Before trying to figure out how all the tools work, it’s important to have a good understanding of how to use the Photoshop Toolbar.
The Photoshop Toolbar is the most important component of Photoshop and one that you will use continuously throughout your Photoshop experience. Each tool has something unique to offer and although you may not use it right away, it is good to know the main function of each one.
Throughout the years, I have spent many hours reading and watching tutorials when I was looking for something specific (e.g., which tool would lighten a specific area in a photo). Nothing is more irritating than reading or watching a bunch of tutorials, just to find out it wasn’t what you were looking for. Eventually, I could find something helpful using a combination of several tutorials. But, as you very well know, that can be literally exhausting.
So, I have put together a reference sheet to briefly cover all 67 tools on the toolbar. This will give you an idea of the main function for each tool so you can quickly find the best solution to complete your task.
Detailed information and additional tutorials can be accessed by selecting the highlighted links in each tool.
Keep scrolling or select a section to get started!
Terms To Know
How to Use the Photoshop Toolbar
Keyboard Shortcuts
The Toolbar Quick Reference Guide
Terms to Know
With all the slang and tech terms being used today, it can be difficult to make sense of everything. Understanding the latest jargon will help you navigate through Photoshop a little easier. Therefore, I have listed a few key terms used in this tutorial. You can access the complete list of Photoshop Key Terms here.
- Anchor Point – Sets the outline points when using the pen tool to create a path.
- Click and Drag – Holding down the right button while simultaneously dragging the mouse.
- Contiguous – Selection will include adjacent color pixels.
- Keyboard Shortcut – Simultaneously pressing a combination of keys on your keyboard to perform a variety of tasks (i.e., Ctrl + N opens a new file).
- Layers – The working area in Photoshop that acts much like stacks of transparent paper layered on top of each other. They contain the individual pieces of each element in your document that can be edited individually.
- Marching Ants – Flashing dotted lines that indicates the area of an object that is selected for editing.
- Opacity – Sets the transparency of a color or image.
- Pixel – The tiny color squares that combine to form an image.
- Points – The eight square boxes located around the bounding box of a selection.
- Sample – Refers to the pixel color selection of an image with the eyedropper tool.
How to Use the Tool Bar
The tool bar is a moveable sidebar located on the left side of screen. Although it may not look like it, the tools are somewhat grouped together by their actions.
At the top of the toolbar are the move, selection, crop/slice, and measurement tools.
Around the middle are the retouch and paint tools.
Toward the bottom are the drawing, type and navigation tools.
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The tool you are currently working with will have a dark surrounding highlight.
Tools with a small triangle in the bottom right corner indicates additional tools are available.
Keyboard Shortcuts
If a keyboard shortcut is available, you will see a letter to the right of the tool. You can navigate to any tool in the toolbar by simply pressing the corresponding letter. When a tool is selected, you can simultaneously press the shift and shortcut key to advance you to the next shortcut.
Unlike the main menu, the tool panel keyboard shortcuts do not use the ctrl or alt keys. However, the shift key may be required in some instances.
Tool Options Bar
Each tool will have additional options in the tool options bar located directly below the main menu.
These are additional options to customize the currently selected tool.
Now let’s move on and learn about each of the tools!
The ToolBar Quick Reference Guide
This quick reference guide will provide a basic description for each tool located on the toolbar. You can download a copy of the Photoshop ToolBar Reference Guide to keep close by!
For additional information and tutorials for each tool, select the link within the description.
Select a section or keep scrolling to get started!
Move and Selection Tools
Crop and Slice Tools
Measuring Tools
Retouching Tools
Paint Tools
Drawing and Pen Tools
Text Tools
Navigation Tools
Move and Selection Tools
At the top of the toolbar are the selection tools. These tools allow you to select and/or move an object, layer, or a selected area without affecting the surrounding areas.
Each selection tool is designed to specifically address different conditions. Photoshop gives you several different options, so you can make selections as accurate as possible.
Before using any of the selection tools, knowing the main function for each tool will help you decide which one is the best to use for your specific task.
The Move Tool is a tool you will use repeatedly. Using a simple click and drag, you can select an object and move it to another area. Likewise, it doubles as a Selection Tool allowing you to select multiple objects to align or distribute.
