Service to advertise to core customers. The right imagery can make an atten-
tion-grabbing postcard that will stand out from everything else in a customer’s mailbox. In this project, work with
a version of the image you used in Lesson 1 to create a simple, powerful postcard design.

DIRECTIONS 7. Click Crop 5 inch x 7 inch 300 ppi in the drop-
down palette. You are picking this size because
1. Choose File > Open, navigate to the folder hold- 5 inches by 7 inches is a standard postcard size, so
ing the data files for this chapter, and select the you want the image file to have those proportions.
PB01Start.psd file. Click Open. This will also change the image resolution to 300
ppi, which is a standard for printed output.
2. Choose File > Save As and navigate to the location
where your instructor directs you to save files for 8. Click the Swap button (stacked arrows) between
this chapter’s projects. Choose Photoshop from the Width and Height boxes on the options bar
the Format menu and name the file PB01End_ to switch the two dimensions. This will crop part
xx.psd. (Add _xx to the file name and replace xx of the rose, but it will appear prominently in the
with your initials or full name if instructed by your lower-left area of the image.
teacher.) Then click Save.
9. Press Enter or Return to apply the crop. Zoom out
3. In the Adjustments panel, click the Brightness/ to work more easily, if needed.
Contrast icon to add a Brightness/Contrast adjust-
ment layer. 10. Select the Horizontal Type tool in the Tools panel.

4. In the Properties panel, move the Brightness slider 11. In the options bar, select the Futura Medium font
to 65 and the Contrast slider to 20. from the first pop-up menu. (Use another font if
that one is not available for you.) Specify 36 pt. for
5. Select the Crop tool in the Tools panel. The crop the font size, and click the Right Align Text button
handles appear, and the cropping shield may appear. on the options bar.

6. In the options bar, click the Tool Preset picker 12. Select the Eyedropper tool in the Tools panel, and
(the drop-down arrow beside the crop icon at the then click on a tone near the center of the rose to
left end). sample a lighter color as the foreground color.

13. Reselect the Horizontal Type tool in the Tools
panel and make sure that the color you sampled
appears as the text color in the options bar.

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Getting Started with Photoshop CC Chapter 1

14. Click near the upper-right corner of the image 18. Alt+click (Windows) or Option+click (Mac OS) a
(but not too close to the edges), and type Blooms dark green area to the upper-right of the rose to
Roses Spring Sale. Press Enter or Return, and then sample that area.
type May 1-10. Don’t worry if the text is hard to
read over the flower in the background. You will fix 19. Start dragging to clone away the plant with the
that next. magenta blooms at upper-right. If you start
seeing unwanted content as you drag, imme-
15. Click the Commit (check mark) button on the diately undo it by using Ctrl+Z (Windows) or
options bar to finish adding the text. Command+Z (Mac OS). Also, you may need
to sample multiple times as you clone out the
16. Hide the text layer in the Layers panel, and select flower and greenery to make sure that the cor-
the Rose layer. rection appears as you want it to.

17. In the Tools panel, select the Clone Stamp tool. 20. When you are satisfied with the cloning work,
Open the Brush Preset Picker (click the arrow redisplay the text layer.
beside the current brush size), and choose a brush
Size of 200 px and a Hardness of 80%. 21. Save and close the file.

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Chapter 1 Getting Started with Photoshop CC

Chapter 1 – Critical Thinking

Converting a Color Image to Black and White or Applying a Color Tint

You can change the overall mood of a photo through various color conversions. For example, converting a color
image to black and white (with or without a tint) can give it a retro feel or make it the perfect background for
colorful text to make your message pop. Or, you can use an adjustment layer to change the overall color tone or
apply a tint to the black and white image when you want a special effect or need to use the image in a publication
with a well-defined color scheme.

DIRECTIONS 5. In the Adjustments panel, click the Black & White
button to add a second Black & White adjustment
1. Choose File > Open, navigate to the folder hold- layer named Black & White 2.
ing the data files for this chapter, and select the
CT01Start.tif file. Click Open. 6. Adjust the color sliders to change the saturation
of color channels. You can also experiment with
2. Choose File > Save As and navigate to the loca- options from the preset menu, such as Darker or
tion where your instructor directs you to save files Infrared. Or, select the tool in the upper left corner
for this chapter’s projects. Choose Photoshop of the Adjustments panel, position it over an area
from the Format drop-down list and name the you want to adjust, and drag on the image to
file CT01End_xx.psd. (Add _xx to the file name lighten or darken that color wherever it appears in
and replace xx with your initials or full name if the image.
instructed by your teacher.) Then click Save.
7. If you want to colorize the entire photo with a
3. In the Adjustments panel, click the Black & White but- single hue, select Tint. Then, click the color swatch
ton to add a Black & White adjustment layer. Notice beside Tint to display the Color Picker. Click on
the appearance of the image in black and white. the narrow column or drag the slider to choose
an overall color and then click on the square to
4. Click the eye icon in the Visibility column of choose a particular tone to specify the tint color;
the Layers panel to hide the Black & White 1 or, enter R, G, and B values (the example here uses
Adjustment layer. R=227, G=209, B=198).

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62 LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

Getting Started with Photoshop CC Chapter 1

8. Click OK to close the Color Picker dialog box and 10. Display the desired adjustment layer.
apply the tint. 11. Save and close the file.

9. Click the eye icon to hide the Black & White 2
adjustment layer. Redisplay the Black & White 1
adjustment layer.

Chapter 1 – Review Project 2

Researching the History of Design

Review the information you read in this chapter about the history of design. Choose one aspect of design history,
or one movement, or one artist or designer, to research in greater depth. Explore how your chosen subject fits
into the history of visual arts and design and into a specific cultural or historical context. As you research, pre-
pare a list of the most important characteristics of your subject’s designs or artwork. Locate pictures that illustrate
those characteristics, making sure to record proper citations for any illustrations you copy or download. When you
have completed your research, spend some time analyzing the contributions your subject has made to the history
of graphic design. Then complete the following activity.

DIRECTIONS

In a word processing file, write a report about the subject of your research. Begin by summarizing the place of
your subject in the history and evolution of graphic design. List the characteristics of your subject’s works, and
discuss any features that are specific to a particular culture. Add to your report any illustrations you found to help
a reader understand the designer, artist, or design movement. Add a caption to each illustration that explains what
characteristic is being shown in the picture and provides the credit information you recorded.

Conclude your report by comparing current graphic design with the subject of your report. Discuss what tech-
nological changes have occurred since the time when your subject was illustrating or designing, and how those
technologies affect design and execution.

As you prepare your report, make sure to use proper grammar, punctuation, and capitalization, and a formal report
style. Look up and define any technical terms or concepts that relate to your subject. You may want to ask a class-
mate to read your report and provide comments that will help you improve the content.

Save the report as directed by your instructor, and print it or supply a file for grading.

