Tech Delight
A Blog of Computer Science
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Know your Photoshop
PhotoshopToolbox
Published on 08Sep
2018
Shows you how to
use the Photoshop toolbox, and explains each tool in the toolbox.
One of the first things you encounter when you start using Photoshop is its toolbox. You use the toolbox to access all of Photoshop's tools, letting you do anything from moving stuff around through to painting, filling with colour, creating text, and lots more.
One of the first things you encounter when you start using Photoshop is its toolbox. You use the toolbox to access all of Photoshop's tools, letting you do anything from moving stuff around through to painting, filling with colour, creating text, and lots more.
The toolbox contains 28 icons and around 60 tools,
and it can seem confusing if you're not used to it. Never fear — it all starts
to make sense once you get to know your way around the various tools, and
understand how they're grouped together.
This article gets you up to speed with the
Photoshop toolbox, and each of the tools it contains. By the time you've
finished reading it, you'll be well on your way to working proficiently with
the Photoshop toolbox, and you'll have a good general understanding of all the
tools in Photoshop too.
Let's get started!
Overview of the toolbox
The screenshot below shows the toolbox in Photoshop7.0.
(Other versions may differ slightly, but the basic tool layout is the same
across all versions.)
Click a tool
icon or name in the image below to find out more about that tool.
Most of the tool
icons actually represent a group
of related tools. A little black triangle in the bottom right corner of an icon
signifies a tool group. When you click a tool group's icon in the image below,
you can read descriptions of all the tools in the group.
All tools have
shortcut keys so you can select them quickly. You can see the shortcut key for
a tool by hovering the mouse over it in the image below. (This also works in
the toolbox in Photoshop itself.) I've also included the shortcut keys in the
headings for each tool — or tool group — description.
To quickly cycle
through the tools in a tool group, hold down Shift while pressing
the shortcut key.
The
toolbox in the image above is in 2-column format. You can toggle between
single-column and 2-column format by clicking the little double arrow in the
top left corner of the toolbox.
The following sections give you a brief description
of each of the tools in the Photoshop toolbox.
Marquee (M key)
The Marquee tools let you make simple selections in
the shape of rectangles, ellipses, or single-pixel rows and columns.
The Marquee tools are:
Rectangular
Marquee
Click in the image and drag to select a rectangular
area. Shift-drag to select a square area.
Elliptical
Marquee
Click in the image and drag to select an elliptical
area. Shift-drag to select a circular area.
Click in the image to select a single row of
pixels. Drag to select a different row.
Single Column
Marquee
Click in the image to select a single column of
pixels. Drag to select a different column.
The Move tool lets you click and drag a layer to
move it around the document. Shift-drag to lock movement to 45-degree angles. Alt/Option-drag
to make a copy of the layer and position the copy.
You can also move a layer in 1-pixel steps with the
keyboard arrow keys. Hold Shift to move in 10-pixel steps.
You can quickly access the Move tool from most
other tools by holding Control/Command.
Lasso (L key)
The Lasso tools let you make irregularly-shaped
selections by drawing in the document window.
Lasso
This tool lets you make freeform selections. Click
in the image and drag to select an area. Release the mouse button to complete
the selection.
You can hold down Alt/Option
while drawing to use the Polygonal Lasso tool temporarily.
This tool lets you make polygonal selections. Click
in the image to add a new point to the polygon. To complete the selection,
double-click or Control/Command-click with the mouse, or click the first point.
You can hold down Alt/Option
and drag to use the regular Lasso tool temporarily.
This tool snaps the selection border to hard edges
in the image as you draw. This makes it easy to select objects in the image that
have complex, high-contrast edges.
Click in the image to add the first point. Move the
mouse around the edge of the object to select it. Click to add further
fastening points if required. To complete the selection, double-click or Control/Command-click with the mouse, or click the first point.
Use the Feather, Width, Contrast and Frequency tool options in the options bar to fine-tune the
tool's behavior.
You can hold down Alt/Option
and drag to use the regular Lasso tool temporarily, or Alt/Option-click
to use the Polygonal Lasso tool temporarily.
Quick Selection (W key)
The tools in the Quick Selection tool group are
good for selecting an irregular shape comprised of a single colour or similar
colours.
Magic Wand
The Crop tool is for cropping an image down to a
new size.
Drag in the document window to create a crop box.
You can resize the box by dragging the handles around the box edges and
corners. Shift-drag to maintain the aspect ratio. Drag outside
the crop box to rotate it. When you're ready to crop, press Enter/Return.
