3.1 Document Creation, Output Settings, and Presets

Anatomy of the New Document Dialog

Launching a new creative project in Adobe Photoshop begins with configuring the document canvas to match the exact specifications required by the final delivery medium. Pressing Cmd+N (macOS) or Ctrl+N (Windows), or selecting File > New, opens the New Document dialog box. Understanding every parameter in this dialog is fundamental to professional asset creation and forms a recurring focus on the Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) examination.

The dialog is split into two primary areas: the Intent Category Tabs across the top and the Preset Details sidebar on the right.

Document Intent Categories and Presets

Photoshop groups pre-configured document presets by production intent. Selecting a category filters the available presets and sets appropriate defaults for resolution, color mode, bit depth, and measurement units:

• Recent & Saved: Displays recently created custom dimensions and saved user presets.
• Photo: Designed for photographic printing and digital darkroom workflows. Includes standard photographic sizes such as Landscape $4 \times 6$ inches, $5 \times 7$ inches, and $8 \times 10$ inches, pre-configured at 300 PPI in RGB Color mode.
• Print: Geared toward commercial offset and digital desktop printing. Provides standardized international paper dimensions including Letter ($8.5 \times 11$ in), Legal ($8.5 \times 14$ in), Tabloid ($11 \times 17$ in), A4, and A3, all set to 300 PPI with physical units (inches or millimeters).
• Art & Illustration: Tailored for digital painters, poster illustrators, and fine art reproduction. Offers presets such as Poster ($18 \times 24$ in), Postcard ($4 \times 6$ in), and grid canvases at 300 PPI.
• Web: Configured exclusively in pixel (px) dimensions at 72 PPI with the sRGB color space. Popular presets include Web Most Common ($1366 \times 768$ px), Web Large ($1920 \times 1080$ px), and Web Medium ($1440 \times 900$ px).
• Mobile: Provides exact pixel viewport dimensions for smartphones, tablets, and wearables, including Apple iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Google Pixel specifications, which must be checked against the current project’s actual target pixel dimensions.
• Film & Video: Delivers broadcast and streaming video standards, including HDTV 1080p ($1920 \times 1080$ px) and UHD 4K ($3840 \times 2160$ px). Documents created under this tab automatically generate non-printing title-safe and action-safe video guides and support specialized non-square pixel aspect ratios.

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Configuring Dimensions, Units, and Resolution Standards

The Preset Details panel controls the core mathematical and physical geometry of the canvas.

Measurement Units and Orientation

Photoshop supports six primary measurement units:

1. Pixels (px): The fundamental unit of raster screen media. Web, UI/UX, mobile apps, social media graphics, and digital video must always be configured in pixels.
2. Inches (in): Standard imperial measurement for North American commercial print, photographic prints, and publishing.
3. Centimeters (cm) & Millimeters (mm): Standard metric measurements used internationally for packaging, publishing, and print media.
4. Points (pt): Traditional typographic unit ($1\text{ pt} = \frac{1}{72}\text{ inch}$). Frequently utilized when establishing layout geometry aligned with type hierarchies.
5. Picas (p): Typographic layout unit ($1\text{ pica} = 12\text{ points} = \frac{1}{6}\text{ inch}$).

Directly beneath the dimension inputs are the Orientation buttons: Portrait (vertical) and Landscape (horizontal). Clicking either icon automatically toggles the canvas aspect ratio and swaps the numbers currently entered in the Width and Height fields.

Resolution: Demystifying PPI vs. DPI

A critical objective on the ACP examination is understanding resolution and distinguishing between digital pixel density and hardware print dots:

• PPI (Pixels Per Inch): A measurement of digital raster image resolution, defining how many distinct pixels are rendered across one linear inch of display or print reproduction. Photoshop documents operate strictly in PPI.
• DPI (Dots Per Inch): A physical hardware measurement indicating the density of physical ink droplets placed on paper by an image setter, laser printer, or commercial offset press.

Resolution Rule of Thumb for Commercial Print:
Resolution (PPI) = 2 × Line Screen Frequency (LPI)
Example: 150 LPI halftone screen × 2 = 300 PPI target canvas resolution

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Color Modes, Bit Depth, and Profile Assignment

Color modes define the mathematical color model used to represent and blend chromatic values within the document:

• RGB Color (Additive): Combines Red, Green, and Blue light values from 0 to 255. Standard for all digital screens, web interfaces, mobile devices, photography, and video.
• CMYK Color (Subtractive): Simulates 4-color process ink printing (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK) with percentage values from 0% to 100%. Used when the print vendor requests process-color separations; some vendors accept tagged RGB.
• Grayscale: Uses one channel; an 8-bit grayscale image contains 256 levels, discarding all chromatic hue and saturation data.
• Bitmap (1-bit): Represents pixels strictly as 100% black or 100% white, with zero intermediate shades of gray. Often used for line art and high-contrast digital engravings.
• Lab Color: A device-independent color model based on human perceptual vision, splitting color data into L (Lightness, 0 to 100) and two chromatic opponent channels: a (green-to-red) and b (blue-to-yellow).