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LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION 63

Chapter 2

Using Selections and
Layers While Designing

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64 LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

Using Selections and Layers While Designing Chapter 2 CHAPTER 2
OVERVIEW
Lesson 3 | Working with Selections Lesson 4 | Layer Basics
Making a change to an area within an
Use selection tools Organize content on layers image in Photoshop is a two-step process:
Add to and subtract from a selection Create, view, hide, and select layers you use one tool to isolate the part of the
Reposition a selection Restack layers to change the stacking order image you want to change, then use other
Move and duplicate a selection Apply blending modes tools to make changes to that area—with-
Use keyboard-mouse combinations Resize and rotate layers out affecting the rest of the image.
Deselect a selection Apply a gradient or a filter
Constrain the movement of a selection Add text and layer effects Lesson 3: Key skills include selecting, mov-
Adjust a selection’s position Add an adjustment layer ing, resizing, duplicating, and deselecting
Rotate a selection Flatten layers items, using keyboard shortcuts and the
Combine tools to create a complex selection Learn about layer comps arrow keys to “nudge” a selection, and crop-
Crop an image ping unwanted areas out of an image. The
Explore graphic design training, education, End-of-Chapter Activities lesson concludes with an overview of train-
and certification ing, education, and certifications for graphic
design professionals.

Lesson 4: Key skills include navigating the
Layers panel, copying, renaming, arranging,
and flattening layers, and applying a variety of
styles and effects within an individual layer.

Files Needed for This Chapter:

03End.psd

03Start.psd

04End.psd

04Start.psd

PB02.psd

CT02.psd

LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION 65

CHAPTER OPENER

• Within Photoshop, selection and layering tools let you choose and combine
parts of different images and “try on” a variety of professional-quality effects,
all without undoing your hard work on the original image.

MEET INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

More advanced learners: Choose a group of advanced learners—including any who
are already familiar with Photoshop—to act as the Photoshop Shortcut Police. As you
move through the chapter—perhaps the whole book!—it’s their job to point out key-
board shortcuts for pull-down menu options or other commands. Have them keep a
running list to display or distribute to the class.

LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION 65

FOCUS AND ENGAGE Lesson 3 Working with Selections

Introduce the Lesson Lesson 3 Overview

• As you review the skills listed in the In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:
Lesson I Overview, explain that the
lesson covers different ways you can • Make specific areas of an image active using • Constrain the movement of a selected area.
select part of an image to manipulate. selection tools.
• Adjust the position of a selected area using the
• Explain that the skills students learn • Add to and subtract from a selection. arrow keys.
in this section will reappear in the
lessons that follow; emphasize the • Reposition a selection marquee. • Rotate a selection.
importance of mastering each skill.
• Move and duplicate the contents of a selection. • Use multiple selection tools to make a complex
REVIEW THE selection.
VOCABULARY • Use keyboard-mouse combinations that save time
and hand motions. • Crop an image
Selection an area isolating a specific
part of an image for editing, usually on • Deselect a selection. • Explore graphic design training, education, and
a single layer. certification

TEACHING TIP Photoshop offers an abundant amount of tools and features that you can use to manipulate the contents of an
image. That being said, learning how to select areas of an image is of primary importance—you must first select
List—or create a 2x2 chart including—the what you want to affect. Once you’ve made a selection, only the area within the selection can be edited. In this
four types of selection tools: geometric, lesson, you learn the core skills for working with selections in Photoshop CC.
freehand, edge-based, and color-based. List
individual tools by name or icon under each About Selecting and Selection Tools
category as they appear in the text.
Selection Making changes to an area within an image in Photoshop is a two-step process.
An area isolating a specific part You first use one of the selection tools to select the part of an image you want to
of an image for editing, usually change. Then you use another tool, filter, or other feature to make changes, such
on a single layer. as moving the selected pixels to another location or applying a filter to the selected
area. You can make selections based on size, shape, and color. When a selection is
Note: You’ll learn how to select active, changes you make apply only to the selected area; other areas are unaffected.
vector areas using the pen tools
in Lesson 8, Vector Drawing The best selection tool for a specific area often depends on the characteristics of
Techniques.” that area, such as shape or color. There are four primary types of selections:

Geometric selections The Rectangular Marquee tool ( ) selects a rectangular )
area in an image. The Elliptical Marquee tool ( ), which is hidden behind the
Rectangular Marquee tool, selects elliptical areas. The Single Row Marquee tool (
and Single Column Marquee tool ( ) select either a 1-pixel-high row or a 1-pixel-
wide column, respectively.

Geometric selection tools.

Freehand selections The Lasso tool ( ) traces a freehand selection around an
area. The Polygonal Lasso tool ( ) sets anchor points in straight-line segments
around an area. The Magnetic Lasso tool ( ) works something like a combination
of the other two lasso tools, and gives the best results when good contrast exists
between the area you want to select and its surroundings.

66 LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

MEET INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

English language learners Have English language learners translate the vocabu-
lary words and definitions into their native language and read them aloud to a
partner in both English and their native language.

66 LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

Working with Selections Lesson 3 Discussion Topic

In the first practice activity, you’ll combine
six separate scanned images into a single
background. Can you think of a real-life
situation when you’d want to do that?

Freehand selection tools.

Edge-based selections The Quick Selection tool ( ) quickly “paints” a selection by
automatically finding and following defined edges in the image.

Color-based selections The Magic Wand tool ( ) selects parts of an image based
on the similarity in pixel color. It is useful for selecting odd-shaped areas that share a
specific range of colors.

Edge- and color-based selection tools. Note: Students used Bridge
to open a file so as to view the
Opening the Project File final version before starting.
From here on, we will have
In this lesson, you will work with several Photoshop selection tools. First, you will them open in Photoshop; no
start Photoshop and reset default settings. longer need Bridge, as they will
not be viewing final files at the
Try It! beginnings of projects.

1. Start Photoshop, and then immediately hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows)
or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS) to restore the default preferences. (See
“Restoring default preferences” on page 4.)

2. When prompted, click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the Adobe
Photoshop Settings file.

3. Choose File > Open, and navigate to the folder where you stored the data files
for this chapter.

4. Double-click the 03Start.psd thumbnail to open the image file in Photoshop.

5. Choose File > Save As, and rename the file 03End_xx.psd. (Replace xx with your
initials or full name if instructed by your teacher.) Click Save.

By saving another version of the start file, you don’t have to worry about overwriting
the original.

Using the Quick Selection Tool

The Quick Selection tool provides one of the easiest ways to make a selection. You
simply paint an area of an image, and the tool automatically finds the edges. You can
add or subtract areas of the selection until you have exactly the area you want.

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MEET INDIVIDUAL Lesson 3 Working with Selections
NEEDS
The image of the sand dollar in the 03End_xx.psd file has clearly defined edges,
More advanced students Challenge more making it an ideal candidate for the Quick Selection tool. You’ll select just the sand
advanced students—or those with prior dollar, not the background behind it.
knowledge of Photoshop—to find at least
three additional ways to isolate the sand Try It!
dollar image. Could they take a bite out
of the edge of it? Or cut out just the star 1. Select the Zoom tool in the Tools panel, and then zoom in so that you can see
shape in the center? the sand dollar well.

2. Select the Quick Selection tool ( ) in the Tools panel.

3. Select Auto-Enhance in the options bar.
When Auto-Enhance is selected, the Quick Selection tool creates better quality
selections, with edges that are truer to the object. The selection process is a
little slower than using the Quick Selection tool without Auto-Enhance, but the
results are superior.

4. Click on an off-white area near the outside edge of the sand dollar.

Use the Quick Selection tool with Auto-Enhance enabled to select the sand dollar with a single click.

The Quick Selection tool finds the full edge automatically, selecting the entire sand
dollar. Leave the selection active so that you can use it in the next exercise.

Adding to and Subtracting from a Selection

No matter which selection tool you are using, to add to a selection, click the Add
To Selection button ( ) in the options bar, and then click the area you want to
add. To subtract from a selection, click the Subtract From Selection button ( ) in
the options bar, and then click the area you want to subtract. You can also add to a
selection by pressing Shift as you drag or click; to subtract, press Alt (Windows) or
Option (Mac OS) as you drag or click.

