1.

PHOTOSHOP TOOLS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS

2. Rectangular Marquee Tool (M)Use this tool to make selections on your image, in a rectangular
shape. This changes the area of your image that is affected byother tools or actions to be within the
defined shape. Holding the [Shift] key while dragging your selection, restricts the shape toa perfect
square. Holding the [Alt] key while dragging sets the center of the rectangle to where your cursor
started.
3. Move Tool (V)Use this tool to, well, move things. Usually you use it to move a Layer around after it
has been placed. Hold the [Shift] key tolimit the movements to vertical/horizontal.
4. Polygon Lasso Tool (L)Ok, this should be the Lasso Tool, but I use the Polygon Lasso a lot more
often. Use this to draw selections in whatever shapeyou would like. To close the selection, either
click on the beginning point (youll see the cursor change when youre on it), or justdouble-click.
When holding the *Ctrl+ key, youll see the cursor change, and the next time you click, it will close
your selection.
5. Magic Wand Tool (W)Use this to select a color range. It will select the block of color, or
transparency, based on wherever you click. In the Options Barat the top, you can change the
Tolerance to make your selections more/less precise.
6. Crop Tool (C)The Crop Tool works similarly to the Rectangular Marquee tool (see above if you have
no short-term memory). The difference iswhen you press the [Enter/Return] key, it crops your image
to the size of the box. Any information that was on the outside ofthe box is now gone. Not
permanently, you can still undo.
7. Slice Tool (K)This is used mostly for building websites, or splitting up one image into smaller ones
when saving out. Its kind of an advancedtool, and since youre in here for the basics, well kind of
skip over it. Kinda makes you mad I made you read all that for nothing,huh?
8. Healing Brush Tool (J)This is a really useful tool. Mildly advanced. You can use this tool to repair
scratches and specs and stuff like that onimages. It works like the Brush tool (see below). You
choose your cursor size, then holding the [Alt] key, you select anice/clean area of your image. Let go
of the [Alt] key and paint over the bad area. It basically copies the info from thefirst area to the
second, in the form of the Brush tool. Only, at the end, it averages the information, so it blends.
9. Brush Tool (B)This is one of the first tools ever. Its what Photoshop is based off of. Well, not really,
but its pretty basic. It paints oneyour image, in whatever color you have selected, and whatever size
you have selected. Theres a lot of options for it,but this is basic, so you dont get to learn them.
10. Clone Stamp Tool (S)This is very similar to the Healing Brush Tool (see above). You use it the exact
same way, except this tool doesntblend at the end. Its a direct copy of the information from the first
selected area to the second. When you learn to useboth of these tools together in perfect harmony,
you will be a Photoshop MASTA! Not really, its just less irritating.
11. History Brush Tool (H)This tool works just like the Brush Tool (see above) except the information
that it paints with is from the original stateof your image. If you go Window>History, you can see the
History Palette. The History Brush tool paints with theinformation from whatever History state is
selected.
12. Eraser Tool (E)This is the anti-Brush tool. It works like an eraser (duh) and erases whatever
information wherever you click and dragit. If youre on a Layer, it will erase the information
transparent. If you are on the background layer, it erases withwhatever secondary color you have
selected.

