photoshop question

mikehaugen · Feb 13, 2011

I was just wondering if there is a way to "measure" in photoshop. If i know the distance between two reference points and want to find distances of two other points in an image how would I go about doing that. I have ps cs2 and lr3. Do I need another program? I have noticed that some grey cards have reference markers on them that look like rulers and I think that is what they are for.

I realize that the reference points have to be on the same plane as the object to be measured and I imagine that the longer the lens used, the better it would be. I know that there are some well seasoned photoshoppers here and someone has to know. Thanks a lot

l0ser · Feb 13, 2011

there's 2 ways that i use.
there's grid which just shows a series of squares on the image
and theres the rulers (like you mentioned)

To do this go
view>show>grid
view>rulers (ctrl+r)

mikehaugen · Feb 13, 2011

maybe I phrased the question wrong. For a scenario, lets say I took a ruler and layed it on a table next to a quarter, then photographed it straight down. I would then want to be able to reference inch markers on the ruler to tell photoshop that "this" is one inch, then using that reference be able to select the outer edges of the quarter and ask photoshop "how many inches is this?"

I know that there has to be software out there to do this, especially for people in copy work. When looking in the help menus, it referred to the measure tool, but first of all I can't find that, and second, it sounds like it will only measure in pixels.