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Introduction To Photoshop

In this article I will give introduction to photoshop.

Software Requirement

Before you start reading this tutorial you should make sure that adobe Photoshop (any version) is installed on your machine.

Prerequisite Knowledge

There is no prerequisite requirement for reading this tutorial, but knowledge of MS paint will be an added advantage.

Introduction

Adobe Photoshop is a powerful tool for editing pictures. In real world scenario you may find its usage for editing images by many professionals such as web designers for a website and by photographers for editing the clicked photographs.

The purpose of this tutorial is to make you familiar with Photoshop IDE.

Different Sections Of Photoshop IDE

The first step is to familiarize you with Photoshop IDE, which consists of five basic components:

Menu Bar — contains all of the Photoshop’s available options.
Toolbox — contains various tools for editing the image.
Options Bar — sets the option for the currently selected tool.
Palettes — various panes to control different aspects of the project like layers, colors, paths, history, etc.
Image Area — the area at which the designer can open and edit the image.

Each component is labeled below:

Picture showing the different components of the photoshop IDE

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Toolbox Interface

In this tutorial I will explain different tools in the toolbox. Rest of the sections will be discussed in subsequent sections.

Picture showing different sections of the toolbox

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Let us discuss each tool one by one

Rectangular Marquee Tool (M)

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This tool makes selection in a rectangular shape. To make a perfect square hold the SHIFT key from your keyboard and drag the selection.

Move Tool (V)

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This tool is used to move things. Usually you use it to move a layer around. If you press SHIFT key and try to move the layer then it will move in straight line.

Polygonal Lasso Tool (L)

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This tool is used for free form selection. To close the selection, either click on the beginning point or just double-click.

Magic Wand Tool (W)

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This is used to select a color range. For example if you click on white color on the image this tool will select all white of that image.

Crop Tool (C)

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The Crop Tool selection is similar to the rectangular marquee tool. The difference between these two is when you press the Enter key, it crops your image to the size of the box i.e. any information that was the outside of the box gets lost. You can get that lost part back if you undo (CTRL + Z) your changes.

Slice Tool (K)

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This tool is for dividing an image into smaller sections.

Healing Brush Tool (J)

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This tool is used for repairing scratches from image.

Brush Tool (B)

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This tool is used to paint the image with the selected color.

Clone Stamp Tool (S)

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This is used to make clone of an image.

History Brush Tool (H)

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This tool is used to get original image back to some extent.

Eraser Tool (E)

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As the name says this tool is used to erase information wherever you click and drag it.

Gradient Tool (G)

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This is used to make a gradient of colors.

Blur Tool (R)

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The Blur tool is used to make things blurry.

Dodge Tool (O)

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This tool is used to lighten whatever area you use it on.

Path Selection Tool (A)

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You use this tool when working with paths. We will discuss paths in subsequent chapters.

Text Tool (T)

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This tool is used for writing text.

Pen Tool (P)

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This tool is used for creating paths or any form of selection you want.

Rectangle Tool (U)

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This tool is used for creating rectangular shape.

Notes Tool (N)

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This tool is used to add small little note boxes to your image.

Eyedropper Tool (I)

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This tool helps you choose any color you want. Holding the ALT key will change your background color.

Hand Tool (T)

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This tool is used to move your entire image within the window. You can use SPACE as a short-cut for this.

Zoom Tool (Z)

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This tool is used to you to zoom into your image. Use CTRL++ for zoom in and CTRL-- for zoom out again this will be very useful for you.

Set Foreground And Background Color

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These are your color boxes. Foreground (in the front) and Background (in the back). Click on either one to bring up the color select dialog box. You can press (D) to get default colors as your foreground and background.

Posted By -	Himani

Posted On -	Friday, June 15, 2012

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