What settings do you use?

[Gatts]

When you start a new file, what height, width, dpi, color mode and bits do you use? And do any of you ever touch the advanced settings?

[Datameister]

Height and width...well, I always go a lot smaller than I'd like to. My computer is slow--it's an old 900 MHz machine that's clogged with programs and files--so I can't really work with huge files. Generally, I'd suggest working with the largest file your computer can handle. The aspect ratio is up to you, though it's generally a bad idea to have the height and width be too similar. You want one side to definitely be longer than the other.

I don't really care about resolution in the beginning of a painting; if I decide to print it later, I take care of resolution then. But in the professional world, 300 dpi is a good choice.

Color mode is always RGB for me. If you really want control over your printed output, you can convert to CMYK before you print and manually tweak those results. But paint in RGB, and don't bother with the advanced settings.