If you haven’t seen this before check it out, this article is by Brian Hoff (@behoff) on The Design Cubicle:
12 Common Photoshop Mistakes and Malpractice
Excerpt from article: -
12 common mistakes, misuses and various ways new users abuse Photoshop. I have fell victim to a few of these myself when first starting out, so I hope this article helps educate designers and other individuals new to Photoshop.
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
I teach an intro to CS3 course and in my mind these are the absolute essentials to being a good designer. Appropriate use of apps, understanding color, and using shortcuts, folders and layers to work efficiently.
The other common Photoshop error I would add, although it sounds basic, is understanding the difference between canvas, image size, resolution and pixel dimensions.
You really got me with the Desaturation/Monochrome Trick!
Thank you so much ^-^
Rich black (per most printing companies) should be set at 50/40/40/100. Fully agree on logos being worked in Illustrator.
While most designers know (or at least I hope) that logos need to be delivered in a vector format, I think you should make a point between work process and final output. I know it may seem silly, but jumping right into the vector program may actually hurt your creative process. I actually do prefer to hash out my ideas in Photoshop first, then move to Illustrator for final rendering.
Briliant post, great tips! You’re totally right… I’ve got so many friends who refuse to swap to Illustrator for certain bits they need for their designs. Some guys refuse to use Fireworks for certain web editing projects too.
Guess we never stop learning eh?
Thanks for sharing
Excellent article – thanks for this info – rather, nudges in the right direction. I will be bearing these points in mind when attempting to design. I am pretty much a novice and quite green in most of these points, although I proudly admit to always using the pen tool to remove parts of a picture!!!!
I’m guilty!
“It’s like assuming a person as black when in fact he is mulatto. A lot of designers at one point thought that setting the Photoshop’s K in CMYK to 100 would result in black. The hybrid would offspring a dark grey. At one point you can get away with it, but if you really want a darker shade of it in rich black set your CMYK to C=90 M=30 Y=30 and K=100 that would give you a richer black as a night shade.”
Wow! What an offensive analogy!
Telling your readers to always use rich black is a huge mistake that will cost them money. Not every image is printed in 4-color–for instance, grayscale or other monotone images, duotone, tritone, etc. as well as images that use only process black and spot colors. BUT every image using your technique will require the use–and expense–of all four process colors.
Moreover, not every image is suited for rich black. In most cases, in fact, images to be printed on an offset press should use only black ink, not rich black. Rich black is for special situations, not everyday use.
great stuff. very important to note the logo creation using vector-based software.
This is so true. I’m using photoshop for a long time, but I still do some of these things -__-
“CMYK to C=90 M=30 Y=30 and K=100 that would give you a richer black”
I only need C=40 K=100, richer black and I will be called in to the office, and I do not need that.
Thanks, I’ll have to agree with this list. Another really annoying mistake I’ve seen is NOT ORGANIZING OR LABELING YOUR LAYERS / GROUPS PROPERLY OR LOGICALLY. Really annoying for us developers who use other designer’s work.
“It’s like assuming a person as black when in fact he is mulatto.” WHAT?!??!!? I don’t mean to be the PC police, but come on, that is in poor taste. Plus using rich black for every application isn’t even a good tip. With lower cost printing in combination with small type that can create muddy letters that are very hard to read. And that is just one application where rich black is wrong, there are many more.
Your tip on image extraction is right on though.
I will try the “check off monochrome”, thanks
Loved this post. I totally agree a lot of these are overlooked and become bad practices. I am guilty in the CMYK black prints but i’m still creating a lot of mine by eye and set my black to C30 M30 Y20 K100.
Pen tool in PS is also overlooked, so much safer than the pen tool because you can edit out hard images using ht mask tool a lot quicker and fine tune the fixes.
~Cheers
Some good points, but I was also vaguely offended by some of the terms in this writeup.
I do agree that logos should be build as vector files. I don’t even understand why it would be necessary to build an idea in Photoshop first. That sounds like an issue based on not understanding how to quickly work in AI. I get it, PS is easier to use a lot of the time, in fact, I know far too many designers who use Photoshop as a crutch. Learn to use Illustrator. You’d be surprised how much you can do. Sure, Photoshop is ideal for manipulating images, but never forget the difference between bitmap and vector. They both have their place.
I use AI 75% of the time and supplement that with PS when necessary. Just my two…
Of course, rich black is fine if you are doing 4-color printing and on a paper stock that can handle more ink. However, don’t be surprised if your printer isn’t too happy with you if you are running a black/white print job with a 4-color image or if there ends up being too much ink on the press. Remember to always check with your printer first if you have any questions.
Hey,
In the discussion on 4 color black, nobody has talked about total ink density! Grrlfriend is absolutely right when she says “always check with your printer first.” If you’re not having a dialog with your printer you’re not going to be happy with your results.
As much as I love how 4c black looks, sometimes 100K is what you want. Not to mention how amazing PMS blacks can look.
It`s a great difference between offset print and web look. Let`s say you have a full black page with some text with the dimension of 5 pts. If you`ll set your page in rich black, the printers won`t be able to match the plates exactly ever. So you`ll get your “blessings” from the people who will print your work. So damn as they will call you to change the rich black into K100.
By the way, very pertinent article.
Some great tips which should be printed and hanged on the wall next to the computer screen. The pen tool is an easily overlooked tool but it’s proven its value over and over again when dealing with images.
Thanks.
For even more control over Black and White conversions, use a Black & White adjustment layer (or the equivalent from Image > Adjustments [though this is destructive editing]). It works based on hues in the image and give you controls for Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue & Magenta. You can adjust each from solid black to solid white.
Hey guys, thanks for all your comments and feedback… I really appreciate your honest thoughts and I encourage you to keep them coming!
Wow!!!
Do not using monochrome was my big error! :O
I always desaturated when I needed black and white! x.x
That’s ashamed! :P
Now I’ll do it right! ;)
VERY THANKS! :D
I call it Photoshop Black.
Very nice tip.
If you want any translation in my blog, let me know.
LPM/designer.
Great post. I’m a little embarrassed to say I often use the eraser tool to extract images. I believe it when you say it’s a bad idea, but can you tell me why exactly? I like using a soft brush to delete the background. Thanks for your help!
Yep, hands up. I’m guilty also!
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