NOTE - the intended audience for this blog post is TTUHSC librarians only.
Visual literacy is an increasingly important part of the librarian’s role. This is especially true for medical librarians working in a media-rich environment. In order to use images more effectively, librarians can make use of image-editing tools like Adobe Photoshop to better incorporate visual media into their education and outreach efforts. Photoshop’s ability to manipulate and adapt images for various purposes makes it one of the Adobe suite’s most widely-used features. We are fortunate here at TTUHSC to have an opt-in license for this particular suite. If you would like to have it installed, please contact Paul for a setup through IT.
In using Photoshop, an account with Adobe is needed. This will need to occur in conjunction with the suite’s installation. After doing this the image editing process becomes much more streamlined. Upon selecting an image for use, open Photoshop and click the Search icon. Select the image you wish to use by double-clicking on the image in the Libraries section
Double-click the image in the Libraries panel to open it in your document. At this point you can change the appearance of the image by using the Adjustments option or the Properties panel. This will allow you to alter the Hue, Saturation, or Lightness of an image. Selecting Colorize can also further alter the color cast. Further options to alter the image’s resolution can also be incorporated. This is important for those wishing to position images within publishable platforms.
Where there are other image editing tools available, even cheaper options like Canva or Pixlr, Photoshop may be the most comprehensive option. Yet Photoshop as a downloadable tool allows users the full reach of image-editing and design interface. It may also be the most user-friendly.