11 Photoshop Tips for Guids & Rules - By Trevor Morris

Guides

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1. While dragging guides, hold down the Alt key to switch between vertical and horizontal guides. Alt-click on an existing vertical guide to change it into a horizontal guide, and vice versa.

Note: Guides are created by dragging them out from the document rulers, so ensure that the rulers are turned on [Ctrl+R] (View » Show Rulers).

2. Dragging guides with the Shift key held down will force them to snap to the ruler increments / markings.

3. To prevent guides from snapping to canvas boundaries and layers objects, hold down the Ctrl key while dragging them.

4. Double-click on guides to open the Guides & Grid Preferences [Ctrl+K, Ctrl+6] (Edit » Preferences » Guides & Grid).

5. Use paths to create curved or diagonal guides. Simply draw a path using the Pen tool [P] and use it as a guide while drawing or painting (the path will remain visible).
Tip: Use the Show Target Path command [Ctrl+Shift+H] (View » Show » Target Path) to toggle the visibility of a path.

6. Guides snap not only to the edges (left, right, top and bottom) of the active layer or selection, but also to the vertical and horizontal centers of the current layer or selection. The opposite is also true: you may snap a selection or layer to an existing guide (either by edge or center).

Note: Guides do not snap to the Background layer. Also, be sure that Snap [Ctrl+ ; ] (View » Snap) and Snap To Guides (View » Snap To » Guides) are turned on for the above tip to work.

Tip: Find the center of the canvas by filling a new layer and snapping a guide to the vertical and horizontal centers.

7. To add guides at a specific location on the canvas, use the View » New Guide command. This is especially useful for placing guides from within an action.

Example: Click here to download an action that finds the canvas center by placing guides at positions 50% horizontal and 50% vertical.

8. Use the View » Show » Show Extras Options dialog box to set which screen objects are toggled on / off when you choose View » Show Extras [Ctrl+H].

9. New! Use the View » Lock Guides command [Ctrl+Alt+;] to stop guides from flipping with the canvas when you choose Image » Rotate Canvas » Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical.


Rulers

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Choose Unit of Measurement
10. Double-click on the Rulers [Ctrl+R] (View » Show Rulers) to open the Units & Rulers Preferences [Ctrl+K, Ctrl+5] (Edit » Preferences » Units & Rulers).

Tip: You can also select a new unit of measurement from the Cursor Coordinates pop-up menu on the Info palette [F8] (Window » Show Info).

Move Ruler Origin
11. Center the ruler origin anywhere on the canvas by dragging from the top-left corner (where the rulers meet). Reset the origin to its default position by double-clicking on the top-left corner.