Scroll images using the Hand Tool.

You can use the Hand Tool to move the display area.
You can temporarily switch to it by holding down the " Space" This is the most correct
way to scroll an image. Don't use scroll bars, press spacebar!

Basic structural elements of Photoshop when working with images

Layers

An image may consist of several layers. The main thing to understand is that layers are translucent objects that overlap each other.

What you can do with them:

• Move relative to each other ( just drag and drop). The layers above are drawn on top of the layers below. The layer can contain transparency. Only the Background layer cannot be moved. To mix it up, you need to make a copy of the layer.
• Rename. It is highly advisable to give layers meaningful names. For this you need double click on the layer name (1) .
• Set to layer color in the context menu (does not affect the picture, but is more convenient
  navigate in the list of layers).
• Copy layer(Duplicate layer in the layer context menu or dragging it onto the new layer icon- second from the right below (7) ).
• Delete layer(Delete layer in the layer context menu or dragging it onto the delete layer icon- first on the bottom right (8) ).
• Make from layer Smart object. I will talk about them separately at the end of the article.
• Change layer blend mode(default is Normal, can be applied as
  darkening layer, like a subtraction layer, etc.) (9)
• Press Alt and click between a layer and another layer/group. Formed Clipping mask(the transparency of the underlying layer will be applied to the top one). For adjustment layers (see below) - the correction will be applied only to the areas masked using Clipping Mask, and not to the entire image. An example of using Clipping Mask: you need to insert a photo into a frame. There is a background with a frame, draw a rectangle (green in the screenshots), put a layer with an image on top (a photo of a sunset in the screenshots), click between the layer with the clipping mask and the image while holding Alt , after which the top layer will be limited and will not go beyond the boundaries of the green area . In this case, it will be possible to move the image layer, scale it, etc.

• Layer different effects(Blending options in the context menu) (3)
• Change transparency Opacity (10) And Fill layer (11) , they do similar things, but Opacity affects content + effects, and Fill only affects content.
• Add to layer masks(see section about masks) (4)
• Select two or more layers at once (holding Ctrl) and hook them up pressing Link layers in the context menu or the button below (2) , then they can be dragged simultaneously - moving one will cause the movement of the other. It will be possible to select all related layers with a context command Select linked layers.
• Prohibit various changes for a layer (blocking changes in transparency, color, prohibiting movement). (12)

Groups

Layers can be grouped by selecting them and clicking the layer grouping icon (6) or clicking Ctrl+G.

A group behaves almost the same as a layer, it has transparency and fill, a blending mode, and effects. They may not coincide with the effects and blending modes of individual layers within the group, but affect the entire group.

It is convenient to use groups, for example, to apply the same effect to several separate images lying in different layers.

You can assign a mask to a group, which will affect all layers within the group, but not the group's effects (the effects are applied after the mask).

You can apply a Clipping Mask to the group (same as to the layer). To do this, just hold down Alt and click between the group and the layer.

Four types of transparency

There are four types of transparency in Photoshop:

• layer pixel transparency
• layer transparency set by mask
• transparency of the entire layer, set by the layer parameter
• allocation

Transparency varies from 0% (completely transparent) to 100% (completely opaque). The first three types can be combined. Essentially, they all do the same thing, but are configured in different places.

Example: creating a transparent layer. Draw a spot on it with a translucent (50%) hard brush. Most of the layer's pixels will have a transparency of 0% (fully transparent), while the shaded ones will have a transparency of 50%.

In the layer settings, we can set the transparency of the entire layer to 50% and then the transparency of each pixel will become 2 times less (25%): we simply multiply the transparency of a particular pixel by the transparency of the layer.

We can also apply a “mask” to this layer - a black and white image containing information only about the transparency of the pixels. Similar to layer transparency, the transparency values ​​of the mask pixels will be multiplied by the layer transparency value and the transparency value of each layer pixel. Accordingly, if we fill the entire mask with 50% gray, we will lower the transparency of the layer by 2 times. More details about masks will be described below.

