Photoshop® Elements 8 For Dummies®

Chapter 2. Getting Ready to Edit

In This Chapter

• Specifying editing preferences

• Specifying organizing preferences

• Working with presets

• Understanding color in Photoshop Elements

• Setting up your color management system

Although not as exciting as firing up Elements and working on your precious pictures, customizing Elements for your personal work habits and properly setting up color management is critical to everything else you do in the program. This chapter explains how to take charge of Elements and customize your work environment by adjusting preference settings and setting up a color management system. If you're new to Elements or image editing in general, you might not know just how you want to set up certain features right away. However, you can always refer to this chapter when you review and update settings and options later, after you become familiar with other features in Elements.

Controlling the Editing Environment

Opening Elements for the first time is like moving into a new office. Before you begin work, you need to organize the office. At minimum, you need to set up the desk and computer before you can do anything. In Elements terms, the office organization consists of specifying Preferences settings. Preferences are settings that provide a means to customize your work in Elements and to fine-tune the program according to your personal work habits.

What we offer in the following ...