LET’S STUDY!The Main Tool Bar: Tools Explained

Move Tool (Shortcut Key V): The move tool allows you to move elements around your canvas, it also allows you to move several other items such as guides, shape layers, masks and text objects.

Shape Selection Tools (Shortcut Key M): This tool set allows you to quickly make a selection using either

a rectangle, ellipse, row or a column style selection.

Lasso Selection Tools (Shortcut Key L): These set of tools allow you to make quick selections in the form of a lasso tool in which can be randomly drawn with the mouse and left mouse button, polygonal lasso tool which allows you to make selections in vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines and finally the magnetic lasso tool which allows

you to make selection just by using the mouse.

Quick Selection Tools (Shortcut Key W): These tools can select areas of the document by detecting areas that are similar.

Crop and Slice Tools (Shortcut Key C): The crop tool lets you select an area of the document which you want to keep then

removes the area around it. The slice tool is used for slicing up web images.

Eye Dropper, Ruler, Note and Count Tools (Shortcut Key I): The eye dropper tool is used to select a new foreground color from pixels in an image, the ruler tool is used to measure areas in an image. The note tool is a cool little tool which enables you to add notes to an image and the count tool allows you to count

and log items in an image.

Healing Tools (Shortcut Key J): The healing tools provide quick ways to heal areas of an image. The heal tools can remove

red eye from photo’s, dust marks and scratches.

Brush Tools (Shortcut Key B): The brush tool set allows you to apply painting techniques to enhance and create images, the

brush tool is also used in conjunction with many other tools.

Stamp Tools (Shortcut Key S): The stamp tool set consists of two types of tool, the clone stamp tool and the pattern stamp tool. The clone stamp tool allows you to select and area of an image and then stamp or brush that area onto another part of the image. Its a really use for tool for removing skin blemishes, spots etc… The pattern stamp tool allows you to apply a pattern

to an image using brush strokes.

Eraser Tools (Shortcut Key E): The eraser tool does exactly what it says on the tin, it allows you to quickly erase pixel date

from an image.

History Brush Tools (Shortcut Key Y): The history brush tools are used to repair areas of an image by painting data from a

previously edited state of an image. Just like returning part of an image back to its original state after editing.

Blur, Sharpen and Smudge Tools (Shortcut Key NONE): This tool set allows you to sharpen, smudge and blur

part of an image using brush strokes.

Dodge, Burn and Sponge Tools (Shortcut Key O): The dodge and burn tools allow you darken or lighten part of an

image using brushes, where as the sponge tool allows you to add or remove saturation to an image.

Fill Tools (Shortcut Key B): The fill tools are used to fill elements on your canvas with either a solid color, pattern or

gradient.

Path Creation Tools (Shortcut Key P): The path creation tool also known as the pen tool allows you to create vector shapes

and custom shapes using paths and anchor points.

Path Selection Tools (Shortcut Key A): The Path Selection tools allow you to select and manipulate vector paths by

adjusting the anchor points.

Type Text Tool (Shortcut Key T): The Text tools allow you to add textual elements to images, either vertically or horizontally. The type text tool can also be used in conjunction with the path selection tools allowing you to type text onto a selected path.

Shape Tools (Shortcut Key U): The Shapes tool set can easily be used to create and manipulate simple geometric vector

shapes and lines as well as custom vector shapes.

Hand and Rotate Tools (Shortcut Keys H and R): Using the Hand tool, you can grab onto the image and pan by dragging the

mouse. This is available only when you are zoomed in on the image, but it’s very useful for navigating around your image.

Alternatively you can hold down the spacebar key on your keyboard which will have the same effect. The Rotate View tool

allows you to rotate the canvas in the document window by dragging with the mouse. If you hold down the Shift key while

rotating the canvas, the rotation occurs in 15-degree increments. Rotating the canvas can be useful if you need to align elements.

Zoom Tool (Shortcut Key Z): The zoom tools is simply used for zooming in onto areas on your document, the zoom tool

zooms in at 100 percent in segments allowing you to zoom in up 3200%. You can also zoom using Photoshop’s preset options

which are Actual Pixels, Print Size and screen size.

Background and Foreground (Shortcut Key NONE): The background and foreground color swatches indicate your current selected background and foreground colors. Clicking one of the

swatches will allow you to pick a new color.

Edit In Quick Mask Mode (Shortcut Key Q): This toggles between Normal and Quick Mask mode. The Edit in Quick Mask mode option allows you to tweak selections using the brush tool

to paint the exact shape.

GOOD JOB!Now let’s move onto practice!