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Saving your Work

You should always save your working image in Photoshop’s native file format (.psd), since saving in another format will likely result in the loss of your layers and other elements used to create the image—and will need in order to edit it. When you’re ready to save a final file (for publication to the Web, for example), make a copy of the file with the appropriate extension (for example, .gif) using the Save As command.

To save a file for the first time:

1.      From the File menu, select Save As.

The Save As dialog opens:

2.      Navigate to the location where you want to save the file.

3.      Enter a name for the file into the File name field.

4.      To save the image as a Photoshop file, make sure Photoshop is selected from the Format drop-down menu. To save the file in another format, choose the format from the drop-down menu.

5.      To save a copy of the file while keeping the current copy open, select the As a Copy check box under Save Options.

6.      When saving a file as a format other than Photoshop (.psd), the remaining selections under Save Options let you save specific elements with the image, as well as a copy of the image:

·         To save alpha channel information for the image, select the Alpha Channels check box.

·         To preserve the layers in the image (rather than flattening or merging them), select the Layers check box.

·         To save annotations, select the Annotations check box.

·         To save spot channel information with the image, select the Spot Colors check box.

7.      The Color options are used for creating color-managed documents and embeds a color profile in the document. Use Proof Setup embeds the document’s current proof profile, and ICC Profile (on Windows installations) and Embed Color Profile (on Mac installations) embeds the document’s current color profile.

8.      In Windows, select the Thumbnail check box to save thumbnail data for the file. On a Mac operating system, select the Image Previews options you want to use to save thumbnail data.

Note:

These options are made available in the File Handling Preferences dialog (from the Edit menu, select Preferences and then File Handling).

9.      In Windows, select the Use Lower Case Extension check box to make the file extension lowercase. On a Mac operating system, select the File Extension options to add the extension to the file name, and to make it lowercase.

10.  When you’ve finished making your selections, click Save.

Once you’ve saved a file, using the Save command will overwrite the existing file with the changes you’ve made. To save a copy of an existing file, open the File menu and select Save As.