Photoshop Tools and Toolbar Overview PDF

Getting to know the Photoshop Interface ShareTweetPinterest Learn all about the Photoshop interface and its features. Topics include the Document window, the Toolbar, the Options Bar, Menu Bar, and Panels. Also covers Workspaces, as well as the new Search feature. For Photoshop CC and CS6....

Getting to know the Photoshop Interface ShareTweetPinterest Learn all about the Photoshop interface and its features. Topics include the Document window, the Toolbar, the Options Bar, Menu Bar, and Panels. Also covers Workspaces, as well as the new Search feature. For Photoshop CC and CS6. (Written by Steve Patterson.) In this tutorial, we begin our chapter on Photoshop's interface with a quick, general tour of the main features the interface has to offer. There's lots that we can do with Photoshop, and over the years, Photoshop has grown into a massive program. However, the interface itself is actually quite simple. In fact, there is only a handful of sections we need to know about. We will look at each of them in this tutorial. We will start with the Document window, the main area where we view and edit our image. Then, we will look at the Toolbar where we find Photoshop's many tools. Directly related to the Toolbar is the Options Bar. The Options Bar displays options for the tool we have selected. The Menu Bar along the top of the interface holds all sorts of options and commands related to files, image editing, selections, layers, type, and more. In addition, the panel area along the right is where we find and use the many panels that Photoshop gives us to work with. We will take a general look at all of these features here, and cover some of them in more detail in other lessons in this chapter. We will also learn about the new Search feature that was recently added to Photoshop. In addition, we'll take our first look at workspaces and how they customize the appearance of the interface. I'll be using Photoshop CC but this tutorial is also compatible with Photoshop CS6. This is the first of 10 lessons in our Learning The Photoshop Interface series. Let's get started! The Photoshop Interface Here is what the Photoshop interface looks like once we have opened an image. We learned all about opening images in the previous chapter in this training series (super adorable photo from Adobe Stock): 181 ‫ من‬2 ‫الصفحة‬  The Photoshop CC interface. Photo credit: Adobe Stock. The Document Window The Document window is the large area in the center of the interface where the image is displayed. It's also where we edit the image. The actual area where the image is visible is known as the canvas. The dark area surrounding the image is the pasteboard. The pasteboard doesn't really serve a purpose other than to fill in the space around the image when the image itself is too small to fill the entire Document window: The Document window displays the image. 181 ‫ من‬3 ‫الصفحة‬ The Document Tab At the top of the Document window is the document's tab. The tab displays the name and file type of the document ("AdobeStock_145722872.jpeg") and its current zoom level (25%). The tab is also how we switch between document windows when we have more than one image open in Photoshop. We'll learn more about working with multiple documents in another lesson: The Document window tab. The Zoom Level And Status Bar In the bottom left of the Document window, we find more information about the image. The current zoom level is displayed, just like it is in the document's tab. And to the right of the zoom level is the Status Bar. By default, the Status Bar displays the color profile of the image. In my case, it's Adobe RGB (1998). Yours may say something different, like sRGB IEC61966-2.1. We learned about color profiles in the Essential Photoshop Color Settings tutorial back in Chapter 1: The document's current zoom level (left) and the Status Bar (right). Click and hold on the Status Bar to view additional information about the image, like its Width and Height, Resolution, and color information (Channels): 181 ‫ من‬4 ‫الصفحة‬  The Status Bar displays more info about the image when you click and hold on it. You can also change the type of information that the Status Bar displays. Click on the arrow on the right of the Status Bar to open a menu where you can choose to view different details, like Document Sizes (the file size) or Dimensions (the width, height and resolution). I'll leave it set to the default, Document Profile: Use the Status Bar to view many types of information about your document. The Toolbar The Toolbar (also known as the Toolbox or the Tools panel) is where Photoshop holds all of its tools. You'll find it along the left of Photoshop's interface. There's tools for making selections, for editing and retouching images, for painting, adding type or shapes to your document, and more: 181 ‫ من‬5 ‫الصفحة‬  The Toolbar in Photoshop. Expanding The Toolbar By default, the Toolbar appears as a long, single column of tools. Clicking the double-arrows at the top will expand the Toolbar into a shorter, double column. Click the arrows again to return to the single-column layout: 181 ‫ من‬6 ‫الصفحة‬  The Toolbar can be viewed as a single (default) or double column. The Toolbar's Hidden Tools Photoshop includes lots of tools. In fact, there are many more tools than what we see. Most of the tools in the Toolbar have other tools nested in