All the tools of Photoshop are available in the tools palette usually appear at the left side of the screen. Each tool provides some functionality.
Some hidden tools in tools palette can be recognised by a small arrow at bottorm right corner of a tool. Hidden tool can be disclosed by holding down mouse pointer for a while or hold shift while using its respective KBS.
There are 4 categories of tools in PS:
- Selection Tools
- Painting Tools
- Shape Tools
- View Tools
Let us learn about every tool in each category
Selection Tools: These tools are used to select some portion or entire image.
- Marquee tools: (KBS: M) used to select from image in basic shapes.
- Rectangular marquee
- Elliptical Marquee
- Single Row Marquee
- Single Column Marquee
Move tool(V): used to move/copy the selected part to within the image or into other image.
Lasso Tool (L): used to select portion of the image in freeform style.
Magic Wand (W): used to select portion of the image based on similar color.
Crop Tool (C): used to terminate unwanted portion from the image.
Slice tool (K): used to create Hyperlinks in Web Designing.
Painting tools: used to paint some color on image.
Brush/pencil(B): used to paint foreground color in different shapes and styles
History/Art History brush (Y): used to paint color based on states and snapshots in History Palette
Gradient/Paint Bucket Tool (G): Gradient is used to fill a bunch of colors in the selected style while Paint Bucket is used to fill a single color or pattern
Dodge/Burn/Sponge Tools (O): Dodge is used to lighten the color in the image, Burn is used to darken the color while Sponge is used to remove or enhance the color
Blur/Sharpen/Smudge Tools (R): Blur tool is used to soften the color, Sharpen is used to harden the color and Smudge is used to create finger painting effect.
Eraser/Magic Eraser/Background Eraser (E): Eraser tool erases the color while dragging the mouse, Magic Eraser erases the color based on color similarity while Background Eraser intelligently removes the color from the complex or uncleared areas.
Clone/Pattern Stamp (S): Clone stamp used to create duplicated portion while pattern stamp used to paint with a pattern.
Healing/Patch Tool (J): Healing brush used to repair the imperfections in the image in painting style while Patch tool used to correct them in replacing style.
Shape Tools: used to create basic or custom shapes
Type tool: used to create text objects. Horizontal, Vertical, Horizontal Type Mask and Vertical Type Mask are varieties of type tools.
Shape tools: used to draw basic or custom shapes
Pen tool: used to create custom shapes with paths and curves. Freeform pen, Add anchor point, delete anchor point, Convert point are different tools available under Pen.
Direct/Path selection tools: Both are useful to edit the path while creating shapes.
View tools: used to change the view of the image or work area
Annotation tool: used to provide text or audio annotation
Eye Dropper tool: used to pick a color from the opened image.
Hand tool: used to move the image like moving a paper on the desk.
Magnifier: used to increase or decrease magnification of the image view.