Opening, Importing or Placing a File

In this part of the chapter I’m going to explain how we can open a file and bring it to the workspace in Photoshop. There are many ways to do that depending on the file you’re bringing to the workspace. Note that each file you open it opens in a separate layer .

1. The first way to open a file in Photoshop is to go to File --> Open or use the Keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + O)
2. When you do that, a Pop-Up menu will appear



3. this Pop-Up menu helps you in locating your file in the computer, by searching in the (Look In) box, when you locate the file you have two things to do, first you have to make sure that the name of the file is correct , you can find it in the File Name box , then you have to make sure that the file format is correct, JPG,GIF,TIFF… etc . then click Open. This will open the file you want in the working area in a separate layer.

The second way to open a file
File:  Import, when you do that a Sub-Menu will appear giving choices of what kind of file you want to open, these choices are:

-        Variable Data Sets: the data set is the collection of Variables and Data , the definition of the data set of each graphic is made manually by the user by going to Image > Variables > Data Sets or you can go here for more informations.

-        Video Frames To Layers: it’s how you import video frames  in the workspace in different layers

-        Annotations:  This will import text or audio files to function as annotations (notes attached to the image on your document)

-        WIA Support : “Windows Image Acquisition” , importing images from digital cameras , go to Choose File > Import > WIA Support..

The third way to open a file is by choosing the Place command:

1. The Place command adds files to your workspace with the ability to Position, scale, Rotate, Skew… etc without dragging or damaging the file.
2. Mostly used for bringing Vector graphics from other Programs such as Adobe Illustrator, and it's also used for other files such as JPG,PSD,TIFF….etc.
3. you can see the difference between opening a file by using File > Open and File > Place by the box that appears around the image which is mostly like the Transform Box but appears automatically when choose the Place command.
4. Here is an image that has been placed inside phtotoshop