How To Use Adobe Photoshop Tools A User Friendly Guide

Familiarizing yourself with the tools will help you learn Photoshop and use Photoshop more quickly.

Click File. Click Open. Select an image file or Photoshop document. Click Open.

Click and hold the Marquee icon in the toolbar to the left to display a small popup menu where you can select the variations of the Marquee tool. The variations include the Elliptical tool, and the vertical and horizontal select tools. The Elliptical tool allows you to select circles and ovals. The vertical and horizontal select tools can be used to select both horizontal and vertical rows of pixels. To deselect a selection, press “Command + D” on Mac or “Control + D” on a PC.

Click and hold the lasso tool in the toolbar to see its variants. Its variants include the Polygonal Lasso tool, and the Magnetic Lasso tool. Press “Shift + L” to select the Polygonal Lasso tool. Click once anywhere on the image. Notice as you move your mouse, the starting point remains pinned, and a dashed line extends towards the cursor. Click again, and that next point becomes pinned. These pinned points are called anchor points. You can make an entire selection by clicking to create anchor points. It can be as simple as a triangle, or as complex shape. When you reach your last click point, double-click instead of single click, and the polygon will automatically close. You can also click the starting anchor point Press the Escape key at any time to cancel the selection in progress. Press “Shift + L” again to select the Magnetic Lasso tool. The Magnetic Lasso tool is similar to the Polygonal Tool except it tries to guess the shape you are trying to select and automatically snaps anchor points to the edges of the shape. Click and hold the mouse button with the cursor pointing at the waterline of the bow (front) of the boat and drag around the boat slowly. Notice as you drag, the selection snaps to the boat as you move!

Feather. This creates a soft, faded edge around your selection. Enter a number next to “Feather” to select how many pixels wide you want the soft edge to be. Enter “0” to turn Feather off. Anti-alias: Click the checkbox next to “Anti-alias” to create a smooth transition around your selection. Width: This sets how many pixels away from an edge the Magnetic Lasso tool will place each anchor point. Contrast: This sets the amount of color contrast the Magnetic Lasso tool will use to consider what is an edge and what is not. Frequency: This sets how often the Magnetic Lasso tool will place an anchor point while tracing an outline for a selection. You can use the Lasso Tool to remove the background of a picture.

If the Quick Selection tool selects too much of the image, click the icon that resembles Quick Selection tool with a minus (-) sign in the upper-left corner or press and hold the “Option” or “Alt” key. This puts it in subtraction mode. Click and drag slightly on the area of the selection you want to remove from the selection. Press “[” or “]” to adjust the size of the brush for the Quick Selection tool. This adjusts the sensitivity of the tool. Click and hold the Quick Selection tool in the toolbar to view and select the Magic Wand tool. The Magic Wand tool is similar to the Quick Selection tool, except it selects colors. Use the field next to “Tolerance” in the upper-left corner to adjust how sensitive the Magic Wand tool is to selecting color ranges.

Click the icon that resembles a square. This is the default option. Use this option to replace your current selection with a new selection using any of the selection tools. Click the icon that resembles two squares joined together. This option allows you to use a selection tool to add to your current selection. Click the icon that resembles a square cut out of another square. This option allows you to use any of the selection tools to subtract an area from your current selection. Click the icon that resembles two squares overlapping. This option makes a selection where a new selection overlaps with an existing selection.

Alternatively, you can copy and paste a selection using the options in the Edit menu in menu bar at the top. You can also use the Filters menu in the menu bar at the top to apply Filters to a selection.

Click and hold the Crop tool to view its variants. The Crop Tool variants include the Perspective Crop tool, and the Slice tool. Perspective Crop lets you adjust the relative perspective of the image as you crop. If you an image that’s at an odd angle, for example, you can place the corners of the cropping area on the corners of the sign and crop the image. This will produce a straightened version of the sign. The Slice tool has an icon that resembles an Exacto knife. This is used to cut up an image into multiple smaller images. This is useful if you have an image you want to use for a web page, and you have parts of an image you want to use for buttons. Use the slice tool to draw squares around the areas of an image you want to cut into smaller images. Click and drag the edges of the square divisions to adjust them. You can also use the Slice Select tool to move the square divisions. Click File and Save for Web and Save to save each of the divisions as a separate image.

Font family: It’s the first menu at the top of the page that has the name of a font in it. This lets you select a font of your text. You can select from the list, or type in the font name. Font style: It’s to the right of the Font Family menu at the top. This allows you to select a font style (e. g. , Bold, Italic, Light, Medium, etc. ). If the menu is grayed, that means there are no variations on the current font family. Font size: This is next to an icon that resembles a small “T” and a large “T” at the top. This adjusts the size of the font. You have the option of entering a specific font size or choosing a size from a small list. Antialiasing: This will determine the strength of the edge blending around the letters. “None” turns off antialiasing and text will look very blocky and pixilated. Here’s a comparison of the different antialiasing settings: Justification. Click the icons with lines that resembles text arranged to side or middle to select how you want the text to be justified. Text can be justified to the left, right, center, or evenly spaced. Color. To change the color of the font, click the colored square at the top of the page. Use the panel to the left in the window to select a color. Use the small strip to the side of the color panel to select the color shade. Then click Ok to set the color. Warp. This bends, or “warps” the text on the horizontal or vertical axis. To use it, simply select the text layer, click on the Warp button, and select a style from the drop-down menu. Use the slider bars to adjust the text warping. Click Ok when you are finished. [Image:Warp settings. jpg|center]] Panels. The Panels button opens up two more palettes: Character and Paragraph. These panels have more text options you can use to adjust your text. You can adjust the vertical and horizontal character size, as well as the space between letters, and lines of text.

