Functions of Photoshop left toolbar

(1) Select and set the brush

Most drawing tools. In the use of the first to select the brush. Photoshop provides a brush and pencil two brush tools. Its drawing style is different. Paintbrush to brush the style of drawing. Pencil to draw in the style of a hard brush.

Select the brush. You can set the brush settings in the toolbar.

(2) Modifying Brushes

In the Brush Panel or Preset Manager. Only Photoshop preset brushes can be selected. But sometimes Photoshop preset brushes can not meet the needs. You can edit the selected brushes.

Select the Brush tool in the Toolbox. Use the mouse to click the tool options bar on the right side of the [Brush] tab. The Brush Presets panel opens.

This panel is similar to the Brush Preset Manager. Select a brush in the Brush list box. Set the brush size using the slider bar or the text box. See the effect of the brush settings in the preview box at the bottom of the panel.

(3) Other settings

If the Brush tool is selected. There are also [Mode] in the tool options bar. [Opacity", "Flow" and "Gun" in the tool options bar.

If the Pencil tool is selected. The toolbar is missing the Flow and Gun options. Instead, there is an Auto Erase option. [Auto Erase is the equivalent of painting with a background color.

(4) Painting

When all the settings for the brush are complete. Click or drag the mouse over the image. Paint.

The following figure shows the effect of selecting the brush tool to draw green grass.

Drawing with the Brush

2. The History Brush Tool

The History Brush includes the History Brush and the History Art Brush. As a whole. The History Brush is a recovery tool. It must be used in conjunction with the History panel. For more information on the History panel, see [Chapter 10: Applying History and Actions].

(1) History Brush

When editing an image. You can save the state of the image at a certain point in the editing process. You can save the state of the image at a certain point in the editing process. The History Brush is used to recreate this state.

Select the History Brush. Drag the mouse over the image. The area where the mouse passes over will reproduce the state of the image.

The History Brush toolbar is identical to the Brush tool.

(2) History Art Brush

The History Art Brush is similar to the History Brush. It is just a bit more stylized than the Historical Brush to create special effects.

Erase Tools

The Eraser Tool contains three tools. [Eraser Tool]. [The Background Color Eraser Tool and the Magic Eraser Tool.

1. Eraser Tool

The Eraser Tool is used to erase unwanted parts of the image and the erased parts are filled with the background color.

2. Background Color Eraser Tool

The Background Color Eraser Tool is used to erase the background color. The erased area of the background color will become transparent.

The following image shows the effect of the Background Color Eraser.

Erasing

After using the Background Eraser to erase the background. The background layer is automatically changed to a normal layer. Name it [Layer 0]. After using the Eraser tool to erase the background. The nature of the background layer does not change. It is equivalent to painting with the background color.

3. Magic Eraser Tool

When erasing an image with the Magic Eraser Tool. It automatically erases all similar colors. If the image is erased in the background or in a layer with transparent areas locked. The erased color is changed to the background color. Otherwise the erased area becomes transparent. Below is the Magic Eraser erasing effect.

Erase

The Fill tool

The Fill tool is used to color the selected area. The Fill tool consists of the Paint Bucket tool and the Gradient tool.

1. The Paint Bucket Tool

The Paint Bucket cannot fill a bitmap image.

2. The Gradient tool

The Gradient tool creates a gradual blend of colors, meaning a gradual transition from one color to another. The Gradient tool cannot be used with bitmap. Indexed color or images in 16-bit-per-channel mode.

There are five types of gradients in the toolbar. [Linear Fade] Fades from the start point to the end point in a straight line, [Radial Fade] Fades from the start point to the end point in a circular pattern, [Angular Fade] Fades around the start point in a counterclockwise sweep, [Symmetrical Fade] Uses a symmetrical linear gradient to fade on either side of the start point, and [Rhombic Fade] Fades outward from the start point in a diamond pattern. The end point defines one of the corners of the rhombus.

The Repair Tool

The Repair Tool repairs an image by replacing it with a different color.

The Repair tool includes the Repair Brush tool. The Repair Tool and the Red-Eye Brush Tool.

1. Repair Brush Tool

The Repair Brush Tool can be used to correct imperfections. Make them disappear from the image. Use the Repair Brush tool to paint with sample pixels from an image or pattern. The texture, lighting and shading of the sample pixels can be compared to the source pixels. Lighting and shading of the sample pixels can be matched to the source pixels. This allows the restored pixels to blend in with the rest of the image without leaving a trace.

