Photoshop Help : The Grid

[coop]

The grid.
Another Feature of Photoshop I discovered was using the “Grid.” This can be used for a few things I’ve found that I need every so often.
1. Lets say you take an image and you want to have it square to the world horizontally and vertically. With the grid this is possible.
2. Lets say you want to make a collage of images and you want them to line up horizontally and vertically evenly spaced. This happens when you put to or more images in a new box and you want them to flow vertically.
3. Images that you want to overlay and you want the same size and angle to see if they are from the same die. This helps are you have a grid to see how the images line up.
So lets see how this can work. Open an image up on Photoshop and well walk you through it. With image open you can see your image. Now on the horizontal tool bar choose “VIEW”. On the lowest box you see “SHOW GRID”. Choose this selection. Now do you see the grid OVER your image? These lines can serve as a reference point. You can check and see if your image is exactly straight with the horizontal lines and vertical lines of the pattern of the coin. If they don’t, with these you can straighten them. You need to adjust the angle of the image. Adjusting the angle of the image adds extra borders on the corners of the image that you will need to crop later, so make sure to include a little extra size in the image before you crop it. So choose the “IMAGE” selection on the tool bar to open a new menu. From that choose “ROTATE CANVAS”. That will open a sub menu and choose “ARBITRARY” From this screen you can choose different angles to rotate clockwise/counter clockwise. You can choose the degrees you wish. You can choose 1 degree (or any number you need) or you can choose .1 or .25 or even smaller or larger till you get the angle of the coin to match the grid. You may have to try different combinations to get the right angle. If it isn’t correct you can go back one step on the history or hit CLTL+Z to remove the last step.) With this in place aligned correctly. You can crop the image to remove the new extra area from the rotation. (See where it works to have the image a little larger before you crop the first time?) Crop your image and you can use the grid to help crop. When you use the grid, it tries to get you to crop or place something on the corners of where the grid intersects. This can be helpful or a problem. If it is a problem, repeat how you inserted the grid and choose “HIDE GRID”. This will allow you to crop exactly where you like to choose the borders for you image. The grid can be chosen or removed at any time. (Hay your in control.) If you wish to add borders to your image you can do so at this time or save it the way that it is. That covers the first point.

OK now you have two or more images lined up. How can I line them up so there is an even amount of space of each side or straight without a border on them to make sure they are straight? To make your collage you need to open a "New" image to place them on. So open “FILE” on the toolbar. You will notice that the first selection is “NEW” image. Click on this and you can choose what size you wish your image to be. You can choose what width/height to make your image in pixels or inches. You will not a box marked “MODE”. Check to make sure that the RGB color is in this box. If you choose grayscale it will turn your images into black/white images even if they were in color. So choose the
RGB color to have them and your selection of back round color the one you choose. How may you choose the back round color you want. On the vertical tool bar you will not on the lower part of it, the selection for color of background. The upper box on the left controls the color of the foreground and the lower box controls the background. If you want another color for each of these you can click on the box to choose a color that suits you or you can use the eyedropper to choose the color you wish that may already be in your image. With your background color chosen and the size of your image chosen you can open a new image. I always open them too large and crop to size later. That works best for me. Also the larger the image the more squares you get in the grid. So that may also be a plus in deciding where to place the images. With the new image opened, open the grid so you can use the placement of the grid to put your image inside of the area you choose. With the images in place you can add any text to your image so you can later crop off what you don’t need of the new image. Having it large enough you can crop where the edge of the grid falls or shut off the grid and crop where you wish. When you have a very large image you need to reduce the size of the new image with the “NAVIGATOR’ choice on the upper box in the right to show the whole size of the “NEW “ image. This way you can see where you wish each image to be. When lining up images you may choose to move in closer with the “Navigator” by increasing the percentage to see where the exact corners of the grid fall. With the images all in place and text you can crop and save. If you wish borders on the image you can do so and save again. At this point you can make the image the size you wish and save again or do all this the first time and save. I just wanted to cover all each of these phases as not all want to add the fluffy stuff. I like it, but that’s just me. That covers point two.

Point three is a disappointing one. I have found that you can place the grid on each image, but unless you take an image from the screen with your camera, you can save the grid lines. Try as I may, I couldn’t figure this one out. So if you want to save the grid line no an image you have to do it as another image. But the grid can still help us out as it helps to make everything square to prepare the images. First get images of the two coins you want to compare with. From the site you may wish to get the image from the site for one image. On your coin you will need an image also. When determining how to do an overlay you need to use the grid and see where exact horizontal/vertical is for both coins. With this in place you can remove the grid. Now you need to determine where to crop the coins so they are the same exact width. The best way I have found is to crop with the corners of the date. Crop exactly the same spots on both coins. I try to use the 1 in the date and the top of the last number. With the grid some letters are taller than others, but by making the grid to touch exactly the top on the 1 and the last top of the last number of the date you have a horizontal reference point. I try to crop on the West edge of the 1 and the right edge of the last digit. It is important that the horizontal line be exactly on the top edges of the date. (First & Last number) If you crop on the boundaries of these numbers you can make the two images the same size. By lining up these two images with the same size you can overlay them and see where the mintmark lines up. If the two mintmarks line up, then you have the same die that made both coins. Sometimes even this is very close, and then what do you do? Well you can enlarge the images even larger and place the grid on both images and see where the corners of the grid line up with the mintmark. This may help to see if they were from the same die. But remember this is not an exact idea as sometime the angle of the coins image were taken in can affect the exact location. So using the formula S-L-M. You might need to go back to basics and view first thing. The separation as that determines the right die from your coin. If the separation is different then your coin is not from that die. So remember the Seperation First, Location second and lastly markers as markers usually only denote the die state. (As they come and go with age of the die. Scratches appear and disappear. Die cracks get worse wit age and obverse or reverse dies may be changed. So markers are usually used to determine die state.)