The last, fourth type of transparency is Selection. When we select part of an image, a selection mask is automatically created. In the simplest case (selected-unselected), each pixel of the selection will be either transparent (not selected) or opaque (selected). But you can make the selection border fuzzy (translucent), then the transparency at the border will be between 0% and 100%. All this is no different from a regular mask. Moreover, any mask can be loaded as a selection, and a mask can be created from any selection.

Channels

Each pixel in an image contains color and transparency information. We dealt with transparency above.

Color can be represented in various ways.

• As brightness (black and white)
• As the sum of the brightnesses of red, green and blue (RGB model)
• In the form of three values ​​“brightness + blue-yellow + purple-green” (Lab model)
• In the form of 4 values ​​of “the amount of paint applied to paper” (CMYK model)

When a document is displayed on a monitor, the channels are mixed, resulting in a full color image. Photoshop allows you to view and modify individual channels, as well as create masks and selections based on them.

The image channels are at channel panels. They are showing individual components of the image and depend on the mode (presentation). By default, they are displayed as black and white images (the lighter, the greater the value in the channel). In the settings, you can enable the mode for displaying channels in color, but this is not recommended, since it is easier to perceive a black and white image, and the sensitivity of the eye to small color changes is much lower than to brightness ones.

For RGB mode these will be the Red, Green, Blue channels. For LAB and CMYK modes, respectively, the channels will be different (Lightness, a, b and Cyan, Magneta, Yellow, blacK).

At the bottom of the channel panel there are buttons “Load channel as selection” ( Load channel content as selection) (Ctrl+click on the right channel), “Save channel as selection” (save the selection as a channel) and buttons for creating and deleting additional channels. This way we can transfer the brightness of the channel to the mask and vice versa. For example, you can use the L (lightness) channel as a mask to apply adjustments to only the light parts or only the dark parts of the image. Detailed work with masks is beyond the scope of this article and will be described separately.

Transferring channel content to layers can also be done using the command Image > Apply Image.

Masks

Masks are an analog (one of the types) of transparency. They can cling to a separate layer, group, adjustment layer, etc. The layer mask is a regular Grayscale image. The darker the more transparent, the lighter the more opaque.

A mask applied to a layer or group works like the transparency of the layer/group, but not for the entire layer, but for part of it..

A mask applied to an adjustment layer (see below) weakens its effect, similar to the effect of Opacity/Fill. It is preferable to first make a correction, and then use a mask to remove the effects from those areas where it is harmful.

You can draw on a layer mask, selecting the mask layer(Just by clicking on the mask).

Can show a layer mask on the screen instead of a masked image, for this you need click on the mask while holding Alt.

At the bottom of the layers window there is a button creating a mask (4) (looks like a white dot on a black background). Clicking on it creates a white mask if nothing is selected or mask corresponding to the current selection(if something is highlighted).

Holding Alt while pressing the button (4) creates inverted mask(empty or with inverted selection).

All corrections are applied directly to it and do not allow subsequent changes to the settings.

You can wear a mask drag from layer to layer.

You can wear a mask temporarily disable.

There are also vector masks, more on them later.

Transferring a channel to a mask:

Select a channel, Ctrl-click to copy the contents of the channel as a selection, select the desired layer, click the create mask button.

Creating a mask that copies the transparency of the current layer:

In the command menu Layer > Layer Mask > From Transparency

Adjustment Layers

Adjustment layers are similar to regular changes like Brightness/contrast, etc. They are applied to all underlying layers.

The difference is that:

• You can apply adjustment layer to a group, an individual layer or all image.
• You can temporarily disable correction and see how it will be without her.
• You can after applying the layer open its parameters and correct them, and immediately see the changes.

Adjustment layers are added using the button at the bottom of the layers panel or from the menu Layer > New Adjustment Layer. To apply it to a specific layer/group, you need to click between the adjustment layer and the underlying layer while holding Alt (create Clipping Mask).

The degree of influence of the adjustment layer can be controlled by the transparency of the entire adjustment layer or by a mask affecting the adjustment layer.

It is preferable to first make a correction, and then use a mask to remove the effects from those areas where it is harmful.