Moving a Selected Area

Once you’ve made a selection, any changes you make apply exclusively to the pixels
within the selection. The rest of the image is not affected by those changes.
To move the selected area to another part of the composition, you use the Move tool.
This image has only one layer, so the pixels you move will replace the pixels beneath
them. This change is not permanent until you deselect the moved pixels, so you can
try different locations for the selection you’re moving before you make a commitment.

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68 LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

Working with Selections Lesson 3 TEACHING TIP

Try It! Point out shortcuts for deselecting and
saving and how they vary on Mac OS or
1. If the sand dollar is not still selected, repeat the previous exercise to select it. Windows (if your students are using both).
2. Zoom out so you can see both the shadowbox and the sand dollar.
3. Select the Move tool ( ). Notice that the sand dollar remains selected. MEET INDIVIDUAL
4. Drag the selected area (the sand dollar) up to the upper left area of the frame, NEEDS

which is labeled “A.” Position it over the silhouette in the frame, leaving the lower More advanced learners Have more
left part of the silhouette showing as a shadow. advanced learners—or those with
prior knowledge of Photoshop—
Use the Move tool to move the selection to a new position. Google Julieanne Kost. How does
a person become an official Adobe
5. Choose Select > Deselect, and then choose File > Save. Photoshop evangelist?
In Photoshop, it’s not easy to lose a selection. Unless a selection tool is active,
clicking elsewhere in the image will not deselect the active area. To deliberately
deselect a selection, you can choose Select > Deselect, press Ctrl+D (Windows)
or Command+D (Mac OS), or click outside the selection with any selection tool
to start a different selection.

Julieanne Kost is an official Adobe Photoshop evangelist.

Tool Tips from the Photoshop Evangelist

Move Tool Tip

If you’re moving objects in a multilayer file with the Move tool and you sud-
denly need to select one of the layers, try this: With the Move tool selected,
move the pointer over any area of an image, and right-click (Windows) or
Control-click (Mac OS). The layers that are under the pointer appear in the
context menu. Choose the one you’d like to make active.

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TEACHING TIP Lesson 3 Working with Selections

With the Marquee tool active, pressing Manipulating Selections
the space bar toggles between changing
a shape and moving it into a new posi- You can move selections, reposition them as you create them, and even duplicate
tion. Have students toggle back and forth them. In this section, you’ll learn several ways to manipulate selections. Most of
between the two until the switch feels these methods work with any selection, but you’ll use them here with the Elliptical
natural. Encourage students to try the Marquee tool, which lets you select ovals or perfect circles.
plate-of-shells sequence several times.
One of the most useful things you may find in this section is the introduction of
Note: You don’t have to include keyboard shortcuts that can save you time and arm motions.
every pixel in the plate of shells,
but the selection should be the Repositioning a Selection Marquee While Creating It
shape of the plate, and should
contain the shells comfortably. Selecting ovals and circles can be tricky. It’s not always obvious where you
should start dragging, so sometimes the selection will be off-center, or the ratio
of width to height won’t match what you need. In this exercise, you’ll learn tech-
niques for managing those problems, including two important keyboard-mouse
combinations that can make your Photoshop work much easier.

As you perform this exercise, be very careful to follow the directions about keeping
the mouse button or specific keys pressed. If you accidentally release the mouse
button at the wrong time, simply start the exercise again from step 1.

Try It!

1. Select the Zoom tool ( ), and click the plate of shells at the bottom of the
image window to zoom in to at least 100% view (use 200% view if the entire plate
of shells will still fit in the image window on your screen).

2. Select the Elliptical Marquee tool ( ), hidden under the Rectangular Marquee
tool ( ).

3. Move the pointer over the plate of shells, and drag diagonally across the oval
plate to create a selection, but do not release the mouse button. It’s OK if your
selection does not match the plate shape yet.

If you accidentally release the mouse button, draw the selection again. In most
cases—including this one—the new selection replaces the previous one.

4. Still holding down the mouse button, press the spacebar, and continue to drag
the selection. Instead of resizing the selection, now you’re moving it. Position it
so that it more closely aligns with the plate.

5. Carefully release the spacebar (but not the mouse button) and continue to
drag, trying to make the size and shape of the selection match the oval plate
of shells as closely as possible. If necessary, hold down the spacebar again and
drag to move the selection marquee into position around the plate of shells.

Begin dragging a Press the spacebar to Complete the selection.
selection. move it.

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70 LEARNING GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

Working with Selections Lesson 3 Discussion Topic

6. When the selection border is positioned appropriately, release the Is there a keyboard shortcut for View > Fit
mouse button. on Screen? Point out that using short-
cuts is completely up to the individual.
7. Choose View > Fit On Screen or use the slider in the Navigator panel Some users are more keyboard-oriented
to reduce the zoom view so that you can see all of the objects in the and use shortcuts all the time; others are
image window. more mouse- or trackpad-oriented and
Leave the Elliptical Marquee tool and the selection active for the next exercise. use the Navigator panel or pull-down
menus to make the same adjustments.
Moving Selected Pixels with a Keyboard Shortcut There is no right or wrong way—as long
as the end result is the same—and most
Now you’ll use a keyboard shortcut to move the selected pixels onto the shadowbox. of us end up using a combination of all
The shortcut temporarily switches the active tool to the Move tool, so you don’t need these options.
to select it from the Tools panel.
REVIEW THE
Try It! VOCABULARY

1. If the plate of shells is not still selected, repeat the previous exercise to select it. Nudge adjusting a selection using the
arrow keys.
2. With the Elliptical Marquee tool ( ) selected in the Tools panel, press Ctrl
(Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and move the pointer within the selection.
The pointer icon now includes a pair of scissors ( ) to indicate that the
selection will be cut from its current location.

3. Drag the plate of shells onto the area of the shadowbox labeled “B.” (You’ll
use another technique to nudge the oval plate into the exact position in a
minute.)

The second selection has been dragged into position. Note: You can release the Ctrl
or Command key after you
4. Release the mouse button, but don’t deselect the plate of shells. start dragging, and the Move
tool remains active. Photoshop
Moving a Selection with the Arrow Keys reverts to the previously selected
tool when you deselect, whether
You can make minor adjustments to the position of selected pixels by using the arrow you click outside the selection or
keys. You can nudge the selection in increments of either one pixel or ten pixels. use the Deselect command.
When a selection tool is active in the Tools panel, the arrow keys nudge the selection
border, but not the contents. When the Move tool is active, the arrow keys move Nudge
both the selection border and its contents. Adjusting a selection using the
You’ll use the arrow keys to nudge the plate of shells. Before you begin, make sure arrow keys.
that the plate of shells is still selected in the image window.

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Discussion Topic Lesson 3 Working with Selections

What happens when you press Shift while Try It!
you’re using the arrow keys to nudge
an object?

1. Press the Up Arrow key ( ) on your keyboard a few times to move the
oval upward.

Notice that each time you press the arrow key, the plate of shells moves one pixel.
Experiment by pressing the other arrow keys to see how they affect the selection.

2. Hold down the Shift key as you press an arrow key.

When you hold down the Shift key, the selection moves ten pixels every time you
press an arrow key.

Sometimes the border around a selected area can distract you as you make adjust-
ments. You can hide the edges of a selection temporarily without actually deselect-
ing, and then display the selection border once you’ve completed the adjustments.

