module one
data
essentials

hardware for a photoshop system (Bruce Fraser)
1. Mac's has better third-party support and color management.
2. PC's have a better range of business software and games.
3. Speed is very important, multiprocessors are best.
4. Buy as much RAM as you can. You should have at least 3-5 times the RAM available to Photoshop as your file size, plus 5Mb for the program itself. With heavy History use (allocations above the default of 20) you'll need 10-20 times your file size ideally.
5. If budget is an issue, get more RAM than a faster system.
6. On MAC's (except in OS X) you have to assign RAM to the program. Select the program's icon when the program has not been loaded and in the Get Info dialog box.
7. On a PC, RAM is dynamic, allocate Photoshop 75% of available RAM (in preferences dialog box.)

preferences for greater speed
1. Export Clipboard: Turn it off until you need it.
2. Image Previews: Set to 'Always Ask When Saving'.
3. Maximize backward compatibility in Photoshop format: Unless you're going to be opening Photoshop files directly in Illustrator or FreeHand, do not select this feature. Save theese files as EPS or TIFF files.

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resolution

&

scanning

 

tips

1
always get as much RAM as you can afford.

2
never allocate more RAM than you physically have (avoid VM) unless you're on a very RAM res-tricted computer (16-24Mb).