The easiest way to add a single outline to a text layer in Adobe Photoshop is by applying a Stroke to the text in the Layer Style options. But since only one stroke per layer is allowed, how can you add a double outline, or a double stroke? It turns out you can get nearly the same effect by clever use of the Outer Glow style, in addition to the Stroke style. To add a double outline to a text layer, do the following:

1. Create your initial text layer. I used 48pt Arial for my example.
   
2. Create the first outline. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Stroke. Select your desired size and color. Make sure the Position is Outside, Blend Mode is Normal, and Opacity is 100%.
   
   
3. Now add the Outer Glow effect. Click Outer Glow in the Styles list in the Layer Style window. Set the Blend Mode to Normal and Opacity to 100%. Select the color you want for the second outline.
4. Adjust the Size to any desired number, but make sure it is larger than your previous Stroke size.
5. Reduce the Range setting to a low value, somewhere between 1%-5%. A lower value will make the second outline appear more crisp, while a higher value will blur the outer edges slightly.
   
   

When the proper settings are adjusted, the Outer Glow acts as a second stroke. You now have a double outline around your text!

It is popular nowadays to create short animated GIFs out of video or movie clips for easy viewing in forums and blogs. With some of the animation features in recent versions of Adobe Photoshop, it is quite easy to create these yourself!

1. Open up your video file in Photoshop (File > Open). Photoshop can read in a number of different video formats (MOV, AVI, MPG, MPEG, MP4, M4V). If your video file is not one of these, you will need to convert it using a different program.
2. Open the Animation palette (Window > Animation). You should see a timeline of your video in the palette.
3. Set the start and end points of the clip you want to convert. Drag the blue handles above the timeline (shown circled in red in the image below) to select the duration of your clip. In the Animation palette menu (found at the top right corner of the palette), click Trim Document Duration to Work Area. If you want to convert the entire video into an animated GIF, then this step is not needed.
   
4. Back in the Animation palette menu, click Flatten Frames Into Layers. A layer will be created for each frame of the video. You then need to delete the original video layer. In the Layers palette, right click on the original layer (which has a video clip icon in its thumbnail, and is probably called “Layer 1″), and click Delete Layer.
5. Next, click Make Frames From Layers in the Animation palette menu.
6. Finally, go to File > Save for Web & Devices. Make sure the format is set to GIF. On the bottom right corner of the window there is a drop down for Looping Options, which allows you to make the GIF loop once, forever, or a specific number of times. Click Save and you are done!

Your have successfully converted a video into an animated GIF! This has been tested in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS5.

When copying and pasting transparent GIF or PNG images from the internet into Photoshop, the transparent areas of the image may be converted into black. The problem is that transparency is not recognized during the copy/paste command, and so, the transparent areas default to black. How can this be avoided?

Incorrectly Pasted

Correctly Pasted

Method 1: Save the image first.
The simplest way to get around this problem is to simply save the image from the web to your hard drive, instead of copying it. Once the actual GIF or PNG image file is on your hard drive, you can easily open the file in Photoshop. The transparency will be recognized, and you can copy/paste within Photoshop into other open files as needed.

Method 2: Manually remove the black.
Another possibility, although more complicated, is to manually delete the black area after pasting from the web. This is not a good idea if your image already has black in it. Go to Select > Color Range, make sure the Select drop down is on “Sampled Colors,” and then use they eyedropper tool to select an area of the color black which you wish to remove. Turn the Fuzziness down to 0, and click OK. Now simply hit the Delete key to remove the selected black area. Be careful! If your original image has any black pixels in it, these will be removed as well, because after the transparency gets converted to black there is no way to tell the difference. Method 1 is guaranteed to keep the original image intact, but it is useful to know all the options!

Let’s say you have a folder full of images that you want to sequence together as frames in an animated GIF. You can find special programs online to do this, but with some of the new features of Adobe Photoshop CS5, it’s quite fast and simple.

1. Gather the images you want to animate into one folder.
2. Open a new document matching the dimensions of your source images.
3. Select all of the source images and drag them together into Photoshop. Release them over the general workspace. The first image should show up with a superimposed “X.” New to Photoshop CS5, the images will stack one at a time as layers in your current document when you hit “Enter.” (In previous versions, dragging the files into the workspace would simply open each one up as separate files)
4. Keep hitting “Enter” until all of the images are loaded as individual layers. Rearrange the layers into the correct order, if necessary.
5. Open the Animation palette (Window > Animation).
6. In the Animation palette menu (found at the top right corner of the palette), click Make Frames From Layers. You can also click Reverse Frames if needed. This will take each layer in your document and set it as an individual frame in the animation.
7. Now we will change the duration of each frame. Make sure you are in frame view, not timeline view. If you do not see thumbnail icons of your layers in the Animation palette, click the icon in the lower right corner (the hover text will say “Convert to Frame Animation”). Now, back in the Animation palette menu, click Select All Frames.
8. Click the drop down button just underneath each frame image (circled in red in the image below). This will bring up a menu where you can set a duration. Since all frames are selected, all frames will be set to the same time. Each frame can be changed individually, if desired.
   
9. The drop down button circled in black in the image above will change how many times the animation will loop; either a fixed number of times, or forever.
10. Once the frame order and timing as been set up, it is time to save the image! Click File > Save for Web & Devices, make sure the file format is set to GIF, change any other options if needed, and save the image!

You will now have an animated GIF taken from a folder full of the individual frames. In fact, as long as each frame exists as a separate layer in Photoshop, the Animation palette can be used to create the GIF. But, with CS5 it is easy to make separate layers from a folder of the individual frames as described.