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Create documents

Jump-start your creative projects with a wide variety of templates from Adobe Stock and blank presets.

Introduced in Adobe Photoshop 2017 release

When you create a document in Photoshop, instead of beginning with a blank canvas, you can choose from a wide variety of templates from Adobe Stock. Templates include assets and illustrations that you can build on to complete your project. When you open a template in Photoshop, you can work with it just as you would work with any other Photoshop document (.psd).

In addition to templates, you can also create a document by selecting one of the numerous presets available in Photoshop or create your custom sizes. You can also save your own presets for reuse.

Templates and presets

Templates

provide inspiration and reusable elements for your documents. You can download templates from Adobe Stock that include quality graphics and illustrations right within Photoshop. You can then build on these templates to easily create documents that share common settings and design elements. Templates open as .psd files in Photoshop and generally include multiple artboards.
 

Blank Document Presets

are blank documents with predefined dimensions and settings. Presets make designing for specific device form factors or use cases easier. For example, you can use a preset to quickly start designing for the iPad Pro. Blank document presets have predefined size, color mode, unit, orientation, positioning, and resolution settings. You can modify these settings before creating a document using the preset.

Templates and presets are categorized into these sets:

  • Photo
  • Print
  • Art & Illustration
  • Web
  • Mobile
  • Film & Video

Access the New Document dialog

  1. Launch Photoshop.
  2. Do one of the following:

    • Use the following keyboard shortcut:
      • (Mac) Cmd+N
      • (Windows) Ctrl+N
    • Select File > New.
    • Click New or Start New in the Start workspace.
    • Right-click the tab for an open document and choose New Document from the in-context menu.

Overview: New Document dialog

The New Document window lets you:

  • Create documents using selected templates from Adobe Stock across several categories: Photo, Print, Art & Illustration, Web, Mobile, and Film & Video.
  • Find more templates and create documents using them. See Search for more templates on Adobe Stock.
  • Quickly access files, templates, and items that you've have recently accessed (Recents tab).
  • Save your own custom presets for reuse and quickly access them later (Saved tab).
  • Create documents using Blank Document Presets for multiple categories and device form factors. Before opening the presets, you can modify their settings.
Photo tab | New Document dialog box

Create documents using presets

  1. In the New Document dialog box, click a category tab: Photo, Print, Art & Illustration, Web, Mobile, and Film & Video.

  2. Select a preset.

  3. Optionally, change the settings for the selected preset in the Preset Details pane on the right. See Modify presets to understand how.

  4. Click Create. Photoshop opens a new document based on the preset.

Modify presets

Before opening a document using the preset, you can modify its settings in the right pane.

  1. Specify a file name for the new document.

    The Preset Details pane

  2. Specify the following options for the selected preset:

    Width and Height: Specify the size of the document. Select the unit from the pop-up menu.

    Orientation: Specify a page orientation for the document: Landscape or Portrait.

    Artboards: Select this option if you want your document to have artboards. Photoshop adds an artboard while creating the document.

    Color Mode: Specify a color mode for the document. Changing the color mode converts the default contents of the selected new document profile to a new color.

    Resolution: Specify the fineness of detail in a bitmap image measured in pixels/inch or pixels/centimetre.

    Background contents: Specify a background color for the document.

  3. To specify the following extra options, click Advanced Options.

    Color Profile: Specify the color profile for your document from a wide range of options.

    Pixel Aspect Ratio: Specify the ratio of width to height of a single pixel in a frame.

  4. Click Create to open a document with the preset settings.

Save your own presets

The Preset Details pane lets you modify an existing preset or specify fresh settings for a new one. To save your custom settings as a new preset, follow these steps:

  1. After you're done specifying the settings, click the  icon in the Preset Details pane.

  2. Specify a name for the new preset.

  3. Click Save Preset.

You can later access the new preset from the Saved tab of the New Document dialog.

Create documents using templates from Stock

Photoshop comes with various templates from Adobe Stock. Templates with font layers use basic fonts or fonts that can be synced from Adobe Fonts. To create a document using a template, do one of the following:

  1. In the New Document dialog, click a category tab: Photo, Print, Art & Illustration, Web, Mobile, and Film & Video.

  2. Select a template.

  3. Click See Preview to view a preview of the template. A preview is an image representation of a template that you can review and decide if you want to license that template.

    Preview the template before licensing it

  4. Click Download.

    Photoshop prompts you to license the template from Adobe Stock. See Adobe Stock Help for more information about licensing and related considerations. After the template has been licensed using asset entitlements or credits in your account, you can open it as a Photoshop document for you to work on.

    Template licensing in progress

  5. After the template has downloaded, click Open. While opening the template, if you're prompted to sync some fonts from Typekit, click OK.

    You can now work with the open document in Photoshop just as you would work with any other .psd document.

    Notes:

    • Downloaded templates are added to a Creative Cloud library called Stock Templates. You can access this library in the Libraries panel.
    • Photoshop templates carry the .psdt filename extension. However, when you open a template, an instance of it is opened as a .psd document. Changes made to that .psd document don't affect the original .psdt template.
       

Search for more templates from Adobe Stock

Aside from the preselected templates from Adobe Stock, you can search for and download numerous other such templates directly from within the New Document dialog.

  • While working in the New Document dialog, enter a search string in the Find More Templates On Adobe Stock box. Alternatively, simply click Go to browse the full selection of available templates.

Photoshop opens the Adobe Stock website in a new browser window for you to explore. Search for more templates and download the one that best meets your project's requirements.

Explore and license templates on the Adobe Stock website

Use the legacy File New experience

Although not recommended, you can disable the latest New Document experience and revert to the File New experience that Photoshop provided by default (in versions 2015.5 and earlier).

  1. Select Edit > Preferences > General.

  2. Select Use Legacy File New Interface. Click OK.

    Enable the legacy File New experience (not recommended)

Note:

You can use the keyboard shortcuts for opening files (Ctrl/Cmd+O) or starting new documents (Ctrl/Cmd+N) to open this dialog box.

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