Palettes make up another important part of the Photoshop screen. Essentially, a palette is much like a dialog box, with buttons, menus, slider switches, and other devices and controls for manipulating images. Palettes can be grouped together in what can be loosely called a window. The following image shows a window which contains three palettes (Colour, Swatches, and Styles). If you single click on one of the individual palette tabs, the corresponding palette will be displayed in the window, and the other palettes in the group will be hidden except for their tabs. In the image shown below, the colour palette is being displayed.

 

 

There are 16 basic palettes available in Photoshop CS. Any palettes that are not shown on the Photoshop screen will be available via the Photoshop Windows menu.

 

 You can click on a palette tab and then drag and drop it to another group of palettes if you wish. This allows you to cluster your palettes according to whatever organization scheme you prefer. To restore the palettes to their starting locations, choose Windows -> Workspace -> Reset Palette Locations from the menu bar.

 

The windows that contain the palette groups can be minimized or closed by clicking on the appropriate button in the upper right corner of the given window. If you wish, you can display a palette individually rather than in a group with other palettes.

 

You should take notice of the right pointing triangle at the upper right of the palette window. Clicking this triangle will display a menu of options related to the palette that is currently selected from the group.