Smart objects

Any groups, layers and adjustment layers with masks and blending modes can be converted into smart object. Essentially a smart object is file-layer, containing inside everything that a PSD/PSB file can contain (even other smart objects).

Create such an object can be from context menu (Convert to smart object).

When copying a smart object using Duplicate layer a copy of the object is created, not the content. Those. changes inside any smart object are reflected in all its copies.

To create a copy that is not subject to such changes, use “ New smart object via copy” from the context menu.

When you double-click on the smart object icon, it opens as separate file . You can make changes and press Ctrl+S, after which the changes will be applied to the object.

Scaling and rotating a smart object is applied once. Respectively image quality does not deteriorate due to multiple transformations.

The contents of a smart object can be replaced with the contents of another file using the context command Replace contents.

Smart filters

Applying any filter to a regular layer causes irreversible changes. When applying most (not all, but in the CC-2014 version there are more) filters to a smart object, they are applied in a similar way to layer effects. Moreover, the effect of the filter can be adjusted, temporarily disabled, etc.

Non-destructive processing principle

The main thing in image processing is non-destructive processing principle.

It implies that the original image remains unchanged, and all changes are made using separate layers, adjustment layers, etc.

This allows, firstly, to change the processing, making it reversible (cancellations in the History panel are not saved to a file). And, secondly, transfer processing to another image.

Links

• http://zhur74.livejournal.com/ - I highly recommend Andrey Zhuravlev’s blog and his course at the Profile school. there they will tell you the same thing, but in detail and with cool feedback.
• http://shadrin.rudtp.ru/ - blog of Alexey Shadrin. I attended a month-long offline course with him in St. Petersburg, and I learned a lot. Profile again has his courses online.
• http://pavel-kosenko.livejournal.com/ - blog of Pavel Kosenko, author of the book “Living Number”. There are also a lot of useful things, it’s better to start with a book.

pixel raster graphic window

File menu items

New.

Used to create a new file. Let's look at the dialog box called up by this command:

Name - the name of the future file.

Preset - some of the most commonly used sizes, such as A4, A5, 640x480 and others, including user-defined ones.

Width (Width) and Height (Height) - the width and height of the future image. Please note that you can set these parameters in different units.

Resolution—The resolution of the image.

Mode—The color mode of the new image. Options:

Bitmap. Only two colors are used - absolutely black and absolutely white.

Grayscale (Halftone). This color model uses a 255-color transition from black to white.

RGB. As a rule, you have to work precisely in this color scheme, which allows you to realize all the colors visible to the human eye;

CMYK. If the image is intended for printing in a printing house, then it is better to make it in this color scheme. CMYK includes only those colors that can be printed;

Lab Color. Alternative color scheme to RGB. Sometimes quite convenient when editing channels;

8 bit or 16 bit. Sets the color depth for some modes. Photoshop already fully supports 16-bit color, however, there are not many areas of its application yet - standard 8 bits are enough everywhere.

Background Contents (Background color). Specifies what the image will be filled with after creation.

Advanced. Here are the parameters needed only by rare professionals:

Color Profile. Determined color profile, in which the image will be created.

Pixel Aspect Ratio. One of the new features in Photoshop is support for non-square pixels.

Open. Opening graphic file. Photoshop opens all international raster formats.

Open As. This command opens a file in the specified format, regardless of its extension.

Open Recent. By selecting this command, you will see a list of several files that were recently opened.

Edit In Image Ready.

Opens the active image in Image program Ready, designed for preparing web graphics and websites.

Browse. Opens the built-in file browser.

Close. Close active file. As in any Windows application, to close a file, simply click the cross in the upper right corner of the document window.

Close All. Close all open in Photoshop files. The program itself remains active.

Format. The format that will be used to save the file.

Alpha Channels. Save alpha channels to a file.

Layers. Save layers to file.

Annotations. Save comments to a file.

Spot Colors. Retain so-called custom colors.

Use Proof Setup. Use user color settings when saving.

ICC Profile. Determines in which standard of a particular color scheme to save the file.

Step Backward. Undo one action.

Fade. A command that allows you to change the affect gained by using the last tool.

