Launching Photoshop from within Premiere Pro

A simple way to create an Adobe Photoshop graphic or title is described at pp. 403 of Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2018 Release Classroom in a Book and in Chapter 15 ("Creating New Graphics") in the Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2020 Release Classroom in a Book. While this does not appear to be in the 2023 Release of this book, the technique still works in Premiere Pro 2023.

  1. Inside Premiere Pro with a project file open, follow these steps:
  2. Choose File > New > Photoshop File
  3. The New Photoshop File dialog appears, with settings based on your current Premiere Pro sequence.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Choose a location to store your new PSD file, name it, and save it.
  6. Photoshop opens. Photoshop automatically displays safe action (90% of the viewable area) and safe title (80% of the viewable area) zones in the form of guides. Things outside the former may get cut off when the video is viewed on a television monitor. Keeping it within the latter makes the text easier to read. These guides won't appear in the finished image.

    The checkboard background indicates that the layer is transparent, which is useful for using this graphic as a title or graphic against a Premiere Pro movie as background.To do this, the PSD file would be in a layer above the content of the movie.
  7. Select the text tool
  8. Draw a text block by dragging from the upper left to the lower right.
  9. Adjust the font, color, etc. using the Options bar
  10. Enter the text and click the commit button
  11. Save and close the file; it will already be in your Project panel in Premiere Pro.
  12. If you would like to edit the title in Premiere Pro, select it in the Project panel or Timeline and choose Edit > Edit in Adobe Photoshop. When you save changes in Photoshop, the title updates automatically in Premiere Pro.

Revised: April 15, 2023. Comments to William Pegram, wpegram@nvcc.edu