3. Choose View > Show > Selection Edges or View > Extras.
Either command hides the selection border around the plate of shells.

4. Use the arrow keys to nudge the plate of shells until it’s positioned over the
silhouette, so that there’s a shadow on the left and bottom of the plate. Then
choose View > Show > Selection Edges to reveal the selection border again.

Hidden selection edges. Visible selection edges.

5. Choose Select > Deselect, or press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Command+D (Mac OS).

6. Choose File > Save to save your work so far.

Using the Magic Wand Tool

The Magic Wand tool selects all the pixels of a particular color or color range. It’s
most useful for selecting an area of similar colors surrounded by areas of very
different colors. As with many of the selection tools, after you make the initial
selection, you can add or subtract areas of the selection.
The Tolerance option sets the sensitivity of the Magic Wand tool. This value limits or
extends the range of pixel similarity. The default tolerance value of 32 selects the color
you click plus 32 lighter and 32 darker tones of that color. You may need to adjust the
tolerance level up or down depending on the color ranges and variations in the image.
If a multicolored area that you want to select is set against a background of a
different color, it can be much easier to select the background than the area itself. In
this procedure, you’ll use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select a larger area, and
then use the Magic Wand tool to subtract the background from the selection.

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Working with Selections Lesson 3 Discussion Topic

Try It! How is the Magic Wand tool different
from the Quick Selection tool?
1. Select the Rectangular Marquee tool ( ), hidden behind the Elliptical Marquee
tool ( ).

2. Drag a selection around the piece of coral. Make sure that your selection is large
enough so that a margin of white appears between the coral and the edges of
the marquee.

Drag diagonally to make the rectangular selection.

At this point, the coral and the white background area are selected. You’ll subtract
the white area from the selection so that only the coral remains in the selection.

3. Select the Magic Wand tool ( ), hidden under the Quick Selection tool ( ).

4. In the options bar, confirm that the Tolerance value is 32. This value determines
the range of colors the wand selects.

5. Click the Subtract From Selection button ( ) in the options bar.
A minus sign appears next to the wand in the pointer icon. Anything you select
now will be subtracted from the initial selection.

6. Click in the white background area within the selection marquee.

Click a white area within the selection to subtract the white from the selection.

The Magic Wand tool selects the entire background, subtracting it from
the selection. Now all the white pixels are deselected, leaving the coral
perfectly selected.

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REVIEW THE Lesson 3 Working with Selections
VOCABULARY
7. Select the Move tool ( ), and drag the coral to the area of the shadowbox
Anti-aliasing a selection setting that labeled “C,” positioning it so that a shadow appears to the left and below the coral.
smooths the jagged edges of a selection
by softening the color transition between The coral moved into position.
edge pixels and background pixels
8. Choose Select > Deselect, and then save your work.
Feathering a selection setting that blurs
edges by building a transition bound- Anti-aliasing Softening the Edges of a Selection
ary between the selection and its
surrounding pixels. A selection setting that smooths To smooth the hard edges of a selection, you can apply anti-aliasing or
the jagged edges of a selection feathering, or use the Refine Edge option.
Discussion Topic by softening the color transition
between edge pixels and Anti-aliasing smooths the jagged edges of a selection by softening the
Reinforce that anti-aliasing and feathering background pixels. color transition between edge pixels and background pixels. Since only the
must be turned on—and where—before edge pixels change, no detail is lost. Anti-aliasing is useful when cutting,
the item is selected. Once a selection is Feathering copying, and pasting selections to create composite images.
made, you cannot add anti-aliasing to it.
A selection setting that blurs Anti-aliasing is available for the Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, Magnetic Lasso, Elliptical
edges by building a transition Marquee, and Magic Wand tools. (Select the tool to display its options in the
boundary between the selection options bar.) To apply anti-aliasing, you must select the option before making
and its surrounding pixels. the selection. Once a selection is made, you cannot add anti-aliasing to it.

Feathering blurs edges by building a transition boundary between the selection
and its surrounding pixels. This blurring can cause some loss of detail at the
edge of the selection.

You can define feathering for the marquee and lasso tools as you use them,
or you can add feathering to an existing selection. Feathering effects become
apparent when you move, cut, or copy the selection.

• To use the Refine Edge option, first make a selection, and then click Refine
Edge in the options bar to open its dialog box. You can use the Refine Edge
option to smooth the outline, feather it, or contract or expand it.

• To use anti-aliasing, select a lasso tool, or the Elliptical Marquee or Magic
Wand tool, and select Anti-alias in the options bar.

• To define a feathered edge for a selection tool, select any of the lasso or
marquee tools. Enter a Feather value in the options bar. This value defines
the width of the feathered edge and can range from 1 to 250 pixels.

• To define a feathered edge for an existing selection, choose Select > Modify
> Feather. Enter a value for the Feather Radius, and click OK.

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Working with Selections Lesson 3 TEACHING TIPS

Selecting with the Lasso Tools With the Lasso tool active, holding down
the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) key
As we mentioned earlier, Photoshop includes three lasso tools: the Lasso tool, the toggles between the Lasso tool pointer
Polygonal Lasso tool, and the Magnetic Lasso tool. You can use the Lasso tool to and the Polygonal Lasso tool pointer.
make selections that require both freehand and straight lines, using keyboard short- Have students toggle back and forth
cuts to move back and forth between the Lasso tool and the Polygonal Lasso tool. between the two until the switch feels
You’ll use the Lasso tool to select the mussel. It takes a bit of practice to alternate natural. How are the two pointers—and
between straight-line and freehand selections—if you make a mistake while you’re the lines they draw—different to use?
selecting the mussel, simply deselect and start again.
What is pictured in the exercise is a half
Try It! a mussel shell. Mussel is the common
name for a family of bivalve mollusks that
1. Select the Zoom tool ( ), and click the mussel until the view enlarges to 100%. live in both fresh and saltwater (called
Make sure you can see the entire mussel in the window. bivalve because they have two shells that
open at a hinge). Humans have used mus-
2. Select the Lasso tool ( ). Starting at the lower left section of the mussel, drag sels as for food for thousands of years,
around the rounded end of the mussel, tracing the shape as accurately as possi- although only the saltwater versions are
ble. Do not release the mouse button. considered edible.

3. Press the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) key, and then release the mouse
button so that the lasso pointer changes to the polygonal lasso shape ( ).
Do not release the Alt or Option key.

4. Begin clicking along the end of the mussel to place anchor points, following the
contours of the mussel. Be sure to hold down the Alt or Option key throughout
this process.

Drag with the Lasso tool. Click with the Polygonal Lasso tool.

The selection border automatically stretches like a rubber band between an-
chor points.

5. When you reach the tip of the mussel, hold down the mouse button as you
release the Alt or Option key. The pointer again appears as the lasso icon.

6. Carefully drag around the tip of the mussel, holding down the mouse button.

7. When you finish tracing the tip and reach the lower side of the mussel, first press
Alt or Option again, and then release the mouse button. Click along the lower
side of the mussel with the Polygonal Lasso tool as you did on the top. Continue
to trace the mussel until you arrive back at the starting point of your selection
near the left end of the image.

