How to Set Up Photoshop CS4

Adobe Photoshop CS4 can be easily customized to enhance the default settings.

Adobe Photoshop CS4, by default, is set up to be user-friendly and accessible upon installation; although, the performance of Photoshop is affected by many variables. Optimizing the software's preferences improves performance and workflow of the program.

Instructions

Allocating Memory in Photoshop

1. Open Photoshop CS4. Photoshop uses random-access memory (RAM) to process image information. The more RAM available to Photoshop, the faster Photoshop can process.

2. Choose "Photoshop" from the menu bar, located at the top, and select "Preferences," then "Performance."

3. Increase the "Let Photoshop Use percentage" in the Memory Usage section, and click "OK" when finished.

4. Restart Photoshop CS4 if finished optimizing and setting up preferences.

Setting Scratch Disks

1. Open Photoshop CS4. A scratch disk in Photoshop is similar to virtual memory in Mac OS. For the best performance, the primary scratch disk should be set to a defragmented hard disk not connected to the operating system. The disk should also have plenty of space and fast read/write speeds.

2. Choose "Photoshop" from the menu bar, located at the top, and select "Preferences" then "Performance."

3. Check the Active box for each hard disk that will contain a scratch disk. Unless the drive has considerable space, choose more than one drive, and click "OK" when finished.

4. Restart Photoshop CS4 if finished optimizing and setting up preferences.

Adjusting the Cache Levels and Tile Size

1. Open Photoshop CS4. Photoshop uses image caching to redraw high-resolution images on-screen faster. Photoshop quickly updates a low-resolution version of an image as edits occur with caching. The cache tile size is the amount of data that Photoshop operates and processes. With each tile of data, Photoshop gives feedback by redrawing it.

2. Choose "Photoshop" from the menu bar, located at the top, and select "Preferences" then "Performance" to adjust cache levels.

3. Enter a value from "1" to "8" in the Cache Levels text box. Setting the Image Cache higher than "4" will improves performance when working on larger images by redrawing them faster, but Photoshop will be slower to open image files.

4. Choose a tile size from the Cache Tile Size pop-up menu. Photoshop is more efficient if with the 128K (smaller tiles) or 1024K (bigger tiles) options on newer processors. If the processor is older, Photoshop is more efficient using the 132K (smaller tiles) or the 1032K (bigger tiles) options.

5. Click "OK" when done in the Performance menu and restart Photoshop CS4 if finished optimizing and setting up preferences.

Adjust Maximize PSD And PSB File Compatibility

1. Choose "Photoshop" from the menu bar, located at the top, and select "Preferences" then "File Handling" to maximize the PSD and PSB file compatibility. Maximizing PSD and PSB File Compatibility will increase the size of a file by attaching a flattened copy of the image when saving. This ensures that PSD and PSB files saved in Photoshop will open in previous versions.

2. Change Maximize PSD And PSB File Compatibility to one of the following: Ask: Prompts the user to maximize file compatibility when you save; Always: Saves with maximized file compatibility without asking; Never: Does not save or prompt the user to save with maximized file compatibility.

3. Click "OK" when done in the File Handling menu and restart Photoshop CS4 if finished optimizing and setting up preferences.

Deselecting Export Clipboard

1. Choose "Photoshop" from the menu bar, located at the top, and select "Preferences" then "General" to deselect export clipboard. Exporting is time-consuming and occurs whenever Photoshop quits or when a user switches between applications. Deselecting this setting increases the performance of Photoshop.

2. Deselect "Export Clipboard" and click "OK" when finished.

3. Restart Photoshop CS4 if finished optimizing and setting up preferences.

Tips & Warnings

• The directions are for Mac OS X users but can easily be applied to Windows users as well.

References

• Adobe.com: Optimizing Adobe Photoshop Performance
• Arcurs.com: Optimizing Photoshop CS4 Mac Performance for Digital Photography