Expert: Evgenia (Jenny) Grinblo - 1/9/2012

Question
Hello Jenny

I am trying to do a Andy Warhol type of picture using Photoshop. Could you tell me how can I divide the canvas in 4 equal sections, please.

Answer
Hi Tamara,

You can divide your canvas temporarily by using guides. They are basically like thin rulers you can set up on your page in order to mark off sections of the page and make it easier to place items and work with sections of your page.

The easiest way is to use guides.

Guides show up as blue lines. The easiest way to add a guide (remember it is a non-printable line) is to use the ruler. Make sure your rulers are visible by going to View > Rulers.
   
To draw a guide click inside the ruler, hold down your mouse and "drag" the guide out. You can move and delete it later so it's okay if you accidentally release your mouse before its reached its destination. The vertical ruler will produce vertical guides and the horizontal ruler will produce horizontal guides. Your project (dividing the page into 4) should only require one of each, meeting at the middle.

You can use the ruler to determine the middle of the page or go into Image > Image Size and determine the horizontal and vertical size (in pixels). Then, divide it by two to decide where to place your guide.

There are other ways to work with areas of the page and make your work precise, for example by using grids and by utilizing rulers. It's great to learn about these basic Photoshop features because they will come in handy with most of your work, as you get more comfortable with Photoshop. I really recommend you take a look at this tutorial to get started. It also features a more detailed explanation on how to use guides. http://photoshopeducation.blogspot.com/2009/09/grids-guides-and-rulers.html. I promise guides and grids will become part of your workflow when you get more serious about Photoshop:

You can also find more tutorials by searching Google for some of the topics I mentioned. For example, there is a good video tutorial on using guides here: http://www.planetphotoshop.com/using-guides.html

I always recommend learning more because there rarely is one best way to do something with graphic software, I've developed my own style and workflow over the years and I encourage you to do the same!

All the best,

Let me know if you have any questions.

Evgenia