Hello Gurus! Question about making custom grids!

[timoat]

My name is Tim, I am a painter. I usually paint from reference photos, and sometimes I need to make a grid in photoshop, that then will correspond with my canvas or paper irl. Before, Ive basically just gotten out the ol´ calcutor and divided and divided and divide, it takes forever and is a pain to remember all the numbers, especially because the photos have different sizes (and the have to for varoius reasons). I was thinking with this fine program we have, there must be a way that automates this process.

So the question is:

Is there a way to generate an automatic grid that instantly divides whatever sized photo I have into equal parts? It would figure out by itsself where half of the half of the half etc is.

Any help will be much appreciated!

Cheers Tim

 

[dv8_fx]

Hi there....

This might help..... Be it PS or CS version you have, you can set the GRID frequency and qualities in PREFERENCE under Guides, Grid and Slices. You'll have to do the math to figure out how you want it.....



You have to restart PS for changes to take effect.


Give it a try... hope this helps.

 

[dv8_fx]

I reread your post...... I think you meant something you don't have to do every time you have a new different sized image to apply the appropriate grid settings?....

Off hand... none that I know but someone here may have a solution for you.

I also needed something of that sort in what I did before. So in my spare time, I created numerous empty docs of various sizes which uses guidelines in place of the grids. Thus, I'd have the needed file of specific size and needed "grids"

 

[timoat]

Thank you for the reply Dv8! I think you're right, it would be easiest if i simply re sized the photos to something that's easily griddable, ie even numbers, and then use the feature you tipped me on. Cheers man, it really helped! Its a shame that there doesn't exist a grid plug in for 64 b CS, which is what I have. I found this, Il have a play around with it, see if i can figure it out! Google "guideguide"

EDIT: Actually, "griddify" loks like its what Im looking for!

Thanks again!

 

[dv8_fx]

I've seen this before during earlier PS days. The problem with it back then is you have to create new settings for new work images. I haven't gone through the newer versions whether it's possible to save the setting in it's native file format for future use in Photoshop.

Thanks for the info on this. And I hope you found some solution to your problem.

Cheers.

 

[MrToM]

A few things spring to mind on this one...

1: You can always use % when creating guides instead of pixels.
For example entering 50% for a vertical guide will place one dead center.

This may be easier to remember and of course works for any size image.
Its still laborious to type in all those numbers and create guides one by one but should remove the need for a calculator....or at the very least mean you only have to work out one % for any number of divisions.


2: Guides are saved with documents.
For each size of image you work on save a 'template' (blank doc) with the guides on it.
When you need to work on that size doc you open the 'template' (giving you your guides), immediately save it as...(whatever), then place, (File > Place...), your image into it and start working.


3: If you use CS6 or CC you could try my custom 'Guides' panel.
When I used to design web pages I was constantly using guides to align everything.
I created this panel to allow me to create guides centrally, at thirds, quarters, around selections, edges of document many different things.
I also included one very important feature...to be able to SAVE guide 'sets' for each document.
You could use the same 'template' workflow as before with the bonus of having every guide layout available in a couple of clicks.

Further to this my plan was to add a 'grid' feature...the button is already there but as yet not functional...I was hoping for at least one person to try it and give me some feedback before I developed it further but as yet nobody has been willing to help.

If you do try it and find that the 'grids' feature is exactly what you could do with then I may continue to develop that option.

You'll find it on this forum HERE....and its FREE!


4: Use PS CC 2014.
The latest update for CC 2014 now includes an 'improved' guides layout option....you can set the number of guides, the spacing between the guides etc etc all updated in real time on the document.



Its still quite basic but does do what you request...IF you have CC 2014 that is.

Regards.
MrTom.

 

[IamSam]

There is an older technique used for enlarging images. https://www.google.com/#q=enlarging+grid+technique

What I think the OP wants is a method to correspond the grid made in Ps to the larger grid on his support.

My answer is that which has already been discussed by dv8, you will still have to do the math. The technique is the same, you would still need to know the size of the support, the expansion ratio.......then do the math. You would use the rulers and guides to do the same in Photoshop as you would if you were doing it on the actual photo or image, nothing changes. You can expand the image within Photoshop and you could, if you had a large printer, figure the size of the expansion grid and print it out. OR I have seen the enlarged (expanded) version printed out one square at a time on a standard printer and the taped together.

I saw this technique on a website............I just can't find it right now. I'm still looking for it!