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MEET INDIVIDUAL Lesson 3 Working with Selections
NEEDS
Note: To make sure that the 8. Click the starting point of the selection, and then release Alt or Option. The
More advanced learners Have more selection is the shape you want mussel is now entirely selected. Leave the mussel selected for the next exercise.
advanced students—or those with prior when you use the Lasso tool,
knowledge of Photoshop—locate alter- end the selection by dragging Click the starting point to finish the selection.
nate ways to rotate the mussel. across the starting point of the
selection. If you start and stop Rotating a Selection
the selection at different points,
Photoshop draws a straight line Now you’ll rotate the mussel. Before you begin, make sure that the mussel is
between the start and end points still selected.
of the selection.
Try It!

1. Choose View > Fit On Screen to resize the image window to fit on your screen.
2. Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you drag the selected mussel to

the section of the shadowbox labeled “D.”
The pointer changes to the Move tool icon when you press Ctrl or Command.
3. Choose Edit > Transform > Rotate.
The mussel and selection marquee are enclosed in a bounding box.
4. Move the pointer outside the bounding box so that it becomes a curved, dou-
ble-headed arrow ( ). Drag to rotate the mussel to a 90-degree angle. You
can verify the angle in the Rotate box in the options bar. Press Enter or Return to
commit the transformation.
5. If necessary, select the Move tool ( ) and drag to reposition the mussel,
leaving a shadow to match the others. When you’re satisfied, choose Select >
Deselect.

Rotate and position the mussel.

6. Choose File > Save.

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Working with Selections Lesson 3 TEACHING TIP

Selecting with the Magnetic Lasso Tool The nautilus, also a type of mollusk, lives
only in seawater. What’s pictured in the
You can use the Magnetic Lasso tool to make freehand selections of areas with exercise is a nautilus shell left behind
high-contrast edges. When you draw with the Magnetic Lasso tool, the selection by the creature that once lived inside.
border automatically snaps to the edge between areas of contrast. You can also Nautilus was also the name of the sub-
control the selection path by occasionally clicking the mouse to place anchor marine—led by Captain Nemo—in the
points in the selection border. science fiction novel Twenty Thousand
You’ll use the Magnetic Lasso tool to select the nautilus so that you can move it to Leagues Under the Sea, written in 1870 by
the shadowbox. Jules Verne.

Try It! Note: In low-contrast areas, you
may want to click to place your
1. Select the Zoom tool ( ), and click the nautilus to zoom in to at least 100%. own fastening points. You can
add as many as you need. To
2. Select the Magnetic Lasso tool ( ), hidden under the Lasso tool ( ). remove the most recent fastening
point, press Delete, and then
3. Click once along the left edge of the nautilus, and then move the Magnetic Lasso move the mouse back to the
tool along the edge to trace its outline. remaining fastening point and
continue selecting.

Use the Magnetic Lasso tool along an edge to make a selection.

Even though you’re not holding down the mouse button, the tool snaps to the
edge of the nautilus and automatically adds fastening points.

4. When you reach the left side of the nautilus again, double-click to return the
Magnetic Lasso tool to the starting point, closing the selection. Or you can move
the Magnetic Lasso tool over the starting point and click once.

5. Double-click the Hand tool ( ) to fit the image in the image window.

Double-click to close the selection.

6. Select the Move tool ( ), and drag the nautilus onto its silhouette in
the section of the frame labeled “E,” leaving a shadow below it and on the
left side.

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Discussion Topic Lesson 3 Working with Selections

Emphasize the callout note on page 7. Choose Select > Deselect, and then choose File > Save.
78. Press Shift as you create an ellipse
to make it a perfect circle, and Shift + The nautilus in its frame.
any rectangle tool to creates a perfect
square. It works the same way in other Selecting from a Center Point
Adobe programs.
In some cases, it’s easier to make elliptical or rectangular selections by drawing a
TEACHING TIP selection from an object’s center point. You’ll use this technique to select the head of
the screw for the shadowbox corners.
As with previous back-and-forth tools,
encourage students to Alt (Windows) Try It!
or Option (Mac OS) with the Elliptical
Marquee tool engaged to toggle back and 1. Select the Zoom tool ( ), and zoom in on the screw to a magnification of about
forth between centered and un-centered 300%. Make sure that you can see the entire screw head in your image window.
until the switch becomes comfortable.
2. Select the Elliptical Marquee tool ( ) in the Tools panel.
Note: To select a perfect circle,
press Shift as you drag. Hold 3. Move the pointer to the approximate center of the screw.
down Shift while dragging the
Rectangular Marquee tool to 4. Begin dragging. Then, without releasing the mouse button, press Alt (Windows)
select a perfect square. or Option (Mac OS) as you continue dragging the selection to the outer edge
of the screw.
The selection is centered over its starting point.

5. When you have the entire screw head selected, release the mouse button first,
and then release Alt or Option (and the Shift key if you used it). Do not deselect,
because you’ll use this selection in the next exercise.

Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) while dragging to select from the center.

6. If necessary, reposition the selection border using one of the methods you learned
earlier. If you accidentally released the Alt or Option key before you released the
mouse button, select the screw again.

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Working with Selections Lesson 3 TEACHING TIP

Resizing and Copying a Selection By now, students should be comfort-
able using keyboard shortcuts to save
Now you’ll move the screw to the lower right corner of the wooden shadowbox, and and deselect as they cut out, resize, and
then duplicate it for the other corners. manipulate the screw.

Resizing the Contents of a Selection

You’ll start by moving the screw, but it’s too large for the space. You’ll need to resize
it as well.
Before you begin, make sure that the screw is still selected. If it’s not, reselect it by
completing the previous exercise.

Try It!

1. Choose View > Fit On Screen so that the entire image fits within the
image window.

2. Select the Move tool ( ) in the Tools panel.

3. Position the pointer within the screw selection.
The pointer becomes an arrow with a pair of scissors ( ), indicating that
dragging the selection will cut it from its current location and move it to the
new location.

4. Drag the screw onto the lower right corner of the shadowbox.

5. Choose Edit > Transform > Scale. A bounding box appears around the selection.

6. Press Shift as you drag one of the corner points inward to reduce the screw to
about 40% of its original size, or until it is small enough to sit on the shadowbox
frame. Then press Enter or Return to commit the change and remove the trans-
formation bounding box.
As you resize the object, the selection marquee resizes, too. Pressing the Shift
key as you resize the selection constrains the proportions so that the reduced
object isn’t distorted.

7. Use the Move tool to reposition the screw after resizing it, so that it is centered in
the corner of the shadowbox frame.

You can scale and reposition a selection.

8. Leaving the screw selected, choose File > Save to save your work.

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TEACHING TIPS Lesson 3 Working with Selections

In step 3, pressing Shift while you move Moving and Duplicating a Selection Simultaneously
an object makes it move in a straight line.
Point out using the Move tool + Alt You can move and duplicate a selection at the same time. You’ll copy the screw for
(Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as an the other three corners of the frame. If the screw is no longer selected, reselect it
alternative to Copy > Paste. now, using the techniques you learned earlier.

MEET INDIVIDUAL Try It!
NEEDS
1. With the Move tool ( ) selected, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as
More Advanced Learners Have more you position the pointer inside the screw selection.
advanced learners—or those with The pointer changes, displaying the usual black arrow and an additional
prior knowledge of Photoshop—rotate white arrow, which indicates that a duplicate will be made when you move
their screws so that the slots are all at the selection.
different angles.
2. Continue holding down the Alt or Option key as you drag a duplicate of the
screw straight up to the top right corner of the frame. Release the mouse
button and the Alt or Option key, but don’t deselect the duplicate image.

