Photoshop Toolbar when editing photographic images with Adobe Photoshop

The Photoshop toolbar consists of different icon blocks. Some icons include an arrow in the lower right-hand corner to indicate that they are menus with many types of tools. Almost all tools have various operation options which can be set in Window > Show options or by double-clicking the corresponding icon. The basic tools to work with are:

•  Selection: we have different ways of selecting a determined zone of the image: with a rectangular frame who's dimensions we establish by clicking and dragging the mouse; elliptic frame . We can also make an arbitrary selection with a curved line we draw freehand ( lasso ); with a dotted line who's straight lines we marc with the mouse ( polygonal lasso ); also we can select the outline of an object if it is well limited and outstanding against a background of a different color with the magnetic lasso , which is capable of adjusting to the border of these characteristics. Finally, we can select an area with similar tones with the magic wand , which chooses all the pixels of similar tonal values to those of the point we marked with the cursor. In all the selection the borders can be sharp or soft. This important characteristic of the selection can be set previously in the option menu or apply it afterwards in the main menu. If what we want is to preserve a selected zone it can be inverted ( selection > invert ).

•  Cut: is a fundamental tool for editing photographs, because with it we can eliminate parts of the image we are not interested in and, if necessary, straighten the image when an image comes out crooked. It is also a fast way to increase the size of the canvas when we want to add space around the original image.

•  Move: With this tool we can change the place of some parts of the image: selections, layers, text, etc. We can also drag elements from one image to another.

•  Airbrush, brush, pencil and line are different modes to apply lines and colors to the image. The airbrush imitates the effect of spray paint, the brush has borders we can regulate, the pencil has sharp borders and the line lets us trace straight lines by marking the origin and end points. The width of these tools is controlled with the brushes menu, and the options of each tool can be adjusted in the option menu. All the tools pain with the color we have selected ( frontal color ) and only do so in the area we have selected.

•  Eraser: imitates the effect of a regular rubber eraser and eliminates everything it touches. We can consider it a drawing tool, since it's characteristics are set exactly the same as the brushes.

•  Inkpad: is a very useful tool to retouch photographs, above all if you want to eliminate dust, scratches and marks. The pad copies onto the zone to be retouched a different part of the frame ( cloning ). When we fin a dust spot on a scanned image, we can eliminate it by cloning on it a zone next to it with similar tonal characteristics (10.8.5). The great advantage of this system over retouching with the brush is that in these tools the color is flat, without texture, while with cloning we copy the characteristics of a photographic image, with it's variations in tone and texture, for example grain. The thickness of the inkpad is also regulated like a brush and offers different possibilities in the options menu. With this tool we can also clone parts of a image onto another.

•  History brush: is similar to the inkpad tool; is the inkpad lets you copy from one image to another, the history brush let's us substitute parts of an image with the same zones in a previous step in history.

•  Focus: Photoshop has a generalized focus tool that make borders of all the elements of the image or the selected area sharper. This tool is available in the Filter submenu of the main menu (10.8.6). It is useful when definition has been lost when scanning or editing the image. Also, the focus tool available in the bar lets us selectively focus and is applied like a brush.

•  Unfocus: besides a complete menu of different unfocus types in the Filter submenu that affects the whole image or the zone that was previously selected, the unfocus tool in the bar lets us apply the unfocus as if it were a brush.

•  Smudge (finger): is used as a brush and has the same effect as if we drag our finger on a just painted surface, smudging and mixing all the colors.

•  Lighten and darken: the brightness of the image or of a zone previously selected can be regulated with great precision in the main menu: Image > Adjust > Level or > Shine/contrast. We also have a quick tool that lets us lighten or darken as if working with a brush.

•  Sponge: is used to increase or reduce saturation in a localized way when we don't need to do so from the main menu.