with them in the same spot. Click and hold on a tool's icon to view a menu of the other tools hiding behind it. For example, by default, the Rectangular Marquee Tool is selected. It's the second tool from the top. If I click and hold on the Rectangular Marquee Tool's icon, a fly-out menu appears. The menu shows me that the Elliptical Marquee Tool, the Single Row Marquee Tool and the Single Column Marquee Tool can also be selected from that same spot. We'll learn more about the Toolbar in the next tutorial, and we'll learn how to use Photoshop's tools in other lessons throughout this training series: 181 ‫ من‬1 ‫الصفحة‬  Most of the spots in the Toolbar hold several tools, not just one. The Options Bar Directly linked to the Toolbar is Photoshop's Options Bar. The Options Bar displays options for whichever tool we've selected in the Toolbar. You'll find the Options Bar along the top of the interface, just above the document window. Here we see that, because I currently have the Rectangular Marquee Tool selected, the Options Bar is showing options for the Rectangular Marquee Tool: Options for the selected tool appear in the Options Bar. If I choose a different tool from the Toolbar, like the Crop Tool: 181 ‫ من‬8 ‫الصفحة‬  Selecting the Crop Tool. Then the options in the Options Bar change. Instead of seeing options for the Rectangular Marquee Tool, we're now seeing options for the Crop Tool: The Options Bar updates each time a new tool is selected. The Menu Bar Along the very top of Photoshop's interface is the Menu Bar. The Menu Bar is where we find various options and commands, all grouped into categories. The File menu, for example, holds options for opening, saving and closing documents. The Layer menu lists options for working with layers. Photoshop's many filters are found under the Filter menu, and so on. We will not go through every category and menu item here, but we will learn all about them in future lessons as they become important. Note that the "Photoshop CC" category on the left of the Menu Bar in the screenshot is only found in the Mac version of Photoshop: 181 ‫ من‬9 ‫الصفحة‬  The Menu Bar runs along the top of Photoshop. The Panels Along the right of Photoshop's interface is where we find the panels. Panels give us access to all sorts of commands and options, and there are different panels for different tasks. The most important panel is the Layers panel. It's where we add, delete and work with layers in our document. But there are lots of other panels as well, all of which we'll be looking at later: The panels are located in a column along the right of Photoshop. Panel Groups To save space on the screen, Adobe groups related panels together. For example, let's look at the Layers panel. Just like the Document window, each panel has a tab at the top which displays the 181 ‫ من‬11 ‫الصفحة‬ panel's name. Notice, though, that there are two other tabs to the right of the Layers tab. One 181 ‫ من‬11 ‫الصفحة‬ says Channels and the other says Paths. These are other panels that are nested in with the Layers panel in the same panel group. The name of the panel that's currently open in the group (in this case, the Layers panel) appears brighter than the others: The Layers panel is one of three panels in the group. Switching Between Panels In A Group To switch to a different panel in a group, click on its tab. Here, I've opened the Channels panel. To switch back to the Layers panel, again click on its tab: Click the tabs in a group to switch between the panels. 181 ‫ من‬11 ‫الصفحة‬ Where To Find More Panels In Photoshop By default, only a handful of panels are displayed at first. But there are many more panels available to us in Photoshop. You'll find the complete list of panels under the Window menu in the Menu Bar: Selecting the Window category in the Menu Bar. The panels are listed in a long, single column. I've split the column in half here just to help it fit better on the page. To select a panel, click on its name in the list. A checkmark to the left of a panel's name means that the panel is already open. Selecting a panel that's already open will close it. All of Photoshop's panels can be accessed from the Window menu. The Search Bar New in Photoshop CC is the Search bar. The Search bar lets us quickly find tools or commands in Photoshop, as well as tutorials on different topics, or images from Adobe Stock. To use the Search feature, click on the Search icon (the magnifying glass) in the upper right of Photoshop. You'll find it just above the panel column. If you're using Photoshop CC but you're not seeing the Search icon, make sure your copy of Photoshop is up to date: 181 ‫ من‬12 ‫الصفحة‬  Clicking the Search icon (only available in Photoshop CC). Clicking the icon opens the Search bar. Enter your search term at the top. For example, I'll enter "Crop". The Search bar then expands to show you the results. Here, we see that searching for "Crop" found Photoshop's Crop Tool and the Perspective Crop Tool. It also found the Crop and Straighten Photos command, the Trim command and the Crop command. Click on any tool or command in the list to quickly select it. Below the tools and commands is a tutorial from Adobe on how to crop and straighten photos, as well as images related to "Crop" on Adobe Stock (although farming crops isn't really what I had in mind). Clicking on a tutorial or an image will launch your web browser and