The following sections describe how to improve your system's performance when working with Photoshop and how to correct some common problems that may occur. For up to date information on optimizing Photoshop performance, refer to the document, "Optimizing Performance in Photoshop CS3 for Mac OS" or "Optimizing Performance in Photoshop CS3 for Windows" available online.

Fonts, Color Profiles and Application Initialization and Start-up Times
When starting Photoshop, Photoshop must enumerate all of the fonts that will be available for the Type Tool.  Likewise, when you first open the Type Palette, the same enumeration occurs. Therefore, if you have a large number of fonts installed on your system, this can cause Photoshop to take longer to start-up and when you first open the Type Palette.  If you find the Photoshop start-up or Type Palette initialization to be too long, you should remove any unused fonts from your system and ensure the Text Palette is closed before you close Photoshop. Likewise, all Color Profiles installed on the system must be read at start-up. Uninstall or remove any color profiles you will not be actively using to speed up the application startup time.

Changing the Plug-ins Folder or Scratch Disk Preferences at Launch Time
If you hold down the Control+Shift (Windows), Command+Shift (Mac) keys at launch time, the Additional Plug-Ins Folder dialog will appear. You can choose an additional folder from which Photoshop will load plug-ins. If you hold down the Control+Alt (Windows), Command+Option (Mac) keys at launch time the Scratch Disk Preferences dialog will appear. You can choose to change your scratch disk preferences using this dialog.

Resetting Preferences at Launch Time
If you would like to reset all of your Photoshop preferences, simultaneously hold down the Control+Alt+Shift (Windows), Command+Option+Shift (Mac) keys as you launch the application.

Adobe Save for Web Preferences
Photoshop retains its Save for Web settings in the Adobe Save for Web Prefs file. You can find it at:
Windows:  C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Adobe\Save For Web\10.0\

Mac OS X: Library/Preferences folder in your home directory

To restore Save for Web to its default settings, quit Photoshop, rename the file or move it to the Trash, and restart Photoshop.

Accelerated Actions
The default playback option in Photoshop CS3 is now set to "Accelerated." If you'd like to see each step of an action on playback, you can change the playback option, found in the Action pop-up, to "Step by Step."

Compressed Drives and Virtual Memory (Windows only)
Adobe Systems recommends that you do not set either the Windows swap file or Photoshop's scratch disk to a compressed disk drive.

Installing Photoshop from a Network File Server (Mac only)
The Photoshop installer uses Mac OSX Authorization Services for user authentication, allowing it to install files in the correct location with the correct permissions. The Photoshop installer may not work correctly from a network file server.

For those users who access their Photoshop installer from a network server, the solution is to copy the installer to the local machine, or to change the permissions on the server so the group "everyone" can read the server volume in question. Contact your IS manager about making this change to your servers.

System Shortcut Key Preference (Mac only)
Due to a change with Mac OS 10.4, the shortcut F5 that used to open the Brushes palette is now a Mac OS system shortcut that displays the spotlight search field. To use F5 to open the Brushes palette, you can turn off the shortcut in the Mac OS System Preferences.

USING ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS3 WITH WINDOWS

The following sections include useful information about using Photoshop software with different versions of Windows. (Please note that Photoshop CS3 does not support Windows 3.1.x, Windows 95, Windows ME, Windows 98, Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000.)

Opening raw files in Adobe Camera Raw on Vista
Double clicking raw files from an OS folder to launch ACR is not enabled on Vista. In order to open raw files on Vista, launch Photoshop CS3 and open your raw file from the file menu.

Using Droplets on Vista

To use Droplets on Vista, make sure that Photoshop and the Droplet exe are running at the same level of User Access Control. If Photoshop is elevated to run as administrator the droplet exe should be elevated as well. If Photoshop is not running elevated, the default configuration of a droplet will work as expected.

Shared Files
Many files installed by Photoshop - such as TWAIN support files and MSVCRT*.* files (Microsoft runtime files) are shared with other programs. When you install or uninstall other programs that use these shared files, the file versions used by Photoshop may be overwritten or deleted. If you experience problems with features that depend on shared files, please reinstall Photoshop.

Thumbnail Icons for .psd files
Photoshop CS3 does not provide thumbnail icons of .psd files through operating system folder windows. Please use the Adobe Bridge to view your .psd thumbnail files.

