Topic
Editor
Layers, masks, type, selections, retouching, filters, boards and export. 49 guides.
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Find your way around the EditorWhat each part of the Editor does: the menu bar, file tabs, tool rail, options bar, canvas, panels and status bar.Beginner6 min readWork with layersLayer kinds, stacking order, hiding, locking, renaming, duplicating, merging, colour labels and finding layers in a busy design.Beginner5 min readHide and show parts of a layer with masksLayer masks, masks from a selection, vector masks, clipping masks and quick mask: hide parts of a layer without deleting anything.Intermediate4 min readAdd and style textType straight onto the canvas, choose Google fonts or your own font files, and set character and paragraph options, outline and shadow.Beginner4 min readChange colour and tone with adjustment layersCurves, levels, hue and saturation, exposure and the other adjustments, added as layers you can change or remove at any time without touching your pixels.Intermediate7 min readRetouch photos with the brush, heal and clone toolsPaint, erase, spot heal, clone and dodge or burn, with brush size, hardness, opacity, flow, smoothing and pen pressure explained.Intermediate5 min readRemove a background on your deviceCut a person or product out of a photo with a model that runs in your browser, then refine the edge and export a transparent PNG.Beginner4 min readResize one design to every formatTurn one finished design into posts, stories, thumbnails and banners, as a ZIP of PNGs, as separate designs, or as linked boards.Intermediate4 min readOpen PSD, PDF and other filesWhat a Photoshop file keeps when you open it, how PDF pages arrive as layers, and every other way to bring work into the Editor.Intermediate4 min readHow to edit a PSD without PhotoshopYes, a PSD can be opened and edited without Photoshop. A PSD is a layered file, and several editors read it, including Voidcanvas in a browser. What carries over cleanly: pixel layers, groups, opacity, blend modes, layer masks, clipping, simple text as editable type, most adjustment layers and most layer styles. What turns into flat pixels: smart objects, vector shapes, and text with mixed styling. Open the file, read the import report, replace any missing fonts, then edit as normal. You will get PNG, JPG, WebP or PDF out; you will not get a PSD back.Beginner7 min read
Everything else in this topic
- Group, align and space layers preciselySelect several layers, group them, align and distribute them, and use smart guides, rulers, guides and snapping to place things exactly.Intermediate4 min
- Use blend modes, opacity and fillThe 16 blend modes, what each family does, and when to use opacity, fill or a group blend.Intermediate3 min
- Select part of an imageMarquee, lasso, polygonal lasso, magic wand, object select and select subject, plus adding, subtracting, feathering and refining selections.Intermediate4 min
- Draw shapes and paths with the PenRectangles, ellipses, polygons, stars and lines, then the Pen, Curvature pen, Freeform pen and Direct select for custom vector shapes and paths.Intermediate5 min
- Keep brand colours, fonts and logos readySave your brand colours, fonts and logos once, and have them ready in every design you open in the Editor.Beginner2 min
- Pick, save and apply colourThe main and second colours, the colour picker, swatches, the eyedropper, gradients, the paint bucket and Fill.Beginner4 min
- Use filters as editable layersAdd any of the 58 Void filters from the filter gallery as a live layer, then stack, mask and fade it. Also explains why exports look slightly sharper than the preview.Beginner4 min
- Add shadows, strokes and glows with layer stylesDrop shadow, stroke, outer and inner glow, overlays and bevel, added as live styles that follow the layer's shape and never change its pixels.Beginner4 min
- Crop, resize, rotate and flipCrop with fixed ratios, change the canvas size without scaling, resize the whole image with resolution, and rotate or flip the canvas or a single layer.Beginner4 min
- Use the AI tools that run on your deviceRemove background, select subject, object select, remove object and expand with AI fill: what each does, which model it uses, the one-time downloads, and what never leaves your browser.Beginner5 min
- Work with boards (artboards)Put several boards of different sizes in one design, then add, move, resize, duplicate, tidy and delete them.Intermediate4 min
- Export for screens: PNG, JPG and WebPPick the right file type and size for web and social, keep or drop transparency, and copy an image straight to your clipboard.Beginner3 min
- Export for print: PDF, dpi and bleedHow the Editor's PDF works, which sizes print at 300 dpi, how to add bleed yourself, and what to ask your printer.Intermediate3 min
- Save templates and restore versionsReuse a layout as a template that never changes, and go back to earlier states of a design with version history.Beginner3 min
- Undo, history and before and afterStep back through your edits, jump to any point in the History panel, pin snapshots, and compare with and without adjustments.Beginner3 min
- Find any action: menus, Ctrl+K and the shortcut sheetUse the menu bar, search every command with Ctrl+K, and look up any shortcut with the ? sheet.Beginner3 min
- Arrange panels, workspaces and preferencesDock, tab, float and tuck panels, switch between workspaces or save your own, and set interface size, density and touch mode.Intermediate4 min
