Online PS Tutorial: 10 Things Photoshop Beginners Should Know

2. Seamless textures

Seamless textures turn up constantly: 3D rendering, web backgrounds, texture work. Here's how to generate one quickly in Online PS:

1. Open the image you want to work with (a power-of-two size such as 1024×1024 is ideal).
2. Go to Filter → Other → Offset.
3. Set both the horizontal and vertical offset to half the image width and height (for a 1024×1024 image, enter 512).
   For “Undefined Areas”, choose “Wrap Around”.
4. The offset leaves a visible seam. Repair it with J (airbrush) or S (Clone Stamp).
5. When it's clean, select the whole canvas with Ctrl+A, then Edit → Define Pattern (same path in Online PS) and give it a name.
6. Create a new document and use Edit → Fill. Pick the pattern you just saved under “Contents” and you have a seamless background.

If you'd rather preview the seamless result on the same canvas, use Edit → Transform → Scale, set width and height to “200%”, then drag the layer around to judge how naturally the edges tile.

3. Custom actions for the command sequences you repeat

Online PS also supports Photoshop's Actions panel (Window → Actions). Record the key combinations you use most and batch work gets noticeably faster.

The example below merges the visible layers, copies the result to the clipboard, and pastes it into a new document:

1. Open Window → Actions and click “Create New Action” in the top-right corner of the panel.
2. Name the action (for example Copy Visible Layers), then press the function key you want to bind (Shift+F2 is a safe pick with no conflicts).
3. Record the sequence:
   • New layer: Shift+Ctrl+N
   • Stamp visible layers: Shift+Alt+Ctrl+E
   • Select all: Ctrl+A
   • Copy: Ctrl+C
   • Deselect: Ctrl+D
   • Delete the current (empty) layer: Delete
4. Click “Stop” when you're done recording.
5. From then on, pressing Shift+F2 in any document runs every step automatically.

Actions can be imported and exported in Online PS too (Actions panel → menu → Load Actions / Save Actions), which makes it easy to share them between machines.

4. Auto-select layers

Once a document has a lot of layers, Auto-Select is the quickest way to land on the one you want.

1. Pick the Move tool (V).
2. In the options bar at the top, tick Auto-Select Layer.
3. Click any visible object on the canvas and Online PS jumps straight to its layer.
4. If you're using another tool (Lasso, Pen), hold Ctrl while you click and the Move tool's automatic layer switching still kicks in.

One caveat: turn Auto-Select off before editing paths or type, otherwise you'll keep grabbing the wrong layer.

5. Creating a custom brush

Custom brushes give your work a texture or decorative mark nobody else has. Here's the full workflow in Online PS:

1. Create a new document and set the size (500×500 px at 72 dpi is a good starting point).
2. Draw the shape or motif with any painting tool (for example B for the brush or P for the shape tool) — a small flower, a star, a dot texture. Use black or dark gray: the color is replaced by the foreground color when the brush is used.
3. When you're finished, select the whole image with Ctrl+A.
4. Go to Edit → Define Brush Preset (same path in Online PS) and name the new brush.
5. Switch to the B (Brush) tool and your custom brush is waiting in the brush presets.

For a softer brush, run Filter → Blur → Gaussian Blur before defining it, or fine-tune the shape under Edit → Transform → Warp.

6. Lens flare effects

Lens Flare is a fast way to add drama. Here's how to keep the flare on its own layer in Online PS, so you can adjust or delete it whenever you like.

1. At the bottom of the Layers panel click New Fill or Adjustment Layer → Solid Color, choose black, and name it “Flare Base”.
2. Make sure that black layer sits above the image you want the flare on.
3. With the black layer selected, go to Filter → Render → Lens Flare (in Online PS it's under Filter → Render → Lens Flare). Choose the flare type, brightness, and position, then click OK.
4. Change the layer's blending mode to Screen. The black drops out and only the flare itself remains.
5. To move or restrengthen the flare, just reopen the filter — the layer still holds the original settings.

The trick works on a white background too; just make sure the blending mode is “Overlay” or “Soft Light”, where the flare reads more naturally.

7. The Lighting Effects filter

Lighting Effects adds depth to a flat image in seconds.

1. Prepare a texture or channel image (noise, paper grain) and place it on any layer.
2. Select the target layer and click Filter → Render → Lighting Effects (in Online PS it's Filter → Render → Lighting Effects).
3. In the dialog, choose “Use Custom Texture Channel” on the left, then pick the channel holding your texture from the dropdown (for example “Channel 2”).
4. Adjust the light's position, intensity, radius, and direction while watching the preview.
5. Click OK and the lighting is applied directly to the selected layer.

To stack several different lights, duplicate the layer first (Ctrl+J), apply different lighting settings to each copy, then set their blending modes to “Overlay” or “Soft Light”.

8. Using adjustment layers

Adjustment layers are the heart of non-destructive editing. Just like Photoshop, Online PS offers the full set:

• Color Balance, Levels, Curves, Exposure, Hue/Saturation, Black & White, Selective Color, and more.
• To create one: Layer → New Adjustment Layer → … (or the “Create new fill or adjustment layer” button at the bottom of the Layers panel).
• Every adjustment layer has its own mask, so you can paint parts of the effect in or out at any time.
• To restrict an adjustment to particular layers, put it above them and tick “Clipping Mask” in the Properties panel.

Compared with Photoshop, Online PS's adjustment layers also give you live preview, color sampling, typed-in values, and Ctrl+Alt+G (create clipping mask) to speed things up.

9. Fast duplication tricks

1. Within one document: select a layer or selection, switch to V (Move tool), then hold Alt and drag to duplicate the object.
2. Add Shift while dragging and the copy snaps to horizontal, vertical, or 45° — whichever axis is closest — so it stays aligned.
3. Copying between documents:
   • Select the object in the source document, keep V active, then hold Shift and drag into the target document window.
   • If both documents are the same size the object lands at the same coordinates; if they differ it's centered automatically.
4. No clipboard involved, so you skip the Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V round trip — ideal when you're moving a lot of blocky elements around.

In Online PS, Ctrl+J (duplicate the current layer) works alongside Alt+drag, so you can duplicate twice over.

10. Keep your presets before you lose them

After a while in Online PS (or Photoshop) you accumulate a pile of custom assets: brushes, swatches, gradients, styles, patterns, contours, shapes. Skip the backup and a reinstall wipes all of it. Here's how the Preset Manager keeps it safe.

1. Open Edit → Preferences → Preset Manager (in Online PS it's under Edit → Presets → Preset Manager).
2. In the list on the left, choose the type you want to export, such as brushes, swatches, gradients, styles, patterns, contours, custom shapes.
3. Click Save Set… and choose a folder you'll remember (a dedicated “PS_Presets” directory is a good idea). The files come out with extensions like .abr, .aco, .grd, .pat, .asl, .vlt.
4. When you reinstall or switch computers, open the same window, click Load Set…, pick the matching file, and all your custom assets are back.
5. Back up after every big project, or once a month, so an unexpected failure doesn't cost you the lot.

If you move between devices a lot (work computer, home tablet), keep the backup files in cloud storage or a chat app so the latest version is always within reach.