The Definition of the Tools

By: Brent Greenberg

So it's come to my attention I didn't start where I should have when I began learning about photoshop. I decided to jump right in and begin projects that I found online. Instead, I could have gone another route and learned Photoshop through the tools. Learn what each tool does and go from there. That's the direction I feel I should go now, and hopefully with the previous experience I have from my other Photoshop, this will all make more sense for my next project. So lets dive in for a quick crash course on the Photoshop tools.

In parentheses is the keyboard shortcut

Rectangle Marquee Tool (M)
Make selections on the image in a rectangular shape. Holding the shift key makes it a perfect square. Holding the alt key sets the center of the rectangle where your cursor is.

Move Tool (V)
This tool moves your pictures on the canvas

Lasso Tool (L)
Used to draw which parts of the picture you want to select. To end the selection, either click the beginning of your selection or double click the screen.

Magic Wand Tool (W)
Use this tool to select a color range, and it will select the block of color you picked.

Crop Tool (C)
When you select the image to crop and press the enter/return key it crops the image to the size of your box. Any piece of the image outside the box is deleted.

Healing Brush Tool (J)
This tool is used to repair minor scratches, specs, and stuff like that on your images. This is like the brush tool, you select your cursor size and brush over the parts of the image you want repaired. It averages the information on the image so it blends.

Brush Tool (B)
This paints on your image in whichever color you choose.

Clone Stamp Tool (S)
Similar to the healing brush tool, except this doesn't blend the image it copies the selected portion to where you want.

History Brush Tool (H)
This tool is like the brush tool, but it saves what it brushes over. Go to window>history and you can see what you painted over.

Eraser Tool (E)
The opposite of the brush tool, it erases the information selected. If you are on a layer, it makes that part transparent.

Gradient Tool (G)
This tool makes a gradiation of colors. Simple enough.

Blur Tool (R)
The blur tool makes the image blurry. Also very simple.

Dodge Tool (O)
This tool lightens whichever area you are covering. Except anything black...

Horizontal Type Tool (T)
Use this tool to add text to your images. Click a single point and begin typing or click and drag to the size of the text box you would like.

Rectangle Tool (U)
It draws a shape layer in the form of a rectangle and immediately put on the foreground of the canvas. Can also be changed to other shapes. Very difficult tool (sarcasm)

Notes Tool (N)
This tool adds notes to your image (self explanatory, I know) and is very helpful if you are forgetful and need to stop working or are sharing the image with someone else to work on.

Eyedropper Tool (I)
This changes the foreground color to whatever you are currently clicking on. Holding the alt key while you do this will change the background instead.

Hand Tool (T)
Used for moving an entire image within the window. If you are zoomed in and the image is too large for the screen, use the hand tool to navigate around it.

Zoom Tool (Z)
Last but certainly not least, this tool allows you to zoom into your image. Very simple.

With so many tools in Photoshop, at least I don't have to go and look up what each one means when I need them! And this has given me some great ideas for new projects to try! Shoutout to Photoshop Lab for their vast knowledge of Photoshop to help me create this post. Until next time!