Bit Depth

Bit depth dictates how many binary bits are allocated per color channel to record tonal information:

• 8-bit per channel: Yields $2^8 = 256$ tonal levels per channel. In an 8-bit RGB image, $256 \times 256 \times 256 \approx 16.7\text{ million colors}$. This is the universal standard for web assets, digital displays, and most commercial print.
• 16-bit per channel: Yields $2^{16} = 65,536$ tonal levels per channel. Ideal for extensive photo retouching, sky gradients, and RAW image processing, reducing the risk of posterization and tonal banding. Note that 16-bit files roughly double file storage requirements and disable certain artistic filters.
• 32-bit per channel: Floating-point High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging used in motion picture visual effects, 3D lighting, and architectural rendering.

Advanced Options: Color Profile Selection

Under the Advanced Options disclosure triangle, the Color Profile menu defines the exact color space gamut assigned to the new document:

• sRGB IEC61966-2.1: The universal standard for digital web, mobile UI, social media, and consumer monitors. Provides a common interchange space; appearance still depends on color management and display calibration.
• Adobe RGB (1998): A wide-gamut space offering expanded cyan-green range, widely used by professional photographers preparing assets for fine art and commercial offset press output.
• ProPhoto RGB: An ultra-wide gamut encompassing nearly all visible colors perceived by the human eye; used primarily in raw archival conversion.
• Working CMYK (e.g., U.S. Web Coated SWOP v2): Calibrated for standardized commercial web press printing on coated stock.

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Background Contents and Canvas Initialization

The Background Contents dropdown determines the initial appearance and layer structure of the new canvas:

1. White: Fills the canvas with solid white pixels and creates a locked Background layer.
2. Black: Fills the canvas with solid black pixels on a locked Background layer.
3. Background Color: Fills the canvas with whatever color is currently selected as the background swatch in the Tools panel.
4. Transparent: Initializes the canvas with a transparent checkerboard pattern and creates an unlocked Layer 1.
5. Custom: Opens the Adobe Color Picker, allowing the designer to specify any custom hex value or chromatic tint.

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Artboards: Multi-Surface Workflows

Checking the Artboards box in the Preset Details panel converts the document canvas into a multi-artboard workspace. An artboard acts as an independent, bounded sub-canvas within a single Photoshop document.

Artboard Capabilities

• Responsive UI/UX Design: A designer can create a Desktop artboard ($1920 \times 1080$), a Tablet artboard ($768 \times 1024$), and a Mobile artboard ($375 \times 812$) side-by-side in one PSD document, sharing smart objects, color swatches, and layer styles.
• Multi-Asset Campaigns: Marketing banners, Facebook feed posts, and Instagram Stories can be authored simultaneously, allowing visual consistency across differing aspect ratios.
• Artboard Management: Using the Artboard Tool (nested beneath the Move Tool, shortcut V), designers can click the plus (+) icons on any of the four sides of an existing artboard to generate adjacent artboards, or use the Options bar to apply standardized mobile and desktop dimension presets.

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Creating and Saving Custom Document Presets

When a client or agency project requires non-standard specifications (such as a custom packaging die-cut of $9.25 \times 6.125$ inches at 300 PPI with a 0.125-inch margin allowance), configuring these parameters repeatedly is inefficient. Photoshop allows users to capture custom settings as permanent, reusable presets.

Workflow to Save a Custom Preset

1. Open the New Document dialog (Cmd+N / Ctrl+N).
2. In the Preset Details sidebar, enter the required Width, Height, and Units.
3. Set the target Resolution (e.g., 300 PPI) and Orientation.
4. Select the appropriate Color Mode, Bit Depth, and Color Profile.
5. Select the required Background Contents and toggle Artboards if applicable.
6. Click the Save Preset icon (the downward arrow icon) located to the right of the preset title field.
7. In the resulting dialog, type a distinct name (e.g., Client Quarterly Catalog Cover) and click Save Preset.
8. The preset immediately populates under the Saved tab at the top of the New Document dialog.

To delete a custom preset, click the preset under the Saved tab and click the Trash icon in the upper-right corner of the preset card.