13. Gradient Tool (G)You can use this to make a gradiation of colors. Gradiation doesnt appear to be a
word, but it makes sense anyway. Itcreates a blending of your foreground color and background
color when you click and drag it. Like a gradient.Blur Tool (R)The Blur tool is cool. It makes things
blurry. Click and drag to make things blurry. The more you click and drag, theblurrier things
get.Dodge Tool (O)This tool isnt as crappy as the car brand. Its actually used to lighten whatever
area you use it on. As long as it is notabsolute black. Absolute black wont lighten.Path Selection
Tool (A)You use this tool when working with paths. Since this is all about the basics, I wont go into
details. Its related to thePen Tool (see below) though.Horizontal Type Tool (T)It makes type. Or text.
Or whatever you want to call it. You can click a single point, and start typing right away. Or youcan
click and drag to make a bounding box of where your text/type goes. Theres a lot of options for the
Type Tool.Just play around, its fairly straight-forward.Pen Tool (P)I mentioned this tool above. Its
for creating paths, in which you would use the Path Selection Tool to select the path.Paths can be
used in a few different ways, mostly to create clipping paths, or to create selections. You use the tool
byclicking to add a point. If you click and drag, it will change the shape of your path, allowing you to
bend and shape thepath for accurate selections and such.Rectangle Tool (U)By default it draws a
Shape Layer in the form of a rectangle. It fills the rectangle with whatever foreground color youhave
selected. Its pretty complicated, dont hurt yourself with this one.Notes Tool (N)Like post-it notes,
but digital. You can use this tool to add small little note boxes to your image. These are useful
ifyoure very forgetful or if youre sharing your Photoshop file with someone else. Im pretty sure it
only works with.PSD files.Eyedropper Tool (I)This tool works by changing your foreground color to
whatever color you click on. Holding the [Alt] key will changeyour background color.
14. Hand Tool (T)You can really make short work of your job with the Hand Tool. Its for moving your
entire image within a window. Soif youre zoomed in and your image area is larger than the window,
you can use the Hand Tool to navigate around yourimage. Just click and drag. You can get to this
tool at any time when using any other tool by pressing and holding the[Spacebar].Zoom Tool
(Z)Pretty obvious what this tool does. It allows you to zoom into your image. Dont be dumb, it
doesnt actually changethe size of your image. Hold the [Alt] key to zoom out. Holding the [Shift] key
will zoom all of the windows you haveopen at the same time. Double-click on the Zoom Tool in the
palette to go back to 100% view.Foreground ColorThese are your color boxes. Foreground (in the
front) and Background (in the back). Click on either one to bring up thecolor select dialog box.
PHOTOSHOP INTERFACEElements of the InterfaceThe Workspace The Photoshop Toolbar
Perhaps the most important element of the Photoshop interface is the toolbar. It contains a bunch of
icons that represent the different tools Photoshop offers to alter and create images. These include
tools for selecting specific areas of images, changing the colors of the image, stretching,
transforming, and erasing parts of an image, and many more.
15. Various Photoshop Panes Panes are also important features of the Photoshop interface. All sorts of
information is displayed in these panes, and therefore they can get a little confusing. They display
location information, tool options, and history, among other things. If you ever lose track of a specific
pane (they tend to stack up), go to the windows menu and select that pane to view it. Ill talk more
about the specific panes later on in the tutorial.Menus are probably the most familiar interface
elements to a new Photoshop user. They contain all sorts of options,but since there are not as
visible as panes or the toolbar, they are often only partially explored. Ill take time right nowto go over
the menus and give a brief description to orient you to each. File contains all of the stuff youd expect
it to, with a few extras including Import, which deals with scanning, and Save for Web, which allows
you to export a web-ready image from your Photoshop file. Edit is another familiar menu. In
Photoshop, edit houses all of the expected options as well as Fill & Stroke, and other image-altering
functions. Items on the Image menu effect a whole image, for the most part. Here youll find color
adjustments, size adjustments, and any other changes you need to make globally when working with
a Photoshop file. The layer menu is similar to the image menu, but it contains options that effect only
current or selected layers. Ill explain layers a little later, but for now, just understand that an image in
Photoshop consists of stacked transparent layers; options in the Layer menu affect these pieces of