take you to the Adobe or Adobe Stock website. Directly below your search term at the top is a menu allowing you to limit the type of results. By default, All is selected. To limit the results to just Photoshop's tools, panels and commands, choose Photoshop. For tutorials on your search term, choose Learn. And to view only images from Adobe Stock, choose Stock: 181 ‫ من‬13 ‫الصفحة‬  Use the Search feature to quickly find what you're looking for. Workspaces Finally, let's look at workspaces. A workspace in Photoshop is a preset collection and arrangement of the various interface elements. Workspaces can control which of Photoshop's panels are displayed on the screen, along with how those panels are arranged. A workspace can change the layout of the tools in the Toolbar. Items in the Menu Bar, along with keyboard shortcuts, can also be customized as part of a workspace. By default, Photoshop uses a workspace known as Essentials. The Essentials workspace is a general, all-purpose workspace, with an interface layout that's suitable for many different types of tasks. But there are other workspaces to choose from as well. We can switch between workspaces using the Workspace option in the upper right of Photoshop. In Photoshop CC, the Workspace option is 181 ‫ من‬14 ‫الصفحة‬ represented by an icon. In Photoshop CS6, it's a selection box, with the name of the currently- selected workspace displayed in the box: The Workspace icon in Photoshop CC. Click on the icon (or the selection box) to open a menu of other workspaces we can choose from. Photoshop includes several built-in workspaces. Each one customizes the interface for a specific type of work. As I mentioned, Essentials is a general, all-purpose workspace. If you're a web designer, you may want to switch to the Graphic and Web workspace. For image editing, the Photography workspace is a good choice. Keep an eye on your panels and on your Toolbar as you switch between workspaces to see what's changing. We'll look more closely at workspaces, including how to create and save your own custom workspaces, in another tutorial. Note that all of our tutorials use the default Essentials workspace, so I recommend sticking with Essentials as you're learning Photoshop: Use the Workspace menu to easily switch between workspaces. 181 ‫ من‬15 ‫الصفحة‬ Home > Photoshop Basics > How To Reset The Tools And Toolbar In Photoshop CC How To Reset The Tools And Toolbar In Photoshop CC ShareTweetPinterest Learn how to quickly reset Photoshop's Toolbar (Tools panel) back to its default tool layout, and how to reset Photoshop's tools to their default settings in the Options Bar, using the improved Reset All Tools command in Photoshop CC.(Written by Steve Patterson.) Photoshop's Reset All Tools command has been around for a long time. In previous versions of Photoshop, choosing Reset All Tools would reset all of your tool settings in the Options Bar back to their defaults. This cleared away any previous, custom settings that were used. What Reset All Tools would not do, though, is reset the Toolbar itself back to its default layout. If you wanted to restore all of the default tools, you would need to go through each spot in the Toolbar one at a time and manually choose the default tool. In Photoshop CC, we no longer need to do that. The Reset All Tools command still resets the tools back to their default settings in the Options Bar. But now, it also resets each spot in the Toolbar back to its default, primary tool. The improved Reset All Tools command was first added in Photoshop CC 2014. But because it didn't get a lot of attention, many Photoshop users are unaware of it. To use it, and to follow along with this tutorial, you'll need to be running Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud). You'll also want to make sure that your copy of Photoshop CC is up to date. This is lesson 3 of 10 in our Learning the Photoshop Interface series. Let's get started! The Photoshop Toolbar In the previous tutorial in this series, we learned all about the Toolbar in Photoshop. The Toolbar is where Photoshop stores all of its various tools, from selection tools to editing tools, type tools, shape tools, navigation tools, and more. There are so many tools, in fact, that not all of them can be displayed in the Toolbar at once. Many of Photoshop's tools are hidden behind other tools. The Default Tools For example, Photoshop includes four basic, geometric selection tools—the Rectangular Marquee Tool, the Elliptical Marquee Tool, the Single Row Marquee Tool, and the Single Column 181 ‫ من‬16 ‫الصفحة‬ Marquee Tool. To save space, all four of these tools are nested together in the same spot in the Toolbar. By default, the Rectangular Marquee Tool is the one that's visible. It's the default tool for the group: The Toolbar showing the Rectangular Marquee Tool by default. The Hidden Tools Most of the default tools in the Toolbar have other tools hiding behind them, nested into the same spot. To view the other tools, either click and hold, or right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac), on the default tool's icon. A fly-out menu will appear listing the other tools hiding behind it. Click on the name of a tool to select it. I'll choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool, just to pick something different: Use the fly-out menu to select any of the hidden tools. 