Cut. A command that only affects selections. When used, the selected area will be removed from the image and placed on the clipboard. Called by the keyboard shortcut CtrL+X.

Soru (Copy). A command that affects only the selected area. Copies it to the clipboard.

Copy Merged. Unlike Soru (Copy), this command copies the selected area from all layers at once.

Paste. Paste an image from the clipboard. This command is almost always called after Soru (Copy), and this sequence is the basis of any photo montage.

Paste Into. Paste the image from the clipboard as a layer with a layer mask.

Clear. A command that clears the contents of a selection.

Check Spelling & Find and Replace Text. Standard for most Windows programs that are in one way or another related to text processing, tools for spell checking, as well as searching and replacing text fragments.

Fill. Fills a layer or selected area. Selecting this command opens a dialog box.

Use (Style). Here you determine what to fill the image with. Mode (Overlay mode). Pixel blending mode in the painted area;

Opacity. Fill opacity; Preserve Transparency. When you check this box, the color of the pixels will be replaced, but their transparency will not change.

Stroke. A command that allows you to outline a selection with a line of the specified thickness and color. After the appearance of shapes, this command almost lost its meaning.

Stroke options:

Width - the thickness of the stroke line;

Color (Color) - kicks the strokes;

Location -- Determines the position of the stroke relative to the selection line;

Mode (Overlay mode) - pixel overlay mode;

Opacity - the degree of opacity of the stroke;

Present Transparency - allows you to preserve the transparency of the painted pixels without changing,

Free Transform and Transform commands.

Commands for changing the geometric dimensions of an object. You can also launch the Free Transform command by pressing Ctrl+T.

Scale. Changes the linear dimensions of the selected area, that is, the length and width.

Skew (Angle). This command changes the angle between segments by moving the image.

Distort (Deformation) - very similar to the previous command, but the difference is that not one angle is changed, but two, which leads to complete change all linear dimensions.

Perspective is a very interesting and useful command. You can change two lower or upper corners at the same time, resulting in the effect of a surface receding into the distance.

Define Brush. Using this command, any image or rectangular selection can be saved as a brush and used later.

Purge. A command that allows you to delete temporary information from memory. It is used when there are clearly not enough system resources and commands are executed very slowly. Possible options:

Undo. Remove the last cancellation from memory;

Clipboard. Clear the contents of the clipboard;

Histories (Protocol). When working with Photoshop, all actions are stored, by default up to the twentieth, so that inaccuracies in the work can always be corrected.

AIL (Clear All).

Color Manager. Color settings.

Keyboard Shortcuts. A very useful innovation that appeared in Photoshop CS. With it, you can assign any keyboard shortcut to any tool or menu item.

Preset Manager. Allows you to edit (load and delete) existing brushes, paths, swatches, gradients, etc. in the system.

Image menu. This menu contains commands that provide the ability to change the entire image or selected areas.

Mode. The appearance of an illustration and its editing capabilities are determined by the color mode (color model) in which it is located.

Bitmap (Monochrome). This command is designed to convert an image to two colors, consisting of only black and white pixels.

Grayscale (Halftone). When switching to this color mode, all information about the colors that made up the image is destroyed.

Duotone (Duplex). The image is converted from black and white to n-color.

Index Color. This mode can only be used if your image is in RGB or Grayscale mode.

RGB Color. A model that describes real colors and is used when displaying them on a monitor. It consists of three channels: red, green and blue.

CMYK Color is a model consisting of four main channels: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. When colors are superimposed, the overall image, on the contrary, darkens.

Lab Color (Lab Colors) - this model, like RGB, consists of three channels, but it is built somewhat differently. L stands for Lightness, and b stands for colors. Channels a and b contain information about colors: a - from dark green to bright pink, b - from light blue to bright yellow.

Multichannel -- after selection this parameter the connection between the channels disappears and they begin to exist independently.

Color Table - Replaces all colors in the image with new ones according to the selected color table.

Assign Profile—Match the image to a color profile.

Convert to Profile - Allows you to convert an image to a color mode according to a profile.

