From the course: Photoshop CC 2017 One-on-One: Mastery

Introducing the Libraries panel - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop CC 2017 One-on-One: Mastery

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Introducing the Libraries panel

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- [Narrator] In this movie, I'll introduce you to the libraries panel which allows you to collect graphics in the form of any layer you like as well as a select group of additional attributes including colors and even custom brushes. And then, you can turn around and share those items with other folks using Photoshop and other compatible Creative Cloud applications. Now as with all panels, you get to the libraries panel by going up to the Window menu and choosing the Libraries command. Now, because I'm working on such a small screen, I've gone ahead and grouped the libraries panel with layers, channels, and paths panel. But just so we can better see what's going on, I'm going to drag its tab out into the image window to make it a free-floating panel like so. Now I'll go ahead and switch back to the layers panel. And let's say I want to add this planet layer to the libraries panel. Then I would go ahead and drag it from the layers panel and drop it into the libraries panel like so. You also have the option of switching to the move tool which you can get by pressing the V key and dragging the layer directly from the image window into the libraries panel. And finally, you have the option of clicking on this little plus sign in the bottom left corner of the panel and deciding what items you want to add. In this case, I can add the graphic as I've done already as well as the foreground color which is always an option. I'll leave foreground color turned off and click on the Add button to create a third copy of that planet. Now, they're all named planet, and that's because I took the time to name my layer here inside the layers panel. Now, I want you to notice that this particular layer happens to be a vector-based shape layer, but you can add pixel-based layers, text layers, smart objects, and so forth as well. And it happens to be filled with a gradient. And I can confirm that by double-clicking on its thumbnail which will bring up the gradient fill dialog box. At the present time, you can't store gradients in the libraries panel, but you can store solid colors. And so, notice this base layer right here is filled with this solid color as we can see here inside the color picker dialog box. I'll just go ahead and cancel out. And so, notice what happens if I select that layer and click on the plus sign in the bottom left corner of the libraries panel. I'm invited not only to save the graphic but also the fill color. At which point, I'll go ahead and click Add in order to save that graphic complete with its blend settings. Notice that the layer has an opacity setting of 22%, and as a result, the graphic appears translucent here inside the libraries panel. And I'm also seeing this color. And notice you can twirl these guys open and close if you like in order to organize things once you start running out of room. You can also switch between a thumbnail view and a list view which will tell you the origin of each one of the graphics. Another option is to save custom brushes here inside Photoshop. And you can do that by going up to the Window menu and choosing Brush Presets to open up the brush presets panel. All the options are currently dimmed, and that's because I need to select a compatible tool such as the brush tool which you could get by pressing the B key. And then, I'll just go ahead and locate a good-looking brush such as Scattered Maple Leaves, let's say, and then I'll drag it and drop it into the libraries panel like so. After which point, I'll go ahead and hide that panel. Alright, now let's say at some point you want to delete one or more items inside the libraries panel. Then, you can just go ahead and select all the items you want. And in my case, I'm going to click on this color which is, as you can see, changes the foreground color here inside the color panel. And then, I'll Shift-click on the third planet item so that everything is selected inside the panel. And then, I'll click on a trash icon. And I want you to notice, we're not going to see an alert message. We'll just see this item that says Undo. And so, for a moment, you have the option of undoing the deletion, but then Undo fades away. Let's say now, at this point, you're reconsidering things, and you want to get all those items back. Then go ahead and click on the flyout menu icon and choose View Deleted Items which is going to launch your default web browser and then it's going to show you a list of all of the items you've deleted. And in my case, as you can see, I've deleted an awful lot of them. And now, all you have to do is select those items that you want to undelete and then just go ahead and click on the restore icon followed by this Restore button here. And now, if you switch back to Photoshop, you'll see that a moment or two later, all of your deleted items will reappear. And that's because there's a dynamic link between the libraries panel and your personal Creative Cloud account. Alright, now finally, I want you to notice that you can create as many libraries as you like, and you can rename libraries as well. And so, to rename the default mylibrary, you click on the flyout menu icon once again and choose the Rename command. And I find, by the way, that you have to reselect this name in order to make it active. After which point, I'll just go ahead and call this guy Random Junk because that's what it is. And I'll click the Rename button. And that, friends, is my very basic introduction to how you collect graphics, colors, and custom brushes here inside the libraries panel.

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