Are you eager to dive into the world of graphic design but feel overwhelmed by Photoshop? Don’t worry, understanding the basic tools is the perfect starting point. Photoshop is a powerful software used to transform photos and images into stunning digital artwork. Mastering it is a must if you’re aiming for a career in graphic design. Let’s explore some fundamental Photoshop tools to kickstart your design journey.
1. The Move Tool
The Move Tool is your go-to for repositioning objects like images or text layers within your canvas. Simply select the tool, click on the object you want to move, and drag it to the desired location.
The Move Tool icon usually resembles a four-headed arrow as shown above. For a quick shortcut, just press V on your keyboard.
2. Mastering the Marquee Tool
The Marquee Tool family is essential for making selections on your canvas. Once you’ve selected an area, you can perform various operations like deleting, cutting, changing colors, or adding effects, but only to the selected portion.
The Marquee Tool comes in four primary types:
- Rectangular Marquee Tool: For selecting areas in a rectangular shape.
- Elliptical Marquee Tool: To create circular or oval selections.
- Single Row Marquee Tool: Creates a horizontal selection line that is only 1 pixel tall.
- Single Column Marquee Tool: Creates a vertical selection line that is 1 pixel wide.
3. The Versatile Lasso Tool
Similar to the Marquee Tool, the Lasso Tool allows you to make selections, but with freehand drawing. This tool provides flexibility as you manually trace the outline of the area you want to select by dragging your mouse. The Lasso Tool also includes variations:
- Polygonal Lasso Tool: Creates selections using straight lines and angles.
- Magnetic Lasso Tool: Automatically snaps to the edges of objects based on color and contrast as you drag.
In the example above, you can see how the Lasso Tool is used to freely select a portion of a strawberry. After selection, switching to the Move Tool allows you to isolate and move the selected part, separating it from the rest of the strawberry.
4. Quick Selection & Magic Wand Tools
These tools are incredibly useful and you’ll likely use them frequently. The Quick Selection Tool rapidly selects areas based on object edges, while the Magic Wand Tool selects areas based on similar colors.
Usage is similar to the Lasso Tool, but their selection methods differ. The example above demonstrates a selection roughly following the shape of a strawberry. Actions like deleting or changing the color of parts of the strawberry can then be applied. In the lower strawberry example, the position has been altered using the Move Tool after selection.
5. Crop & Slice Tools
If you work with photos, you’re probably familiar with cropping. The Crop Tool trims images to a rectangular or square shape, with adjustable dimensions. The Perspective Crop Tool is for cropping images with perspective or distortion, allowing you to straighten and crop in one step.
Within the Crop Tool group, you’ll also find the Slice Tool. This tool divides an image into multiple sections for web design or exporting parts of an image separately. The Slice Select Tool is then used to adjust and move these slices. Sliced sections are often exported as individual image files.
The example above demonstrates the Crop Tool in action. It generally crops in a rectangular shape, but you can customize the aspect ratio, for example, to common photo sizes like 3×4, 5×6, or to custom dimensions.
6. The Eyedropper Tool
Simply put, the Eyedropper Tool samples color from any point in your image and sets it as your foreground color. This sampled color then becomes the active color for other tools like the Brush Tool or Shape Tool. The Eyedropper Tool has variations, including the 3D Material Eyedropper Tool for 3D objects, and the Color Sampler Tool which samples color and displays RGB and CMYK values. Additional tools grouped here include:
- Ruler Tool: Measures distances and angles within the canvas.
- Note Tool: Adds digital notes directly onto your Photoshop file.
- Count Tool: Numbers objects in an image, useful for counting items.
In the example, the Eyedropper Tool picks up the red color from the strawberry, which is then automatically reflected in the color swatch, ready for use with other tools.
7. The Brush Tool
The Brush Tool is your digital paintbrush for drawing and painting directly on your canvas. Essentially, the Brush Tool applies color.
Photoshop offers a wide variety of brush tips, allowing for unique and artistic effects. As shown in the example above, after selecting the Brush Tool, the options bar at the top of the Photoshop interface displays various brush presets that you can choose from.
The Brush Tool family also includes:
- Pencil Tool: Draws with a hard-edged, pencil-like stroke, often thinner than the brush.
- Color Replacement Tool: Replaces a selected color with the current foreground color while preserving texture and shading.
- Mixer Brush Tool: Simulates realistic painting by mixing colors on the brush, much like traditional painting.
8. Spot Healing Brush Tool
This tool is often used in photo retouching, for tasks like removing blemishes. The Spot Healing Brush Tool primarily functions to seamlessly remove imperfections by blending the area with surrounding colors and textures.
As shown above, the Spot Healing Brush Tool can subtly remove spots or blemishes from the surface of a strawberry. Within this tool group, you’ll also find these related tools:
- Healing Brush Tool: Removes or repairs imperfections by sampling texture from one area and applying it to another. You first sample an area by Alt-clicking, then paint over the area to be healed.
