Adobe Creative Cloud All-in-One For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 2

Messing with Mode Matters

IN THIS CHAPTER

Editing pixels in bitmap images

Understanding Photoshop image modes

Working in black and white, RGB, or CMYK

Before taking on working with any imagery in Photoshop, you should understand color modes and the importance of setting up the most optimum color settings. A strong foundation in the use of color plays into the production and editing of all imagery, grayscale, color image, content for websites, movies, and more. Read through this chapter to help you to feel confident in the choices you make.

Working with Bitmap Images

You may wonder how images in Photoshop show subtle changes in color values. To create those smooth gradations from one color to the next, Photoshop takes advantage of pixels and anti-aliasing. Bitmap images (or raster images) are based on a grid of pixels, as shown in Figure 2-1. The grid is smaller or larger depending on the resolution of your image. The number of pixels along the height and width of a bitmap image are the pixel dimensions of an image, measured in pixels per inch (ppi). The more pixels per inch, the more detail in the image.

FIGURE 2-1: You can see the grid that makes up the pixel resolution ...