- Coming from Photoshop: what carries over, what is differentA migration guide for people who know Photoshop and are trying a browser editor. The habits that work unchanged, the ones with a new name, the things that are not there, and the three shortcuts the browser forces you to relearn.Beginner4 min
- Leaving Creative Cloud as a designer: the checklistWhat stops working the day the subscription ends, what to export while you still can, which files still open afterwards, and an honest map of what a browser editor covers and what it does not.Beginner5 min
- Open a PSD file online, free, without an accountDrop the PSD on the Editor and it opens with its layers, in the browser, with no account and no upload. What you see, what to check first, and how to get a PNG, JPG or PDF out.Beginner3 min
- How to fix a blurry image, and when you cannotThree kinds of blur, one of which can be fixed. How to tell them apart in ten seconds, what sharpening does and does not do, and the honest answer about upscaling.Beginner2 min
- PSD will not open: the five causes and what to ask forA PSD that will not open is usually one of five things: the wrong kind of file, a huge file, an old or unusual save mode, a broken download, or a tool that does not read PSD at all. How to tell, and what to ask the sender for.Beginner2 min
- Convert a PSD to PNG (with transparency) without PhotoshopOpen the PSD, hide what you do not want, export a PNG. Transparency is kept if the design has no background. The steps, the one setting that matters, and how to get single layers out.Beginner2 min
- Missing fonts in a PSD: replace them or load the fileWhen a PSD uses a font your computer does not have, the text still opens but looks wrong. What the dialog offers, where to get the font, how to choose a stand-in that keeps the layout, and how the font travels with the design afterwards.Beginner2 min
- Crop an image into a circle (transparent PNG)A circle crop is an ellipse selection turned into a mask, then a PNG export with transparency. Four steps, plus how to get a soft edge, a border, or a perfectly centred circle.Beginner2 min
- Make a transparent PNGTransparent means no background layer and a PNG or WebP export. How to get there from a photo, a logo on white, or a design with a background colour, and why the checkerboard sometimes still exports white.Beginner2 min
- Outline text so it reads on any photoTwo ways to outline text, when to use each, the width that reads without looking like a meme, and hollow outlined letters with Fill at zero.Beginner2 min
- Put text on a curve or a pathText along a circle, an arc or any curve: draw the path, click it with the Type tool, then adjust the start, the lift and the side. Three common shapes and the spacing fix that makes curved text readable.Beginner2 min
- Resize an image without losing quality: what is possibleMaking an image smaller is always safe. Making it bigger never adds detail. How to do both well, the one habit that quietly ruins photos, and the way Voidcanvas keeps a layer's original pixels while you try sizes.Beginner2 min
- Make a photo look professional in five movesMost amateur photos are off in the same five ways: tilted, dull, the wrong colour temperature, oversaturated or flat colour, and small distractions. Fix those in order and the photo reads as professional.Beginner2 min
- Fix the edge of a cutout: hair, fur and halosBackground removal gets you ninety per cent. The last ten is the edge: a light halo, a missing strand of hair, a green fringe from the old background. Three fixes, in the order to try them.Intermediate2 min
- Use your own font file in a browser editorAdd a .ttf, .otf, .woff or .woff2 file and it works like any other font, travels inside the design, and is never sent anywhere. What happens to installed fonts, the licence question, and how to make it the brand font.Beginner2 min
- Make a gradient (and make it not look like 2012)Three ways to make a gradient in the Editor and when to use each, plus the three rules that separate a good gradient from a dated one: neighbouring colours, a long soft transition, and a little grain.Beginner2 min
- Drop shadows that look real: distance, blur, opacityA fake shadow is dark, hard and close. A real one is soft, faint, tinted and consistent. The numbers that work, one light for the whole design, and the contact shadow that makes a product sit on a surface.Beginner2 min
- Open and edit a PSD on a phone or tabletThe Editor opens PSDs with their layers in a phone or tablet browser. How to get the file in, what the phone layout gives you, what to expect from memory on big files, and how to send the result.Beginner2 min
- Layered image editing on an iPad, in the browserOn an iPad the Editor gives you the full desktop layout with touch controls, pen pressure and gestures. How to set it up in Safari, the settings that make it comfortable, and what to expect from memory and the AI tools.Beginner2 min
- Expand an image with AI fill (on your device)Make a photo wider or taller and let a model paint the new edges to continue the scene. How to do it, why small steps work better than one big one, what it is good and bad at, and how to fix the seams.Beginner2 min
- Select a subject automaticallySelect subject finds the main subject of the whole visible design in one click; Object select finds the object inside a box you drag. When to use each, how to add and subtract, and what to do with the selection.Beginner2 min
- AI tools that never see your imageMost AI image tools send your photo to a server. On-device tools download a model once and run it in your browser, so the image never leaves. How to tell which kind you are using, what on-device AI can and cannot do, and the five tools in the Editor.Beginner2 min