Adjustments. This section of the Image menu contains basic commands for adjusting the top and brightness of images.

Levels (Ctrl+L, Levels). Adjust brightness levels. You can edit the entire image or its individual components (channels).

Auto Levels (Automatic level correction). The lightest pixels are converted to white and the darkest pixels to black, thereby adding more rich colors to the image.

Auto Contrast (Automatic contrast correction). Increases contrast.

Auto Color (Automatic color correction). Adjusts color saturation automatically. It works quite poorly.

Curves (Ctrl+M, Curves). This is another color and brightness correction command, but unlike the Levels command, it has a larger range of action.

Color Balance (Ctrl+B, Color Balance). Allows you to adjust the relationship between the colors of the image.

Brightness/Contrast is a very convenient command because it allows you to change the brightness and contrast of the entire image without changing the colors.

Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U, Color/Saturation). Using this command, you can change the hue, saturation and brightness of individual color components of the image.

Desaturate (Ctrl+Shift+U, Remove saturation). Turns the image gray.

Match Color. A new tool available only in Photoshop CS. Allows you to customize colors by selecting any image, channel, or layers as a reference.

Replace Color - allows you to replace the selected color with any other.

Selective Color - not only replaces the color selected for editing, but also modifies all other colors that it is part of.

Channel Mixer - splits the image into three components corresponding to RGB channels, which, however, are not independent grayscale images, but are inextricably linked to the original one.

Gradient Map. It works similarly to color tables, only the colors in the image are not replaced in accordance with the new table, but are set by a gradient, for which you can select any gradation from those available in this program.

Inverse (Ctrl+I, Invert) - replaces all values ​​with the opposite ones.

Photo Fitter. A tool that simulates real photographic filters that those who have been involved in photography should be familiar with.

Shadow/Highlight. Another new color correction tool. Allows you to quickly and easily adjust the ratio between dark and light areas.

Equalize - When executing this command, the program analyzes the individual channels that make up the image.

Threshold - When using this command, all dark colors in the image are replaced with black, and light colors with white, but this ratio can be changed by moving the level marker.

Posterize - The command divides the entire brightness range of each of the channels that make up the image into the specified number of intervals.

Variations - Here you can adjust saturation, lightness, and the colors themselves. In addition, you can select the area of ​​influence (shadows, midtones, etc.).

Duplicate—Creates a file containing a copy of the image.

Apply Image - Applies an image to itself or to another image (of the same size) in a variety of modes.

Calculations - performed only with individual channels: any channel of one image is mixed with the same channel or with a channel of another image (of the same size).

Image Size—Using this command, you can change the image size. Proportions can be maintained or disrupted.

Pixel Aspect Ratio. This option enables working with non-square pixels.

Canvas Size—The dimensions of the image remain the same, but the size of the canvas on which it is located changes.

Rotate Canvas - Various conversion options are possible.

The image can be rotated clockwise or counterclockwise, 90° and 180°. You can mirror it vertically and horizontally.

Crop - the command crops the image along the selection border. If the selected area has an irregular shape, then the crop line runs along the outermost pixels.

Trim - using this command, the background is cut off, that is, all pixels of uniform color along the edges of the image.

Histogram - displays a histogram showing the dependence of the number of pixels of a certain brightness on the brightness value.

Trap - Trap settings. New in the seventh version.

Select menu. All (Select all). Highlight image weight.

Deselect. Removes selection from all selected areas of the image. Enter from the keyboard using the combination Ctrl+D.

Reselect (Return selection). This is used if you deleted a selection and then needed to get it back.

Inverse. Swaps the selected and unselected areas.

Color Range A powerful selection tool that is extremely useful in practice.

Feather - creates an area of ​​partially selected pixels along the selection border.

Modify. Modify the selection. The following options are available:

Border (Frame) - create a kind of border, which is a repetition of your selection after some specified distance.

Smooth - soften the sharp edges of the selection;

Expand - use this if you haven't selected something exactly and need to expand the selection.

