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Adding Annotations

Adobe PDF has become the hot and happening file format for sharing and reviewing documents, but you don't need to export to PDF to add comments to your images. Borrowing from its brethren, Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop offers tools that let you attach written notes and audio clips that you can view and play right from the image window. The following section has the details.

Taping notes to your image

Photoshop enables you to slap the digital equivalent of a sticky note onto your image. The notes can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat (assuming that you save the image in the PDF format) as well as in Photoshop. You can jot down ideas that you want to remember later, for example. Or, if you're routing an image for approval, you can ask questions about a certain image element — or, more likely, explain why a part of the picture looks the way it does and why changing it would be an absolute travesty and total abdication of your artistic integrity.

The Photoshop notes tool works like its counterpart in Adobe Acrobat: Click in the image window to display a blank note or drag to create a custom-sized note. If you don't want to use the name that appears in the note's title bar, type the desired name in the Author box in the Options bar. (By default, Photoshop displays the user name you entered when you installed the program.) Type your comments — all the standard text-editing techniques apply — and then click the close box in the upper-left corner of the note window. Your note shrinks to a little note icon, as shown in the figure. Double-click the icon to redisplay the note text, as shown in Figure 3-26.

Figure 3-26: After adding text-based notes or audio comments to an image, save the file in PDF so that others can access the annotations when viewing the image in Adobe Acrobat.

When you save your image, be sure to save in the native Photoshop format or PDF and select the Annotations check box in the Save dialog box. Otherwise, you lose all your notes. For information on how to delete individual notes in an open image and how to customize and import notes, skip to the section "Managing annotations."

Voicing your opinions

If you like to speak your mind rather than put your thoughts in writing, check out the audio annotation tool. This tool works like the notes tool except that it inserts an audio recording of your voice rather than a text message into the file. Of course, you need a microphone, speakers, and a sound card installed in your computer to use this feature. Also, Photoshop retains audio annotations only when you save the image file using the Photoshop native format or PDF, as with text notes. Be aware, too, that audio files increase file size significantly.

The audio annotation tool shares quarters with the notes tool in the toolbox. Press N to toggle between the two tools (or Shift+N, depending on your preference setting for switching tools). Click in your image at the spot where you want the icon representing your message to appear. When the Audio Annotation dialog box appears, click Start to begin your recording and then talk into the microphone. Click Stop when you've said all you have to say.

Photoshop represents your audio message with a little speaker icon in the image window. Double-click the icon to play the message.

Managing annotations

If you're a solo artist and the only approval of your work you need is your own, you may not have much reason to use the notes or audio annotation tools. Then again, you may be an easily distracted sort and find annotations a terrific way to remind yourself exactly what you're trying to accomplish in an image. And who's to say that your friends won't love being able to hear an audio clip of your dog Binky yapping at the vacuum cleaner when they view his picture in Acrobat?

Whether you're using annotations for fun or profit, employ the following strategies to manage audio and text annotations:

Use the Font and Size controls in the Options bar to change the font and type size in an open note.

Click the Color icon to change the color of the icon and title bar for any new note you create. This option comes in handy if several people will be reviewing the image and contributing their two cents' worth. You can assign a different color to each author. To change the color of an existing note, open the note and click the Color icon. This time, you affect only the open note — other notes by the same author don't change.

You can move and copy annotations between image windows. Just click the icon and use the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands as you do to move and copy any selection.

If an icon blocks your view of the image, you can drag it out of the way. However, when you open the note, its window appears in the icon's original location. Drag the size box in the lower-right corner of an open note to shrink the window if necessary. You can also drag the title bar of a note to reposition it on screen.

Choose View Show Annotations to toggle the display of annotation icons on and off. Alternatively, choose View Show All and View Show None to hide and display icons and other interface elements, such as selection marquees, guides, and so on.

To delete a single annotation, click its icon and press Delete. Or right-click (Control-click on the Mac) the icon and choose Delete Note or Delete Audio Annotation. If you want to delete all annotations, choose Delete All Annotations or click the Clear All button in the Options bar.