2. Patch tool

The Patch tool repairs a selected area with a color from another area or pattern. It is actually a color replacement tool. Like the Repair Brush tool. The Repair tool will texture, light and shade the sample color to the source pixel. Lights and shadows are matched to the source pixels.

3. Red-Eye Brush Tool

The Red-Eye Brush Tool is a new tool in Photoshop CS. It allows you to quickly replace local colors in an image. For example, to remove photo red-eye and local coloring.

Imitation tool

Imitation tool is also called stamp tool. This tool allows you to make a copy of an image or a pattern as a sample.

The imitation tools include the Imitation Stamp tool and the Pattern Stamp tool.

1. Imitation Stamp Tool

The Imitation Stamp Tool takes a sample from an image. The sample is then used to draw the equivalent of a copy in other images or in other locations in the same image. In popular terms, this is called cloning.

2. Pattern Stamp Tool

The Pattern Stamp tool is a copy of the drawing with the selected pattern. You can select a pattern from the pattern library or create your own.

Compared to the Faux Stamp tool. The Stamp tool's options bar has additional Pattern and Impressionist options.

The Retouch Tool

The Retouch Tool has two tool groups. One is the Focus and Smear toolset. One is the Tint and Sponge tool group.

1. Focus and Smear Tools

The Focus tool is subdivided into the Blur and Sharpen tools. These three tools have basically the same options bar. The Smear tool has an additional [Finger Paint] option in the options bar.

2. Tone and Sponge tools

The Tone tool is made up of the Lighten and Deepen tools. The Lighten or Deepen tool utilizes traditional photographic techniques for adjusting the exposure of specific areas of a photo. They can be used to lighten or darken areas of an image.

The Lighten and Deepen tools have the same options in the options bar.

The Sponge tool can be used to precisely change the color saturation of an area of the image. In grayscale mode. This tool increases or decreases contrast by moving the grayscale away from or closer to the middle gray.

Other Tools

There are several other specialized tools or groups of tools in the Toolbox.

1. Move. Selection. Load and Slice Tools

Select the Move tool . Drag the mouse in the image window. You can move the current layer.

Selection tools include the Selection toolset. Lasso tool set and Magic Wand tool. Used to create a selection in an image.

Select the Cut tool to crop the image. It works like the Canvas Size command in the Image menu.

The Slice toolset includes the Slice tool and the Slice Selection tool. Slicing is to divide the image. It is mainly used for web page creation. The Slice tool is used to create slices. The slice selection tool is used to select a slice.

2. Path selection tool. Pen tool. Shape Tools and Text Tools

The Path Selection Toolset is used to select and edit paths. The Pen toolset and Shape toolset draw paths. For more information, see [Chapter 8: Applying Paths].

The Text tool group is used to create and edit text in images. See Chapter 9, "Working with Text" for more information.

3. Annotate and Straw Tools

The Annotate toolset includes the Annotate tool and the Voice Annotate tool. This is used to create text and voice annotations in images.

The Pipes toolset includes the Pipes tool . Color Sampler Tool and Metrics Tool . The Pipette tool is used to select the foreground color from the image. The Color Sampler tool sets sampling points in the image. The Metrics tool creates metric lines in the image. Measure distances and angles.

4. Image Viewing Tools

The image viewing tools include the Gripper tool and the Zoom tool. If the image is not fully displayed in the image window. Use the grabber tool to drag the mouse in the image window. You can view parts of the image outside the window, and use the Zoom tool to zoom in and out of the image.

In the lower part of the toolbox there are three buttons in the order of left, center and right curtain display mode. The left button displays the default window. This window has a title bar. The left button displays the default window with the title bar, menu bar and tool options bar. The center button displays the full screen window. This window has the title bar removed. It has a menu bar and a 50% gray background. If there is a status bar in the default window. The status bar will also be hidden. The right button shows the full screen window. This window has a black background. But there is no title bar. Menu bar. By clicking on these three buttons. You can change the display mode of the screen. This changes the way the image is viewed.

5. Edit modes

Edit modes include Standard and Quick Mask modes. You can switch between the two modes by clicking on the corresponding buttons with the mouse. See Chapter 7, Layers and Masks for more information.

6. Foreground and background color selection

There are two color boxes in the lower part of the toolbox. The one in front represents the current foreground color. The one behind represents the current background color. You can change the foreground and background colors. See [Chapter 4: Basic Photoshop Operations].

7. Jumping to connect with Adobe sites

At the bottom of the Toolbox is a Jump button. Click the Jump button to switch from Photoshop to the ImageReady application.

At the top of the toolbox is a feather icon. Click on this icon to access the Adobe site while connected to the Internet.