Hopes this helps. I’m including a couple of images to show the grid lines on an image and one that I made with 25 images on it collage so you can see how they line up. If you save the image with the grid on, the grid will not show up on your image. Again how I was able to show the grid is with an image take on the monitor of my computer. The first two images are blurry from taken them off the computer screen.

[Bob P]

Very well done Coop. I tried to figure the grid thing out the other day, and after a few hours, I figured it out so it worked for me. I wish you had done this a few days ago My one question is:
Cant the grid itself be moved within the area of the picture to line it up with a point on your pic, or do you have to move the pic to line it up with the grid?
I found the place to adjust the settings such as whether to use inches, pixels, MM etc, and also change the colors of the grid. Do you know what the default setting is on the grid as far as that goes? For some reason, the default key for everything on my copy of photoshop is greyed out and I wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong before I reloaded photoshop.

[coop]

Bob: I think the way is that if it is gray, you might have to flatten image or do something to make that work. Most of the time the flattening image is forgotten. But to adust the you can adjust the ruler if you set that in place. But adjusting the grid is hard I usually leave it where it is or..... tranfer the first image onto a "New" image and you can adjust it there by moving it. Remember to use a large new image and place the grid and move the image to where it matches the pattern, then crop. See if that works for you. But again, the only way I've found that you can copy the image on the grid is to photo the monitor. Mine isn't flat, but a flat screen LCD one would work perfect for that purpose.

[Steven]

coop,
I understand the concept in the grid thanks to your post but I may have missed something about saving. Can the photo be saved with the grid and if so (and it looked like you have done it) how do you do that.
Steven

[coop]

I've tried to save the grid several different ways, but the grid is just something you turn on and shut off. The only way I've found to get the grid to show was to bring the image up on Photoshop with the grid and then take a photo of the image with a camera. That way the grid remains on the image. I'm still trying to get it to stay onto the image, but the second image is the only way to keep it that I've found. If you have the flat screen LCD image. I would like to see an image taken from there. I guess I'm going to have to try my daughters computer. She has that. Someday my dinosaur will up and die. Till then, I still running on borrowed time with this relic. But still gets the job done. That all that counts.

[Steven]

That's the same thing that I was going through with the grid. I saw another way to biuld on but its one line at a time. I'm going to try that and see what it looks like and if it saves.
Steven

[coop]

I think when they programed it, they thought the user would use it just as a placement tool to get things symetrical. They didn't count on us using for an entirely different purpose. The grid has been on my computer and I never used it till about a month ago. I wanted to figure out how to display how to use it, but like you couldn't save an image with a grid on it. But where's a will....... there's relatives.....

Also In the first post I took it step by step to make it as easy to follow. It takes a while to get it down, but it is just another hurdle to cross, and you will soon be using it without any problem. I'm still learning on that program and I've been using for several years now.

[Steven]

Well, as I thought I couldn't get it to save anyway I tried. I'm going to look around and try to find a grid that might work but I don't think I am going to have much luck.

Steven

[Steven]

coop,
Think I finally figured out a grid with photoshop.
Steven

[coop]

Steven: Since I've posted last I have figured out how to place a grid on the images. I use the tiles feature to place lines. From the choice of tiles you can choose the number and the tiles. The number the are makes more of them visible on your image or less makes less evenly spaced. But on the lower box choose 1 or 2 as any higher makes the tiles turn and not be straight in line. I had started an image, and just haven't added it yet.

[Dick]

Coop, I read your posts, and, "Mentally", and try to compare what you say, with another program. Seems to me that a lot of "semantics" are involved. By that, I mean that most all of the applications do more, or less the same thing. The difference is to what degree, and with what big difference in the end result. I am a "trouble-shooter" by trade, and all my life has been a series of challenges in fixing this, or that, using the information on hand. There are cases where there was NO service info available, and it was necessary to "improvise". That is what I am doing with(out) Photoshop. I have the Microsoft program that comes with the different grades. Also have Coreldraw, PowerPoint, etc, etc. It helps to have two computers, so as to read your input, and try it on the other one! Sometimes I find different names for the same "shape" in PHotoshop, and make believe it is this name, then give it a try. Sometime it works, sometime, no, but at least I have an idea what I want to do, from your disertations. The biggest problem is trying to find a manual that explains what is at hand, and how to go about it. There is where you come in! The nice thing is that you are there, whenever I have a question, or know enough about what I want to do, to ask a question. Just a case of "going back thru the "files"! Thank you so much, Coop!
Dick