How to: Pixels in Photoshop
Just like the nearly indistinguishable grains of sand that make up a beachfront, small pieces of a puzzle combine to create the graphic images we see on computer screens. These squares are known as pixels and each holds information about color, pattern and shade. When working in a graphics software program such as Adobe Photoshop, pixels become distinguishable and offer a number of options for editing the images they comprise.
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Instructions
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Launch Adobe Photoshop. Click the "File" menu, then click "Open." Browse to an image to experiment with the pixels and double-click the file.
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Click the "Magnify" icon at the bottom of the "Tools" pane. Click the picture repeatedly until the zoom function begins to break up the picture into small colored squares. These are the pixels.
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Click the "Rectangular Marquee Tool," the dotted square at the top of the "Tools" pane, to select a single pixel. Draw an outline around just one pixel.
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Press the "Delete" key on the keyboard. The pixel will be removed. Click the "View" menu and select "Fit on Screen." Note that the hole left by the pixel is barely recognizable. Click the "Edit" menu and select "Undo" to add the pixel back in.
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Change pixel color by using the marquee tool to select another pixel or group of pixels. Click the "Image" menu, then "Adjustments," then select "Hue/Saturation." Slide the "Hue" bar to the left or right to change the pixels' color. Click "OK" when finished.
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Click "Image Size" in the "Image" menu to review information about the pixels in the image. Review the top section, "Pixel Dimensions." The section shows the number of pixels by width and height, along with the total dimensions of the document.
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Change the number of pixels by typing into either the "Width" or "Height" boxes under "Pixel Dimensions." Make sure the "Constrain Proportions" boxes are checked. Photoshop will automatically resize the other dimension box. Pixels should only be reduced, not increased in number, as increasing pixels may lead to a destructive appearance called pixelation, where the image breaks up into visible boxes. Click the "OK" button when finished.
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