Photoshop Tool Bar
Click the icons on the tool bar to select the tools required.
1 Marquee Selection - “M”
Used to select a rectangular, elliptical or crop selection,
The default mode for selecting an object is to click and drag across the object. To select from the centre, position the mouse at the centre of the object and press the “alt” key then click and drag out. To constrain the selection to a square or circle press the “shift” key while dragging across the object.
To move the selection press and hold the “Apple Key” then click and hold the mouse inside the selection and drag.
2 Move Tool -“V”
Used to move objects (eg selections) around the screen.
3 Lasso -“L”
Used to draw a free hand selection around an object. Feather (in the menu strip along the top of the screen) blurs the edge of the selection – ‘0’ is a sharp edge.
To make a selection using straight lines instead of creating a free hand outline, click on the tool bar icon and choose the Polygonal Lasso on the pop out menu. The Magnetic Lasso allows you to drag along the edge of an object to select it. Lasso Width controls the area of edge detection for the tool. Frequency controls the number of points created along a line as it is created. Edge Contrast controls the tools sensitivity to the edge of the object being selected. A higher number detects only edges that contrast sharply.
4 Magic Wand -“W”
Use the Magic Wand to make a selection by colour. To increase or decrease the sensitivity of the Magic Wand tool, adjust the Tolerance setting in the menu strip at the top of the screen.
5 Crop -“C”
Use the crop tool to drag a selection over the area to be cropped.
Double click in the centre to crop the image.
6 Slice -“K”
The Slice tool allows you to divide an image into rectangles for use on web pages. Using the tool drag a box over an area of the image and the picture will be divided up based on the initial area, Use the Slice select tool to adjust the position of the rectangles. Choose File > Save for Web to output the sliced pictures.
7 Healing Brush -“J”
Can be used to correct imperfections using sampled pixels from another area within the image. However it takes into account overall colour and lighting of the area in which changes are being made and makes adjustments accordingly.
Hold down the “alt” key and then click on the area to be duplicated. Then release the “alt” key and move the mouse to another position and click to begin painting in the duplicate. (Remember to adjust the size of brush using the brush control panel in the menu strip at the top of the screen.)
8 Brush - “B” (plus Pencil Tool / Colour Replacement Tool)
Paints a selected area by using the current foreground (23) colour. Double click the brush size in the menu strip to make adjustments. For other options, click and hold on the icon. The Pencil tool draws freehand and straight lines. The Colour Replacement Tool draws transparent colour over the image based on the foreground colour (23)
9 Clone Stamp Tool - “S” (plus Pattern Stamp)
Hold down the “alt” key and click on the area to be duplicated. Then release the “alt” key and move the mouse to another position and click to begin painting in the duplicate. (Remember to adjust the size of brush using the brush control panel.)
Unlike the Healing Brush, the Clone Stamp Tool does not make adjustments based on colour and lighting within the surrounding area to which the clone is being applied.
10 History Brush - “Y”
Paints the image back to last saved version.
(Remember to adjust the size of brush using the brush control panel in the menu strip at the top of the screen.)
11 Eraser - “E”
Erases image to background colour (24). Can also be used to replace an altered area by holding the “alt” key then click and dragging over area which will return to original state. (Remember to adjust the size of eraser using the brush control panel in the menu strip at the top of the screen.)
12 Gradient - “G” (plus Paint Bucket)
Creates a gradient fill within a selected area by using the current foreground (23) and background (24) colour. Click on the position you want the gradient to start then drag to the position it should finish.
The Paint Bucket selects an area by its colour and fills it with the current foreground colour (23)
13 Blur / Sharpen / Smudge - “R”
Blurs, sharpens or smudges an area by clicking and dragging over an area until the desired effect is reached. Click the tool bar icon to bring up the pop up menu to change between tools. (Remember to adjust the size of the brush in the control panel in the menu strip at the top of the screen.)
14 Dodge / Burn / Sponge - “O”
Lightens or darkens an area by clicking and dragging over the image until the desired effect is reached. Click the tool bar icon to bring up the control bar to change between tools. Sponge allows intensify or dilution of colour by altering the Saturate or Desaturate control panel in the menu strip. (Remember to adjust the size of the brush in the control panel in the menu strip at the top of the screen.)
15 Direct Selection Tool / Path Selection Tool - “A”
The Direct Selection Tool can be used to select individual points on a path. The Path Selection Tool selects all points on the path at once. (Paths are drawn using the Pen Tool (17).
16 Text - “T”
Click on the position where you require text to appear and type in your text. Choose font, size, leading, spacing in the menu strip at the top of the screen. Type can be moved on the image using the Move tool. Text can be edited by double clicking its layer. Click the tool bar icon to bring up the control bar to change between tools and place text horizontally and vertically. Type can also be rendered so that other effects can be applied to it using options in the Layer menu.
17 Pen - “P”
Used to manually select areas of an image by drawing curved and straight lines.
Options in the menu strip at the top of the screen can be used to make the Pen Tool draw coloured shapes rather than selection outlines.
18 Shape tools - “U”
Draws default shapes selected from the option bar. Shapes are filled with the current foreground colour and can be altered using the Pen Tool and Path Selection Tools.
19 Notes - “N”
Basically a Post-It note for the image. Click on the image – a note will appear for you to write on. To remove a Note, click on it and press delete on the keyboard. This can be useful if you are sending your work to someone and they want you to make changes to any areas.
20 Eyedropper - “I”
Click on an area within the image you are working on to sample its colour.
This will appear in the foreground colour box (23)
21 Hand - “H”
If you want to move the visible area of the window to work in a different area, use the hand tool to do this by clicking on the image and dragging.
22 Zoom -“Z”
Click on a specific area of the screen to magnify the area or click and drag across an area to make a more selective increase. Hold down the “alt” key and click on the image to decrease the magnification.
23 Foreground Colour
This is the colour that will be applied to your image if you use one of the drawing tools (eg a brush). Double click to open the Colour Picker to select another colour.
24 Background Colour
This is the colour that will be applied if you select an area in the Background layer of your image and delete it. Double click to open the Colour Picker to select another colour.
25 Switch Colours - “X”
Swaps the foreground and background colours
26 Default Colours - “D”
Resets foreground background colours to black and white
27 Standard Mode - “Q”
Click to return to standard mode if working in quick mask mode (28)
28 Quick Mask Mode - “Q”
Make an initial quick selection with the Lasso Tool. Then click on the Quick Mask button (28) on the tool bar. This colours the unselected area of the image a transparent red colour. Set the foreground colour (23) to black or white to add to or delete part of the masked area. When finished click on the standard mode button (27)
29 Standard Screen Mode - “F”
Click to view standard window set up – displays your image along with the desktop/ folders / other windows visible alo
29 Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar -“F”
Click to view full screen image with menu bar and any Photoshop palettes you have opened – displays your image against a neutral grey background but does not leave desktop and folders visible.
29 Full Screen without Menu Bar -“F”
Click to view full screen image without menu bar. Displays your image against a black background.
30 Image Ready - “Cmd + Shift + M”
Opens your work in Image Ready which is a second application that generates files specifically for web design