•  Lines: is a menu to draw lines and outline with great precision. The elements of the image we have seen until now, from the image itself to the brush strokes and selections, are bitmaps, meaning they are described by pieces of data of the brightness and color in each point. In the digital image it is possible to describe forms as bitmaps, but also as vectorial graphs , were an image is defined through points, equations and vectors. For example, the text we write in a Photoshop image is originally a series of vectorial graphs, who's advantage over bitmaps is that they can be enlarged and reduced without definition loss. Traces are also vectorial forms that can be modified with great precision and serve to make outlines and lines impossible to obtain with it's equivalent in bitmap. If we are going to draw a curve of certain characteristics, by hand with the pencil, brush or airbrush we can be trying so for hours without the assurance that we are reaching the result we want. In the same way, trying to make a selection with the lasso can be a near impossible task because the minimal error makes us start over. These problems are solved with the line menu, because, once sketched, we can modify the points and vectors that define it.

•  Text: this menu lets us write horizontally or vertically with two types of text. In the first place we have properly called text, in who's menu we can choose the font, body, color and all the variables involving spacing and alignment. When writing on an image, Photoshop automatically creates a layer to store the text. We can edit it and replace the text afterwards (reopening it's corresponding layer), changing color, size etc. For determined functions it is necessary to convert ( interpret ) the text, which as we have seen is a vectorial form, in bit map. Also, to save the image in a format which is not Photoshop format is necessary to convert and join the text with the image. In both cases we loose the possibility of posterior modifications of the text. The second option in the text menu is a text mask, which draws an selection outline for every letter we type and can be treated as another selection: it can be filled in, outlined, transformed, moved, etc. The text mask mode doesn't automatically create a new layer in the document.

•  Ruler: necessary to make measurements of the real dimensions and angles in the image.

•  Degradation: with this menu we can design degrading backgrounds with many possibilities for control.

•  Paint bucket: is a tool to fill in backgrounds with the same tone, and in a fast way covers the same function as when we select a zone by it's tone with the magic wand and the then execute the command Edit > Fill in in the menu.

•  Dropper: lets us select the color of the painting tools and others ( frontal color ) from any point of any image, and is especially useful when we want to choose a tone. The size of the sample has three options: one pixel, average of a square of 3 x 3 pixels and an average of a square of 5 x 5 pixels.

•  Color Sample: we can set droppers in different points of the image that provide in the info the corresponding data to the initial state and the modified state. They are specially useful for calibration and color correction operations.

•  Hand: with it we can move inside the image when it is enlarged and exceeds the frame we have assigned on the screen.

•  Magnifying glass (or zoom): lets us examine in greater or lesser detail a zone of the image, something indispensable when retouching or correcting in a reduced area.

•  In the square Frontal color or Background color we see the values that are selected in each moment, a arrow that lets us interchange one for another and an icon that restores standard values, with black as a frontal color and white as a background color. Both colors can be selected in different ways. Clicking on the corresponding box in the toolbar or in the color menu ( Window > Show color ) the color selector is opened. Photoshop has a selector for colors and also a selector of our operating system (Windows or Apple) and uses the one we have selected File > Preferences > General . The selector allows us to visually select the frontal color of the background color, or define it numerically. Also we can use pre-established colors in the sample menu ( Window > Show samples ) when we want to choose a color that is in the standard Photoshop sampler or which we have saved. And lastly, with the dropper, we establish as the frontal color the one we click on the image.

•  Underneath the color box we find two icons which correspond to the Standard editing mode and Fast mask editing . Normally we edit in standard mode. We use the fast mask mode when we need to create a mask to protect the zones of an image we don't want to intervene in.

•  In the lower part of the toolbar box there are options of screen presentation. In the Standard mode the aspect of the desktop doesn't vary: the files we open can be place on any point of the screen and we can move them throughout the image with the displacement bars; in Full screen with menu bar mode the selected image appears in the center surrounded by a gray background which blocks the desktop; in Full screen mode the background is black and the menu bars disappear. In these two modes the displacement bars disappear.