[Photoshop – Tutorial 2] – Introduction to the Toolbox

In our previous tutorial we discussed about the interface design of Photoshop viz. the Menu bar, Options bar, Toolbox, Document window and Panel Dock. Now, let us inspect and learn about the various tools that are available on Photoshop interface. Please note that there are numerous hidden tools under the filter menu too but for now, we are focusing on the toolbox in our software which is generally located on the left side. In this tutorial we will learn what these tools are about.

A broader look at the options nested under these tools will be provided in the next tutorial. 

Note :

1. The keyboard shortcuts for tools are written in brackets followed by the name of the Tool.
2. The toolbox shown here may look different from that on your machines because of the options nested under these tools, right click on these tools and you will find some more options nested under these tools as they have similar uses.

We are dividing our toolbox into four different categories to make it easier to understand and find the right tool which you want to choose. The categories are :

1. The Selection & Crop Tools
2. Retouch & Paint Tools
3. Drawing & Type Tools
4. Annotation / Measurement Tools

These categories can be shown as:

Note that, we can use the Double arrow icon on the top of the toolbox to expand or collapse it. The toolbox shown here is collapsed to double column by the double arrow key. You will find double arrow icons on other docks too, you can try yourself to expand or collapse other docs.

Now, let us have a look at the first category Selection & Crop Tool

Here, we have six different kind of Tools.

• We have the 1 – Marquee tool (M) which is generally used for predefined selection options provided in Photoshop.
• 2 – The Move tool (V) is used to move selections / Pixels / Layers etc. on an image without disturbing other parts of the images. It is very helpful in placement of a layer or an image in its required place on the main background.
• 3 – The Lasso tool is used to make irregular selections and is widely useful when we don’t require accurate selections.
• 4 – The Magic wand (W) is used for selection of area of similar color pixels in single click.
• 5 – The crop tool (C) is used for cropping an image but has a lot of flexibilities and options such that you can do it non-destructively too. Can be used to create blank pixels etc.
• 6 – The Eyedropper Tool (I)  is used to select a color from colors visible on the Photoshop interface and loading it as the foreground color.

The second category is Retouch & Paint Tools.

In this we have 8 different tools.

•  We have the 7 – Spot healing brush (J) which is used to repair various imperfections in an image such as blemishes or red eye etc.
• 8 – Brush tool (B) which is useful in painting, masking, retouch and many artistic works. This is very powerful tool and can create wonderful effects on an image.
• 9 – Clone Stamp Tool (S) is an another tool in this category generally used to clone pixels from one part of an image to other.
• 10  –  History Brush Tool (H) is generally used as a color replacement tool, it can be helpful but we will be using other methods for color replacement. But a brief explanation about this tool is provided in the next tutorial.

• 11 – Eraser Tool (E) is used to erase pixels while working on  a layer, can be used for blending layers etc.
• 12 – Gradient Tool (G) is used to fill your images, layers or selections with smooth multiple-color blends.
• 13 – Blur Tool is used to blur a particular layer, more advanced blur options are provided in the filter menu. We will be using blur tool mostly from there.
• 14 – Dodge Tool is a tool with color adjustment options, more advanced options are there in the Image menu > Adjustments

The third category is Drawing & Type Tools.

Here we have four type of tools :

• 15 – Pen tool (P) which is used to create clear shapes and paths which can be used as vector objects that can be scaled to any size.
• 16 – Text tool (T) one of the powerful tools which is used for creating and setting type in an image, we can create many interesting images using this tool with other modifications.
• 17 – Path Selection (A) –used to select a path for text writing or framework etc.
• 18 – Shapes (U) enable us to use predefined shapes given under this tool menu, has very useful applications.

The final category is Annotation / Measurement Tools

• 19 – Hand Tool (H) is generally used for moving from one part of the image to another in high zoom mode. Other way to move is holding the space bar along with the selected tool you are working with.
• 20 – Zoom Tool (Z) used for zooming in or out in an image, useful for testing various filters and their effects
• 21 – Foreground & Background Color – A foreground color and background colors are set such that they can be used to paint or fill selections. This view provides us an easy way to see what colors are currently selected, and enables us to switch easily between two different colors just by using the key board shortcut ( X ). Please note that the Foreground color is always the selected color for the operation.

• 22 – Quick Mask Mode (Q) is used to work in masks, masking allows us to show or hide pixels in an image by painting it with either foreground or background colors. This is a non- destructive way of editing and enables us to edit the same image as many times as we want later.

This ends our second tutorial. Our next tutorial will deal with the various options nested under these tools and various keyboards shortcuts and image basics. You are suggested to have a look at these nested tools by right clicking on a particular tool selected. This will help you understand the next tutorial better. If you have any doubts or queries please comment below.