Artboards are a new addition to Photoshop and very useful for digital scrapbooking page layouts.
The artboard is the “white space” within Photoshop that is your actual working space.
When creating digital scrapbook template pages, I create several artboards for each individual page. That way, I have my entire digital scrapbook in one file.
The Rectangular Marquee Tool is the basic selection tool in Photoshop. It allows you to make rectangular selections in your image.
It works by clicking and dragging diagonally around the area you want to select. You will see the “marching ants” around the area you have selected.
The Rectangular Marquee Tool is limited to drawing only a square or rectangle.
The Elliptical Marquee Tool is another basic selection tool in Photoshop. It allows you to make elliptical selections in your image.
It also works by clicking and dragging diagonally around the area you want to select. You will see the “marching ants” around the area you have selected.
The Elliptical Marquee Tool is limited to drawing only in a circle or oval.
The Single Column Marquee Tool allows you to make a vertical selection that is exactly one pixel wide and the entire length of your image.
The Single Row Marquee Tool allows you to make a horizontal selection that is exactly one pixel tall and the entire width of your image.
Crop and Slice Tools
The crop and slice tools are beneficial for trimming or slicing selected areas of an image.
The CROP tool trims or removes the surrounding area of your selection. You can use the crop handles or click and drag the crop tool to select the area you want to keep. In addition, you can straighten images while using the crop tool.
The Perspective Crop Tool takes some practice to use, but useful when you need to make adjustments to misaligned areas of an image. Using the perspective grid, drag any of the 8 points vertically or horizontally to adjust the perspective.
The slice tool is a simple way to divide an image into smaller images. This is primarily used in web design to decrease the size of large files for uploading.
Using the slice tool on your images will substantially decrease loading times. In addition, creating slices allows you to assign a different URL to each section.
The Slice Select Tool allows you to select, move or resize your current slices. This is primarily used in web design to decrease the size of large files for uploading.
Measuring Tools
The Measuring Tools enable you to measure color pixels, distance and angles, count objects, and even add notes in your image.
There will be a time when you need to match a specific color from an image. This is where they eyedropper tool comes in handy. The eyedropper tool is used to select a specific pixel color from another object. This will automatically change the foreground color (or press Option/Alt to change it to the background) to the color sample you select.
When using any of the brush, paint or shape tools, you can quickly access the eyedropper tool by pressing the Option/Alt key.
This tool works in conjunction with the 3D Material Drop Tool and only used when working with 3D objects. Unlike the eyedropper tool, it does not select a pixel color. It selects and loads a pattern you can drop on any 3D image.
The color sampler tool works like the eyedropper tool except it will not automatically change your foreground/background color. It allows you to sample several different areas of an image and adds a non-printing number icon. In your workspace on the right side of the screen, it displays the RGB color values for each numbered icon.
The Ruler Tool is used to determine the exact size, distance between, or angles of an object. It creates a non-printing line directly on your object, so you know you are getting accurate information.
The Note Tool is handy to document color samples or any other information you would not easily remember. It’s a very simple tool to use, just click where you want the note and type.
The count tool does exactly that, counts and adds a non-printing number to objects based on your selection. It probably seems like a useless tool, but I use it quite often for digital scrapbooking. I assign groups for each embellishment and page layout, so I don’t overuse them in one book.
Once you have selected your objects, the results will immediately show in the menu bar.
Retouching Tools
Don’t be surprised if you use these tools more than any other tool! I use them to adjust most of my photos in one way or another. They are the “smart tools” that help you repair, touch-up, recolor, highlight, duplicate, etc., so you can get that perfect looking image.
You can use most of the retouching tools to remove freckles, blemishes, moles, wrinkles, scars, etc. Keep in mind, it may take more than one tool to get that polished look. So, don’t be afraid to use a combination of any of the retouching tools to get a good result.
The spot healing brush is the simplest of all the retouching tools to use. It’s the “now you see it, now you don’t” tool and that is exactly how it works. It’s like magic, transforming those problem areas right before your eyes.
The spot healing brush tool works best with small areas. It samples the surrounding color pixels to closely match the texture, lighting, and transparency of your selection.