3. Hold down Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (Mac OS), and drag a new copy
of the screw straight left to the upper left corner of the frame.
Pressing the Shift key as you move a selection constrains the movement horizontally
or vertically in 45-degree increments.

4. Repeat step 3 to drag a fourth screw to the lower left corner of the frame.

You duplicated the selected screw and moved each duplicate.

5. When you’re satisfied with the position of the fourth screw, choose Select
> Deselect, and then choose File > Save.

Copying Selections

You can use the Move tool to copy selections as you drag them within or
between images, or you can copy and move selections using the Copy, Copy
Merged, Paste, and Paste Into commands. Dragging with the Move tool saves
memory, because the clipboard is not used as it is with the commands.

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Working with Selections Lesson 3 REVIEW THE
VOCABULARY
Photoshop has several copy and paste commands:
Crop Removing unwanted areas of an
• Copy copies the selected area on the active layer. image, usually along one or more edges.

• Copy Merged creates a merged copy of all the visible layers in the Discussion Topic
selected area.
Collapse your Swatches panel. How did you
• Paste pastes a cut or copied selection into another part of the image or do it? What does it look like in its collapsed
into another image as a new layer. state? How do you un-collapse it?

• Paste Into pastes a cut or copied selection inside another selection in the
same or a different image. The source selection is pasted onto a new layer,
and the destination selection border is converted into a layer mask.

Keep in mind that when a selection is pasted between images with different
resolutions, the pasted data retains its pixel dimensions. This can make the
pasted portion appear out of proportion to the new image. Use the Image Size
command to make the source and destination images the same resolution
before copying and pasting.

Cropping an Image Crop
Removing unwanted areas of
Now that your composition is in place, you’ll crop the image to a final size. You can the image, usually along one or
use either the Crop tool or the Crop command to crop an image. more edges.

Try It! Note: To crop an image with
its original proportions intact,
1. Select the Crop tool ( ), or press C to switch from the current tool to the Crop choose Original Ratio from the
tool. Photoshop displays a crop boundary around the entire image. Preset pop-up menu in the
options bar.
2. In the options bar, make sure Ratio is selected in the Preset pop-up menu and
that there are no ratio values specified. Then confirm that Delete Cropped Pixels
is selected.
When Ratio is selected but no ratio values are specified, you can crop the image
with any proportions.

3. Drag the crop handles so that the shadowbox is in the highlighted area, omitting
the backgrounds from the original objects at the bottom of the image. Crop the
frame so that there’s an even area of white around it.

Finish the composition by cropping out the unneeded backgrounds.

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Discussion Topic Lesson 3 Working with Selections

Where did students decide to crop their 4. When you’re satisfied with the position of the crop area, click the Commit
images? Did some leave a white bor- Current Crop Operation button ( ) in the options bar.
der? How much of one? Did others crop
right to the edge of the frame? There’s 5. Choose File > Save to save your work and then close the file.
no right or wrong, but students should
become comfortable defending their Portfolio Here’s the finished shadowbox.
creative decisions.
A collection of projects meant You’ve used several different selection tools to move all the seashells into place.
TEACHING TIP to represent a person’s body of The shadowbox is complete!
work in a field such as graphic
Find and share the sequence of courses design. A graphic portfolio may Graphic Design Training, Education,
for an undergraduate graphic design pro- consist of printed materials and Certification
gram at a college or university near you. enclosed in a portfolio case or
What courses do students take each year? a digital projects made available Graphic design requires creativity, originality, and artistic aptitude. However, it also
Do your students see any courses on the online. requires the proper training and education, including training in graphic design itself,
list that surprise them? education in business skills and professionalism, as well as mastery of the skills and
technologies used in the field today.
Discussion Topic
Many graphic design jobs require a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. In some
Ask students to think about people they cases, you may be able to couple a degree in another field along with graphic design
know who an established career—in any and technical training to meet the requirements for a particular job. According to
field. Why might they continue to take accrediting body The National Association of Schools of Art and Design, there are
classes beyond college? What kinds about 300 postsecondary colleges, universities, and independent institutes with pro-
of additional training do they take and grams in art and design. These programs typically teach both design concepts and
why? Discuss examples and, if relevant, principles, along with computing and printing technologies. Students may further
share information about the continuing specialize in areas such as video, web design, animation, or writing and marketing.
education hours required to maintain As part of the education process, a graphic design student should also build his or
your certification. her portfolio, for use in finding a job in graphic design.

Because of changing trends and technologies, ongoing skills training is a must for
any graphic designer. A graphic designer can join an organization such as AIGA
(http://www.aiga.org/) or the Graphic Artists Guild (https://www.graphicartistsguild.
org/) to access professional development and skills enrichment activities and events.
Designers can learn more about industry trends and legal and business topics, as well
as gaining additional training with the latest skills and software. This continuing edu-
cation is available both through in-person events and online webinars and classes.
For example, AIGA members receive a discount to take online courses at Lynda.com.

A graphic designer can demonstrate proficiency by obtaining a certification in key
software used on the job. For example, Adobe offers certifications for its industry
leading products, such as Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro (motion and video
editing), Adobe Dreamweaver (Web design and development), Adobe InDesign (print
design), Adobe Illustrator (vector drawing and more), and Adobe Photoshop (photo

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Working with Selections Lesson 3 Comprehension Check

editing and more). For more on Adobe certification exams, go to http://training. 1. Only the area within an active selec-
adobe.com/certification/exams.html. Autodesk offers certification for its 3ds Max® tion can be edited.
3D modeling, animation, and rendering software, as well as its CAD (computer-aided
design) and other products. For more on Autodesk certification, go to http://www. 2. To add to a selection, click the Add
autodesk.com/training-and-certification/certification. Both Adobe and Autodesk also To Selection button in the options
offer training courses and opportunities. bar, and then click the area you want
Some exams enable designers to become certified on overall skills rather than spe- to add. To subtract from a selection,
cific software. For example, CIW offers vendor-neutral programs and certifications click the Subtract From Selection
for web designers and developers. See http://www.ciwcertified.com/certifications/. button in the options bar, and then
click the area you want to subtract.
Comprehension Check You can also add to a selection by
pressing Shift as you drag or click; to
1. Once you’ve made a selection, what area of the image can be edited? subtract, press Alt (Windows) or Op-
tion (Mac OS) as you drag or click.
2. How do you add to and subtract from a selection?
3. To reposition a selection while you’re
3. How can you move a selection while you’re drawing it? drawing it, continue to press the
mouse button as you hold down the
4. What does the Quick Selection tool do? spacebar and drag.

5. How does the Magic Wand tool determine which areas of an image to select? 4. The Quick Selection tool expands
What is tolerance, and how does it affect a selection? outward from where you click to
automatically find and follow defined
Review Project 1 edges in the image.

Explore training, education, and certification options for a graphic design career of 5. The Magic Wand tool selects adja-
your choice. For example, if you want to pursue a career as a photographer, research cent pixels based on their similar-
several schools where you can receive a thorough education in the photographic ity in color. The Tolerance value
arts. Then determine what certifications you might need to help in the process of determines how many color tones
obtaining a job in your chosen career. Where and when are the certification exams the Magic Wand tool will select. The
held? What skills will you need to master to pass the exam? Locate courses in your higher the tolerance setting, the more
area that will allow you to refine your skills and learn new ones. Write a brief report tones are selected.
to summarize what you have learned about training, education, and certification for
your career.