- Patch Tool: Replaces a selected area with a texture from another area. You select the area to replace, then drag the selection to the source area.
- Content-Aware Move Tool: Moves or extends selected objects to a different part of the image, and intelligently fills in the gap left behind.
- Red Eye Tool: Specifically designed to remove red-eye caused by camera flash in photographs.
9. Eraser Tool
The Eraser Tool does exactly what you expect: it erases parts of your image, either partially or completely. Besides the standard Eraser Tool, there are variations: the Background Eraser Tool, which erases backgrounds while attempting to preserve foreground edges, and the Magic Eraser Tool, which erases areas of similar color with a single click.
The example above shows the Eraser Tool in use. You can erase portions of an object as needed. First, select the Eraser Tool from the toolbar, and then drag it over the areas you want to erase.
10. Gradient Tool
The Gradient Tool creates color blends, smoothly transitioning between two or more colors within an object or layer. It’s often used for backgrounds or adding depth to shapes. The Gradient Tool offers various gradient types, as shown in the example below. You can select different gradient styles in the options bar, including Linear, Radial (circular), Diamond, Angular, and Reflected gradients.
Crucially, within the Gradient Tool group, you will find the Paint Bucket Tool. This tool fills areas of similar color with the foreground color in a single click. Also located here is the 3D Material Drop Tool, used for applying materials to 3D objects precisely.
To find the Paint Bucket Tool in Photoshop CS5:
- Locate the Gradient Tool icon in the toolbar. It often looks like a square fading from one color to another.
- Click and hold on the Gradient Tool icon. A flyout menu will appear, revealing other related tools.
- Select the Paint Bucket Tool from this flyout menu. It typically looks like a paint bucket pouring out paint.
11. Shape Tool
The Shape Tool group is used for creating vector shapes. It includes various preset shapes: Rectangle Tool (squares and rectangles), Rounded Rectangle Tool (rectangles with rounded corners), Ellipse Tool (circles and ovals), Polygon Tool (shapes with multiple sides), Line Tool (straight lines), and Custom Shape Tool (for a library of pre-designed shapes available in the options bar).
To use a Shape Tool, select it from the toolbar and then drag on the canvas to draw the shape.
12. Pen Tool
The Pen Tool is primarily used for creating precise paths and selections using anchor points. It’s commonly used for detailed editing tasks like removing backgrounds, isolating objects, or creating clipping paths. The Pen Tool also has variations:
- Freeform Pen Tool: Allows you to draw paths freehand, creating anchor points as you draw.
- Add Anchor Point Tool: Adds anchor points to existing paths to modify their shape.
- Delete Anchor Point Tool: Removes anchor points from paths.
- Convert Point Tool: Changes anchor points between smooth curves and sharp corners by manipulating their handles.
The example above shows the Pen Tool creating a path with anchor points around a strawberry leaf. After creating a path with the Pen Tool, you can right-click on the path to bring up a menu with options like “Make Selection,” which converts the path into a selection similar to those made with the Lasso or Marquee Tools.
13. Direct Selection Tool
The Direct Selection Tool is mainly used to refine and adjust anchor points and paths created by the Pen Tool or Shape Tools. With this tool, you can directly manipulate individual points on a vector object. The Path Selection Tool, also in this group, is used to move entire paths or shapes as a whole.
This tool is also effective for editing shapes created with the Shape Tools, as shown in the example above. Here, the Direct Selection Tool is used to adjust the anchor points of an arrow shape. Each point can be moved, reshaped, or deleted to customize the shape.
14. Blur Tool
The Blur Tool softens edges and details, blurring portions of an image. It also includes the Sharpen Tool, which does the opposite, increasing sharpness and detail, and the Smudge Tool, which simulates dragging wet paint, creating a smearing effect.
To use the Blur Tool, select it and then paint over the areas you want to blur. As shown in the example, parts of the strawberry are blurred to soften the focus.
15. Type Tool
The Type Tool is used to add text to your images. It comes in four main variations:
- Horizontal Type Tool: Creates standard horizontal text.
- Vertical Type Tool: Creates text oriented vertically, reading from top to bottom.
- Horizontal Type Mask Tool: Creates a text-shaped selection outline in a horizontal orientation.
- Vertical Type Mask Tool: Creates a text-shaped selection outline in a vertical orientation.
When using the Type Tool, the options bar at the top provides settings like font selection (typeface), font style (bold, italic, normal), text size, and color. In the example, the white text overlaid on the strawberry is an example of a selection created using the Horizontal Type Mask Tool.
These are just some of the fundamental tools in Photoshop that are essential for learning graphic design. To further enhance your graphic design skills, explore resources like Skill Academy.
