Tip: Use The Grid in Photoshop
Today’s Photoshop tip will show you how to take advantage of the “Grid” feature in Photoshop. The Grid is the perfect alignment tool for graphic design, and is very easy to use. By combining the use of the Grid with the “Snap” feature, users can perfectly align objects along grid lines and sudivisions.
Enabling the Grid
Open up the document you’d like to work with (or create a new document), and enable the Grid by checking View > Extras, and then checking View > Show > Grid.
You should now see a grid laid over your canvas. The grid lines are not actually a part of your image, they are more or less just reference lines.
Note: The Grid Lines are the darker lines. The light, dotted lines are known as “Subdivisions”.
Grid Preferences
Perhaps you need to adjust the grid to better suit your working conditions. It’s very easy to setup grid lines to distance themselves in inches, pixels, as well as other standard measurement units.
To adjust the Grid Preferences, go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices…
From here, you can adjust the Grid Color, Style (Lines, Dashed Lines, Dotted Lines), the distance between grid line, and the number of subdivisions between grid lines.
Snap to Grid
Snapping is a useful feature in Photoshop that allows users to align layers, shapes, text, etc, perfectly with other objects, guides, or in our case the grid.
To enable Snap to Grid, first Enable Snap (View > Snap), and then make sure Snap to Grid is checked (View > Snap To > Grid).
You should now be able to easily align your different layers with the grid PRECISELY.
62 Comments
Nice tut, shame Adobe don’t allocate the grid it’s own layer, I’d love to print a grid without having to construct it!
Flag as inappropriateOh yes, Minecraft =)
Flag as inappropriateAlso ‘measure tool’ is great. But sadly, it shows the distance only in pixels, not in grid blocks ^^. Would be great to draw a plan in photoshop for the Minecraft house, and then instantly know, how much blocks I need to build this house.
Very helpful for newbies who want to photoshop from scratch. Please keep on sharing such a nice tutorials.
Flag as inappropriateThanks.
Thanks! This makes Mnecraft art alot easier.
Flag as inappropriateThanks it was very usefull!
Flag as inappropriatenice tutorial..
Flag as inappropriatei need this.. thanks
I use the Square Grid with this tool for my designs.
Flag as inappropriatehttp://thesquaregrid.com
my grid won’t show up – using Photoshop CS; when I go view>show>grid a dark outline shows up around the new image, when I go view>hide, the dark outline goes away, but the grid will not show up when I ask it to. What have I done?
Flag as inappropriatevist for basic training of photoshop
Flag as inappropriatehttp://training4free.co.cc/Basic%20training/Basic%20training.html
This tutorial is absolutely useful! Thanks for sharing!
Flag as inappropriateRegarding grids … does anyone know where I can get a software program that creates dotted grids that print? I don’t think the grid in photoshop is printable. Thank you.
Flag as inappropriateThank you for your posting and new updates.This site is really helpful to me.
Flag as inappropriateThanks this was really helpful and informative. Definitely a useful little guide.
Flag as inappropriatei am glad that i stumbled upon your blog. now i can learn the basics the right way. thanks!
Flag as inappropriateOMG thanks :D
Flag as inappropriateThis will help me with PixelArt :D
I am learning Web Design and I found this thread very helpful indeed. Thank you for posting.
Flag as inappropriateIs there a way to have snap turned off by default?
We receive dozens of photos from the outside world each day and many of our sources have snap turned on when they submit the files (and I’m sure many don’t even realize it’s turned on.)
It’s extremely annoying to have to turn off snap on each of these images for cropping. I keep it turned off images that originate here, but the setting imports with incoming images in CS3 (and probably other versions of Photoshop as well.)
I’m wondering if there’s a way to not import the snap setting on images that don’t originate from our own work flow.
Thanks.
Flag as inappropriateHi,
I am Surely Going to Use This
Thanks for Sharing
Regards.
Flag as inappropriateI’m trying to design a clock face. I need a grid with an x-y axis so i can have a center point for the shaft where the movement will be. I will need the grid to allow for 30 degree increments for proper placement of the hours. Any suggestions on how to achieve this. Steve
Flag as inappropriateI really enjoyed the concise explanation of the use of Grids and used it recently, but now the Grid appears in all photos I call up to work with in PS. How do I turn that off? I hit View, then uncheck Extra, but the Grids keep coming back when I reopen the pictures. Thanks.
Flag as inappropriateThanks for the tutorial, it was a great help!
