Adobe Photoshop Basics

+ Photoshop Interface

The Photoshop work area includes the menu bar at the top of your screen, the image window containing an image, and a variety of tools and palettes for editing and adding effects to your document. Using the Tool Options Bar Most tools have options that are displayed in the tool options bar. This bar is located right underneath the menu line. The options bar is context sensitive, it changes as different tools are selected. You can move the options bar from its default location to anywhere in the work area. To display the tool options bar do one of the following: Choose Window > Show Options. Brush Tool bar This bar example shows that the Brush tools has been selected, it shows a thumbnail of the thickness of the brush. Next to this is a small arrow indicating that a pop-up window is available with more options (pop-up windows explained later in this page). There is also several painting modes from where to choose from, opacity and a checkbox for a Wet Edges style.
Working with Palettes Photoshop interface allows you to access tool properties both from the Tool options bar and from individual windows or Palettes. Palettes help you monitor and modify images as well as text. You can display them as you work. To show and hide a palette: Choose the appropriate Window > Show or Window > Hide command. The example on the right shows the Character palette, which displays several text formatting options.	Character palette
Using Pop-up Palettes Pop-up palettes provide easy access to libraries of brushes, swatches, gradients, styles, patterns, contours, and shapes. You can also change the display of a pop-up palette to view items by their names, as thumbnail icons, or with both names and icons. To select an item in a pop-up palette: 1. Click the triangle next to the thumbnail image of the current item. See Brush Tool bar example above.	Brush pop-up palette
Using rulers, guides, and the grid Rulers, guides, and the grid help you position images or elements precisely across the width or length of an image. Rulers When visible, rulers appear along the top and left side of the active window. Markers in the ruler display the pointer's position when you move it. Changing the ruler origin (the (0, 0) mark on the top and left rulers) lets you measure from a specific point on the image. To display or hide rulers: Choose View > Show Rulers or View > Hide Rulers. Guides and the Grid Guides appear as lines that float over the entire image and do not print. You can move, remove, or lock a guide to avoid accidentally moving it. A Grid appears by default as non printing lines but can also be displayed as dots. The grid is useful for laying out elements symmetrically. To show or hide a grid or guides: Choose View > Show > Grid. Choose View > Show > Guides.	A- Ruler B- Horizontal and Vertical guides C- Dark gray line shows the Grid D- Check board pattern indicating transparency
Transparency By default the transparent areas of a document appear as a check board pattern. You can start a new transparent document by checking the transparent option within the New Document window.
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