Digi Tip July: Layer Thumbnails

When thinking about this month's digi tip post, I decided to share a tip that I use constantly. It may not be a way to make your scrapbook pages or photos look extra special. But it will really help you to see what you are doing.  Especially if you are like me..... I find myself needing to hold the newspaper a bit further from my eyes so that I can read it, I have reading glasses stashed in my car, my purse and just about every room in the house.  My eyes aren't getting worse, my arms are just getting shorter!  LOL

You should have seen me squinting trying to determine what was on each layer of a Photoshop project that I was working on. Those thumbnails in the layers palette give you a peak at what they are. If you can see them!  Here is how to make sure you can see what is on your layers.

The default setting is for small thumbnails.  They look like this:

If I had not renamed the layers, would you know what was on them?  I wouldn't. If you would like to see them better there are 2 settings you can choose in Photoshop (and one in Photoshop Elements which I'll cover in just a bit).  In Photoshop right click on any thumbnail in the layers palette and a selection box will appear.  Toward the bottom you can choose:

• No thumbnail
• Small thumbnails
• Medium thumbnails
• Large thumbnails

I've switched to the medium thumbnails and you can see some improvement here:

 

Hmmm, you're saying "I don't see much improvement!" You're right, there is some improvement, but not much. I'd still be reaching for the reading glasses!  But there is one more setting that you can change that will really make it better. On that same selection box, below the thumbnail size, change the bounding selection. The default is to clip thumbnails to document bounds.  Change this to "clip thumbnails to layer bounds"

This is how your layers will now appear.  Isn't that so much easier on your eyes?

If you work in Photoshop Elements, you can adjust the size of the thumbnails, but you don't have the option to clip the thumbnail to the edge of the layer.  To change the size of the thumbnail in PSE, right click in the gray area below the layers and select the size you would like for your thumbnails.

I hope this tip helps to keep you from squinting as you work!