181 ‫ من‬11 ‫الصفحة‬ The Default Tool Is No Longer Displayed Notice, though, that after choosing a different tool (in this case, the Elliptical Marquee Tool), the Toolbar is no longer displaying the default tool in that spot. Instead, it's displaying the new tool I selected. That's because Photoshop always shows the last tool that was selected, which means you won't always see the default tool. To select the default tool (the Rectangular Marquee Tool) at this point, I would need to click and hold, or right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac), on the Elliptical Marquee Tool and then choose the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the fly-out menu: The Elliptical Marquee tool has replaced the Rectangular Marquee Tool as the visible tool in the group. The same is true for Photoshop's freeform selection tools (the Lasso Tool, the Polygonal Lasso Tool and the Magnetic Lasso Tool). The Lasso Tool is the default tool for the group, so it's the tool we see initially. To select one of the other tools in the group, we need to click and hold, or right- click (Win) / Control-click (Mac), on the Lasso Tool and then choose a different tool from the fly-out menu. I will choose the Polygonal Lasso Tool: By default, the Polygonal and Magnetic Lasso Tools are hiding behind the Lasso Tool. After selecting the new tool, we see that the Polygonal Lasso Tool has replaced the standard Lasso Tool as the visible tool in that spot. Again, it's because Photoshop always displays the last tool that 181 ‫ من‬18 ‫الصفحة‬ was selected. In fact, we now have two spots in the Toolbar where a tool other than the default, primary tool is now visible: The Polygonal Lasso Tool has replaced the standard Lasso Tool in the Toolbar. Selecting More Tools We won't go through every spot in the Toolbar, but I'll quickly change a few more of them. I'll right- click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the Quick Selection Tool and choose the Magic Wand Tool from the fly-out menu: Choosing the Magic Wand Tool from behind the Quick Selection Tool. Then I'll right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the Crop Tool and select the Perspective Crop Tool hiding behind it: 181 ‫ من‬19 ‫الصفحة‬  Choosing the Perspective Crop Tool from behind the standard Crop Tool. Lastly, I will right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the Eyedropper Tool and I will choose Photoshop's Ruler Tool from the fly-out menu: Choosing the Ruler Tool from behind the Eyedropper Tool. After selecting these other tools, we see that my Toolbar is becoming cluttered with tools other than the defaults. It's not a huge problem, but it can make things confusing as you're learning Photoshop (especially if you're trying to follow along with tutorials that ask you to select default tools). It can also be a nuisance as you're working: 181 ‫ من‬21 ‫الصفحة‬  The Toolbar showing several spots where the default tool has been replaced. How To Reset The Photoshop Toolbar And Tool Settings Step 1: Select A Default Tool Luckily, we now have a way to instantly reset Photoshop's Toolbar back to its default layout thanks to the improved Reset All Tools command. But before we reset the Toolbar, there's one important step we need to do. In order for this to work, we first need to select a spot in the Toolbar where the default tool is still visible. In my case (and most likely yours, too), the spot at the very top of the Toolbar is still showing the Move Tool. The Move Tool is the default tool for its group. Click on the Move Tool to select it. You can also select the Move Tool by pressing the letter V on your keyboard. Note that the Move Tool itself is not what's important here. You can select any tool as long as it's the default tool for its group: Selecting the Move Tool at the top of the Toolbar. 181 ‫ من‬21 ‫الصفحة‬ Step 2: Choose "Reset All Tools" In The Options Bar With a default tool selected in the Toolbar, if you look up in the Options Bar along the top of the screen, you'll find the Tool Presets option over on the far left. The Tool Presets option doesn't have an icon of its own. Instead, it displays the icon of whichever tool is currently selected. In my case, it's the Move Tool: The Tool Presets option on the far left of the Options Bar. To reset your Toolbar back to its default layout, right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the Tool Presets icon. Then choose Reset All Tools from the menu: Choosing the "Reset All Tools" command. Step 3: Click OK To confirm that you want to reset the tools and the Toolbar, click OK: Clicking OK to restore the default tool and Toolbar settings. And just like that, my Toolbar is back to its original layout, with all of the default tools once again visible. And, if I was to select any of the tools, I would see that all of its options in the Options Bar have been reset to the defaults: 181 ‫ من‬22 ‫الصفحة‬  Each spot has been instantly reset to its default tool thanks to the improved Reset All Tools command. Where to go next... And there we have it! The improved Reset All Tools command is great, but it's not the only feature that Adobe has added to the Toolbar. As of CC 2015, Photoshop's Toolbar is now fully customizable, allowing us to finally create custom Toolbar layouts that better match the way we work! In the next lesson in this series, we'll learn how to customize the Toolbar in Photoshop! Or check out any of the other lessons in this chapter:  01. Getting to know the Photoshop interface  02. Photoshop tools and Toolbar verview  03. How to reset the tools and Toolbar  04. How to customize the Toolbar  05. Managing panels in Photoshop  06. Working with tabbed documents and floating windows  07. How to view multiple images at once  08. 