the image rather than the complete image. The select menu deals with selections you make.
Selecting the specific parts of an image youd like to alter is a difficult part of working in Photoshop.
This menu gives you some options regarding selections, including the ability to save selections,
reverse them, or add to them. Learning the options on the selection menu can really save you some
time. The filter menu is probably what most people think about when they think about Photoshop.
The filter menu allows you to apply filters to any part of your image. These filters include ways to
change the texture of the image, with some potentially radical results. The view menu is where you
change the view settings. You can use this to show and display guidelines on the image, and to
zoom in and out, among other things. The window menu allows you to toggle back and forth
between hide and show for each interface element. This is the first place you should go if you lose
track of a particular window while youre working. Last and least, of course, is the help menu. The
help documentation isnt so helpful, but for some reason, this menu contains two nice features:
resize image, and export transparent image, which Ill get to later.The options bar, which is located
directly underneath the menus, is a useful tool when working with the differentPhotoshop tools. As
you can see right now, when the selection tool is in use, the options bar reflects the changes thatcan
be made to how that specific tool operates. Here, you have selection options, and style options,
which includes theability to make the selection tool a specific size in pixels. When you switch tools,
to the paintbrush tool for instance,these options change. When a tool in Photoshop isnt behaving as
you expect it to, the options bar should be the firstplace you look to fix it.
16. The options barSome definitions to get you started:.psd: A .psd file is the file format in which
Photoshop saves documents by default. It is a multi-layer document thatretains its full editing options
when saved. In many cases you will export webgraphics from a .psd document.layers: Photoshop
documents are composed of layers, which can basically be described as single transparent
sheetswhich hold particular pieces of an image. These layers can contain images, text, and vector
graphics, and can berearranged and grouped according to user needs. Layers are controlled with
the use of the Layers pane. Often times,when you find yourself frustrated with Photoshop, it is
because you are trying to perform operations on a layer that isnot currently selected. Simply click on
the name of a layer in order to designate it as the current layer. Whenever youadd text to an image
in Photoshop, the text appears on a new layer. You can "merge down" layers to consolidate
them,and "flatten image" to force the entire contents of the image onto one layer.Selections:
Selections refer to regions in an image that will be affected by the various tools. A selection in
Photoshop issimilar to a selection that you highlight in a wordprocessing application. Once you have
selected an area, you can applya tool to it, such as paintbrush, or perform an operation such as copy
or crop. Selections can be any shape and size; theshape depends on which selection tool you are
working with.Your selection will apply only to the current layer. If that layer is empty in the region
selected, you will get an errormessage. When this happens, go to the layers pane and select the
correct layer.Resolution: Resolution refers to the number of pixels in a full size image. An image with
hi resolution contains moreinformation than an image with lo resolution, and therefore, one can
always convert a hi-res image to a lo-res image.However, because information is lost in the
conversion, the reverse is not true. If you were to increase the resolution ofa lo-res image, the result
would be fuzzy.Screen resolution is close to 72 pixels per inch, so if you are working with graphics to
be viewed only on screen, 72should be fine. Depending on the printer you are using, you would want
to increase this above 72 for graphics that willbe printed. 300 is usually an acceptable resolution for
images to be printed; 150 would be the lowest acceptableresolution for printing.Image Size:
Resolution should not be confused with image size, which is also expressed in pixels. Image size
dealswith the actual number of pixels tall and wide an image is. For an idea of how the two differ, go
to Image Size in theImage menu, and plug in different numbers for image size and resolution.Color
mode: Color mode refers to the types of colors you will be using in your image. CMYK and RGB are
the mostimportant of these modes to be familiar with. CMYK is the setting for images that will be
printed to paper. The letters refer to the four channels of color used to create every color available:
cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. RGB refers to the three channel colormode suitable for images to
be viewed on the web: red , green, and blue.

The Toolbox

You select a variety of tools from the Toolbox by clicking on the icons. Within each type of tool you can select "hidden"
by dragging the tool to the side or by pressing on the icon until the hidden options drop to the side. See examples belo
To view the Toolbox Go to Window > Show Tools..
The Pencil and Brush tools:

Click on the tools that have a small arrow

their lower-right side to display the hidde

Selecting Tools:
These tools allow you to select areas in various different ways. Drawing
tools and commands only work in selected areas. If no area is selected,
tools and commands will work anywhere on the document.

Rectangular Marquee
Click once on the Rectangular Marquee tool to choose it. The icon will turn
white and the cursor will turn into a cross hair when you move it onto the
document.
Select an area: Drag out a rectangular marquee of any size anywhere on
the document. Release the mouse and you should have a rectangular area
selected. You can tell it is selected because it has the line of marching
ants moving around it.
Magic Wand Tool
This tool allows you to select areas of images based on color similarities
without having to trace its outline.
Choose the Magic Wand tool. Click the magic Wand on the white area or
the colored area of your image. You will notice how it will only select the
white areas. You can specify the tolerance (color range) that you need.