Slice (K key)
The Slice and Slice Select tools let you cut up an
image into sections for using in a Web page.
Slice
Click and drag in the image to make a slice. Shift-drag to make a
square slice. Alt/Option-drag to draw from the center.
Slice Select
Use this tool to select slices for modifying. Click
a slice to select it. Shift-click to select multiple slices.
Hold down Control/Command to switch temporarily from the Slice to the Slice
Select tool (and vice-versa).
Healing Brush (J key)
Healing Brush
The Healing Brush works as manually specify the
area of the image to sample from. You can also sample from a pattern. Use the
Healing Brush if you want more control over the sampled area, or if you're
retouching a large area of the image.
First set a brush size, then Alt/Option-click
the area in the image that you want to sample pixels from. You can then click
or drag over the area to heal.
Patch
Patch works like Healing Brush, except that you
draw the outline of an area to patch, rather than painting with a brush. It's
good for fixing up a large well-defined area.
To use the Patch tool, select Source
in the options bar and drag to select the area to patch. Then drag the
selection to the area to sample pixels from. Release the button to apply the
patch.
You can also do it the other way around: Select Destination in the options bar, then drag to select the pixels
to sample from. You can then drag the selected pixels on top of the area to
patch.
As
with the Healing Brush, you can sample from a pattern instead of from an image.
Just click Use Pattern in the options bar.
Brush (B key)
The tools in the Brush tool group let you paint on
an image using brush strokes or pencil strokes, as well as replace a colour in
the image with a new colour.
Brush
Use the Brush tool to paint soft-edged brush
strokes on the image with the current foreground colour. Click the Brush
drop-down in the options bar to choose different brushes, sizes and options,
then drag in the document window to paint.
Pencil
The Pencil tool draws with hard-edged pencil
strokes. As with the Brush tool, you can set various brush options using the Brush
drop-down in the options bar.
Clone Stamp (S key)
Clone Stamp
The Clone Stamp tool lets you duplicate areas of
your image. This is useful for removing problems in an image, but you can also
use it for artistic effect.
Essentially, the Clone Stamp tool is similar to the
Healing Brush tool, except that the Clone Stamp just makes an exact copy — it
doesn't attempt to match textures, lighting, and so on.
To use the Clone Stamp, first choose a brush size,
then Alt/Option-click the area you want to copy. You can then click
and drag elsewhere in the image to paint pixels from the original area. If you
want to copy from the same original point each time, deselect the Aligned
option in the options bar.
Whereas Clone Stamp paints with pixels from
elsewhere in the image, Pattern Stamp paints with a predefined pattern. Select
the pattern you want to use from the drop-down in the options bar, then click
and drag in the image to start painting.
By default, the pattern always matches up no matter
where you start drawing. To turn this off, deselect the Aligned
option in the options bar.
History Brush (Y key)
The History Brush tools — History Brush and Art
History Brush — let you paint pixels from a previous version of an image. This
can be useful for recovering particular sections of an image from an older
version, and also for artistic effect.
History Brush
With the History Brush you can paint on your image
using pixels retrieved from an older version of the image. To do this, first
bring up the History panel and find the history state you want to retrieve
pixels from. Now click the little square to the left of the history state —
you'll see a little brush icon appear.
You can now paint in your image, and the History
Brush will use the pixels from your selected history state.
You
can also paint from pixels in a snapshot by clicking the little box to the left
of the snapshot in the History panel.
Art History
Brush
Whereas the History Brush paints exact pixels from
a previous state, the Art History Brush adds various artistic effects to the
brush strokes. This is great for making a photo look like a painting.
Use the Style option in the options bar to choose a style for
the brush strokes, and set the brush size and type using the Brush
drop-down. Then start painting!
You
can use a previous history state or snapshot as the source image for the Art
History Brush, or you can use the current state.
Eraser (E key)
The Eraser tools, as you'd imagine, erase parts of
your image, turning the pixels transparent.
Eraser
You can set brush options in the options bar, much
like using a regular brush. Use the Mode option to make the eraser behave like the Brush
tool, like the Pencil tool, or as a solid block.
You
can also erase parts of an image to a previous history state — much like using
the History Brush — by selecting the Erase
to History option in the options bar.
Background
Eraser
The Background Eraser tool selectively erases
pixels of the same (or similar) colour, while avoiding bleeding into edge
boundaries. This makes it useful for turning the background areas of an image
transparent, leaving the foreground pixels alone.