Running Adobe Photoshop Over a Network
Photoshop is not designed (nor was it tested) to be run when Windows is multi-launched over a network. If you want to run Photoshop on multiple Windows systems, make sure that each system has its own copy of Windows and Photoshop installed on the hard drive.

Language Settings
If you are using the English version of Windows XP and add Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, Korean, or Japanese language components, you must set the language correctly in the Control Panel. For Windows XP, set the Language for non-Unicode programs in the Regional and Language Options control panel Advanced tab. Your system will then require a reboot. If the language is not set correctly, you will experience display problems with text, file I/O, and Web features.

SCRIPTING PHOTOSHOP
Scripting Support is built into Photoshop. Scripts can be written in

Windows: Visual Basic or JavaScript
Mac: AppleScript or JavaScript

Scripts let you automate operations in Photoshop. They can range from simple manipulation of a single selected object to complex control of multiple documents. You can even create workflows across multiple applications. Check out the built-in scripts, or load your own by choosing File > Scripts in Photoshop.

For further assistance, please see the scripting and language reference guides on your Photoshop DVD or in the Scripting Guide folder installed with Photoshop.

VB Scripting on Vista:
Due to security restrictions in Microsoft Vista, it is not possible to execute VBScripts when logged in as a non-administrator, nor is it possible to run as administrator when logged in as a non-administrator. Vista Home Edition also blocks the execution of all VBScripts. Please contact Microsoft directly with questions related to Administrator accounts or running VBScripts on Vista.

COMPATIBILITY ISSUES

Large File Printing Limitations
Photoshop CS3 can create and open documents as large as 300,000 x 300,000 pixels. Due to various OS and printer driver limitations, Photoshop can only print documents up to 30,000 x 30,000 pixels. When working with documents larger than 30,000 pixels in either direction, the Print menu item will be disabled. For more information on this issue, see the tech note "Print command unavailable for documents larger than 30,000 pixels (Photoshop CS-CS3)" at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=329548

Text Positioning
Due to the way the Photoshop CS3 text engine renders certain text blocks, opening documents created in versions of Photoshop earlier than Photoshop CS may change the position of a text block. This specifically affects text blocks with hanging carriage returns, but may affect others as well.

Graphics Card Issues
A variety of graphics card drivers may provide intermittent cursor display problems. These problems can include flickering cursors, on-screen artifacts, and cursors that don't immediately update when a new tool or cursor type is chosen. None of these display issues will affect the functionality of Photoshop. If you are experiencing any of these problems with your graphics card, ensure that you have the latest driver for the card.

Printing Using LPR (Mac only) -- checking if this is still valid
If you are printing to a printer connected through LPR on Mac OS X, ensure the Encoding setting in the Photoshop print options is set to "ASCII."

Printing from the Epson 2200
Photoshop CS3 does not automatically expand and maximize the printable area of a document.  Therefore, on the Epson 2200, it is possible to see large and asymmetric margins when printing. To fix this, check either the "Center" or "Minimize Margins" checkbox in the Epson Document Properties dialog (go to Page Set-up in Photoshop print dialog.)

ISSUES SPECIFIC TO PHOTOSHOP CS3 EXTENDED

Note: To verify if you have Photoshop CS3 Extended or Photoshop CS3, go to Photoshop>About Photoshop (Macintosh) or Help>About Photoshop (Windows).  The splash screen will indicate whether you have Photoshop CS3 or Photoshop CS3 Extended.

Using 3D layers in Photoshop CS3 Extended

Video Card support
Photoshop CS3 Extended defaults to using 3D acceleration on the video card.  We recommend using a graphics card with 128 MB of video RAM or higher and Pixel Shader 2 or higher.  We specifically recommend the following graphics cards:

ATI 1000 Series or higher
ATI Fire GL FireGL V3300 or higher

Nvidia GeForce 6000 series or higher
Nvidia Quadro 1000 series or higher

If your video card does not have sufficient memory, then 3D acceleration in Photoshop must be turned off. To do this, go to Preferences>Performance and uncheck the "Enable 3D Acceleration" box.