Flag as inappropriateThis is what I needed. I needed to be able to split the image / grid equally into ten parts and the default was only splitting it into 8 parts.
Flag as inappropriateThanks from Chillicothe OH!
its very nice. Great post36
Flag as inappropriateits very nice. Great post23
Flag as inappropriateits very nice. Great post17
Flag as inappropriategreat i never seen before.
Flag as inappropriateThe sad thing about grids is that if you paint over them, the grids get stenciled onto the canvas. Not a good thing at all for one that draws using a grid by grid method.
Flag as inappropriateHow do I get the grid to print on my photo in photo shop? Thanks, great tutorials
Flag as inappropriateunder photoshop cs4 mac the grid preferences will be found under:
Flag as inappropriatephotoshop > preferences > guides, grids and slides
and not under:
Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices…
how do i print these grids.. sometimes you want to sketch on top of the design ( draft ).
Please let me know as i am not able to find the solution online as yet.
Flag as inappropriateOk so we all know bout the grid what about a tut on if i can set my guide lines?
Flag as inappropriateHow do you get teh grid to look like it’s supposed to? I know it’s a very useful feature but it doesn’t seem to be working in my CS4. I used the same preferences as in the tutorial, but I didn’t get all the smaller lines
Flag as inappropriateIs it possible to print image with the Grid Lines ? Need to label the lines, i.e. 1 – 10, say and A – J to give references to image which is a jpg photo.
Flag as inappropriateThx
did you get a reply to this?
how do you print with the grid?
thx!
Flag as inappropriateWow this grid really helps a lot in other ways in photoshop
Flag as inappropriateThank you, thank you! I set mine for the rule of thirds, and it has helped out a lot.
Flag as inappropriatehow can remove grid from photoshop…
Flag as inappropriateI am trying to create a grid over a picture then slice it somehow so I can rearrange the parts in the grid. How can I do that?
Flag as inappropriatecreate your grid over your image
use square marquee tool with no prefrences
and select each square that the grid created
and cut and paste. it will auto paste on new layer
do this with each square you have created with the grid
make sure you duplicate image
and make sure your on the duplicated image when you cut and paste
agian, it will paste on new layer
then re arrange layers the way you want
hope it helps if no one got you before me
Flag as inappropriateDavid,I am just a photoshop C3 beginer, I really love to learn from your tutorials. I think I have a good luck because I found your web. Thank´s a lot for your time. Some day I will be a great designer.
Flag as inappropriateJuan from Costa Rica
I think this article should be edited to include in the note at the bottom “you can disable snap to grid temporarily by holding cmd/ctrl while dragging a selected item”
Flag as inappropriateGrid guide in a nutshell… excellent.
Flag as inappropriateI’m not using grid when im working. I think i will use it now,
Flag as inappropriateI love these basic tutorials – so quick!
Flag as inappropriateEven if it comes naturally to you, I am a firm believer that Grid Systems are an excellent way to facilitate design and creativity. We’ll probably cover more on Grid Systems in Photoshop in a future tutorial ;)
Flag as inappropriateI use grids alot when designing, it comes as a natural thing to do now so if your a begginner at designing, then i urge you to follow this tutorial and try adapt it as frequently as possible. It will deffinetly benefit you for future stuff ;)
Flag as inappropriateVery helpful, I can’t say how many times I try to move my pictures precisely and I never get it right. This will help a million. Thanks
Flag as inappropriateHey Nir B, in the Depth of Field Tutorial, I just transform a grid to get that effect. I just used the default grid settings (which I shouldn’t have really). Hope that helps ya out ;) I’d appreciate if you ask such questions in the actual tutorial in question so that other users don’t miss out, or get confused.
Flag as inappropriateIn your DOP tut, u guys gave an exapmle using a grid that simulated a 3d plane. is there such an option or did u just use Transform?. thx for the guide top class stuff.
Flag as inappropriatectrl ‘ will also toggle the grid.
Cheers.
Flag as inappropriateI thik you’ll find it’s Ctrl + ;
Flag as inappropriateLOL! Sorry… You were correct, I was thinking about turning guides on/off… :)
Flag as inappropriateI really love these tutorials, so informative yet simple.
Just a little tip, snapping is really useful and I use it in most cases, but sometimes I don’t want it to snap and it’s a drag to go to View>Snap To (at least for me). So when using the move tool or the transform command, just hold Control and the object you’re moving will not snap to anything. ;)
Keep up the great work!
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