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FOCUS AND ENGAGE Lesson 4 Layer Basics

Introduce the Lesson Lesson 4 Overview

• Share and examine samples of post- In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:
ers, advertisements, packaging, or
other graphics in which elements are • Organize artwork on layers. • Apply a gradient to a layer.
layered. Refer back to these examples
as you review the skills listed in the • Create, view, hide, and select layers. • Apply a filter to a layer.
Lesson 4 overview.
• Rearrange layers to change the stacking order • Add text and layer effects to a layer.
• Explain that the skills students learn of artwork.
in this section will reappear in the • Add an adjustment layer.
lessons that follow; emphasize the • Apply blending modes to layers.
importance of mastering each skill. • Save a copy of the file with the layers
• Resize and rotate layers. flattened.
REVIEW THE
VOCABULARY • Learn about layer comps

Layers The different levels for holding the Similar to the way you can edit and move an isolated area once you’ve surrounded it with a selection marquee,
content within a Photoshop file. you can isolate each different part of an image on its own layer. Each layer can then be edited as discrete artwork,
giving you tremendous flexibility as you compose and revise an image. In this lesson, you see how using layers in
Background Layer: The initial or bottom- Photoshop CC makes creating a complex composition easier.
most layer, named Background, in a new
image with a white or colored back- Layers About Layers
ground or photo. The different levels for holding
content within a Photoshop file. Every Photoshop file contains one or more layers. New files are generally created
TEACHING TIP with a background layer, which contains a color or an image that shows through
Background layer the transparent areas of subsequent layers. All new layers in an image are transparent
Refer back the transparencies or other The initial or bottommost layer, until you add text or artwork (pixel values).
clear, stacking items you used to illustrate named Background, in a new Working with layers is analogous to placing portions of a drawing on clear sheets
Layers in Chapter 1 page 6. Use a photo- image with a white or colored of film, such as those viewed with an overhead projector: Individual sheets may be
graph or magazine page to represent the background or a photo. edited, repositioned, and deleted without affecting the other sheets. When the sheets
Background layer. are stacked, the entire composition is visible. You cannot change certain settings for
the background layer, such as its position.

Opening the Project File

In this lesson, you will work with Photoshop layers and layer features. First, you will
start Photoshop and reset default settings.

Try It!

1. Start Photoshop, and then immediately hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or
Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS) to restore the default preferences.

2. When prompted, click Yes to delete the Adobe Photoshop Settings file.

3. Choose File > open, and navigate to the folder where you stored the data files for
this chapter.

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Layer Basics Lesson 4 TEACHING TIP

4. Double-click the 04Start.psd file to open it in Photoshop. Have students click the eye icons on and
off to make layers appear and disappear.
5. Choose File > Save As, and rename the file 04End_xx.psd. (Replace xx with your What’s in each layer?
initials or full name if instructed by your teacher.) Click Save. Click OK if you see
the Photoshop Format Options dialog box. Note: Use the context menu
Saving another version of the start file frees you to make changes without worry- to hide or resize the layer
ing about overwriting the original. thumbnail. Right-click (Windows)
or Control-click (Mac OS) a
Using the Layers Panel thumbnail in the Layers panel
to open the context menu, and
The Layers panel lists all the layers in an image, displaying the layer names and then choose a thumbnail size.
thumbnails of the content on each layer. You can use the Layers panel to hide, view,
reposition, delete, rename, and merge layers. The layer thumbnails are automatically
updated as you edit the layers.

Try It!

1. If the Layers panel is not visible in the work area, choose Window > Layers.
The Layers panel lists five layers for the 04End_xx.psd file (from top to bottom):
Postage, HAWAII, Flower, Pineapple, and Background.

2. Select the Background layer to make it active (if it’s not already selected). Notice
the layer thumbnail and the icons shown for the Background layer:
• The lock icon ( ) indicates that the layer is protected.
• The eye icon ( ) indicates that the layer is visible in the image window.
If you click the eye, the image window no longer displays that layer.

The Layer panel shows the five layers in the file.

The first task for this project is to add a photo of the beach to the postcard. First,
you’ll open the beach image in Photoshop.

3. In Photoshop, choose File > Open, navigate to the folder holding the data files
for this chapter, and then double-click the Beach.psd file to open it.

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Discussion Topic Lesson 4 Layer Basics

Why do students think Photoshop auto-
matically locks the Background layer?
Can it be unlocked?

This file has a single layer.

The Layers panel changes to display the layer information for the active Beach.psd
file. Notice that only one layer appears in the Beach.psd image: Layer 1, not Back-
ground. (For more information, see the sidebar “About the Background Layer.”)

About the Background Layer

When you create a new image with a white or colored background, the bot-
tom layer in the Layers panel is named Background. (Photo images such as
those from digital cameras or scanners usually have the photo content on the
Background layer, too.) An image can have only one background layer. You
cannot change the stacking order of a background layer, its blending mode, or
its opacity. You can, however, convert a background layer to a regular layer.
When you create a new image with transparent content, the image doesn’t
have a background layer. The bottom layer isn’t constrained like the back-
ground layer; you can move it anywhere in the Layers panel, and change its
opacity and blending mode.
To convert a background layer into a regular layer:

1. Click the lock icon next to the layer name.

2. Rename the layer.
To convert a regular layer into a background layer:

1. Select a layer in the Layers panel.

2. Choose Layer > New > Background From Layer.

Renaming and Copying a Layer

To add content to an image and simultaneously create a new layer for it, drag an
object or layer from one file into the image window of another file. Whether you
drag from the image window of the original file or from its Layers panel, only the
active layer is reproduced in the destination file.

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Layer Basics Lesson 4 Discussion Topic

You’ll drag the Beach.psd image onto the 04End_xx.psd file. Before you begin, make Why is the pineapple included here? It’s
sure that both the 04End_xx.psd and Beach.psd files are open, and that the a tropical fruit that grows in Hawaii, sure,
Beach.psd file is selected. but there’s more. Point out that many cul-
First, you’ll give Layer 1 a more descriptive name. tures, the pineapple represents welcome
and hospitality and is a common symbol
Try It! in the visual and decorative arts. Look
for examples!
1. In the Layers panel, double-click the name Layer 1, type Beach, and then press
Enter or Return. Keep the layer selected.

Start by renaming Layer 1. Note: If you hold down Shift as
you drag an image from one file
2. Choose Window > Arrange > 2-Up Vertical. Photoshop displays both of the open into another, the dragged image
image files. Select the Beach.psd image so that it is the active file. automatically centers itself in the
target image window.
3. Select the Move tool ( ), and use it to drag the Beach.psd image onto the
04End_xx.psd image window.
The Beach layer now appears in the 04End_xx.psd file image window and its
Layers panel, between the Background and Pineapple layers. Photoshop always
adds new layers directly above the selected layer; you selected the Background
layer earlier.

Note: Need images for a project
like this one? In Photoshop,
choose File > Search Adobe
Stock to download low-
resolution placeholder images
from the Adobe Stock online
photo library at no extra
charge. If you purchase the
images, Photoshop replaces
the placeholders with high-
resolution images.

The new layer appears in the file.

4. Close the Beach.psd file without saving changes to it.

Viewing Individual Layers

The 04End.psd file now contains six layers. Some of the layers are visible and some
are hidden. The eye icon ( ) next to a layer thumbnail in the Layers panel indicates
that the layer is visible.

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Lesson 4 Layer Basics
Try It!

