Embedded Files
The Zoom tool magnifies or reduces the view of an image.
Short cut keys are “CTRL +" to zoom in and “CTRL –" to zoom out or the mouse wheel.
The Hand tool allows you to Pan and Move the image around when you are zoomed in.
Short cut key is the SPACEBAR
Selection Tools
The Rectangle and Elliptical Marquee tool draws square / rectangle or round / elliptical selection borders.
Holding SHIFT when selecting will create a perfect square or circle.
You can add and subtract to these selections by using the SHIFT key and the ALT key, respectively.
The Move tool lets you cut and drag a pixel selection to a new location in the photo.
You can also use the tool to select and move objects between photos.
Holding down CTRL quickly changes to the move tool for quick selections.
The Lasso tool makes free form selections in any shape.
Make sure you close your shape or double-click to auto close.
Press ESC to start over.
The Polygonal Lasso tool Draws multiple straight-edged segments.
Hold SHIFT to keep your lines straight.
The Magnetic Lasso tool automatically snaps to edges you drag over in the photo.
You can add and subtract to these selections by using the SHIFT key and the ALT key, respectively.
The Object Selection tool attempts to isolate an object from it's background.
The Magic Wand tool selects pixels within a similar color range.
The higher number you type into the tolerance field, the less similar the adjacent pixels need to be in order to be selected.
You can also use the SHIFT key and the ALT keys to add and subtract to these selections.
The Quick Selection Tool automatically makes selections based on color and texture when you click or click-drag an area.
Type Tools
The Text tool allows you to add text in either the horizontal or vertical format.
To create a paragraph box to hold multiple lines of text, click, hold down and drag.
Use the Type Mask tools to create a selection in the shape of text.
Change your FONT options in the Text tool option menu.
Crop Tools
The Crop tool lets you remove (crop) part of an image surrounding the crop marquee, or selection.
Click and drag to make your selection. Hold down SHIFT for a perfect square.
The Straighten option within the CROP Tool will straighten a crooked image by dragging a line on the parts you want straightened.
Retouching Tools
The Spot Healing Brush quickly removes blemishes and other imperfections in your photos.
You can either click once on a blemish, or click and drag to an area. Best tool to remove small circular blemishes.
The Healing Brush fixes large areas of imperfections when you drag over them.
You can also remove objects from a uniform background. You need to ALT-CLICK to sample data.
The Patch Tool is a great option for removing and cloning objects in Photoshop. It attempts to match the texture and shading that are copied to the source area.
The Content-Aware Move Tool provides a quick method for re-positioning image content from one area to another.
The Clone Stamp tool paints with a sample of an image, which you can use to remove image imperfections or to paint over objects in your photo.
You need to ALT-CLICK to sample data.
The Blur tool softens hard edges or areas in an image to reduce detail.
The Sharpen tool sharpens soft edges or areas in an image to increase detail.
The Smudge tool simulates the actions of dragging a finger through wet paint.
The Sponge tool changes the color saturation or vividness of an area. Selecting Desaturate mutes the color while saturate brings out more color.
The Dodge tool lightens areas of the image. You can use the dodge tool to bring out details in shadows.
The Burn tool darkens areas of the image. You can use the burn tool to bring out details in highlights.
The Eraser tool erases pixels in the image as you drag through them.
The Background Eraser tool turns color pixels to transparent pixels so that you can easily remove an object from its background.
The cross-hair indicates the hotspot, as you drag the pointer; pixels within the circle and of similar color value to the hotspot are erased. Don't forget to set the tolerance.
The Magic Eraser tool changes all similar pixels when you drag in a photo.
Short cut keys are [ to increase eraser size and ] to decrease eraser size.
Painting and Drawing Tools
The Brush tool creates soft or hard strokes of color and can simulate airbrush techniques.
Short cut keys are [ to increase brush size and ] to decrease brush size.
Short cut keys are SHIFT + [ to increase hardness and SHIFT + ] to decrease hardness.
The Eyedropper tool samples a color from an area of an image. Think of it as “sucking up” the color you click.
The Paint Bucket fills an area that is similar in color value to the pixels you click.
Access the Paint Bucket under the Gradient Tool.
The Gradient tool lets you fill an area with a gradient by dragging in the image or in a selection. The distance between the starting point and ending point affects the gradient appearance, as does the gradient type.
To change the style of the gradient, click on the gradient in the options bar.
Change the colors of the gradient by clicking on the color stops.
You can add more colors by clicking anywhere on the empty gray area between stops.
The Shape tools allow you to draw lines, rectangles, rounded rectangles, polygons, ellipses, and custom shapes in an image.
You can change the color of a shape by editing its fill layer and applying layer styles to it.
Shapes have both a Fill and a Stroke that can be adjusted.
The square on the left is the Foreground Color and the square on the right (bottom) is the Background Color.
The icon in the upper left hand corner resets the color picker to its default black and white colors.
The arrows in the top right corner swaps the foreground and background colors.
Shorthort cut keys are “D" to reset default black and white colors and “X" to swap colors.
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