Adobe Photoshop Basics
    + Toolbox and Selection Tools
The Toolbox

You select a variety of tools from the Toolbox by clicking on the icons. Within each type of tool you can select "hidden" tools by dragging the tool to the side or by pressing on the icon until the hidden options drop to the side. See examples below.

To view the Toolbox Go to Window > Show Tools..


The Pencil and Brush tools:

Click on the tools that have a small arrow on their lower-right side to display the hidden tools.
Selecting Tools:
These tools allow you to select areas in various different ways. Drawing tools and commands only work in selected areas. If no area is selected, tools and commands will work anywhere on the document.
Rectangular Marquee
Click once on the Rectangular Marquee tool to choose it. The icon will turn white and the cursor will turn into a cross hair when you move it onto the document.
Select an area: Drag out a rectangular marquee of any size anywhere on the document. Release the mouse and you should have a rectangular area selected. You can tell it is selected because it has the line of ‘marching ants’ moving around it.
Magic Wand Tool
This tool allows you to select areas of images based on color similarities without having to trace its outline.
Choose the Magic Wand tool. Click the magic Wand on the white area or the colored area of your image. You will notice how it will only select the white areas. You can specify the tolerance (color range) that you need.
Zoom Tool
This tool allows you to magnify areas of an image when you are performing close, detailed work, and reduce them to get an overall view of the image.
Zoom in: pick the Zoom Tool. This tool always defaults to zoom in (note: the plus sign in the middle of the magnifying glass icon). This tool works in two ways:
Click the icon once in the area you wish to enlarge. The area will be magnified by a factor of two.
Click and drag a rectangle around the area you wish to enlarge and the area will be magnified to fit in the existing window.
Zoom out: Pick the Zoom Tool and hold down the alt key (note: the negative sign in the icon). Or, right-click with the mouse and select the zoom-out option from the drop-down.
Click on the image and the drawing zooms out in a factor of two.
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