Colored Guides for set Intervals

JG
Posted By
Justin Giovanetti
Sep 15, 2003
Views
1061
Replies
8
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Closed
Is there anyway to create sets of guides. Like if I wanted to break a layout into 4ths, then 8th, then 16th, etc.. I would have set of guides for each set of intervals. And I don’t want to do it with just making lines, lines have a width/height of 1px. Any ideas?

Thanks
Justin*
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color guide settings

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P
Phosphor
Sep 15, 2003
Justin,

You can set up either horizontal or vertical guides by going to the "View" menu and then selecting New Guide. Here you are give the choice of vertical and horizontal and you can set them either numerically or you can just drag them into place.

Under the Edit>preferences menu you can select the color used for the guide. I don’t believe you can have different colored guides in one document–I think the choice of color affects all guides in the document.

You can than save your document as a particular guide layout for future use.

HTH,

Patty
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Phosphor
Sep 16, 2003
With your document window open, use the CTRL + R shortcut to make your rulers visible.

Right-Click and hold on either of the rulers, and you’ll see a list appear. Scroll down and change the ruler’s units of measurement to "percent".

Now, if you go to "View—»New Guide…" you’ll be able to numerically enter the percentage value for placement of your new guidelines. Since you’ve changed the ruler’s unit of measurement to reflect dimensions as a percent value, it’ll be easy to create guidelines that divide your current working space into halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, etc. The numerical entry field in the "New Guide" dialogue box will accept percentage values that include values to the right of the decimal point, e.g.: 6.25% for dividing 100% by 16.

Since Photoshop won’t allow you to save a set of guidelines to apply to an existing image, you need to save a blank document with those guidelines. You won’t be able to move those guidelines to another image, but you CAN copy the image content from another document into the blank/guidelines document.
P
Phosphor
Sep 16, 2003
Cool Phos,

I didn’t know about that route!

Thanks,

Patty
TM
Trevor Morris
Sep 16, 2003
Taking it a step further – using the ideas present by Patty (re: saving the document for future reference) and Phosphor (View » New Guide) – you could write an action that place guides in absolute or relative (percent) locations. Then, regardless of the image being edited, you could play the action to place guides at pre-defined locations 🙂
P
Phosphor
Sep 16, 2003
Sho’ ’nuff, Trevor…

I made 2 actions that create guidelines which intersect in the exact center of any size image, and another that sections a document into equal ninths—tic-tac-toe guidelines, if you will.
P
Phosphor
Sep 17, 2003
Phos,

Whoa—actions with guidelines, another new realm for me. Any chance of you sharing your wisdom? I’m curious how an action could be "written" that would intersect exact center of "any size image."

Also, one thing I struggle with is some of the die cuts I use are offset on the diagonal to accomodate the shape, using letter size paper. (for those of you who aren’t familiar with die cuts—it’s sort of like a drill press that you insert a board with razor like blades that punches out a shape—like a card or small box etc.)
Any "magic answer" to set up diagonal guides??

TIA,

Patty
TM
Trevor Morris
Sep 17, 2003
Patty:

For the Action:
This is quite an easy action. Just press record and choose the New Guide command; enter 50% to add a vertical; repeat for a horizontal guide; and then stop recording. Feel free to grab copies of the Canvas Center, Canvas Thirds, or Canvas Quarters actions from here < http://user.fundy.net/morris/redirect.html?photoshop20.shtml> – either to use or to examine.

For the "diagonal guides":
In Photoshop, either use the Pen tool to create fake diagonal guides, or use the line tool to draw lines unto a top-most layer (and lock it if you wish). Alternatively you might consider using Illustrator, which supports any type of guide.
PC
Patty Clarke
Sep 17, 2003
Hey Trevor,

How nice of you to share your action pack with me. I appreciate it and look forward to using it.

Yeah, I know Illustrator would be the better program for me on the diagonal deal—but I haven’t made "friends" with Illustrator (YET)
like I have ps.

Thanks for the diagonal work around ideas.

Patty

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