File menu

In Photoshop, commands from the menu File(File) are used in cases where it is necessary to create, open, place, close, save, scan, import or export, print an image, transfer a file over the network, automate some operations and, finally, exit Photoshop (Fig. 1.31) . Use the submenu File > Jump to(File > Go To) to go to companion applications such as ImageReady or GoLive.

Rice. 1.31. File menu

Edit menu

On the menu Edit(Edit) shown in Fig. 1.32 contains commands for editing an image: copying, transforming, pasting and redefining image colors, as well as commands for creating a brush of a certain size and shape, various patterns and shapes. Submenu commands Fade(Weaken) let you reduce the effect of many operations (for example, the last applied filter, adjustment commands, or drawing with a tool). Submenu commands Purge(Clear) frees memory. Also using the menu Edit you can open dialog boxes Color Settings(Color characteristics), Preset Manager(Settings Manager) and Preferences(Installation).

Rice. 1.32. Edit menu

Menu Image

Via submenu Mode(Mode) menu Image(Image), which is shown in Fig. 1.33, the image can be converted into any of eight views. Submenu commands Adjustments (Adjustments) change the hue, saturation, color brightness, or contrast of an image. Using the command Image Size (Image Size) You can change the file size, image dimensions, or resolution. Dialog window Canvas Size

(Canvas Size) is used when you need to change the size of the workspace in which the image is located.

Rice. 1.33. Menu Image

Layer menu Layer Commands located in the menu (Layer) and shown in Fig. 1.34, allow you to add, copy, delete, modify, group, change the order of layers in the stack, control the relative position of related layers, merge layers, add masks to them and turn the image into one single layer. Some commands can be accessed more quickly by using the palette menu Layers

Rice. 1.34. Layer menu

Select menu

All command from the menu Select(Select) - fig. 1.35 - selects the entire layer. The team Deselect (Deselect), on the contrary, removes selection from all previously selected areas. Team Reselect (Restore Selection) again selects the area to which the last command was applied Team Deselect. Color Range

(Color Range) creates a selection based on color. Other commands on this menu expand, shrink, smooth, or feather the boundaries of a selection, and save selections to channels or load areas from channels. Rice. 1.35. Select

Menu

Rice. 1.35. Filter Filter menu (Filter) contains filters that perform a wide range of image editing operations and are grouped using submenus (Fig. 1.36). Filter Digimarc

(Digimak) inserts a copyright symbol into the image that is invisible to the human eye. Compared with previous version Image Photoshop to this menu from the menu two teams moved. Team Extract (Extract) allows you to create selected areas of complex shapes. Team Liquify

(Distort) shifts the image points in any direction. Rice. 1.36. Filter

Menu

View menu View Menu commands (View) shown in Fig. 1.37, control what is and is not displayed on the screen. Team Gamut Warning (Gamma Alert) highlights colors that will not be output in four-color printing. Submenu commands View Proof Setup

(Proof Print Settings) allows you to see how the image will look when printed in different modes. Other menu commands

control the image scale, and also display rulers, a coordinate grid, auxiliary lines and areas into which the image is divided.

Rice. 1.37. View menu Window Window menu

Menu commands (Window), which is shown in Fig. 1.38, control the showing or hiding of various palettes. This menu also contains a list of open images, and any of them can be made active. When working in an operating room environment

Windows systems

This menu allows you to control the relative position of image windows and show/hide the status bar.

Rice. 1.37. View menu Help Rice. 1.38. Window menu Help menu(Help) will help you access the Photoshop tutorial interactively, find out

last news

from Adobe, connect to the Adobe Online website, or perform any other actions using the prompts that appear on the screen (Fig. 1.39). Rice. 1.39. Help Window Menu The layout of the palettes will correspond to the previously made changes.

The program command menu consists of 11 sections. We will get to know the commands of each of them in detail when solving specific problems. For now we’ll just limit ourselves to them general description Yes, along the way we will introduce several important concepts Photoshop programs. At this time, take a walk through the menu, paying attention to the key combinations next to the names of most commands.

File. Contains commands for working with files. If you need to open an image, save or print it, this is the place for you. The Exit command for exiting the program is traditionally located here.

