Home » Photoshop Basics » 02 - Get to know Photoshop CS
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Toolbar
Photoshop has a wide and incredible array of tools. Using these tools requires practice and imagination to create the desired effect. The options bar helps in avoiding clutter and maximising the workspace
Before Tina starts designing her greeting card, let's take a quick look at the tools that she will work with. These tools are contained in the vertical bar called the Toolbar or the tool palette.
Tools are grouped into four major categories.
- Selection Tools are used to select objects. They include
- Marquee - For making selections.
- Move - To drag objects.
- Lasso - To make irregular shaped selections.
- Magic wand - To create a selection based on color.
- Creative Tools are used to draw objects and
retouch photos. They include,
- Crop - To crop an image to a chosen size.
- Slice - To cut an image into smaller pieces for use on the World Wide Web.
- Healing/Repair - To make repairs and enhance photographs.
- Brushes - To paint with color and to perform special effects in conjunction with other tools.
- Clone/Rubber Stamp -To sample a portion of the image and then paint with the sampled portion of the image.
- History and Art brush - To paint and make enhancements with a previous version of the working image.
- Eraser - To delete portions of the image in the same way a traditional eraser works.
- Fill - To fill the image areas with color and gradients.
- Blur and Sharpen - For precise portions of an image. These are good for fixing photos and also for special effects.
- Dodge and Burn - To lighten and darken select portions of an image.
- Vector Tools are used to work with vectors.
These are,
- Path selection - To manipulate and adjust paths.
- Type - To create text.
- Pen - To create paths.
- Line/Shape - To create paths or predetermined shapes
- Navigation and Information Tools are used to view the page and
gather information. These are,
- Notes - Similar to sticky notes. Used to remind of some settings or techniques used.
- Eyedropper - To sample colors and other information from images.
- Hand - To drag the canvas around in a window. Used when you have zoomed in on image and need to navigate.
- Zoom - To change the magnification of the working document
- Misc Tools
- Color Swatches - To choose your foreground and background colors from here.
- Quick Mask - To make a selection with a brush and apply filters to the selection.
- View - To toggle the status bars on and off.
- Jump to Image ready - A web design program that ships free with Photoshop.