This tool is very similar to the Color Replacement
tool, except that it turns pixels transparent instead of changing their colour.
To use the Background Eraser, first set your brush,
sampling, limits and tolerance options in the options bar, then click part of
the background and drag to erase. You might need to adjust the brush size and
tolerance as you go in order to quickly erase all parts of the background.
Magic Eraser
Magic Eraser
This tool works like the Paint Bucket tool, except
that it makes pixels transparent instead of filling them with colour. Set your
tolerance and other options in the options bar, then click an area of colour in
the image to erase those pixels.
Gradient (G key)
The Gradient tool — and its relation, the Paint
Bucket tool — fill an image with a gradient and a solid colour respectively.
Use the Gradient tool to fill the whole image — or
a selection — with a smooth gradient. Pick the gradient by clicking the
drop-downs in the options bar. You can also specify the type of gradient: Linear
(straight line), Radial (circular), and so on.
When you've set your options, create the gradient
by clicking and dragging in the document window.
Paint Bucket
The Paint Bucket tool fills adjacent pixels of
similar colour. To use it, first set the foreground colour to the colour you
want to fill with, then click in the image. Use the Tolerance
and other options in the options bar to fine-tune the fill.
Blur (R key)
The Blur tool group lets you blur, sharpen, and
smudge areas of an image.
Blur
Click and drag in the document window to
selectively blur areas of the image. You can choose a brush to use from the
options bar, and adjust the strength of the blur effect with the Strength
option.
This is the opposite of the Blur tool. Click and
drag over an area of the image to sharpen it.
Smudge
Drag in the image to smudge it, much like dragging
a finger through wet paint. Select the Finger Painting option to start each stroke using the current
foreground colour — the equivalent of dipping your finger in a bucket of paint
first!
Dodge (O key)
Use the Dodge, Burn and Sponge tools to lighten,
darken, and change the saturation of areas of an image respectively.
Dodge
The Dodge tool lightens an area of the image. The
effect is similar to selectively decreasing exposure with an enlarger in a
darkroom.
Click and drag in areas of an image to
progressively lighten them. You can selectively lighten different tonal ranges
(shadows, midtones and highlights) using the Range
option in the options bar. Use the Exposure option to control the amount of the dodge effect.
Burn
The Burn tool is the opposite of the Dodge tool.
Click and drag in an area of the image to darken it.
The Sponge tool lets you selectively alter the
colour saturation in parts of your image. Select Desaturate for the Mode option to remove saturation (make the image more
black & white). Select Saturate to add saturation (make the image more colourful).
Then choose a brush and start painting on the image.
Pen (P key)
You use the tools under the Pen tool group to
create vector artwork
Pen
Use the Pen tool to create straight lines and
curves. Click in the document to add straight line points. Drag in the document
to create curve points.
Freeform Pen
Lets you draw paths by just clicking and dragging —
no need to create points manually.
Add Anchor Point
Add Anchor Point
Use this tool to add additional points to a path.
Click on the path to add a point.
Delete Anchor
Point
Using this tool, you can click a point on a path to
remove it.
Convert Point
Lets you turn a smooth anchor point into a corner point and vice-versa.
Lets you turn a smooth anchor point into a corner point and vice-versa.
You can temporarily use the Convert Point tool when
you're working with the Pen tool by holding down Alt/Option.
Type (T key)
The tools in the Type group let you add text to
your images.
Horizontal Type
Use this tool to add text horizontally. Click in
the image to add point type (that is, a single line of type). Drag in the image
to add paragraph type (multiple lines of type). Use the options bar to set the
font, size, and other options.
This works like the Horizontal Type tool, except
that the text flows down the page instead of across.
You can change existing text between horizontal and
vertical by clicking the change text
orientation icon in the options bar.
Horizontal Type
Mask
This works like the Horizontal Type tool, but it
creates a selection in the shape of your text, rather than a new type layer.
Vertical Type
Mask
This works like the Vertical Type tool, but it
creates a selection in the shape of your text, rather than a new type layer.
Path Selection (A key)
Use the Path Selection and Direct Selection tools
to select path components, as well as individual segments and points within
paths.
Click to select an entire path component (such as a
shape created with a shape tool). Shift-click to select multiple components.
Click an individual point or path segment to select
it. Shift-click to select multiple points and segments.
Hold down Control/Command when using the Path Selection tool to switch to
the Direct Selection tool temporarily, and vice-versa.
Rectangle (U key)
Use the Rectangle and associated shape tools to
draw shapes.
