Home > Adobe Photoshop > Tool by Tool Guide
Tool By Tool Guide
Many of the core tools in Photoshop are collected together in a tools panel, which is traditionally found at the left of the screen. If the tools panel is not visible, you can find it by going to Window > Tools.
Also, if any icon has a small triangle in the lower right, 
right clicking or holding down on this icon will generate further similar options, relevant to this particular tool.
Rectangular Marquee Tool
Use this tool to make selections on your image, in a rectangular shape. Any other tools, filters or effects that you apply from now on, will only affect the area within the selection, represented by dotted lines (until the selection is de-selected, or another selection is made)
Tips –
- Holding the [Shift] key while dragging will create a perfect square.
- Holding the [Alt] key while dragging sets the centre of the rectangle to where your cursor started.
- Right click on the Marquee Tool Icon will enable you to choose a circular selection instead of a rectangular selection.
Move Tool
Use this tool to move elements around the canvas. Usually you use it to move a Layer around after it has been placed. Hold the [Shift] key to limit the movements to vertical/horizontal.
Lasso Tool
Use this tool to draw freehand selections in whatever shape you would like. To close the selection, either click back to the point you started, or just let go of the mouse.
By right clicking on the Lasso Tool, you can choose to select the Polygon Lasso Tool, or The Magnetic Lasso Tool. The Polygon lasso tool draws a straight line from one mouse click to the other, and the magnetic lasso tool is drawn towards edges, making these tools perfect for cutting out faces or shapes from an image.
Magic Wand Tool
Use this to select an area of the image with a similar colour range. For example it will select all the pixels similar to the pixel you select. If you click on a white pixel, it will select all the white space around it, making this tool perfect for removing backgrounds from an image.
In the Options Bar at the top, you can change the Tolerance, which changes how strict the tool is. A low tolerance (of zero for example) will see it pick pixels that are EXACTLY like the pixel you originally clicked on. A high tolerance will pick pixels that are not exactly, but close enough, to the pixel you originally clicked on.
Crop Tool
The Crop Tool works similarly to the Rectangular Marquee tool, the difference is when you press Enter, it crops your image to the size of the box, and any information that was on the outside of the box is now deleted.
Slice Tool
This is used mostly for building websites, by splitting up one image into smaller sections such as the header, and the main body, or the background et. You probably wont use this tool much at this stage.
Healing Brush Tool
This is a really useful tool, particularly when you use Photoshop to ‘airbrush’ photos, or what has become known as ‘photoshop-ing’ these days.
What this tool does is allow you to select a clean/nice/correct area of the image, then copy this area of pixels onto another area, before Photoshop slightly blurs them, to ensure they match more closely, and do not look out of place. This makes this tool very handy for removing spots on faces, skin blemishes or freckles.
As with most tools, there are sub icons to this tool. Right clicking the icon will give you access to four tools in total, but the only other tool that will be applicable to you is the Red Eye Reduction Tool.
The Red Eye Reduction tool allows you to draw a small selection box over a person’s red eye in a scanned photo. It then replaces the red tinted pixels with less noticeable grey tinted pixels, which when viewed at 100%, removes the red eye flare, which often ruins some photos.
Brush Tool
This is one of the most basic tools. It simply paints over your image, in whatever colour you have selected, and whatever size you have selected. In the menu at the top of the screen, there are options such as brush size, brush shape, pressure and brush opacity.
Right click on this tool will enable you to select The Pencil Tool (a 1 pixel wide brush for fine, individual pixel painting) or The Colour Replace Tool, which enables you to select one hue or colour of an image, then paint over only that colour (wherever it appears in the image) with a new colour of your choice.
Clone Stamp Tool
This tool very similar to the Healing Brush Tool, except this tool doesn’t blend the selected pixels at the end. It is a direct copy of the information from the first selected area to the second.
This tool can used with some skill to remove people or buildings out of an image completely.
History Brush Tool
This tool works just like the Brush Tool except the information that it paints with is from the original state of your image, when it was first opened, without any effects applied to it. With this in mind it works like an eraser tool, erasing effects and modifications, but not the image itself.
Eraser Tool
This tool erases pixel information wherever you click and drag it on that layer only.
Right click on this tool to select the Magic Eraser, which will act like the magic wand, and select all the pixels similar to the one you clicked, only this tool will instantly delete them.
Gradient Tool
You can use this to make a block of colour, that transitions from one colour to another. It creates a blending of your foreground colour and background colour when you click and drag it.
Right click on this tool to select The Paint Bucket Tool, which will fill a selection or area with a solid colour (or pattern) of your choice
Blur Tool
The Blur tool blurs the pixels of an image together. The more you click and drag, the blurrier things get.
Right click on this tool to select The Sharpen Tool (which will emphasise individual pixels, creating the appearance of increased, sharper detail) and The Smudge Tool, which acts like the blur tool, but to a stronger degree, and will move the pixels around the canvas more.
Dodge Tool
The Dodge Tool is used to lighten pixels by a certain degree. Alternatively, right click on this tool to select The Burn Tool, which will darken pixels by a degree. Right clicking and selecting The Sponge Tool will absorb the colour out of the selected pixels, turning the area into grey-scale mode.
Path Selection Tool
You use this tool when working with paths, drawn with the Pen Tool. You probably won’t use this tool as much at this stage.
Horizontal Type Tool
This tool enables you to type text into you document. The options at the top of the canvas screen will allow you to change the font and size etc. Holding down on this tool will enable you to select The Vertical Type Tool, which will position text vertically on your canvas instead of horizontally.
Right click on this tool again and you can select The Type Mask Tool, which will enable you to create selections in the same way as the Marquee Tool, only this time they will be shaped like letters or even words. You can then use these selections cut word-shaped sections out of an image.
Pen Tool
The Pen tool will enable you to make irregular shapes. It creates a straight line, called a Path, from one click point to the next, much like the polygon lasso tool. Clicking back to the original click point will close the shape. Pressing enter will leave it open. Selecting the Path Selection Tool will enable you to edit each point, move the path, or right click and apply various options (such as Fill, or Stroke)
Rectangle Tool
By default it draws a Shape Layer in the form of a rectangle. It fills the rectangle with whatever foreground colour you have selected. Right click on this tool to generate several other shapes such as circles, rounded rectangles and polygons.
Notes Tool
Like post-it notes, but digital. You can use this tool to add small little note boxes to your image. These are useful if you’re very forgetful or if you’re sharing your Photoshop file with someone else.
Eyedropper Tool
This tool works by changing your foreground colour to whatever colour you click on. Holding the [Alt] key will change your background colour.
Hand Tool
If you’re zoomed in and your image area is larger than the window, you can use the Hand Tool to navigate around your image. Just click and drag. You can activate the hand tool at any time when using any other tool by pressing and holding the [Spacebar].
Zoom Tool
It allows you to zoom into your image. Hold the [Alt] key to zoom out. Holding the [Shift] key will zoom all of the windows you have open at the same time. Double-click on the Zoom Tool in the palette to go back to 100% view.
Colour Boxes
These are your colour boxes. Foreground (in the front) and Background (in the back). Click on either one to bring up the colour select dialog box. Clicking the arrows will switch them, and clicking the small black and white boxes will default them back to black and white.
Click here to see the full tool bar menu, with each sub-icon visible, and where they can be found.
Further Photoshop Resources
About Adobe Photoshop
Background Information and Getting Started
Photoshop Interface
Keyboard Shortcuts
Tool by Tool
Adding Effects and Filters
Download
Download the full Photoshop Help File as a PDF
