Saturday Special 08-08-09 Line Up!!!
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
For this week’s Saturday Special, I’m going to talk to you guys about lining things up. If you already know this trick then you’re awesome because it took me FOREVER to figure this out. There are buttons in Photoshop that will actually line things up FOR YOU. I always used to turn on my grid and painstakingly make sure each element was lined up exactly. Well, those days are over for me and now they will be for you too. Let me show you what I’m talking about.
Let’s say that I have 3 picture masks that I want to line up before I put my pictures in them. Notice how they’re just randomly scattered.
I’m going to go over to my layers palette on the right hand side and select all three layers. Then, with my move tool selected, I’m going to go up to the little buttons that are in the middle of the screen towards the top. They look like a whole bunch of squares. If you hover over each one, it tells you what they do. I’ve chosen the 2nd one in from the left – align vertical centers.
After I press it, voila! All three blocks are perfectly aligned!
Another way that I’ve done this is to hold down the shift key while moving things around. I started out by making one block. Then I copied it to make the second and third blocks. When I did this I held down the alt key to copy it and the shift key to keep the new block in a straight line with the original. Then when I drag it, the new block stays aligned. You can see in this screen shot the pink guide lines that show you your blocks are lined up. (In order for the pink guides to show up, you need to have the “smart guides” turned on. Go to view –> show –> smart guides.)
Or let’s say you have three (or more) things that you want to be perfectly spaced. Select all of them, and then click the button that is 2nd from the right – distribute horizontal centers. It will space all of your elements equally between the elements farthest to the left and right.
After I made the masks for my photos, I wanted to line them up. I had one that was taller than the others and I didn’t want to have them aligned by their horizontal centers as that would have the larger one sticking out on the top and bottom and I only wanted it to stick out on the top. So I chose the 3rd button in, align bottom edges, and that did the trick. (I forgot to take a screen shot after I clicked it, but you can see the result in my LO.)
Finally, sometimes when I’ve put a button over a flower or something like that, I want the elements to be exactly centered on top of each other. So I select the two (or more elements), and then click on align horizontal centers
and then align vertical centers as well. This makes sure that they are totally centered.
And here’s my LO with my perfectly aligned photos and elements…..(I used Thoroughly Amused by Haynay Designs and Plum Dumpling Designs and Haynay’s Birthday Celebration Grab Bag)
I took all of these screenshots in PSCS2. Mary (littlehiccup) was kind enough to take some screenshots of what this looks like in PSE. You can see how it offers you all the different choices – just click on align or distribute and then choose the one you want.
Here are some more examples from our awesome CT
from Cristina (using Old Glory by GG Digital Designs)
from mommy22girls (using Sprinkler Party by Mickey B Designs and Man in the Moon Designs)
from littlehiccup (using All American Superhero by Plum Dumpling Designs)
and one from Monsu (using WM[squared] Designs Birthday Grab Bag)
So let’s see what you can do! Line up some photos or elements in your LO and then link us up! You have till the end of the month to post your LO in the Saturday Special gallery and then link us to it here in the forum thread to get your point in the Matter of Scrap challenge system. Your LO must be original to this challenge – no double dipping. At the end of the month I’ll pick a random winner who will receive an extra point. You can also get an extra point by using a new (released in the last 7 days) ScrapMatters product. Just make sure you let me know in your credits. I think that’s it, so go and get started! I can’t wait to see what you create!