1. Click the eye icon ( ) next to the Pineapple layer to hide the image of
the pineapple.

Click the column where the eye icon appears to show or hide a layer.

You can hide or show a layer by clicking this icon or clicking in its column—also
called the Show/Hide Visibility column.
2. Click again in the Show/Hide Visibility column to display the pineapple.

Adding a Border to a Layer

Now you’ll add a white border around the Beach layer to create the impression that
it’s an old photograph.

Try It!

1. Select the Beach layer. (To select the layer, click the layer name in the
Layers panel.)
The layer is highlighted, indicating that it is active. Changes you make in the
image window affect the active layer.

Select the Beach layer to work with it.
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Layer Basics Lesson 4 Discussion Topic

To make the opaque areas on this layer more obvious, hide all layers except the You just added a border to the beach
Beach layer: Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you click the eye icon image. Click the eye icon to view the
( ) next to the Beach layer. pineapple layer. Does it have a border as
well? Why or why not?
2. The white background and other objects in the image disappear, leaving only the
beach image against a checkerboard background. The checkerboard indicates REVIEW THE
transparent areas of the active layer. VOCABULARY

3. Choose Layer > Layer Style > Stroke. Stacking order The order in which the
The Layer Style dialog box opens. Now you’ll select the options for the white layers of an image are organized in the
stroke around the beach image. Layers Panel.

4. Specify the following settings:
• Size: 5 px
• Position: Inside
• Blend Mode: Normal
• Opacity: 100%
• Color: White (Click the Color box, and select white in the Color Picker.)

5. Click OK.

A white border appears around the beach photo. Stacking Order

Rearranging Layers The order in which the layers of
an image are organized in the
The stacking order determines how the pieces of content in the overall image Layers panel.
appear relative to one another—the content on the top layer listed in the Layers
panel is furthest forward, the content on the second layer is in front of only the layers
below it, and so on. You can change the order of the layers in the Layers panel to
make certain parts of the image appear in front of or behind other layers.
You’ll rearrange the layers so that the beach image is in front of another image that is
currently hidden in the file.

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REVIEW THE Lesson 4 Layer Basics
VOCABULARY
Try It!
Opacity The overall transparency of layer
content. 100% opacity means the content 1. Make the Postage, HAWAII, Flower, Pineapple, and Background layers visible by
is not transparent at all, while 0% means clicking the Show/Hide Visibility column next to their layer names.
the content is completely transparent.
Values in between mean the layer has a Note: You can also control Make the layers visible so you can see how they presently stack.
relative degree of transparency. the stacking order of layered
images by selecting them in the The beach image is almost entirely blocked by images on other layers.
TEACHING TIP Layers panel and choosing Layer
> Arrange, and then choosing 2. In the Layers panel, drag the Beach layer up so that it is positioned between the
Compare with the word opaque, with Bring To Front, Bring Forward, Pineapple and Flower layers—when you’ve positioned it correctly, you’ll see a
which students may be more familiar. Send To Back, or Send Backward. thick line between the layers in the panel—and then release the mouse button.
Opaque comes from a Latin word that
means “darkened”.

Opacity Dragging the Beach layer up.

The overall transparency of layer The Beach layer moves up one level in the stacking order, and the beach image
content. 100% opacity means the appears on top of the pineapple and background images, but under the postage,
content is not transparent at all, flower, and the word “HAWAII.”
while 0% means the content is
completely transparent. Values Changing the Opacity of a Layer
in between mean the layer has a
relative degree of transparency. You can reduce the opacity of any layer to reveal the layers below it. In this case, the
postmark is too dark on the flower. You’ll edit the opacity of the Postage layer to let
the flower and other images show through.

Try It!

1. Select the Postage layer, and then click the arrow next to the Opacity field to
display the Opacity slider. Drag the slider to 25%. You can also type 25 in the
Opacity box or scrub the Opacity label.

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Layer Basics Lesson 4 REVIEW THE
VOCABULARY
Adjusting the Postage layer opacity.
Blending mode A setting that affects how
The Postage layer becomes partially transparent, so you can see the other layers the color pixels on the layer blend with
underneath. Notice that the change in opacity affects only the image area of the pixels on the layers underneath.
Postage layer. The Pineapple, Beach, Flower, and HAWAII layers remain opaque.
Discussion Topic
2. Choose File > Save to save your work.
Why did overlaying a copy of the pine-
Duplicating a Layer and Changing the Blending Mode apple intensify the image?

You can apply different blending modes to a layer. First you’ll use blending modes Blending mode
to increase the intensity of the image on the Pineapple layer so that it doesn’t look
so dull. Then you’ll change the blending mode on the Postage layer. (Currently, the A setting that affects how
blending mode for both layers is Normal.) the color pixels on one layer
blend with pixels on the layers
Try It! underneath.

1. Click the eye icons next to the HAWAII, Flower, and Beach layers to hide them.

2. Right-click or Control-click the Pineapple layer, and choose Duplicate Layer from
the context menu. (Make sure you click the layer name, not its thumbnail, or you’ll
see the wrong context menu.) Click OK in the Duplicate Layer dialog box.

Use the Duplicate Layer command on the shortcut menu for the layer to create the layer duplicate.

A layer called “Pineapple copy” appears above the Pineapple layer in the
Layers panel.

3. With the Pineapple copy layer selected, choose Overlay from the Blending
Modes menu in the Layers panel.

The blending mode intensifies the pineapple.

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TEACHING TIP Lesson 4 Layer Basics

Encourage students to explore the blend- The Overlay blending mode blends the Pineapple copy layer with the Pineapple
ing modes in the layers panel, and remind layer beneath it to create a vibrant, more colorful pineapple with deeper shad-
them of the shortcut to use to undo each ows and brighter highlights.
change. What happens if you apply the
Difference mode to the pineapple? What 4. Select the Postage layer, and choose Multiply from the Blending Modes menu.
about Exclusion? The Multiply blending mode multiplies the colors in the underlying layers with
the color in the top layer. In this case, the postmark becomes a little stronger.

5. Choose File > Save to save your work.

Blending Modes

Blending modes affect how the color pixels on one layer blend with pixels
on the layers beneath them. The default blending mode, Normal, hides pixels
beneath the top layer unless the top layer is partially or completely transpar-
ent. Each of the other blending modes let you control the way the pixels in the
layers interact with each other.
Often, the best way to see how a blending mode affects your image is sim-
ply to try it. You can easily experiment with different blending modes in the
Layers panel, applying one after another to compare the effects. As you begin
experimenting, keep in mind how different groups of blending modes affect an
image. Generally, if you want to:
• Darken your image, try Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, or Linear Burn.
• Lighten your image, try Lighten, Screen, Color Dodge, or Linear Dodge.
• Increase the contrast in the image, try Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Vivid

Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, or Hard Mix.
• Change the actual color values of the image, try Hue, Saturation, Color, or

Luminosity.
• Create an inversion effect, try Difference or Exclusion.
The following blending modes often come in handy, and can be a good place
to start your experimentation:
• Multiply does just what the name implies: it multiplies the color in the

underlying colors with the color in the top layer.
• Lighten replaces pixels in the underlying layers with those in the top layer

whenever the pixels in the top layer are lighter.
• Overlay multiplies either the colors or the inverse of the colors, depending

on the colors in the underlying layers. Patterns or colors overlay the
existing pixels while preserving the highlights and shadows of the
underlying layers.
• Luminosity replaces only the luminance of the underlying colors with that
of the top layer.
• Difference subtracts darker colors from lighter ones.

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