Edit. Contains such important operations as Cut, Copy, Paste, as well as commands for setting program parameters.

Image. Contains commands for adjusting and editing images. We will refer to this point quite often.

Layer. Here are commands that allow you to work with layers easily and naturally. In due course we will study what layers are, why they are needed and how to use them.

Select. This menu contains the commands necessary to work with selections. Why we need them, you will find out in due time.

Filter. The filter is a small additional program, performing a specific function. As a rule, the filter “does something” with the image. With its help, the original picture can be transformed beyond recognition.

Analysis. This menu contains commands for calling tools designed for image measurements and analysis.

3D. This is a new menu present in Photoshop versions CS4 Extended, includes commands for working with three-dimensional objects.

View. Contains commands that will help you configure the workspace of your Photoshop, add or remove certain interface elements.

Window. Using the commands in this menu you can also configure appearance programs: here you add/remove necessary/unnecessary palettes.

Help. Contains help files and various reference information.

On this moment This information about the command menu is enough. Various details useful commands we will study by solving practical problems, which will be much more effective.

What can you find in the Options Bar?

As you can easily guess, each tool will have its own parameters, and therefore the appearance of the parameters panel will change depending on which one you have selected (Fig. 4.4). We will study the parameters of each of the instruments in more detail when we become acquainted with them directly.

Rice. 4.4. Brush and Type toolbars

Source: Yuri Anatolyevich Gursky Gennady Gennadievich Kondratyev, Photo fun using Photoshop: St. Petersburg; Saint Petersburg; 2010

22.04.2014 27.01.2018

A quick guide to basic tools in Photoshop. The article is very useful for beginners. Its purpose is to explain the purposes of toolbars, menu items and windows often used in Photoshop.

- this is incredible powerful program for editing and creating images, drawings, painting and color correction. Beginner users have many questions, especially those who own the English version of Photoshop. In this article I will tell you a little about the main points in Photoshop that you need to know when working and that you will inevitably encounter. This is also something you need to know when reading Photoshop tutorials.

Toolbar

The most important panel in Photoshop is the Toolbar. On it you see many icons that represent various tools. It is these tools that perform all the basic operations in Photoshop - for example: selecting, painting with brushes, erasing, copying, writing text and much more. In general, you can’t live without them.

Almost all icons in the panel have a small triangle in the lower right corner. This means that the icon contains several tools, so if you click on it with the mouse and hold the button, a selection of additional tools will appear.

If a tool is selected, the parameters for that tool appear in the top panel. For example, if you select a gradient, you can edit it - choose colors, gradient type, and much more.

You can actively use the keyboard when working with the toolbar. For example for quick selection the necessary tools, this significantly speeds up work in Photoshop. Gurus use shortcut keys in Photoshop all the time.

Here are some examples of using the keyboard:

V— Move Tool — Allows you to move objects.

M— Marquee Tool — To select areas of the image.

L— Lasso Tool — Also for selection, but in free form.

C— Crop Tool — For cropping images.

I— Eyedropper Tool — Eyedropper to capture the desired color.

B— Pencil, Brush Tools — Pencil and brushes.

Panes - Subwindows

Subwindows in Photoshop are very important windows containing useful features when working with images. In them you can select the desired layers, delve into the history of image changes, view information about the position of an object on the document, manage text with its styles, and much more.

Palettes - Palettes

Usually located on the right side of Photoshop. Contains a sill complex.

Panel with layers (Layers)

This is the most used panel in Photoshop. It contains the ones you will work with. Here you can edit layers - change their location, set transparency and a bunch of other necessary functions.

Adjustments panel - Adjustment panel

Here is a set of tools that allow you to work with layer colors.

Color picker palette

The panel allows you to select colors.

There are also other important panels: history, text, color images and channels.

Menu

The menu contains all the options for tools and panels within itself that you might not find in the subwindows. Therefore, the menu is also actively used when working in Photoshop.

File menu item- many functions when working with a document, such as creating, saving and loading.

Edit - Editing

Various image editing functions.

Image

The menu in Photoshop does not end there, but these are the basics that a beginner should know.