5 ways to move images between documents  09. How to use workspaces  10. Screen modes and interface tricks Home > Photoshop Basics > Photoshop Tools and Toolbar Overview 181 ‫ من‬23 ‫الصفحة‬ Photoshop Tools and Toolbar Overview ShareTweetPinterest Learn all about Photoshop's tools and the toolbar. You will learn how the toolbar is organized and how to access its many hidden tools. Includes a complete summary of all 70 tools available in Photoshop that you can use as a reference! Now updated for Photoshop CC 2021! (Written by Steve Patterson.) In the first tutorial in this Photoshop Interface series, we took a general tour of the interface and its main features. This time, we'll learn all about Photoshop's tools and the toolbar. The toolbar is where Photoshop holds the many tools we have to work with. There are tools for making selections, for cropping and retouching images, for adding shapes and type, and many more! We’ll start with a look at the toolbar itself, including how the toolbar is organized and how to access the many tools hidden within it. Then we’ll look at each and every tool in the toolbar with a quick summary of what each tool is used for. I'm using Photoshop CC 2021 but you can follow along with earlier versions as well. Just note that some tools may not be available in your version. This is lesson 2 of 10 in our Learning the Photoshop Interface series. Let's get started! The Photoshop toolbar Photoshop's toolbar is located along the left of the screen: 181 ‫ من‬24 ‫الصفحة‬  The toolbar. 181 ‫ من‬25 ‫الصفحة‬ Choosing a single or double column toolbar By default, the toolbar appears as a long, single column. But it can be expanded into a shorter, double column by clicking the double arrows at the top. Click the double arrows again to return to a single column toolbar: The toolbar can be viewed in a single or double column. The tools layout Let's look at how Photoshop's toolbar is organized. While it may seem like the tools are listed randomly, there's actually a logical order to it, with related tools grouped together. At the top, we have Photoshop's Move and Selection tools. And directly below them are the Crop and Slice tools. Below that are the Measurement tools, followed by Photoshop'smany Retouching and Painting tools. Next are the Drawing and Type tools. And finally, we have the Navigation tools at the bottom: 181 ‫ من‬26 ‫الصفحة‬ The layout of the tools in the toolbar. 181 ‫ من‬21 ‫الصفحة‬ The toolbar's hidden tools Each tool in the toolbar is represented by an icon, and there are many more tools available than what we see. A small arrow in the bottom right corner of a tool icon means that there are more tools hiding behind it in that same spot: Most of the spots in the toolbar hold more than one tool. To view the additional tools, click and hold on the icon. Or right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the icon. A fly-out menu will open listing the other tools that are available. For example, if I click and hold on the Rectangular Marquee Tool icon, the fly-out menu tells me that along with that tool, the Elliptical Marquee Tool, the Single Row Marquee Tool and the Single Column Marquee Tool are also grouped in with it. To choose one of the additional tools, click on its name in the list. I'll choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool: Choosing a hidden tool from the fly-out menu. 181 ‫ من‬28 ‫الصفحة‬ The default tool The tool that's initially displayed in each spot in the toolbar is known as the default tool. For example, the Rectangular Marquee Tool is the default tool for the second spot from the top. But Photoshop won't always display the default tool. Instead, it will display the last tool you selected. Notice that after choosing the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the fly-out menu, the Rectangular Marquee Tool is no longer displayed in the toolbar. The Elliptical Marquee Tool has taken its place: Each spot in the toolbar displays either the default tool or the last tool selected. To select the Rectangular Marquee Tool at this point, I would need to either click and hold, or right- click (Win) / Control-click (Mac), on the Elliptical Marquee Tool icon. Then I could select the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the menu: Selecting the Rectangular Marquee Tool from behind the Elliptical Marquee Tool. A summary of Photoshop's tools So now that we've learned how Photoshop's toolbar is organized, let's look at the tools themselves. 181 ‫ من‬29 ‫الصفحة‬ Below is a quick summary of each of Photoshop's tools, along with a brief description of what eachtool is used for. The tools are listed in order from top to bottom, and specific tools are covered in more detail in other lessons. An asterisk (*) after a tool's name indicates a default tool, and the letter in parenthesis is the tool's keyboard shortcut. To cycle through tools with the same keyboard shortcut, press and hold Shift asyou press the letter. This list is up-to-date as of Photoshop CC 2021. Note that some tools are not available in earlier versions. 181 ‫ من‬30 ‫الصفحة‬