Setting Up Photoshop

In this section, you will create a new Photoshop file and set up the gridlines.

Requirements

For the steps shown below, you will need:

  • Computer running Photoshop (we are using Adobe Creative Suite CS4 for Windows 10)

Steps

  • First, create the file. From the File menu, select New…. Set the Width to 3200px (8”) and the Height to 4200px (10.5”). Set the Resolution to 400 pixels/inch and the Color Mode to RGB Color. Click OK.

Note

We use a page size smaller than 8.5” x 11” to avoid our printer shifting the margins slightly, which would result in misalignment between printing on the front and back sides of the same sheet of paper.

Note

We use 400 pixels/inch instead of our usual 300 because otherwise we could not place our small individual files exactly on the pixels we want.

Now add the gridlines:

  1. To add 1/4” gridlines, from the Edit menu, select Preferences, then select Guides, Grid, & Slices... Set the gridline to be every 1 inch, and Subdivisions to 4. Click OK.
  2. To make sure the gridlines are visible, from the View menu, select Show. Make sure that Grid is checked.
  3. To enable snapping to the grid, from the View menu, select Snap To and make sure that Grid is checked. Snapping to the grid will make it easy to place individual cover files.