In addition, there are known problems with the NVidia 5200 card, including problems tiling.  We do not recommend using 3D in Photoshop CS3 Extended with this card.

KMZ file format support in Photoshop CS3 Extended
Photoshop CS3 Extended supports the ability to import .kmz files created from Google Earth 4 or exported from Sketch-up in the Google Earth 4 format.  Photoshop CS3 Extended cannot open Google Earth files.  If you have a Google Earth file, you can convert it to a Google Earth 4 format with the free version of Sketch-up.

Cross Sectioning Models with Bump Maps
Creating a cross section in a 3D file with a bump map is not supported in Photoshop CS3 Extended. If you have a 3D layer that has a bump map as texture, the cross section tool will be disabled.

Texture resolution limits
If your textures are not displaying in Photoshop, they might be too large. Photoshop has a hard resolution limit of 4096 x 4096.  In addition, some video cards have lower limits, such as 2048 x 2048.  To fix this problem, scale your texture down.

Perspective Versus Orthographic Views
There are two different types of camera views in Photoshop: perspective and orthographic. The 3D camera in Photoshop defaults to perspective view when opening a file that either has no default camera or has a default perspective view. Photoshop also offers specific orthographic pre-set views such as "Top", "Right", "Left", etc. If you are compositing 3D content against a 2D background, you should not use the pre-set orthographic views, but rather position the 3D content using the object or camera tools in the options bar.

Returning a 3D Layer from Vanishing Point to Photoshop

When returning a 3D layer from Vanishing Point, sometimes the camera's field of view needs to be adjusted to match the background image.  To adjust the camera field of view:

• Select the returned 3D layer in the Layers Palette
• Go to Layers>3D Layers> Transform 3D Layer
• Select Edit the 3D Camera by clicking the camera icon
• Select the Zoom the 3D Camera Tool
• Click + drag up and down in the image to adjust the camera’s field of view to match the background image

Using Video Layers in Photoshop CS3 Extended

Audio Preview
When in Timeline mode, audio will playback within Photoshop when you hold down the Option (Mac) or Alt (Win) key while clicking on the play button in the Animation palette. Video that hasn't been cached will skip frames to ensure audio playback is consistent. Cache up video first by playing the section of video for which you want to increase the number of frames displayed. Then play the cached area using option + play button to see the video. Audio Preview is not supported with Video Layers that have had their frame rate changed through Interpret Footage.

Audio Export with Render Video
Audio is only supported for export in QuickTime files. You can open other video file types that QuickTime supports and export as QuickTime movie, the audio should be retained (except for MPEG). You can open .mov files which contain audio only; on open they will come in at a fixed size and be transparent. Video Layers from files that are sound only will be transparent. You can also open other sound files that QuickTime supports. On Mac, in the open dialog select All Documents, in the Enable popup and select QuickTime in the format popup. On Windows use the Open As option in the file menu select QuickTime from the Open As list. Audio export is not supported with Video Layers that have had their frame rate changed through Interpret Footage.

Color Management for Video
The Color Profile option in Interpret Footage is available when the document has a color profile. For more information, see the section on managing color in video layers in the Video and Animation section in Help.

QuickTime

There are several known issues running QuickTime on Vista that can result in problems such as QuickTime file corruption when saving on Vista.  When an updated version of QuickTime becomes available for Vista, we recommend that you download it.

Using HDR In Photoshop CS3 Extended

If you are working with HDR images containing very large values, we recommend that you save the file as either 32-bit TIFF or as a .PSD.  EXR support is limited to 16-bit in Photoshop CS3.  Saving these files in EXR or 16-bit TIFF will likely produce artifacts due to clipping of the large values when you reopen that file in Photoshop.

Customer Service
Adobe Customer Service provides assistance with product information, sales, registration, and other non-technical issues. To find out how to contact Adobe Customer Service, please visit Adobe.com’s main page for your region or country and click on ‘Contact’.

Support Plan Options and Technical Resources
If you require technical assistance for your product, including information on free and paid support options and troubleshooting resources, more information is available at http://www.adobe.com/go/support/. Free troubleshooting resources include Adobe’s support knowledgebase, Adobe user-to-user forums and more.

If you are having any issues with installing or uninstalling any of your Creative Suite 3 applications, please try rebooting your system prior to contacting Support.