Zoom Tool
This tool allows you to magnify areas of an image when you are
performing close, detailed work, and reduce them to get an overall view of
the image.
Zoom in: pick the Zoom Tool. This tool always defaults to zoom in (note:
the plus sign in the middle of the magnifying glass icon). This tool works in
two ways:
Click the icon once in the area you wish to enlarge. The area will be
magnified by a factor of two.
Click and drag a rectangle around the area you wish to enlarge and the
area will be magnified to fit in the existing window.
Zoom out: Pick the Zoom Tool and hold down the alt key (note: the
negative sign in the icon). Or, right-click with the mouse and select the
zoom-out option from the drop-down.
Click on the image and the drawing zooms out in a factor of two.

Type
Type Tools
To insert text into your document, simply click on the Type tool icon on your toolbox and
click on the area of your document where you want to insert text.

Character Palette
To Display:
Choose Window >Show
Character

The cursor will highlight and will prompt you to start typing. To change
the character font, size and style you can use the top Menu (shown
below)or the Character palette (shown on the right).
To edit an existing block of text, select the Type tool from the toolbox,
and position the cursor on the text, it will identify the text and allow
you to edit it.

You can apply different styles and formats within one text layer, to do this, you need to
select the text with the cursor and apply the changes. If you need to apply one
formatting style to ALL the text in the layer, than simply select the layer from the layer
window, and make the choices you need.

NOTE: Bitmap Type

Paint and image-editing programs such as Photoshop create bitmap type composed of pixels. The sharpness of bitmap
depends on the type size and the resolution of the image. For example, type that has been scaled up may show jagged
edges.

NOTE: Photoshop disables many features of its interface while the type tool is selected, for example, if you want to Sa
use another command like Zoom in or out, it will not allow you to do it unless you de-select the type tool!
Color

Color Tools and Palettes

A. Foreground color B. Default Colors C. Switch Colors D. Background color
There are several ways to change color. To use the toolbox, just click on either the
foreground or background square (See image above), the following Color Picker will
appear:

Select the desired color with the cursor. Move the Color Slid
and down to view the range of color levels available for the
selected color component.
You can see the color values in various color modes: HSB, R
LAB, CMYK (percentages) and Hexadecimal (Web values).

TIP: You have the option to only display Web Colors, click o
the Only Web Colors checkbox on the lower left side of the
Picker

Color Palette
Choose Windows > Show Color

Click on the palette options arrow on the top right side of the w
and choose a color mode set of Sliders..

There is another tool to help you choose colors from, this is the Swatches palette. Most
of the time it shows within the color palette, as a tab. The swatches palette is a quick
access to pick colors, this way you avoid having to click on the color toolbox, open the
color picker to change the color.
As any other palette, you can click on the
palette option arrow to see more options. For
example, you can select "Web Safe Colors.aco"
from the drop-down menu in order to see the
so called Browser Safecolors, see graphic on
the right.

About Browser Safe Colors

Web browsers software is based on an 8-bit, 216-color palette. This palette was originally created by Netscape to solv
problem of displaying color graphics in a similar way on different operating systems (such as Macintosh, Windows, and
Because a majority of the Web audience years ago had 8-bit display screens, 256 colors was the upper limit for the co
palette. The 216 colors chosen by Netscape are identical in both the Macintosh and Windows system palettes.

Most Web users nowadays have computers and monitors set to "thousands" or "millions" of colors, so the importance
so-called Web-safe palette has sharply diminished in the past few years, so there is no longer any need to restrict
color choices to the 216 Web-safe colors.
Paint Bucket
The Paint Bucket tool allows you to fill similarly colored areas with the foreground color.
Just click inside the selected area. The foreground color you
chose will fill the selected area.
It's hidden tool within the Toolbox is the Gradient tool.