Using the Note Tool in Photoshop

There is a little feature in Photoshop that a lot of people have either forgotten all about or maybe never knew was there; the Note Tool. Notes are a really nice feature that I use myself quite often and can really come in handy in my personal workflow.  

By adding notes, we can tell other Photoshop users or Retouchers exactly what needs to be done to our image. Things like what area needs to be worked on in our image or how large it needs to be printed and what color space to print it in, whatever. It’s sort of like sending along the photo recipe. Sometimes I’ll do all sorts of things to an image and I just want to be able to repeat it, so I’ll leave myself a note with directions. But other times I’ll send it to someone else to work on and they can read the instructions to see where I left off or what needs to be done.

( Image 1 )

The note tool has been around forever and is found in the Eyedropper tool’s flyout menu. Just click and hold down the Eyedropper tool button and select the Note Tool.

( Image 2 )

Up in the Options Bar you can add the Authors name or your title if you’d like, I usually skip this. Then you just click on your image where you want the Note to be placed. A box will open to write your note with your instructions or direction’s. When you’re done with your note, click the little note icon on the Options Bar to close the note. ( Image 2 )

( Image 3 )

You can also add more than one note to your document if you’d like. If you need to open your note again, just double click the little note icon on your document. When you’re done, just save it as a PSD or a TIFF and now you’re note will be part of your file. If you decide you want to get rid of your note, right click on the note icon  (CTRL on a Mac) and pick delete. Another nice thing is, you also can save your file as a PDF (if you’re sending a proof to a print shop or an editor ) but they’ll need Adobe Acrobat make any changes or to add any new notes to the document.  Sometimes I need another set of eyes on my document before the final run at the printers and he can send me back his recommendations or any changes I need to make before sending in my final images for the print job. If you’re printing out 500 fliers or brochures, you’d want to know before printing them up right?

Although viewable and editable in Photoshop, these notes will not appear when you decide to print the image and don’t really add to the document size. Maybe this is something that can come in handy for you?  I hope you find this little quick-tip helpful.

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!