Guides are horizontal or vertical lines that you drag onto your image to use for positioning items or aligning brush stokes. While grids place a series of horizontal and vertical lines at certain intervals, you place guides at the locations you want.

To place guides, you must display the rulers by choosing View > Rulers.


To display or hide guides:

Choose View > Guides.


To place a horizontal or vertical guide:

Do one of the following:

• To place a horizontal guide, click the top ruler and drag a guide to the desired position.


• To place a vertical guide, click the left ruler and drag a guide to the desired position.

As you drag, the Status Bar displays the guide’s position in pixels.


To move a guide:

Do either of the following:

• Click the guide handle on the ruler and drag it to a new position.


• Double-click or right-click the guide handle to display the Guide Properties dialog, type in a new Guide position value, and click OK.

To change the color and position of a guide:

1. Double-click or right-click the guide handle to display the Guide Properties dialog.


2. Select from these options:
   
   Guide color Click the color box to choose a new color for the guides.
   
   Guide position Type values in this field to control the guide’s position (in pixels).


3. Click OK.

To modify settings for guides:

1. To open the Grid, Guide, and Snap Properties dialog, do any of the following:
   
   
   • Choose View > Change Grid, Guide, and Snap Properties.
   
   
   • Right-click the image title bar to display a context menu, and choose Change Grid, Guide, and Snap Properties.
   
   
   • Double-click the ruler.
2. Click the Guides tab.
   
   The Default settings group box shows settings for all the guides you place in the future.  The Current image settings group box shows settings for the guides in the current image.


3. For either the default or current image settings, select from these options:
   
   Color Click in the color box to choose a new guide color.  Right-click the color box to pick from the Recent Colors dialog.
   
   Snap influence Controls how many pixels away an item must be to snap to a guide or grid.  The Snap to Grid option must be selected in the View menu.


4. Click OK.

To delete one guide:

Do either of the following:

• Drag the guide handle in the ruler off the image window.


• Double-click the guide handle to display the Guide Properties dialog and click Delete.

To delete all guides in an image or all open images:

1. Choose View > Change Grid, Guide, and Snap Properties.


2. Click the Guides tab.


3. Mark the Delete guides check box, and then select From current image only or From ALL open images.


4. Click OK.