Unless you have a lot of time and patience, it really is not intended to fix large problem areas. The patch tool would be a much better option.
This tool is helpful when working with small to large problem areas that have a mix of different textures and colors. The healing brush tool works much like the spot healing brush tool. The difference is you choose a sample point that has color pixels relatively close to the problem area. The sample points you select will work to blend color, texture and luminosity over the area you are repairing.
This is my “go to” tool when working with old torn photos. It will fix small tears, scratches and faded spots in a jiffy! Just choose the sample point and select the area you want to fix. That’s it!
The patch tool is an ideal tool for cloning large areas. It works in the same way as the healing brush, matching color, texture and lighting. Using the lasso type tool, you can select a desired area as a sample source or destination. For example, select the source area and drag it to the problem area. The source area will automatically blend over the destination to repair the problem.
This tool is useful when you want to move or extend an object without having to figure out how to fill in the empty space. It automatically fills in the empty area using the color, texture and luminosity from surrounding pixels.
Nothing is more disturbing than seeing the dreaded red (or green in pets) eye to ruin a good photo. With the red-eye tool, you can quickly turn it back to an unnoticeable color. Just click on the red-eye in the photo and it automatically adjusts the color. Another one of the “now you see it, now you don’t” tools!
The blur tool is used on small areas to add a slightly blurred effect. It is especially helpful to smooth out rough edges or to add a soft look to small areas in an image. The more you “paint” over an area increases the amount of blur that is applied.
The sharpen tool allows you to enhance small areas in your image. It is best used to add definition to the edges of an object, giving it a crisper look. Use caution as oversharpening will add artifacts (damaged pixels) to your image. Keep in mind, sharpening cannot correct a totally blurred photo.
The smudge tool works much like finger-painting. It picks up colors as you drag your mouse along a path and mixes them together just like wet paint. This is an excellent tool to soften the transition from one color or texture to another. Also, it can produce a beautifully drastic effect or a simple reshape or highlight.
The burn tool will darken selected areas without affecting hue or saturation.
The Dodge Tool will lighten selected areas without affecting hue or saturation.
Besides being a standard erase tool, the eraser can also be used for other functions. When used as for basic erasing, it permanently deletes selected areas of your image to a transparent background.
I especially like using the eraser tool to smooth edges and lighten colors in specific areas (using a 10% – 50% opacity).
The name tends to be a little misleading as it cannot detect what is or isn’t the background of your image. It does, however, erase specific pixel colors based on your selected options.
For example, in contiguous sampling mode yellow is in the hot spot (“+”). Therefore, all yellow pixels within the circle will be erased until another color is in the hot spot.
The Magic Eraser Tool works in the same manner as the Magic Wand Tool. Instead of just selecting pixels, it erases them to a transparent background. This is useful when removing a large, solid colored background in a photo. You can tweak the settings to use on multi-colored photos but using background eraser would be a better option.
The Clone Stamp tool is the best tool for serious and intensive repairs to your photos. The basic concept is that it duplicates on area of an image and applies it to another area.
The pattern stamp tool allows you to select a texture or pattern to paint on your image.
Paint Tools
There are several paint and color tools that allow you to easily fill, color, or recolor your images. In addition, a few of these tools can also be used to brighten, highlight, or add contrast to your images.
The Gradient Tool allows you to create a blend of multiple colors and/or shades.
The Paint Bucket Tool will drop paint, based on the foreground color, into a selected area or layer.
The 3D Material Drop Tool works like the paint bucket tool. It’s probably not one that you will use often, but it’s worth mentioning. Just like the paint bucket tool, selected a color, pattern or texture, you can drop it onto any 3D object.
This is one of the most overlooked, versatile and easy to use tools in Photoshop. Essentially, it allows you to modify a portion of an image from an earlier point. For example, if you apply a Gaussian blur filter to an entire image, you can brush a specific feature back into the image.
The Art History Brush Tool work just like the History Brush Tool except it allows you to apply paint styles to your strokes. There are many options that will give your image an artistic effect.
The brush tool is the basic painting tool that is an important one to master. It works much like a real paintbrush with many options for customizing.
The Pencil Tool works just like the brush tool. The only difference is that the Pencil Tool creates a very hard, jagged edge.