Type some a couple sentences into the box. Don’t worry if the text is too big or too small. When you’re done entering text, press the Enter key. If your text is too small, use the Font Size control (at the top) to make it larger. Conversely, if your text is too large, use the Font Size control to make the text smaller. You can also adjust the size of the text field: hover over one of the handles for a couple seconds, and your cursor will change to a double arrow. Click and drag to resize the text box: the text will flow within the boundaries of the box.

You can use this tool to create digital art. Click and hold the Brush tool to view the Brush menu variants. The Brush menu is also home to the Pencil tool, the Color Replace tool, and the Mixer Brush. The Pencil tool draws lines of varying thicknesses, and while you can use different brushes, the Pencil tool features no antialiasing: everything is very bitmapped. The Color Replacement tool can be very useful for replacing one color (or range of colors) with another color. The Mixer Brush. This mixes together different colors, much the same way that an artist mixes colors on a palette. Pick a color for the brush. Click the colored square on top at the bottom of the toolbar to select the Foreground Color. A color picker dialog will appear. Use the panel to the left in the window to select a color. Use the small strip to the side of the color panel to select the color shade. Then click Ok to set the color. You can also do the same for the background color Pick a brush. The easiest way to pick a brush is with the brush picker at the top-left of the Photoshop window. Click the icon that resembles a circle (or selected brush) Pick any brush in the menu. Notice the Size and Hardness slider bars. Size sets the diameter of the brush, and Hardness refers to the edges: a 100% brush has a crisp edge, while a 0% brush is feathered for a soft edge. Set the Opacity for a brush. Opacity refers to how transparent (see-through) a color is. Type a number in the field next to “Opacity” to set the opacity. 0% is completely invisible. 100% is completely opaque. Set the Flow rate for the brush. Flow is similar to opacity, but it tries to similar ink or paint on a brush. Set flow to 1% for almost no paint. Set it to 100% to glob it on.

The Shape menu (shown open) lets you choose Shape, Path, or Pixels. Choosing Shape will give you a shape with a filled color. Selecting Path will give you an outline of the shape with no color. Pixels creates a pixelized shape. The fill color of the shape is chosen using the Fill popup menu; the outline color (if any) is chosen using the Stroke popup menu; the stroke width is set with the stroke width menu. Use the stroke options menu to select a stroke style (i. e. dashed or solid lines and more). If you select the Polygon tool, you can select how many sides the polygon has in the box labeled “Sides”.

Photoshop lets you adjust the tolerance so that any pixel that falls within the range of the original click location will get filled. Increase the number next to “Tolerance” at the top of the menu to allow a wider range of colors to get filled with the Paint Bucket tool. You can also adjust the opacity at the top. Lower the number next to “Opacity” to create a more transparent Paint Bucket fill.

To edit a gradient, click on the gradient palette. The Gradient Editor will appear. Click on the colored tabs to choose a color for each point and move the points to set the start and endpoints for each color. Click on the black tabs at top to assign opacity. Close the Gradient Editor.

Scroll to the top of the History tab. If it’s not showing, select History from the Window menu. Click the checkbox next to the version of the image you want to revert to. Use the History Brush to paint a previous version of your image into your current image. For example, if you used the Clone Stamp tool to erase an object in your image, you can use the History Brush tool to paint it back in.

Use the Brush menu in the upper-left corner to select a brush type, size and change the hardness. The Spot Healing Tool works best if you use a softer brush type.

Use the Brush menu in the upper-left corner to select the brush you want to use, as well as the size and hardness. You can also adjust the brush size by press “[” and “]”. The Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools work best if you have a soft brush.

Select the fill, stroke and color options at the top of the screen. The Pen tool allows you to freehand draw your own shapes. It uses the same options at the top of the screen as the Shape tools. Click anywhere with the Pen tool. This places an anchor point on the screen. Click a different spot in the image. Notice this created a straight line between the two anchor points. Click a different location and drag the mouse. This time you will notice it creates a curved line in the opposite direction you dragged the mouse. You will also notice two lines extending from the anchor points. These are called Bezier Curve Handles. Click spot in the image. Notice this creates another line that continues the curve of your previous line. Click the starting anchor point you made. This closes the path and finishes your shape. Try making shapes just using the Pen tool. Don’t worry if they aren’t perfect. You can adjust the lines and curves afterward.

Click the edge around the shape you just made to select it. Click and drag a bezier curve. Notice how this adjusts the curve of the line. Click and drag an anchor point. This allows you to move adjust the shape by moving the the anchor points.