BASIC TOOLS OF PHOTOSHOP

Basic Tools

Photoshop has many tools that can be used in editing an image however some are considered to be more complex in their use. In this page, i decided to explain the use of some basic tools that a beginner user needs to know.

Rectangular Marquee Tool (M)

 

This tool is used in order to make selections on an image in a rectangular shape. the use of the tool changes the area of an image that is affected by other tools or actions.

 Hold [Shift] key while dragging a selection, restricts the shape to a perfect square. Hold [Alt] key while dragging sets the center of the rectangle to where a cursor started.

 Move Tool (V)

 

This tool is used to move things. Its more common used is to move a Layer around after it has been placed

 Hold [Shift] key to limit the movements to vertical/horizontal.

 Polygon Lasso Tool (L)

This tool is used very often. it is used to draw selections in any shape. a selection can be closed either by clicking on the beginning point or just by double clicking. By holding [Ctrl] key, the cursor changes, and by clicking again the selection closes. 

 Magic Wand Tool (W)

 

This tool is used on order to select a color range. it selects a block of color or transparency based on what it is clicked.In the Options Bar at the top, the Tolerance can be changed, to make the selections more or less precise.

 Crop Tool (C)

 

The Crop Tool works similarly to the Rectangular Marquee tool. The difference is when the [Enter/Return] key is pressed, it crops the image to the size of the box. Any information that was on the outside of the box is now gone but not permanently (undo) 

 Slice Tool (K)

 

This tool is more often used  for building websites, or splitting up one image into smaller ones when saving out. It could be considered as an advanced tool.

 Healing Brush Tool (J)
 

The use of this tool is very important. It can be used to repair scratches and specs and other, like that on images. It works like the Brush tool. after choosing a cursor size, hold [Alt] key,and a nice and clean area of  image is selected. If the [Alt] key stops to be clicked, the bad area can be painted over . It basically copies the informations from the first area to the second, in the form of the Brush tool. However at the end, it averages the information, so it blends.

 Brush Tool (B)

 

 This tool is used to paint an image in whatever color or size is selected. There’s a lot of options for it, but this is its basic use.

Clone Stamp Tool (S)
 

This tool is similar to the Healing Brush Tool. it can be used in the same way however this tool doesn’t blend at the end. It’s a direct copy of the information from the first selected area to the second. 

History Brush Tool (H)

 

the use of this tool is like the Brush Tool except the information that it paints with, is from the original state of an image. If you go Window>History, you can see the History Palette. The History Brush tool paints with the information from whatever History state is selected.

 Eraser Tool (E)

 

 This tool works like an eraser and erases whatever information wherever you click and drag it. If you’re on a Layer, it will erase the information transparent. If you are on the background layer, it erases with whatever secondary color you have selected.

Gradient Tool (G)
 

This tool is used to make a gradiation of colors. It creates a blending of a foreground color and background color when you click and drag it.

Blur Tool (R)

 

This tool is used to make things blurry. Click and drag to make things blurry. The more you click and drag, the blurrier things get.

Dodge Tool (O)

 

This tool is used to lighten whatever area is used on. Absolute black won’t lighten.

Path Selection Tool (A)
 

This tool is used when working with paths. It’s related to the Pen Tool 

Horizontal Type Tool (T)
 

It makes type. Or text. After clicking to a single point, you can type. Or it can be clicked and draged to make a bounding box of where a text/type goes. 

Pen Tool (P)
 

As mentioned above, this tool is used 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. The tool  can be used by clicking to add a point. If it is clicked and dragged, it will change the shape of the path, allowing you to bend and shape the path 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 is selected. 

Notes Tool (N)

  This tool can be used to add small little note boxes to an image. 

Eyedropper Tool (I)

 

This tool works by changing the foreground color to whatever color is clicked on. Hold [Alt] key and the background color will change.

Hand Tool (T)
 

This tool is used for moving the entire image within a window.  The Hand Tool can be used to navigate around an image by clicking and dragging.  It can be used anytime when using any other tool by pressing and holding the [Spacebar].

Zoom Tool (Z)
 

This tool allows you to zoom into an image but not changes the size of the image. Hold [Alt] key to zoom out. Holding the [Shift] key will zoom all of the windows that are open at the same time. Double-click on the Zoom Tool in the palette to go back to 100% view.

• Even if Photoshop has lots of tools, those are the most common and basic tools that are required to be used on any image. However, as i can see for my experience in 'Photoshop you cannot learn to use it just by applying the theory. You have to practice and be experimental in order to use them correct and to achieve great results.