Rectangle
Draws a rectangle in the image. Use the options in
the options bar to choose how to create the rectangle:
Shape layers creates a new shape layer for the shape. A shape
layer is a fill layer with a vector mask for the shape. You can edit the shape
later by modifying the vector mask using the path tools.
Paths creates a new path component for the shape. You
can then use the path however you like: fill it, stroke it, turn it into a
selection, and so on. Again, you can edit the shape later using the path tools
if desired.
Fill pixels applies the shape's pixels permanently to the
current layer. Once you do this, the shape is no longer editable.
Now click and drag in the image to create the
rectangle. Shift-drag to draw a square. Hold down Alt/Option
while dragging to draw from the centre.
Rounded
Rectangle
Works like the Rectangle tool, but draws a
rectangle with rounded corners. Choose the corner radius using the Radius
option in the options bar.
Ellipse
Click and drag in the image to create an ellipse. Shift-drag to draw a
circle. Hold down Alt/Option while dragging to draw from the centre.
Polygon
Use this tool to create regular polygons. Choose
the number of sides using the Sides option in the options bar. Now click and drag in
the image to create the polygon. Shift-drag to constrain the polygon's rotation to
45-degree steps.
Line
With this tool you can draw straight lines. Set the
line thickness using the Weight option, then click and drag to create the line.
Hold down Shift to constrain the line to 45-degree steps. You can
also add arrowheads by clicking the little downward arrow to the left of the Weight
option in the options bar.
Custom Shape
Use this tool to draw arbitrary shapes from a
library. Click the Shape option in the options bar to choose a shape from
the library, then drag in the image to draw it. Shift-drag to
maintain the aspect ratio; Alt/Option-drag to draw from the centre.
Notes (N key)
Use the Notes and Audio Annotation tools to add
textual and audio notes to your Photoshop documents respectively.
Notes
Click in the image where you'd like to add a note,
and start typing. To remove a note, right-click its icon and choose Delete Note.
Audio Annotation
Click in the image where you'd like to add an
annotation, then click Start and talk into your mic. Click Stop when you're
done. To remove an annotation, right-click its icon and choose Delete Audio Annotation.
Eyedropper (I key)
The tools in the Eyedropper tool group let you pick
colours from an image, add colour samplers to the image, and measure distances
and angles in the image.
Move the eyedropper around the image and read the
colour values in the Info palette. Click to set the foreground colour to the
colour of the pixel under the eyedropper. Alt/Option-click
to set the background colour.
Color Sampler
Click in the image to add up to 4 colour samplers.
You can read the colour values in the Info palette. The samplers are saved with
the document.
Drag a sampler to reposition it. To delete a
sampler, drag it out of the document window.
Ruler
Drag in the window to create 2 points and a line.
Drag the points as required. Read the distance between the points, and the
angle of the line, in the Info palette.
To create an additional line, Alt/Option-drag
on one of the points. You can then measure the 2 lengths in the Info palette,
as well as the angle between the 2 lines.
Hand (H key)
Drag in the document window to view different parts
of the image. You can also access this tool from most other tools by holding
down the spacebar.
Zoom (Z key)
Click in the document window to zoom into the
image. Alt/Option-click to zoom out. To zoom into a particular area
of the image, drag out a box around the area.
Foreground Color
The colour used for painting and other operations.
Click in the box to pick a different colour.
Switch Foreground/Background Colors (X key)
Click this to swap over the current foreground and
background colours.
Default Foreground/Background Colors (D key)
Reverts the foreground and background colours to
the default (usually black and white respectively).
Background Color
The colour used for erasing and other operations.
Click in the box to pick a different colour.
Toggle Quick Mask Mode (Q key)
Click this button to enter or exit Quick Mask mode.
Quick Mask mode lets you create and modify selections by painting in the image.
Click this button to cycle through 4 different
screen modes:
Standard: The default layout
Maximized: The document window fills as much space as
possible
Full Screen Mode
With Menu Bar: The document
fills the whole screen
Full Screen Mode: The document fills the whole screen and the menu
bar is hidden painting in the image.
Change Screen Mode (F key)
Click this button to cycle through 4 different
screen modes:
Standard: The default layout
Maximized: The document window fills as much space as
possible
Full Screen Mode
With Menu Bar: The document
fills the whole screen
Full Screen Mode: The document fills the whole screen and the menu
bar is hidden
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PhotoshopToolbox Published on 08Sep 2018 Shows you how to use the Photoshop toolbox, and explains each tool in the toolbox. One o...
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