Photoshop® CS4 For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Getting Images into and out of Photoshop

In This Chapter

• Mommy, where do pictures come from?

• Keeping track of your images

• Putting pictures on paper

• Sharing your work

You could, theoretically, open a new empty Photoshop file, paint in it, save the file, and drive from house to house to show the artwork on your computer to friends and family. However, you have lots of ways to share your images that are much easier. You can print them, post them on your Web site, or even e-mail them. And e-mailing an image file across the country is much more convenient (and, of course, more eco-friendly) than driving hither and yon with your computer in the trunk.

In this chapter, I show you how to get images into Photoshop from your digital camera and your scanner and then how to keep those images organized on your hard drive and CDs/DVDs. I discuss the basics of printing your images on inkjet printers (and alternatives) and tell you some things you need to know to make sure you get the prints you expect. I also explain how to prepare images for sending by e-mail.

Bringing Images into Photoshop

Artwork in Photoshop originates in one of three ways:

• You open an image with either the operating system's Open dialog box or the Adobe Open dialog box (as shown in Figure 4-1). To switch between versions of the dialog box, click the button in the lower-left corner.

• You import an image (typically through a ...