Photoshop 101: Know Your Tools

If you look at the toolbox, you’ll see that it can be separated into a few different categories:

• Selection Tools
• Cropping and Slicing Tools
• Painting Tools
• Retouching Tools
• Drawing and Text Tools
• Helper Tools

Many of these tools operate in a similar fashion and produce similar results, just in slightly different ways. So why did Adobe make everything so complicated, you ask? Because different tools can perform different tasks more easily.

A helpful hint: Holding [Shift] and/or [Alt] will modify the function of many tools. Think of Shift as your rigid modifier, forcing the tool into a locked aspect ratio or straight lines at every 45º. Try holding them when working with a tool to see what results!

Additionally, each tool has a letter shortcut associated with it. If you hold [Shift] and press the corresponding tool’s letter you will cycle through those buried beneath it.

Selection Tools

These tools limit your actions to a single selected area. Whether you’re drawing, erasing or transforming something these tools will ensure that you only affect what you want.

Move (V) - [Click-and-Drag] to move a selected area or layer within the drawing area. Using the Arrow keys on the keyboard will allow you to nudge by one pixel at a time.

Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee (M) - [Click-and-Drag] selections based on either rectangular or elliptical shapes. Holding Shift while drawing the selection will create a perfect square or circle. Holding [Space] will allow you to reposition the selection while drawing it.

Lasso/Polygonal Lasso (L) - Create free-form selections by drawing any shape. [Click-and-Drag] with the Lasso, or Click-and-Release with the Polygonal Lasso to create multiple points and make your selection.

Quick Selection/Magic Wand (W) - Quickly and effortlessly draw complex selections just as if you were painting them with this tool. The boundaries will automatically adjust to select the areas you have clicked based on color or contrast.

Cropping and Slicing Tools

Crop Tool (C) - Works like the Rectangular Marquee. Draw a selection of the area you want to keep and press enter, the rest is deleted. Can also be used to enlarge the canvas by dragging outside of the drawing area.

Slice Tool (K) - Used mainly when designing web pages. [Click-and-Drag] slices the way you would draw a selection. Slices allow you to export multiple images from a single design by choosing File > Save for Web.

Painting Tools

Brush (B) - Arguably the most powerful tool in Photoshop, the brush engine is what powers many of the other tools. Hold [Shift] to paint in straight lines, or [Shift-Click] to connect the dots.

Eraser (E) - Functions like the Brush Tool, but erases instead of paints. If erasing on the Background layer you will essentially paint your background color. If erasing on a layer you remove its information.

History Brush (Y) - It’s like Undo, but on a brush. Select a previous state in the History Panel and use this brush to paint back how the image looked oh so long ago.

Gradient/Paint Bucket (G) - Use the Gradient Tool to draw a smooth transition from one color to another (or from a color to transparency). The Paint Bucket will fill an area with a solid color. By default these tools work with whatever Foreground and Background colors you have selected.

Retouching Tools

Clone Stamp (S) - Functions like the Brush Tool, but paints an exact duplicate of a targeted area. [Alt-Click] to target an area.

Healing Brush (J) - Works like the clone stamp, but attempts to automatically blend the edges of whatever you paint.

Blur/Sharpen/Smudge (R) - These tools do exactly what they say, and work just like the Brush Tool. [Click-and-Drag] to unlock their potential.

Dodge/Burn/Sponge (O) - Referring back to days of analog photography, the Dodge/Burn tools can be used to lighten/darken an area of a photo while the Sponge Tool absorbs color saturation (resulting in a desaturated area).

Drawing and Type Tools

These tools produce vector-based elements that can be easily adjusted and scaled to any size. You have the option of drawing a shape layer, drawing a path, or drawing a filled, pixel-based selection.

Pen Tool (P) - Draw or trace any shape free-form. [L-Click] to create a point, [Click-and-Drag] to produce a curve. Use the Direct Selection tool along with the Anchor Point tools to modify your paths.

Path/Direct Selection (A) - Use these tools to select either an entire shape or a specific anchor point, respectively.

Type (T) - Add text to your image. [L-Click] once to begin typing, [Click-and-Drag] to create a text-box.

Rectangle and Other Shapes (U) - Use this tool to create many common shapes and lines.

Helper Tools

Notes (N) - A great way to type a reminder or a note when working on a project. Particularly useful when collaborating with others.

Eyedropper (I) - Don’t know what that color is? Sample any color simply by clicking on it with this tool. You can sample colors outside of Photoshop by clicking within the document, and dragging elsewhere.

Hand (H) - [Click-and-Drag] to pan around an image with this helpful tool. Hint: Access the Hand Tool at any time just by holding [Space].

Zoom (Z) - Zoom in or out by Clicking, zoom to a specific area by Clicking and Dragging a selection around area. Alternatively, press [Cmd][+] to zoom in, [Cmd][-] to zoom out and [Cmd][Alt][0] to return to actual size.

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