The need to use Paths and Channels

CA
Posted By
Carey_A_Hardin
Dec 12, 2003
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349
Replies
4
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Closed
I’ve discovered a technique that’s changed my life, via Tips and Tricks for PS CS included with the CS upgrade: Lens Blur.

I followed the instructions to the letter, albeit blindly, as I am unfamiliar with paths and channels. It worked great and I’m elated, but why do I need to do all that fancy stuff with alpha channels? I tried it again, simply cutting and pasting parts of my picture into a new layer and then applying the blur. It seems to have worked just as well.

It would be very helpful if someone could define "alpha channel" and perhaps distinguish it from "path" and plain old "channel" or simply provide a source for that info.

Thank you.

P.S. BTW…When the new filters "box" comes up, it seems the right side of it is cut off, without a scroll bar to access it. I can work around it, of course, but it’s odd.

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CC
Chris_Cox
Dec 14, 2003
An alpha channel is a plain old channel – just an additional one. Alpha channels have nothing to do with paths (the only place they might overlap is that you can convert a path to a selection, save a selection in an alpha channel, and load a selection from an alpha channel).

And you need to have your display set to at least 1024×768, as stated in the CS minimum requirements.
CA
Carey_A_Hardin
Dec 14, 2003
So what’s a channel? And why should I use Illustrator instead of Photoshop? And why did I buy Indesign if I can do the same thing in Illustrator? I read the included booklet from cover to cover and have purused these forums for hours on many occasions but can’t seem to find genuine, simple answers. Do I need to go back to college?

"And you need to have your display set to at least 1024×768, as stated in the CS minimum requirements."

Noted, thank you.
PC
Pierre_Courtejoie
Dec 14, 2003
Carey, hit F1 and search for channel and path in the user guide… Buying the paper user guides might be a good idea if you like to read them in the smallest room of the house.

In very short: Channels= a way to store color information, selections, and transparency

Path=vectors, as opposed to raster (search for those terms in the user guide)

You use Illustrator instead of Photoshop to design logos, or any knind of vector art that needs to be scaled over and over. using them will let you know when to use which one.

InDesign allows you to create multi-page documents, it is a desktop publishing program.
CA
Carey_A_Hardin
Dec 15, 2003
Thank you. That should get me on my way. The problem is I used PageMaker for a decade, then began doing most of my layouts in Photoshop… to the dismay of my printers. It’s occurred to me that I perhaps should have been using Illustrator all along. Just trying to do it right — and make the world a better place. Thanks again.

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