The Color Replacement Tool allows you to add or replace a specific color without affecting the texture of your image. Once you select the sample color, you simply paint over an area it changes the color and saturation with the foreground color.
The Mixer Brush Tool allows you to combine multiple colors on one brush, just as if you were painting on canvas. turn photos into realistic painting.
Drawing and Pen Tools
The Drawing and Pen Tools are definitely worth spending a little time in learning how to use. They are the foundation of creating any digital scrapbook and at some point, you will use every one of them.
I overlooked the pen tools until about a year ago, just out of intimidation. What was I thinking?!? Now, after learning how to actually use it, I love it!! This is the easiest way to make ribbons and bows.
When designing a custom image, the Pen Tools allow you to create a working path with adjustable anchor points. It may take a little practice, but have patience, it will be worth it.
The Rectangle Tool is one of the most commonly used tools. As the name implies, it simply draws rectangles. Holding down the shift key will constrain it to a perfectly proportioned square. It’s a simple click and diagonal drag. Once it is set, you can adjust the dimensions, placement, line and fill color.
The Rounded Rectangle Tool also draws rectangles, but with rounded corners. It is also a simple click and diagonal drag. It also will constrain to a perfectly proportioned square (with rounded corners) by holding down the shift key. Once it is set, you can adjust the dimensions, placement, line and fill color.
The Ellipse Tool is used for making circles or ovals. It is also a simple click and diagonal drag. Holding down the shift key will constrain it to a perfectly proportioned circle. Once it is set, you can adjust the dimensions, placement, line and fill color.
The Polygon Tool allows you to create a polygon shape. You can adjust the settings to select the number of sides in your polygon. It is also a simple click and diagonal drag. Holding down the shift key will constrain it to a perfectly proportioned polygon. Once it is set, you can adjust the dimensions, placement, line and fill color.
The Line Tool allows you to create several different types of lines. You specify the thickness, color, spacing (for dashed lines) and if you want arrowheads on one or both ends. It is also a simple click and diagonal drag. Holding the shift key creates a perfect horizontal, vertical, or 45° angle line. Once it is set, you can adjust the dimensions, placement, and color.
The Custom Shapes Tool is one of my favorite tools. There are many preset shapes available in the options bar. In addition, you can find many different custom shapes online or create your own to save and use later! It is also a simple click and diagonal drag. Holding down the shift key will constrain it to a perfectly proportioned shape. Once it is set, you can adjust the dimensions, placement, line and fill color.
The Path Selection Tool allows you to select and move an entire path as a single image.
The Direct Selection Tool allows you to select and move individual anchor points within a path.
The Pen Tool is used to create or transform paths using straight line segments. You can also click and drag to create Bezier curves.
The Freeform Pen Tool allows you to click and drag to create a path, working just as if you were drawing with a brush.
The Curvature Pen Tool is similar to the pen tool in how it creates paths, but allows you to create and adjust curves much easier.
The Add Anchor Point Tool allows you to add an additional point to an existing path.
The Delete Anchor Point Tool allows you to remove a point from an existing path.
The Convert Point Tool is used to convert an anchor point from a smooth curve to a sharp corner or vice-versa.
Type Tools
The ability to create text on images and certainly come a long way in Photoshop. It’s not just about changing the font and font size anymore. Now you can make headings stand out and add messages using special text effects!
The Horizontal Type Tool is the most commonly used tool for typing basic text. It is a good starting point using a solid fill (based on the font selected) standard type.
The Vertical Type Tool is another basic typing tool. Unlike the Horizontal Type Tool, it types each letter vertically.
The Vertical Type Mask Tool is a unique tool in that it allows you to add or cut text directly on images.
The Horizontal Type Mask Tool works in the same fashion as the Vertical Type Mask Tool except it types each letter horizontally.
Navigation Tools
Navigation Tools give you the ability to move around and zoom in or out within your document.
The Hand Tool allows you to click and drag to move around your working canvas to view different areas of the image.
The Rotate View Tool allows you to rotate the canvas, without permanently rotating the image.
The Zoom Tool allows you to zoom in and out to get a better view of your image.
Up Next!
Next, we are moving on to workspaces and panels!
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